Happy Birthday ‘Eyes Wide Shut’! Watch Vintage 20 Minute TV Special Featuring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman & More

Fifteen years ago today, Stanley Kubrick‘s “Eyes Wide Shut” landed in theatres and promptly confused the world. One of the most sexually charged Christmas movies ever, the film found Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in the midst of a potential breakdown in their marriage, leading a surreal swirl of fantasy and a penetrating deep dive into New York’s erotic underbelly. Overshadowed by Kubrick’s passing just before release, and the real life relationship between the two leads (they separated two years later), it perhaps wasn’t given a fair look at the time. And this vintage TV special is interesting capsule of what is like at the time the movie was unveiled.

This twenty-minute episode of “Film ’99” explores how the myth of the “reclusive” Kubrick already made every movement he took towards production an event, along with how wild reports about the two stars led to lawsuits for libel. But the show also goes into the production, with interviews with both Cruise and Kidman, producer Jan Harlan and much more, though host Jonathan Ross ultimately gives the verdict that the movie is “disappointing.” Kubrick is many things, but his films are often so rich, on so many levels, even his films you may not love as much, have lots to dig into. Check out the vid below.