I spent two days watching "Eyes Wide Shut," and now I feel very oppressed, urgently needing some beautiful things to enrich my soul.
At first, I had no concept of this film; I came purely for the tags of desire and curiosity, completely unaware that this was a work by the great director Kubrick. It wasn't until halfway through that I suddenly realized this film was not simple. After watching, I could only worship it; it truly deserves to be called a masterpiece. The two-and-a-half-hour film never drags, flows smoothly, and is quite profound.
In the first half of the movie, I kept wondering what the title "Eyes Wide Shut" referred to, and later I realized it was about the protagonist catching a glimpse of the dirty group activities of the upper class, filled with debauchery and mystery, with everyone present wearing masks. The protagonist merely attended this event uninvited and faced a threat to his life. If it weren't for a woman at the party who had previously helped him and saved him with her body, he would have certainly lost his life.
The protagonist comes to his senses and wants to continue investigating everything that happened last night, but he continues to receive death threats. He returns home in despair and finds the mask from the party on his bed, next to his sleeping wife. At this moment, he breaks down; this is the final warning. It turns out that his life is so insignificant in the eyes of the so-called big shots; they know everything about you, and killing you is as easy as squashing an ant.
The protagonist is a doctor, a solid middle-class individual. Compared to the vast majority, he is already part of the upper class, gaining respect by showing his medical license and finding many conveniences in life. Becoming a doctor, becoming middle class, becoming one of the top 20% in this social hierarchy might be achievable through personal effort. However, moving up from this 20% tier involves an insurmountable chasm, a realm no longer reachable by individual effort. Here, the significance of personal effort is dissolved; those who are born with it have it, and those who are not born with it can never possess it.
From the film, I sense a kind of oppressive power, specifically patriarchal oppression. At night, the protagonist's boss talks to him, warning him not to pursue this matter any further and telling him that he was also present at the time, and everyone there was a big shot, names that would frighten anyone. The protagonist inquires about the woman who saved his life that day, but the boss dismisses her as just a prostitute, saying there’s nothing to care about; her death is nothing unusual. The woman's true identity is a former beauty queen, found dead from a drug overdose in the morning, undoubtedly because she saved the protagonist. The protagonist falls silent; in the boss's eyes, the beauty queen has no personality, merely a tool for sexual gratification, and he himself is also a tool, just one that helps the boss diagnose illnesses. Thinking further, who is the boss a tool for? This social class is so ridiculous; people strive to live within a fate already written for them. I believe this is also what the director satirizes and critiques.
The film was made 20 years ago, and regarding the ugly revelations of the upper class, I think it is not far-fetched. Recent events like Lolita Island and the Blowing Old Man incident remind us that the collusion of power and darkness is deeper than we imagine. Social media has brought us closer to the upper class, amplifying our anxiety and sense of helplessness. There may be a path to liberate humanity, which is to raise the hammer and sickle; the human society of the twentieth century once saw a red tide, but it has since fallen silent, and immature movements have caused even greater harm. Where will humanity go? I cannot imagine. At the end of the film, the protagonist's wife says: “There is something very important that we need to do as soon as possible—fuck,” which may be the director's advice: if you can't change it, then enjoy it first.
Some people interpret this work from a psychoanalytic perspective, saying the entire film is the protagonist's dream. I find that interesting, but I'm not an expert in that area, so I won't elaborate further. In any case, I highly recommend this film; it is worth watching.