B-Movie Gazette: "EYES WIDE SHUT" (1999) TURNS 25 - ONCE CONSIDERED AN 'I DON'T GET IT'

B-MOVIE OF THE MONTH - THE DEATH OF RITCHIE (TV 1977)

Looks like a lot of fun to me, I don't know. Seriously and for those that don't know, The Death Of Ritchie is one of the most iconic TV movies of the entire '70's decade. I was roughly 15 when it aired and i can tell you that both Robby Benson and teens taking drugs were very hot topics at the time. The film is based on a true story where a father who couldn't control his teen's behavior from drug abuse was forced to take the law into his own hands. The father here is good ole Ben Gazzara and he is at his Gazzara best with a ferocious intensity, his scenes with Benson as father and son a perfect chemistry. At the time more emphasis was on Benson as a model but his performance here is really amazing. Streams free on Tubi, Freevee, Roku and Plex, if this was being rated on the standard scale I would give it five stars, 'nuff said. 2.75 stars/2.75

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

"EYES WIDE SHUT" (1999) TURNS 25 - ONCE CONSIDERED AN 'I DON'T GET IT' - NOW CONSIDERED AN UNCANNY MASTERPIECE

And I'm sure it will come as no surprise, my personal favorite Kubrick film. (Barry Lyndon would be an extremely close second with The Shining not too far behind.)

I remember watching it for the first time on a VHS rental with a then state-of-the-art 25" Sony tube TV, lol. A roommate in our house was spending his last night and I had promised him to go out and shoot some pool. I watched about a third of Eyes Wide Shut before I left which was a mistake because all I could think about while shooting pool was getting back to the house to watch the rest. I loved the ending because I like films where the ending is left open for interpretation.

So much by now has been written and theorized, there are literally YouTube channels devoted to figuring out all the hidden meanings in Kubrick's films.

The first thing I like to remind people when discussing this picture is the source material's title which in English means "dream story," dig it?

It certainly has a hypnotic effect. 4.5 stars/5

For more, here's a really cool article on BBC - "Eyes Wide Shut, the remarkable afterlife of a notorious 1990's Misfire"