Love and Radio | QCODE

Episode: Revisiting Eyes Wide Shut
Release Date: March 15, 2023
Host: Nick van der Kolk (“Nick Sardine”)
Special Guests: Tracy Morris (poet and sound artist), Becca, and other unnamed participants

Episode Overview

In this thought-provoking episode, Love and Radio delves into Stanley Kubrick’s enigmatic final film, Eyes Wide Shut, through the lens of poet and sound artist Tracy Morris and other thoughtful panelists. The discussion navigates themes of naiveté, sexuality, class, race, and Kubrick's subtle meta-commentary. Host Nick van der Kolk, initially a skeptic of the film, endeavors to step outside his comfort zone and interrogate his own response to the work, sparked by Morris's admiration and Benshi-inspired performance.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Film’s Central Plot & Its Polarizing Nature

• [03:08–06:35] Nick recounts his first reaction to Eyes Wide Shut as a teenager—finding both Tom Cruise’s character and the film’s core conflict (infidelity anxiety) difficult to empathize with, especially Bill’s (Cruise’s) dramatic response to his wife Alice’s (Nicole Kidman) confession of fantasizing about a stranger.

  • Quote:
    “For me, the main hurdle to enjoying the film is Bill's completely over the top reaction to what I personally would consider an extremely minor transgression of marital fidelity.” (Nick Sardine, 04:07)

• The episode sets up a generational divide in understanding and appreciating the film, with Nick’s elders asserting he’d “understand when he was older.”

2. Tom Cruise: The Ingenue & Masculine Naivete

• [06:35–10:04] Becca offers a unique perspective: Bill Harford, played by then-megastar Tom Cruise, is the most naive and innocent character in the movie—a role typically not embodied by masculine leads.

  • Quote:
    “You don't see the ingenue framed like a guy like Tom Cruise...especially in the 1990s, when he and Nicole Kidman were the it couple.” (Becca, 06:35)

• The discussion notices how Bill is always on the outside of knowledge—both socially and sexually—clueless, continuously trying to do the right thing but consistently out of his depth.

  • Quote:
    “He knows the least about what's going on in the whole movie.” (Becca, 06:40)

• The group discusses pivotal dialogue that exposes Bill’s naïve, limited view of women’s sexuality and desire.

  • Becca highlights: “What you're saying is women don't actually have desire.” (08:31)

• Bill’s reliance on his social status (as a doctor) is critiqued—he identifies with the upper class, but fails to realize he’s “the help.”

3. Class Dynamics and the Illusion of Access

• [10:28–12:03] Becca articulates:

  • Bill’s self-perception as part of the upper class is inaccurate—Victor Ziegler belongs to a different league, and Bill is, in fact, “help.”
  • Victor’s parties and social circles remain inscrutable—a symbol of Bill’s outsider status.

• [12:05–13:04] Becca points to the mastery in Kubrick's direction, especially the scene where Victor confesses that the orgy threat was a charade, further emphasizing layers of power and deception.

  • Quote:
    “Victor is absolutely lying to him. And he realized he's trapped and he can't manage it.” (Becca, 13:04)

4. Kubrick's Directorial Intent and Actor Dynamics

• [13:04–14:01] The group reflects on Kubrick’s obsession with authenticity in performance, notably his exhaustive demands for numerous takes.

5. Small Roles, Racial Commentary, and Script Changes

• [14:01–18:40] The conversation transitions to the unusually white composition of the film and how Kubrick intentionally removed Black characters from the original script.

  • Quote:
    “He is making a political comment, I think, about the absence of black characters in the film to highlight danger and sort of meta commentary on the type of world that Bill Harford allows himself to be in.” (Becca, 16:37)
  • Becca reveals access to Kubrick’s earlier scripts at the London archive: Black characters (such as a model and the chauffeur) were later erased, and their roles transferred to white actors, intensifying the film’s commentary on whiteness and privilege.

• The rarity of characters of color—just an orderly, a bodyguard, and a Latina maid—further underscores the deliberate "sea of whiteness" surrounding Bill.

6. Status, Ethnicity, and the Invisible Elite

• [18:40–20:39] Becca speculates that Kubrick’s own background—a Jewish Bronx native and son of a doctor—infuses the film with a nuanced awareness of social and ethnic status in post-Holocaust America. Even Victor Ziegler, for all his wealth, is depicted as never quite securely within the elite "in-group".
  • Quote:
    “He says those a lot, which to me means his status with all of his wealth just gets him into the door. Right. But it's still actually a bit tenuous. He doesn't say we. He says they and those. So it's all relative.” (Becca, 20:39)

7. The Power of Contrast and Invisibility

• [20:39–22:44] Becca:
  • Celebrates the film for its “macrocosmic to the microcosmic” contrasts—class, gender, race, sexuality, naivete, and the “luxury to be invisible.”
  • Attributes to Kubrick and the actors the power to unsettle and illuminate such themes through nuance, casting, and performance.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You don't see the ingenue framed like a guy like Tom Cruise...He knows the least about what's going on." — Becca, [06:35]
• "What you're saying is women don't actually have desire." — Becca, [08:31]
• "He is making a political comment...meta commentary on the type of world that Bill Harford allows himself to be in." — Becca, [16:37]
• "With all his wealth just gets him into the door. Right. But it's still actually a bit tenuous. He doesn't say we. He says they and those." — Becca, [20:39]
• "All of these issues of class, all of these issues of knowledge, you know, from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic meta commentaries on race, sex, sexuality, the luxury to be invisible, the luxury to be naive, all of these fantastic contrasts are embodied in this movie." — Becca, [22:11]

Essential Timestamps

• [03:08] Nick’s background and challenging first encounter with Eyes Wide Shut
• [06:35] Becca on Tom Cruise’s character as naive ingenue
• [08:31] Dissection of gendered desire and Bill’s blindness to women’s sexuality
• [10:28] Discussion on status, class, and the delusion of access
• [14:01] Kubrick’s attention to small roles, and scene analysis
• [16:37] Racial erasure in the script and its intended meta-commentary
• [20:39] Jewishness, social standing, and the film's nuanced comment on inclusion and exclusion

Conclusion & Conversion

After a deep and multidimensional discussion, Becca asks Nick if he has been “converted” to appreciating the film.

• [23:07] Nick: “I'm converted enough that I'm willing to give it another shot. Let's put it that way.”
  • A gentle closing: Becca jokes she’ll go watch Toy Story as a palate cleanser.

Summary Takeaways

This richly nuanced conversation reveals Eyes Wide Shut as a text deeply concerned with what is visible and invisible—status, naiveté, sexuality, and race. Through careful analysis and playful debate, the episode invites listeners to rethink their initial judgments and consider Kubrick’s film as a deliberately uncomfortable mirror revealing society’s—and cinema’s—hidden social structures.