When director Stanley Kubrick's much-hyped erotic thriller, Eyes Wide Shut, opens Friday, American audiences may get the feeling that something's being hidden from them.
They're right.
Eyes Wide Shut, which stars real-life spouses Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a fictional couple who become involved in an increasing web of perversion and intrigue, is being released in two versions, one for American audiences and one for foreign markets.
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The American version has been digitally edited to obscure sexual content in an orgy scene that is one of the pivotal points in the story.
At a screening in Los Angeles this week, producer Jan Harlan surprised the gathered audience of critics when he asked them to remain seated for a few more minutes while he played the original, uncut version of the orgy.
In the scene, Tom Cruise's character, a Manhattan doctor, crashes a swanky costume ball where the guests wear masks and little else while they engage in sexual acts while others look on. Though the scene is far from pornographic -- all the sex is clearly simulated and there are no direct genital shots -- the Motion Picture Association of America demanded changes to the film in order to secure the R-rating necessary for widespread success in this country.
In the MPAA-approved version, Cruise's character wanders through the same orgy and witnesses the same sex acts, but digitally-inserted spectators culled from other footage have been superimposed to cover, as they say in England, the naughty bits. It's as if Cruise's sexual fantasy has come true, only there's always someone standing in his way.
Since the existence of two versions of Eyes Wide Shut was revealed, Internet movie discussion groups have been rife with postings condemning the digital censorship, many of them centering around the notion that Kubrick, a notorious perfectionist who died of heart problems on 7 March at the age of 70, never would have allowed the studio to make the changes.
However, both Cruise and Harlan have said that Kubrick himself approved the modifications during the film's editing.
"It was Stanley's decision to alter the scenes," Cruise told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. "He was flexible."
One thing is for sure: The fact that the film was modified for the American screen can only stand to help video and DVD sales and rentals, as audiences flock to view, in the comfort of their own home, what the MPAA didn't want them to watch on the big screen.
