The King is Butt Naked

Rating: Null/10 (4 August 1999)

I am, or surely will be, an exile from the land of Kubrick!

No, I do not denounce the Kubrick legacy as mere fluff nor fad. I will always be a true Apostle of "Kubrickian Genius"! From Lolita to 2001: A Space Odyssey, from A Clockwork Orange to Full Metal Jacket I listened carefully to the master as he whispered secrets of his soul into my anxious and eager ears. So it is with a significant degree of sorrow and heartache that I must now decree, "Indeed - the king is butt naked!"
I will not go into any specific details of the film for I believe that it is much better to see it and judge for yourself; Especially for die hard fans of Stanley Kubrick - of which I am certainly one. For months, I should say years, I have awaited what I was sure to be the next work of magnificence from the undisputed grand maestro of cinematic art. Eyes Wide Shut was sure to be, and by many expected to be, the finest thread in the fabric of Stanley Kubrick's lifetime garment of ingenious wizardry. With the passing of the maestro early this year I was confident that Kubrick's last piece would be his final and true masterpiece. I can not with a clear conscience confess to having expectations that were too high, for it has always been somewhat of a pseudo tradition that Kubrick films leave a disturbed portion of the audience with a feeling of frustrated confusion, disillusionment and even discontentment. In most cases one may attribute the aforementioned emotions to cases of simply not understanding the artistry of a great mind who was intellectually way ahead of his time. Regrettably with Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's last production seems to be more a compilation of unnecessarily long, almost drearily malapropos scenes which consistently seem to leave one wondering, "Couldn't he have done without this?"
Sure, say what you will of the obvious psycho dramatic elements of the film; nightmarish infidelity demons waiting at the end of an obscure tunnel of curiosity and self-exploration. Still, Eyes Wide Shut left me with an unshakable feeling of, "No duh!" We see this message all around us in every day life: Sexually transmitted diseases, high (and low) profile dysfunctional marriages, emotionally damaged children and adults, as well as through countless television dramas, soap operas, and weepy dramatic tragedies not to mention many of our own personal real-life experiences.

Should the "message" have been more profound, perhaps even more metaphysical? Perhaps, but not necessarily. Even the most fanatical disciple of Stanley Kubrick (which I still believe myself to be) will not find it very difficult to look beyond all the classic technical and stylistic Kubrickian filmmaking characteristics to come to the conclusion that this film seems more full of time-filling fluff than remarkably ingenious Kubrickian "stuff".
In the end, perhaps I am indeed an outcast. Obviously mine is a case where my personal taste ultimately objects to what the late great master has concocted. Or maybe like the humble boy in the well known fable "The Kings New Clothes", I am one of the few to honestly declare that the last garment of the mighty king is sewn of artistic hype and apostolic-like delusion. And perhaps in his last parade, the king IS butt naked!

LONG LIVE THE KING!!!