Mid-Point

 

Nine years ago, John Fell Ryan superimposed a reversed version of The Shining onto the original. The audio track from the forward-playing version was retained for the experimental piece aptly titled The Shining Forwards and Backwards. The result was striking, and arguably sparked new conversation about Stanley Kubrick's mysterious, hypnotic 1980 "horror" film. 

If we follow the same method with Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut, we find some similarities: for one, the middle-point of both films falls upon a single character's face. In The Shining, that character is Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), the African-American cook who attempts to save Wendy and Danny from Jack's murderous wrath. We all know Hallorann's fate. 

At the half-way point of Eyes Wide Shut, we find Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) watching impassively in cloak and mask at the Somerton mansion. Unlike Hallorann, though, Bill's fate is not sealed on screen. Maybe Bill is "shining" like Hallorann; arguably, he is aware that things are going awry in other places, and that bad things are happening or are going to happen. Hallorann tells Danny that when something happens, it leaves a trace. There are traces all throughout Eyes Wide Shut, both those that Bill leaves in his nighttime odyssey, and, those that are left from external events. We do find Bill following some of the traces of his past actions. 

The Good Doctor has certainly sacrificed trust and credibility in order to get to Somerton in the first place, not to mention when he confesses to his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman). We never hear the confession, but, in the next scene, we see sullen and teary-eyed Alice seated across from a despondent, almost child-like Bill. But, Bill is still alive at the end of the film, possibly the result of a woman at Somerton who theatrically "redeems" him so that he can go freely from the masked ball which he had no business attending. When the same woman ends up dead the next day, Victor (Sydney Pollack), wants Bill to believe that it was not related to the scene at Somerton, but was merely the result of a bad drug habit. Just like Bill, with a lack of information, we return to the forked road where we decide what we will believe. 

In the film's final scene, Alice tells Bill, "Maybe I think we should be grateful - grateful that we’ve managed to survive through all of our adventures, whether they were real or only a dream." This dovetails nicely with the newspaper headline which escapes Bill's attention earlier, that simply reads, "Lucky To Be Alive." Although, it's worth noting the inclusion of the word "maybe," which casts Alice in a strangely suspicious light. Should there be an ambivalence regarding gratitude? The ambiguity is almost caustic: have they learned nothing? Alice is no more traitorous than Bill, which I think is the point. But to suggest that this marital egalitarianism allows for the possibility of hope is somewhat blind.

As Tim Kreider pointed out in his 2006 essay, "Introducing Sociology," Bill has effectively been blackmailed by Victor. He knows of Somerton, he knows of drug abuse, of hookers, of potential homicide, of wealthy and powerful men (though not by name). In the age of Jeffrey Epstein, all of this is disturbingly familiar. The question of Bill's future determines to what degree Eyes Wide Shut offers any optimism about Bill's life - or anybody's life. 

To elucidate: what is the likelihood that after these two strange days Bill will refuse his doctorly services to the Ziegler's? And to think he even has this choice - if anything, Victor has reason to keep a closer watch on Bill. The spies Victor commands only point to a beginning of indirect servitude and complicity. But like the reading of any Kubrick film, I'm torn: I think Victor wants Bill to stay out, but I'm not sure Bill wants the same thing. If Bill doesn't want this, then Victor could make conditions - this would be the beginning of explicit blackmail. 

Much like Judah Rosenthal in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, I can easily picture Bill wanting to come clean with what he knows. Unlike Dr. Rosenthal, who ordered his mistress to be killed, Bill hasn't actually done anything. It's more about what Bill hasn't done. He hasn't notified authorities. He hasn't found out anything more about what happened to his old friend, Nick Nightingale. He surely hasn't decided what he believes regarding Victor's explanations. Dr. Rosenthal is not so much shattered by his emotions, but by his lack of emotion: he has successfully and almost effortlessly killed somebody. "Banality of evil" would be an understatement: he is only following his own orders. He is shattered by the fact that he could have come up with such barbaric orders himself. Bill's emotions are probably misplaced, while his "shattering" deals more with externalities. For example, that entire worlds exist right before his eyes that he has never recognized, some of them quite sinister, insidious, and malicious. 

If Bill is just beginning to see at the end of the film, then there is much work left to do, much left to be seen. Eyes Wide Shut as a final film is a plea for learning, growth, and redemption.