Tom Cruise has got a worldwide fan-following to his name. His admirers love his movies and have a monstrous contribution to making him one of Hollywood’s best stars ever. The star has some of the most noteworthy projects in the history of cinema and most of them are appreciated to date. The Top Gun star not only has a wide audience cheering for his movies but also some of the most notable personalities speaking about him. Martin Scorsese is one of the biggest names on this list.
Be it the love for Tom Cruise’s charisma or his eternal love for cinema, Martin Scorsese never fails to appreciate the Stanley Kubrick classic Eyes Wide Shut. The Taxi Driver legend believes that the movie which nearly separated Cruise from Scientology is widely misunderstood due to its controversial nature.
Tom Cruise’s Eyes Wide Shut impressed Martin Scorsese
Eyes Wide Shut‘s premise followed a secret underground cult that introduces Tom Cruise‘s Dr. William Harford to a bizarre se*ual adventure. The movie became widely controversial due to its portrayal of nudity and its highly se*ually explicit scenes. The erotic thriller also went on to become the highest-grossing project by Stanley Kubrick.
While speaking about his admiration for Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese revealed that he is an ardent fan of The Shining director’s works with 2001: A Space Odyssey being his favorite. Besides that, Scorsese also spoke about Kubrick’s last project Eyes Wide Shut which had the Ethan Hunt fame with his then-wife Nicole Kidman in the lead. Scorsese who made The Color of Money with Cruise spoke that:
“I think a lot of people were looking at Eyes Wide Shut from the wrong angle – it’s not to be taken literally. It’s Manhattan as you’d experience it in a dream, where everything feels familiar but very strange.”
In his conversation with Roger Ebert, the Shutter Island director added that he loves the movie and is of the notion that it presents some unpleasant truths.
“And I think Eyes Wide Shut is a profound film about love, s*x, and trust in a marriage, about learning to take things day by day, and either accepting or ignoring whatever unpleasant truths come along. It’s also a film I cherish because it puts you in the authoritative hands of an old master, with a style that flies in the face of every modern convention.”
When the Tom Cruise movie was released for the first time, despite earning good numbers, the response was extremely mixed. One of the greatest films of the 1990s now was misunderstood and criticized by both critics and audiences at the time of its release.
Interestingly, Eyes Wide Shut also has another famous controversy linked to its history. The movie nearly separated Scientology from its most famous Hollywood associate.
How Eyes Wide Shut created a rift between Scientology and Tom Cruise?
Interestingly, the 1999 classic almost broke an iconic bond- Tom Cruise and Scientology. Eyes Wide Shut isolated the stars from the world in a closed set in London and the organization didn’t like it at all. The movie which holds a Guinness World Record for the longest continuous film shoot of 400 days disassociated Scientology from its most notable devotee.
In his book A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology, former senior Scientology executive Mike Rinder revealed that this detachment caused great trouble to David Miscavige. The head of the Church of Scientology sent Rinder to consult Cruise’s sister after not hearing anything from the Valkyrie star for a long time. But Miscavige was so desperate that he was reportedly the main reason behind Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s separation.
According to Rinder, another former Scientology executive, Marty Rathbun also investigated Cruise closely and even went to the extent of tapping Kidman’s phone. The organization believed that the Days of Thunder actress caused Cruise to distance himself from Scientology. This led to their divorce in 2001 with the Vanilla Sky actor returning to his image as the face of Scientology.
Eyes Wide Shut can be streamed on HBO Max.
Source: Roger Ebert & the Movies
