A Cinematic Masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (17 April 2002)

Martin Scorsese said "I think people were looking at Eyes Wide Shut from the wrong angle". He was speaking of all the critics and moviegoers that panned Stanley Kubrick's final film. I'm not so kind in describing the lack of admiration/understanding displayed by a lot of people in regards to this film. Those who don't "get" EWS I dismiss as uncultured couch potatoes who should stick to watching Maury Povich.
Peter Greenaway made a profound statement about art. He said: "Think of what a work of art demands of it's audience". And Peter was absolutely correct. If you know ANYTHING about Kubrick, you know that he does things on his terms. The casual moviegoer who munches his popcorn looking to have 2 hours killed by being CATERED to came to the wrong movie.
Eyes Wide Shut is an unquestioned masterpiece which I could not stop thinking about for a MONTH after I left the theatre. Tom Cruise I feel topped his acting job in Born on the Fourth of July (which I felt strongly he could NEVER do). The ignorance of the "Academy" is staggering. EWS was the best film of the 90's (followed closely by Akira Kurosawa's Dreams & Trainspotting).
Kubrick engages the viewer who (to quote Spielberg) "gives it up" for his vision. You will be richly rewarded if you will suspend all preconceived notions of what this movie "will be like". It is so different, so beautiful, and so INTERESTING that I cannot find fault with it. Maybe I'm an art house snob, but I know a work of genius when I see it. Eyes Wide Shut is glorious. And I feel sadness for the many who can't see it.