That whole scene was ruined by having the women in panties and high heels. If you're going to have pagan rituals followed by orgies, the women should be nude and barefoot. It was a dumb decision by Kubrick and ruined the whole mood and tone of the scene IMO. It knocked the movie down a notch. It would have been perfect if he had used more curvaceous women too - not use anorexics dressed like tacky strippers. Lame.
shareCry more.
shareNotice the woman asking Bill if he has had a good time is wearing underwear during the ritual, but not the second time we see her? Tits are the big taboo in america, don't even get started on the vagina.
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He had almost all the women in high heels so we can see how short Tom Cruise is, I guess. I just thought it was a bad artistic choice to have underwear and high heels when they took the robes off. They should have been nude or just leave the robes on until afterwards when they get into the orgy scenes. And they were all stick thin like runway models with fake breasts. Not a good choice either. Hookers wouldn't all look like that.
shareMaybe it just looked sexier to women in high heels.
It's that man again!!
The women he chose just looked gawky in high heels. Why take off the robes and have them in panties, then stripped totally nude for the orgy and walking around? Even Nicole Kidman looked awkward in the opening scenes when she was nude. I don't find high heels to look sexy standing up. They can look sexy in certain poses lying down and stretching the foot out. But the foot would look as good or better bare, IMO.
shareI'm not crying, just saying it was a bad artistic choice and ruins that scene and significantly hurts the movie. Kubrick was probably trying to placate the MPAA. He chose scrawny women too I think. They all looked like runway models or heroin addicts. That one who was a heroin user looked more curvaceous when passed out in Victor's bathroom, but not nude and standing up. He should have picked women with more varied bodies at least and the scene would have had more integrity. As it was, I don't get what his intent was.
shareAnd why have them wearing panties and high heels? Put them in white or black robes or nude. It would be more suitable for the situation. All or nothing. They're not strippers but that's how they're dressed and none have real curves. They look like runway models. Was that the best Kubrick could think of tor the scene? It's tacky and seems poorly thought out unlike everything else he has done. He is meticulous and perfectionist, but that scene looks like a first draft or a rehearsal.
shareyou might have only seen the US version
the European version is more explicit
I saw the unrated version on DVD and Blu-ray. That scene ruins the tone of the movie. I don't know what Kubrick was thinking. Probably that he had to tone it down for the MPAA babies. It would have been better were they wearing robes or just nude IMO. Instead it looks like some bored rich guys went to the nearest strip club or hooters and asked the girls how would u like to make a few thousand bucks?
shareLook, I'll say this. Undressing is a key theme in understanding the psychology of the film.
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its probably the most stylish orgy ever committed to mainstream celluloid
shareHey, this was a classy satanic orgy. Not those trashy ones where everyone is naked.
shareAlso, most of the guests were just there to watch
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i remember, i believe roger ebert saying the mpaa made kubrick tone that down. at the time (i was young) i didn't know the exact underlying meaning (not that anyone does, but the gist) of the whole thing...but looking back, maybe there was more to the "tone it down" and maybe it wasn't from the mpaa...i guess we'll never know exactly how kubrick wanted it....
It's style based sex (ie porn) - cloaked hoods watching, Bill where he shouldn't be - ie the taboo paying customer.
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Who goes to an orgy to watch? Impotent cuckolds? And what kind of satanist accepts some backwards chanting with a masked keyboardist? It's an orgy of runway models, dressed like strippers, pretending to be hookers. What's the point? What was he trying to convey? The scene bothers me because it doesn't fit and seems poorly thought out and conceived. It looks like a cop-out to the MPAA censors, who won't allow a vagina with visible labia in an R-rated movie but allow full male nudity. They put women in a merkin (vaginal wig) while showing the male sex organ fully exposed.
shareI don't remember seeing any visible dicks in the film...
The more important aspect is the ritual and performance. Bill is a voyeur and we are voyeurs for Bill (Tom)...how many viewers went into the film expecting to see Tom bang this and that? How much of the film is Tom looking at something but not seeing it for what it is?
Notice the ceremony/ritual is filmed the same way as when Bill is questioned and told to get undressed? It's psychological, and metaphorical, and satirical..not meant to be 'realistic'.
The scene is VITAL to the film - female nudity and the psychology behind men and females attitudes towards it, the taboo aspect, the ritual aspect - all essential to the film. Think back to the opening shot of the film...
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Really, how exactly did this bother you?
shareI feel as if it was reinforcing the idea of women being objects.
shareObjects/subjects, yes. Also works of art, upholders of light (statues at Somerton - the goodness/light to man's evil/darkness and how that relates to sex and death). But the film also looks at men as objects as well - at human beings as objects, subjects - at the notion of aubjectivity of 'inner life' as an illusion. Notice the camera movements are the same when the cloaked women are underessing and then when Bill is being questioned and told to remove his robe?
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