(by G Waugh)
Stanley Kubrick’s last film before his death, Eyes Wide Shut released 21 years ago. It struck a deep chord inside many audiences then, even though it is still not rated as one of his best. But just like every other work of him, even if it works on and off at the surface which probably explains its lack of universal acclaim, the film comes alive in its own rhythm and stays true to it throughout.
Bill Harford, the well-to-do doctor protagonist settled in New York could belong to a middle-class society in Mylapore and there would have been very less necessity to alter his character sketch accordingly. He is probably in his late thirties but still passionately committed to his beautiful wife Alice played by Nicole Kidman.
The film, it could be argued works throughout only as a dream-like journey undertaken by Bill where the sexual opportunities that abound in front of him are nothing but manifestations of his own underlying temptations to overstep his marital bounds while the threats that immediately accompany them are open to be interpreted as his deep-rooted moral fetters that sub-consciously bind man to morality and spiritual well-being. This is a fine example of what one could call a purely surrealist film that describes an atmosphere that is very close and plausible to one’s own subconscious but appears totally alien and incomprehensible at a very general level.
When Alice Harford describes her crush on a military officer she met post-marriage and her success at having averted an affair with him, Harford is triggered to embark on an ‘avenging’ spree which forms the crux of the story. When he unwittingly admits that his faithfulness to Alice is anchored only to his binding commitment to the marital ‘contract’ and not certainly to his love for her, his lurking temptation to dally with other beautiful women is also unpleasantly revealed.
Harford however is a typical 20th century male whose empathy for Alice is completely precluded by his male ego-driven hypocrisy that blinds him to the natural possibility of even Alice harbouring similar ‘scandalous’ feelings for other men as well. He uses the ‘confession’ of his wife solely as an excuse to feed his overpowering desires, allowing himself a visit to the house of a prostitute followed by his act of slipping secretly into a forbidden midnight orgy whose entry is virtually prohibited to outsiders like him.
One can argue that the secret orgy is nothing but a sub-conscious theatre where Harford’s repressed sexual impulses are at last being given a free rein, given the numerous opportunities that arise for him to indulge in. However he is constantly warned as to look over his shoulder and is thrown out shortly, after being threatened gravely by the organizing ‘jury’. These threats could be interpreted as purely his own inner calling to ‘conform’ and stay faithful to his ‘sanctioned’ relationship with his wife.
But when Harford returns home only to listen to his wife’s dream of being inside an orgy similar to one he attended barely a moment ago, Harford’s frustration and inability to avenge her reach an animal peak. He visits the prostitute’s house once again only to meet an even more attractive woman but this time he is repelled by a shocking revelation that the woman he met the day before had been tested positive for a fatally threatening sexually-transmitted disease.
Later when he learns about the death of one of the women he met at the orgy, his emotional devastation is complete that literally purges him of all his lecherous impulses. Kubrick addresses here man’s innate tendency to closely associate sex with death which suddenly reminded me of the stories I have read in old epics such as the Mahabharata. King Pandu is the husband of Kunti as well as that of one of the most beautiful women in the country, Princess Madri. However he soon acquires a curse that a sexual act with one of his wives will immediately result in his untimely death. He is continuously being tormented by his attraction towards the irresistible Madri and eventually loses his life in the end, failing to adhere to his self-imposed celibacy in the forest.
Kubrick’s characterization of Harford explores this dimension of man’s troubled relationship with his sexuality, something that formed the basis of Freud’s path-breaking discoveries in psychology. Man’s brain is often described by neuroscientists and experts world over as a literal treasure trove which unfortunately is still, nowhere near being fully unraveled. The brain is supposed to contain within itself memories and impressions and influences that are more than a million years old which in turn inform the strange, many-sided behaviors and instincts of today’s all-powerful man.
Kubrick’s exploration of the male psyche by the end acquires a fulfilling moral denouement wonderfully brought about by Alice at the supermarket. She, in a beautifully written piece of exchange, suggests to Bill to forget what happened the night before and be grateful to destiny and themselves for having successfully managed to survive the crisis and still be able to love one another, truly as before.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Kay
May 16, 2021
I think this is one of the most confusing movies I have watched. Cruise’s performance didn’t work for me at all. The only portion in the movie where I sat up was when that Tamil song came up. Now that was surreal.
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Deepika
August 23, 2021
“… Harford is triggered to embark on an ‘avenging’ spree…”
Point 1: I doubt this because of the sequencing of events that took place. Bill went for the prostitute named Domino, yes – agreed; but it was Domino who approached Bill in the first place. And it was probably what she does in her usual routine. The fact that Bill accepted the proposition is what you may have called the avenging exercise. However, from sequencing POV, there was Carl’s girl friend who disclosed her desires for Bill before he went for Domino. If avenging is the intention, Bill might have done so with Carl’s girl friend, who in fact was the one to propose. Point being, the exchange between Bill and Carl’s girl friend needs to be taken into account before propounding that Bill agreed to go with Domino.
Point 2: I agree that the first time eventing of the whole orgy game is about his “repressed sexual impulses”; but, his follow up on the second day could just be a journey of self-discovery/actualization, and not necessarily a reflection of his sexual desires. How do I say so? Cos, in the scene where two girls are spotted with Bill, right in the picture attached in this post, Bill ends this scene with the dialogue that he wishes to know where the conversation was leading to.. So, I thought he is a person of self-actualization, in contrast to being a sexually inclined person that comes across in your essay.. Small detour while we are in the scene: replying to his questions, the girl in white suit said it leads to “where the rainbow ends”.. I was thinking if this is related to the renting shop’s name being rainbow. Just a thought here.
Point 3: In continuation of the second point I was making, he did go to the prostitute’s house during the follow-up sequence, and is found to misbehave with Domino’s flat-mate, but just a thought here.. May be he did that intentionally to know details and information he wanted about Domino. Again, my hypothesis that his whole follow-up game was a self-actualization one makes me think that he hadn’t gone to meet Domino for an sexual exchange. May be, it is. I am just throwing in a possibility to know how it may fit into your idea. Also, indeed he is shocked by the HIV-positive result, but, this is what might have become of him if he had followed an “immoral” route. Again, a revelation in his discovery journey and in my actualization hypothesis.
About your conclusion, the “fulfilling moral denouement” part, just to ask if you agree that both of them were equally vulnerable, in contrast to, Bill alone being the scapegoat. What you say? 🤔
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Jeeva Pitchaimani
August 23, 2021
@Deepika first thanks a lot for taking the trouble to read this most ignored essay of mine.
Enaku ippo perusa padam nyabagam illa and I can’t respond to your points with my depleting memory. I wrote this more than a year ago. Frankly I chose the movie for a three hour titillation despite knowing who Kubrick was, but I was greatly impressed by the subject it chose and the way it dealt with it.
This film was about a mid life crisis and both the protagonists were equally vulnerable. But here Kubrick chose to narrate it from a male standpoint alone. Another film can be made with the same story from Alice standpoint as well and will be equally interesting similar to what we saw in Nazriya’s Om Shanti Oshana.
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