STANLEY Kubrick’s last film Eyes Wide Shut, was not only pre- tentious and overrated, it was a snooze. This flick is the last ina series of stylized personal projects for which the diree- tor became known, Given the mystique Kubrick acquired or cultivated, this posthumous flop is unlikely to damage the legend. For ail the filmy’s textured detail, its yarn is threadbare and its subtest replete with clumsy symbolism. ‘The screenplay consists of laboured, repetitive and trun- cated dialogue where every exchange involves long stares and furrowed brows, “Iam a doctor,” is Tom Cruise’s stock-in-trade phrase. An obscure campy hotel desk clerk delivers the only ster- ling, performance. This is cold comfort considering the viewer is stuck with over two hours of Tom Cruise’s halt: hearted libidinous quests. Eyes is really a convention- al morality play during which Cruise prowls the streets of New York in his seldom removed undertaker’s over- coat in search of some relief for his sexual jealousy. Cruise's jealousy is aroused . by a fantasy his wife, played by real-life wife Nicole, :- Kidman, relays in a moment “of spite, and involves a sexual desire for a neval officer she glimpsed while on holiday ‘with her family. 50 strong ‘was her passion, she tells "fom, that she would have ~ abandoned all for this man. “. The confession follows a society party the couple attends in which they both flirt unabashedly with cthers. Again, the sum total of the dialogue here consists in back slapping guffaw-inducing ith eyes wide sh comment genuftlection to doctorness. We are treated to an annoying peck at Kubrick’s and the Zeitgeist’s view on the professional pecking order, a view which is rein- toreed when Cruise makes one of his house calls to a patient whose father has just died. The woman, body writhing like that ofa snake in coitus (is chis method act- ing?), throws herself at Cruise. Sex and death co- mingle in one of the many larded symbolic moments in the film. The woman’s , fiancé, the geck math profes: sor, is depicted as a lesser mortal than the handsome doctor. In defence of the math rofessor et me say thit he has three degrees done at 2 well nigh impossible level of abstraction, The general practitioner has, for the most, one degree requiring few leaps of abstraction. I know fam missing the point. This is not about the professional food chain. But neither is it ebout what Len Blum of the National Post described in effervescent stream of consciousness indulgent prose: “Attraction. Flirtation. Seduction. Exploitation. Intimacy. Fantasy. Hurt. Revenge.” Because if it is erotica you seck, then the movic is as sexy as cold mutton. Back at the party, Tom is besieged by two models that want him. These females also cat step writhing like randy rattlesnakes; their attenipts at sexy is more phero- moronic than pheromone inspired. Nicole in the meantime is doing her own hormonal hop with a Dracula look-alike. Yes, the film is full of frozen, flat characters, As they coil around one another, intoxicated, Dracula applies his amorous solvent: “The charm of marriage,” he says, “js thar it makes a life of deception absolutely neces- sary.” At this point Kubrick is defanged: He becomes a pla- giarist who underestiniates his audience, as Deacula fails to credit Oscar Wilde for the witty epigram, No bash would be com- plete without the doctor coming to the rescue, Ipstairs, draped over a chair 7 decoratively, lan- gutishes a victim of a drug overdose, She is nude and post coital, Tom runs cars, eyes and pulse cheeks and then proceeds to sit by the girl’s side, sans coftee or an intravenous something, until she is declared saved. The girt pulls cheough never ta forget the good doctor and destined to return the favour in the next hour or two. She, the Madonna-whore, is another lumpen symbol in this film. ‘Tom's journey to sexual and emotional maturation . feads him to rekindle an acquaintance with a not- quite-doctor jazz musician. The medical school dropout tells Tom he is on the way to a regular gig where, when he pecks through his blindfold, his peripheral vision is filled with amazing masked naked females. Tom decides to gate crash the orgy. Why Ton becomes imperilled at the orgy is not quite clear. Maybe be annoyed a patron by doing his Uberdoctor routine, But to the rescue comes a stranger with famil- jar protrusions, At this point it must be clear co all that this woman, the Mfadonna-whore, is toast. in passing boredom | noted that the mask of one of the orgy attendants was a Guernica-like Picasso cre- ation. No doubt the orgy could have done with some Guernica-like chaos (Guernica, painted by Picasso, depic:s the bombing of that Spanish town by the Germans). The orgy, instead, is a fashion shoot, engorged with sexless perfect bodies lacked in esthetically pleasing unerotic positions, Kubrick's morality play reaches ar epiphany when, alter a like- wise nonconsumated visit to a triendly prosticute, Tom learns she has been diag- nosed HIV positive. From across the giri's seedy abode, 2 hood ina trenchcoat stares Tom down, This is a messenger from the orgy society. And the mes- sage? The penumbra of sex can kill. I contess, the only other film by Kubrick I have seen was A Clockwork Orange, which I liked. In chat cult movie the delinquent Alex, inspired by evil and infused with a love for great classical music, does very bad things. The modest moral 1 took away from Clockwork was that someone who loves Beethoven's Ninth so dearly could not be ail bad. Certainly listening to Ode to Joy, was a tot more pleasur- able than to Three Blind Mice, the minimalist score from Eyes Shut Wide. -maiiboxw oO .... Dear Editor: oye: of WV recreation “facilities master plan. ~ 2" West Vancouver Council is - to. be applauded: for: embark- ing on a year-long study of ' recreation facilities after a . public meeting in July last ‘Horseshoe Bay can the village and the. beauty of Dear Editor:. . _~ Sean Walker, (letter to the editor, Bay’s commerce is courtesy of BC Ferries, Aug. 8) ‘doesn’t know. the: history of Horseshoe Bay and hasn’r ‘done his research. co Horseshoe : Bay was a . renowned resort and. a (tourist. destination long ‘Before the ferries arrived ia 1951.: 7 iIn-those, days people came . to the “Bay” oa vacation and ‘to swim, enjoy the beach and Three cheers for West Van re year revealed objections to some proposals, The results of workshops and hard work by staff and committees culminated in the recreition facilities master plan: recently released and now some of the recommen- the. setting. The “Bay” had ‘two boat- rental. facilities offering boats complete with fishing gear, bait and advice. {only Sewells’: remains) and the salmon could be caught right in the middle of the bay. The village merchants sponsored weekly fishing erbys and’ The Vancourer - Sus heid ie’s annual salmon derby with headquarters. in the bay. Hundreds of fishers came secking to win the Keith A. Cameron : Barrister & Solicitor 30 years experience MORTGAGE INVESTORS “Let me help you with your problems. " 2 Business Sales 8 Purchases “© Wills and Estates © Foreclosures &> Real Estate Desp Cove atmos; a... here lable evenings Se wetkends upon request 929-0998 dations are being acted upon. It is also good to sce coopera- tion between the district and the school board. There are many aspects still to be prioritized and council welcomes input. The parks and rec department’s live withe prizes of boats, motors, trail- ‘ers and cash as well as the honour of catching a “big one.” The “Bay” was alive and al} the merchants in the ‘village shared in the business that legitimate tourists, vaca- tioners and sport fishers gen- erated. : Now the merchants strug- le to survive for their liveli- oad on frustrated transients who are forced to wait in the ferry Jineup and wander into the village, not for pleasure Lube, Oil & Filter change *14.95 Front Brakes (pads inch most cars “ ‘fom * 5.00 Rear Brakes (shoes f mostcars - from £50.00 Engine Analysis & ‘iune- 4 cyl 39.00 « ecy's508 8 cyl '59.00 sxpe : Shampoo & spark plugs : Foel m Cleaning "i ee ve c process report and update bulletins can be seen at (a volunteer. non- profit site). Carolanne Reynolds Reynolds@adra.westvan.org, Ambleside and Dundarave Ratepayers’ Association ut ferries but to use up the time. - Take the Nanaimo ferry service out of Horseshoe Bay. and the merchants,n the vil- lage with the support of the council can clean up the traf- fic mess the ferries have cre- ated, restore the “Bay” as a true tourist destination and regenerate the economy on a sound and sustainable basis. Everyone benefits and« the “Bay” will come alive again. fan William, Councillor West Vancouver. footing, iat eafnee) "29.99 a it boot reglaced CV joint from *55.00 , (pars ng belt om 165.00 foe from *99.95 Muffier installed (paris extra) from 19.95 Service from °$5.00 Deep need to talk about taboo topics Dear Editor: Re: “NV City anti-hate policy proposed” (July 30 News). If “hatred” be defined as everything that may upset some people, then let's support Coun, Darrell Mussatto’s morion and forget all about human civilization as we know it. Did the honourabic councifior think for a moment why Doug Collins’ meeting had been attended by such a huge crowd? Could it possibly indicate a deep, nopular need to openly discuss matters considered taboo by the politically correct vup- pies and nondescript government tanctionaries? Feclings like that can be suppressed by hypocritical bylaws only for so lung, before they erupt with unstoppable force; this may happen even with the naturally meek Canadians. Mariusz T. Wesolowski North Vancouver rapier@direct.ca Sell your stujf. 14 hours 6 day. 7 days a week. WWW.RSNeWS.com Tray “ah eerste Your Siore of. Friendly Ider San Fedo 5 “Native JEWELLERY/ |) ’ Weooinc Rincs” - 441 West 3rd Street, North Vancouver 982-9215 Financtat Services itd. VISIT OUR WEBSITE _ www. instafund.com Lénder Broker fees inv apply ~~ Adam Korbin