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In Reply to: Scariest Movies posted by addict44 on September 9, 2005 at 12:00:42:
This one still gets under my skin... flaws and all. Gets right at the psychological iceberg of "Dad wants to kill me". Seen from the perspective of a child, can there be anything more frightening than a parent going insanely homicidal? Nicholson was the Boogeyman!
Follow Ups:
NT
Go eat a sausage.
Yes , it's funny I was so disappointed by "The Shining" when it first came out. Now I find it very scary and disturbing. That's Kubrick . Sometimes his films grow on me. I didn't like "Full Metal Jacket" either , now I watch it every year or so. Still don't like "Eyes Wide Shut" !
Kubrick is reported to have said to friends that EWS was "my best film." I thought is was brilliant, though slow-moving. There's another Kubrick film I thought was slow-moving, which I later came to savor every second of: 2001. EWS is a highly complex psychological drama, not as "accessible" (if you can even use that world with Kubrick after 1968) as some of his other films. I always felt the key to the film was why the Cruise character goes out of orbit over his wife's recital of a fleeting attraction (was it?) told to simple make him jealous. To me, it's a meditation on the forces which hold a couple together, as opposed to forces, both physiological and psychological (the same thing?) that can drive them apart. Interestingly, it's a film where dream, masquerade, and reality all exist on the same plain. I also thought Kidman stole the show. One more tid-bit: the character played by Sidney Pollack was originally intended to be played by Harvey Keitel, who seems to me to have been a MUCH better choice for the role. I think Pollack's performance, while solid, was lackluster and may even have detracted from the film.
I liked EWS. I didn't find it titillating, just a sombre observation on the mystery and power of sex. Why does everybody do it or have it but nobody can figure it out? Why is it related to power, relationships, emotions, obsession and how come it is always unpredictable and even dangerous?
An overview of the strange and fundamental question without an answer, just a series of crafted observations, which make the mystery even deeper .
Remember - Most of 2001 was filmed in the weightless , dark and solitary regions of outerspace. This justified the slow tempo of movement and dialogue . The end result was captivating.
Although I enjoyed reading your post - EWS isn't even half the movie 2001 is.
PS -If you thought the slow tempo of EWS was a success , maybe you should call yourself "Whole Note"
I would have to agree that 2001 is the more important of the 2 films, and even the better. But EWS is a movie that can be viewed and understood from so many different perspectives -- husband versus wife, masculine versus feminine, emotional versus pyshiologicial, culture versus nature, dream versus reality. It is about the nebulousness of ideals like love and marriage, what conjures them up in the mind, and to what degree we allow them to control us. Ultimately, it's a film about free will. It's a film in which reality takes on a dream like dimension, and in which the most rational of men, a doctor, becomes overwhelmed by fantasy. It's a harder film to like than some of Kubrick's others. But it's a film that continues to haunt long after its viewing. It is like the Shining in that respect -- a movie that was booed an laughed at in the theater I saw during its first run, as a young man. But 20 years of marriage and three children of my own have totally transformed it into a completely different, and much more harrowing experience. EWS has that way of growing on you, I think.Almost all of Kubrick's masterpieces were greeted with very mixed reviews -- 2001, Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, even Barry Lyndon. They have all grown in stature, steadily, over the years.
I only saw EWS once in the theaters but I liked it allot- much more than the Shining or Full Metal Jacket. The latter seemed kinda lost, but not in a good way, and the former always seems to me to be just a collection of strong and not so strong set pieces trapped inside a weak movie.As far as EWS goes, I cant say Pollak really bothered me in it, I thought Kidman was great, and I liked the soundtrack.
To me one of the things that did hurt EWS was the masked orgey stuff.
Its the type of thing that I imagine looked good on paper, but it really struck an off note in its execution. Its a shame because I have a nagging feeling it could have been brilliant- as it stands it comes off as a little phoney.I put it down to being a consequence of Kubrik's having lived in England for so long. Some of that weird "Avengers" and "Prisoner" vibe still lingering in the water there from the '60s leaked into his brain.
on you, ever. I don't think I could get past the rather silly story or Pollack's poor performance.
Really ? I didn't think Pollacks performance was a *stand out* BAD performance. I mean not in the context of all the **BAD** in that film. As usual Cruise is confusing , mediocre and a teenager. The overused and overrated Kidman squeaks by unforgettably. Everyone else , well ... just falls through the cracks ! I just thought the whole movie is painfully slow. I've never been able to determine if the "orgy" is suppose to be truly erotic and sexy , or an example of silly pointless sex (the later gets my vote). It also get's my vote for the all-time most grating soundtrack. I think someone is playing an octave on a piano with a hammer. Jeez !
70-something old guy. Extremely un-erotic and almost embarrassingly crass.
I thought exactly the same thing Tinear -kind of a unchallenging MOR suburban sex fantasy. I respect Kubrick so much I second-guessed and wondered if the scene was intentionally staged as unappealing, maybe to illustrate the futile attempts of an over - sexed lifestyle. I don't know! Cruise's acting abilities never answer any questions and unless I’m wrong, we the audience were suppose to be clear on the meaning of this part of the story.
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