Watch it again (and again)

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2008)

If you don't understand why this film is on par with Kubrick's best, I strongly recommend you watch it over and over until you get it. Rob Ager's wonderful analysis, parts of which can be found on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj7Hw6OnbH8), will clue you in as to why you owe it to yourself to do so.
In my opinion  and 2001 is the greatest film I have ever seen  Eyes Wide Shut is on the level of 2001 in terms of its calling us to question the nature of our humanity. The dumbstruck critical reaction to EWS was not due simply to some botched marketing campaign  although expectations of some kind of soft-core porn will surely leave you disappointed if you can't shake that preconception. Rather, the underrating of EWS is a factor of one's viewing the film as a film. It is decidedly beyond just a film. It is a laser beam through your third eye. It is a journey down into the rotting bowels of your subconscious.
Certainly, and perhaps particularly if you are an American, parts of it should make you very disgusted with yourself. Whether there is some redemption in EWS is up to you, but I don't think there is. On the surface of the film we are shown how venal transactions and the objectification of women cut through all strata of society, varying only in the level of grotesque and willful disregard for the human soul. We see an idle rich aspirant get a wake-up call about his place in society. We see a married couple come clean about their dark fantasies and ambivalence. But this is truly just the beginning. Once the phone rings in the Harfords' bedroom, the real voyage begins  in us, through Bill Harford's adventures (be they real, a vision of the collective unconscious, or a lucid dream somehow unfolding in real time in both husband and wife).
In EWS, the questions we are urged to ask ourselves relate more to our fears and desires and the foundations of society as opposed to our evolutionary history and trajectory. However, nearly every shot in EWS is so saturated with images, objects, penetrating (if sometimes sparse) dialogue, inside jokes, etc., that I would argue that with respect to set design and mise en scene, and even costuming, it trumps 2001. I can only imagine trying to catch all of what is going on by watching the film in slow motion. Just try to keep up with the textual objects in the film (e.g. signs) and you'll have to be on your toes! If it is true that the studio edited Kubrick's final cut, or that he did not have time to "polish" his final work, then this is truly a shame. Yet, the film remains a masterpiece. I hope someday it will be able to be seen in whatever version Stanley intended, because not only does EWS turn a mirror onto ourselves, but it allows, as do his films in general, a fearless and honest glimpse into the very heart and soul of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.