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Eyes Forced Shut:
Who killed Stanley Kubrick?
BY ROBERT STERLING
[ 10.04.99 ]
"If I told you their names, I don't think you'd sleep so well." --
Sydney Pollack, "Eyes Wide Shut"
To claim Stanley Kubrick -- arguably the finest film director ever --
was a major 20th century figure is an understatement. In a just world,
his death this March would have received the same media attention as was
unnecessarily heaped upon pea-brained pretty boy John-John's demise.
It's nice to know that some conspiracy lovers -- ready to challenge
official reality -- question if Kubrick died from natural causes or was
assassinated. It's quite refreshing, actually, after hearing countless
theories over whether the supposedly significant death of JFK Jr. was
really murder (amusing in its assumption that the "mastermind" behind
wimpy political rag George was somehow a threat to the power structure.)
Kubrick's swan song, Eyes Wide Shut, reveals kinky sex-magick and
suspicious slayings that, in retrospect, hardly seem like Tom Cruise
blockbuster material. Conspiracy rumors argue the film earned Kubrick
his death certificate: Considering his career of anti-authoritarian
auteurship, it may be a lifetime achievement award.
If anyone deserved to be whacked by The Man, it was Kubrick. Oliver
Stone gets the "conspiracy" smear for his flick about the death of
John-John's daddy, but it's Kubrick who was the true cinematic expositor
of the secret and suppressed. It's incredible he was allowed to keep a
camera.
His career was one of unequaled subversion: the anti-war Paths of Glory,
the homoerotic slave revolt celebration Spartacus, and the mockery of
the dark military machine Dr. Strangelove. He warned of things to come
way ahead of the curve: Lolita was a sexual taboo-smasher, 2001
anticipated Von Daniken's Ancient Astronaut craze, and A Clockwork
Orange predicted the violently grim Brave New World Order police state.
Some also allege Kubrick filmed NASA's faked "moon landings" and wrote
the "script" for the Apollo 13 disaster/hoax. This is unlikely -- not
because the theory is far-fetched, but because the camera work on the
moon landing lacked Kubrick's unique style.
Eyes Wide Shut, a sexual thriller about the decadent underbelly of the
rich and powerful, has a creepiness that chills almost as much as his
1980 work The Shining. The film's highlight (besides showing Nicole
Kidman naked) is a masked-ball orgy into which Cruise's character
sneaks, barely evading punishment when his uninvited entry is
discovered. What follows is a Antonioni-esque Blow-Up mystery: Are the
death and the disappearance that follow cabalistic revenge killings? Or
are they merely two unrelated events that randomly follow his attempted
deception? Is it coincidence or conspiracy? The film presents no
definite proof, but implies the events are indeed linked.
In light of Kubrick's death, watching a film in which two likely murders
are explained away without investigation is disturbing. Kubrick warns
that anyone who reveals upper-crust secrets can be snuffed without
punishment. Was he predicting (and warning of) his own farewell?
Kubrick wouldn't be alone: As Uri Dowbenko's film review on Steamshovel
Press noted, Mozart died soon after he revealed Masonic mysteries in
"The Magic Flute," Stephen Knight, who wrote about Freemasonry and the
Jack the Ripper slayings in two books, died mysteriously while working
on a third, and 19th-century author William Morgan appears to have been
murdered after he exposed Masonic activities.
The last major film to reveal occult secrets like Eyes Wide Shut was
Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby. Soon after its release, Polanski's
lover and unborn child were slaughtered by Manson's occult "family," and
he was later run out of the States. (Polanski screwing a 13-year-old
girl didn't help.)
The sex rituals in Kubrick's film appear inspired by the Hellfire Club,
an 18th-century British Masonic offshoot founded by Sir Francis
Dashwood. Founding Father (and high-ranking Freemason) Benjamin Franklin
is said to have engaged regularly in these Satanic orgies. More
recently, self-proclaimed Great Beast Aleister Crowley created similar
rituals for his Masonic-inspired Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO).
Crowley's top American protégé, JPL rocket scientist Jack Parsons, was
befriended by future Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in the late
1940's. Hubbard supposedly admired Crowley obsessively, and some
researchers claim secret Church of Scientology trainings are heavily
influenced by OTO rites. Some Kubrick rumors note Cruise and Kidman are
famous Scientologists, though the connection seems tenuous.
Is there anything to this? Was Kubrick knocked off? Perhaps. But maybe
the truth is even stranger. Rumors swirled around A.I., another proposed
Kubrick project. Officially, the idea was shelved, yet others allege it
was being filmed, and it would continue over a 20-year period, using a
young actor who would age over the years during filming. Certainly this
was a fascinating concept, and the rumors even reached print in Wired.
Perhaps Kubrick did start this project, and, as he desired to keep it in
utmost secrecy, faked his own death. That way, the film could continue
without scrutiny, as any future A.I. rumors could be dismissed like
crackpot Elvis sightings. Indeed, perhaps Kubrick is hanging out with
Elvis right now (along with Jim Morrison, Hitler and Andy Kaufman, all
on that secret island famous people go to after faking their death),
while he slowly finishes his final masterpiece.
Implausible, you say? Perhaps so. Then again, Kubrick was a very
well-connected guy. And, as Eyes Wide Shut suggests, those with power
can arrange just about anything.
Robert Sterling is the editor of The Konformist, the Internet magazine
dedicated to rebellion, konspiracy & subversion. He is easily bribed.
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