Is Eyes Wide Shut a Christmas Movie?

Yes, it is.

But I still want to get into it a bit. First off, though, these debates are pointless and stupid. “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” is just clickbait at this point. (And the title of this article is, too, but hey, I want those clicks, and at least my site isn’t filled with ads.) It’s just an opinion, for one thing, and it depends on your own personal qualifications. Personally, if a movie takes place at Christmas, it’s a Christmas movie. But other people demand that Christmas is pivotal to the plot (this is why there is the Die Hard debate, and I’ve seen the argument that even Home Alone isn’t a true Christmas movie). So for those joyless assholes, I decided to get into the Christmas aspect of Eyes Wide Shut for my yearly article (going strong since 2018).

In the past, I mainly addressed the Christmas aspect in regards to the use of color in the film, and how all the decorations simply make for a beautiful movie. I never got into the point of the Christmas setting on a deeper level. 

On the surface, the Christmas setting is there to get the plot moving with Ziegler’s party. But there could be a party any time of the year. More importantly, Christmas is time meant for family, and the plot of this film is about the possible destruction of the Harford family. So while Christmas isn’t absolutely necessary for the basic plot, it does serve as a nice reminder of what’s at stake throughout. 

Beyond the simple plot of Eye Wide Shut, there are the myriad theories out there (check out the reddit for this film if you dare), but I’m going to stick with the surface level for the most part because, while I enjoy a ridiculous deep dive from time to time, I love this movie just for the experience of it. 

The primary conflict of the film is that Bill makes the assumption that men have this savage, primal sexual desire while women desire romance over sex. Alice destroys that assumption with a story about being willing to throw her entire life away for a man she saw once while on vacation. Bill then spends the rest of the film trying to get sexual revenge by embracing his primal need for sex, but he gets blocked at every turn, most notable at the mysterious orgy.

The orgy is what makes this a Christmas movie. I didn’t get too deep into the Wikipedia weeds with this, but the orgy has plenty of pagan-type things going on for it. The easiest comparison is that it represents Saturnalia, a weeklong Roman festival held around the winter solstice that most likely included orgies, as it was a fairly hedonistic celebration. 

The orgy is certainly not presented in a celebratory fashion in Eyes Wide Shut, but it still represents that time period, free from modern civilization’s attempts to stifle human desire. (But everyone is wearing a carnival-type mask.) Historically, new religions co-opted older traditions and made them their own. This is what happened with Saturnalia and Christmas. There were trees and boughs of holly used for decorations, gift-giving, etc. The main difference between the original Saturnalia and the current Christmas is that giving into our desires has been condemned rather than celebrated. Beyond the obvious Christian implications of turning Saturnalia into a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, even non-religious people still teach children at an early age that it is a time to be “good” rather than “bad.” 

In that way, the orgy is a celebration of primal human sexuality while marriage is an attempt to stifle it. If the orgy is Saturnalia, then marriage is Christmas. With that in mind, the Christmas decorations take on a deeper relevance beyond looking pretty. As Bill makes his way through New York City, desperately trying to have sex, he is always surrounded by Christmas decorations used as visual metaphors for the marriage, or civilization, keeping him from doing these things. The only place devoid of Christmas decorations is the orgy; it’s as if they’re angry that modern religion has overtaken the original festival, so they’ve decided to eschew the decorations and other celebratory aspects and focus solely on sexual desire.

Which side the film takes on this matter is not clear. While Bill is seemingly saved by not engaging in extramarital sex with Domino, who is HIV positive, things don’t end entirely happily for the couple. Alice’s last line of “Fuck” isn’t given with a smile or even a bit of desire. It’s more like a job they have to do as soon as possible to stay together and keep their baser instincts at bay. In that way, Eyes Wide Shut seems to say that marriage, and civilization’s attempt to tame sexual desire, is a constant battle, and Bill and Alice have survived this fight, but who knows what the future holds? 

This is one of the many reasons why I love Eyes Wide Shut and consider it not only my favorite Christmas movie, but one of my favorite movies overall. There’s nothing simple about it. Who wants to see this story as just a celebration or condemnation of marriage? Reality isn’t that simple. Eyes Wide Shut finds an entertaining and fascinating way to consider human nature in a historical, cultural, and religious aspect. 

How could Kubrick have conveyed this visually if the film wasn’t set during Christmas? It would have had to be much subtler and certainly less visually interesting. In other words, the movie would suffer, and possibly fail to convey a major theme. Christmas is absolutely vital to the story, making this a legit Christmas movie.

Random Thoughts

I love how they have random shit all over their room. Stacks of books, CDs, movies, etc. I get the movies and CDs, but how many books can you be in the middle of? I mean, I’m in the middle of two right now, but one is physical and one I read on my phone, so that doesn’t count.

Harford and Nightingale laugh a lot during their little reunion, yet nothing remotely funny is said.

“I happen to be a doctor.” Really? I don’t think you make that clear enough throughout the movie, Bill.

“Where are you going to get a costume at this time of night?” 

“Simple, I’m going to hop in a taxi and go right across the street.”

There’s a neon sign that reads “EROS” right next to Bill’s head while he talks to Milich. The background in this movie is rarely subtle. Case in point: the newspaper headline “Lucky to Be Alive” right after Bill finds out Domino tested positive for HIV.

Not that I have any experience in the area, but for a pagan orgy everything seems kind of tame. There’s one room where they’re all just slow dancing, for fuck’s sake! And the vast majority of the people are just watching. What kind of lame orgy is this?

“Ex-beauty queen in hotel drugs overdose” always bothers me. Is there not a better way to phrase that? At least drop the “s” from “drugs.” My edit would be “Ex-beauty queen dead from overdose.” I don’t get why the hotel part of it was ever necessary.

“Excuse me, sir, are you the stupid fucking dildo who showed up in a taxi?”

The more times I watch this, the more I’m convinced Ziegler was telling the truth about the play act “I redeem him” moment. The dialogue there is so silly and comes off like a high school play. But I guess I should give them a little credit for throwing the whole production together in minutes.

I love how Cummings says “big guys” with the hand gesture.

Do these guys take turns hosting the orgy? And is the owner of the mansion pissed at Ziegler? “Damn it, Ziegler, first this stupid dickhead you hired to play the keyboard shared the password. Now this loser doctor is showing up, and I have to have my creepy butler give him sinister notes to make him go away! You're hosting next month, fuckface.”

Tom Cruise is really good at staring off into space while thinking about another dude absolutely crushing his wife's vag.

“Hey, Domino, I bought you an ‘I almost had sex with you’ cake.”

I looked up the Barbie Helena holds up in the toy store at the end, and it’s the 1996 Sugar Plum Fairy Barbie. Strongly considering getting one for my daughter for Christmas next year (too late now, especially since I’ve only found them on eBay).