'Eyes Wide Shut' soundtrack & 'Bhagavad Gita'

[Mat Hunt]

From the note I read, I thought that the song was cut from the European
release, not the American one

That's right - it was cut after the American release. So the US
release had it, but not the European release, as it was released in
Europe several months later than America.

Mat.

http://www.matthewhunt.com/kubrick.html

[nessuno2001]

We know that extracts from the 'Bhagavad Gita' were cut from the 'Eyes
Wide Shut' soundtrack during the orgy scene after the film was
released in America. But was the soundtrack CD also cut? I have
listened to the film and CD simultaneously, and can't hear any
differences (tracks 8 and 9 on the CD, the music during the orgy
sequences). Am I not listening hard enough?

The song with the "shloka" (verses) from the Gita is number 9,
Migrations. Number 8, Masked Ball, contains a sample of a Romanian
Mass, played backwards. The Hindu community protested because the
shloka included in Migration was one of the most sacred. If you listen
to the track on the CD you can easily find these words:

paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskritam
dharma-samstapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge

which means "For the protection of the virtuous, for the destruction
of the evil and for the firm establishment of Dharma (righteousness),
I take birth and am incarnated on Earth, from age to age."
In the edited version the singer just say some vowels (I believe).

If you can't hear this verses, maybe you CD was "edited" too as the
Hindu community wanted. This is what they asked for:

1. Warner Brothers apologize to the Hindu community for the
indiscriminate and abusive use of Hindu scripture.
2. The movie be altered to remove this shloka.
3. CD containing this shloka (verse) be withdrawn and re-released.
4. The video distribution of the movie not contain this shloka
(verse).
5. The TV/cable distribution of this movie not contain this shloka
(verse).

I bought the CD in Italy, after EWS screening, in october 1999. My CD
has the original Jocelyn Pook's song, taken from her album Deluge,
released in 1997. She used this shloka for other compositions too: one
I like very much is Goya's Nightmare.

I don't understand how the CD can have been cut, because it was
released slightly *before* the film opened in America, and the film
itself was not cut (aside from the cuts for the 'R' rating) until its
European/international release some weeks later.

The Hindy community asked the film and the soundtrack CD to be edited.
I have always thought WB did edit the film but not the CD: I haven't
found a CD copy without the shloka. But, if your CD and the soundtrack
on the DVD film are the same, maybe I'm wrong.

You can find information about the Hindu original protest here:

http://www.hindunet.org/anti_defamation/eyes/newpage1.htm
http://www.hindunet.org/cgibin/dcguest97/eyes/

You can listen to the two different soundtrack versions (RealMedia
files) on a page of mine (in Italian, at the moment):

www.archiviokubrick.it/film/ews/audio/migrations.html

And I believe you can easily find the original 1997 Migrations song by
Jocelyn Pook somewhere on the Net ;-)

Can you please confirm if your CD does NOT have the sacred verses?

Filippo
www.archiviokubrick.it

[Mat Hunt]

Thanks for that detailed reply! I had already seen the info on
HinduNet and elsewhere, and had even downloaded the two versions on
your site but I don't have a computer at home so it was difficult to
compare them to my CD.

Your transcription of the 'Gita' verse was very useful - it meant that
I knew what to look out for. And the result is that the soundtrack CD
does include the 'Gita' verse. The CD was reissued in December 1999,
and I suspect that mineis one of these later versions. But the 'Gita'
is still there!

Thanks again.

Mat.
http://www.matthewhunt.com/kubrick.html

Post by nessuno2001

We know that extracts from the 'Bhagavad Gita' were cut from the 'Eyes
Wide Shut' soundtrack during the orgy scene after the film was
released in America. But was the soundtrack CD also cut? I have
listened to the film and CD simultaneously, and can't hear any
differences (tracks 8 and 9 on the CD, the music during the orgy
sequences). Am I not listening hard enough?

The song with the "shloka" (verses) from the Gita is number 9,
Migrations. Number 8, Masked Ball, contains a sample of a Romanian
Mass, played backwards. The Hindu community protested because the
shloka included in Migration was one of the most sacred. If you listen
paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskritam
dharma-samstapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge
which means "For the protection of the virtuous, for the destruction
of the evil and for the firm establishment of Dharma (righteousness),
I take birth and am incarnated on Earth, from age to age."
In the edited version the singer just say some vowels (I believe).
If you can't hear this verses, maybe you CD was "edited" too as the
1. Warner Brothers apologize to the Hindu community for the
indiscriminate and abusive use of Hindu scripture.
2. The movie be altered to remove this shloka.
3. CD containing this shloka (verse) be withdrawn and re-released.
4. The video distribution of the movie not contain this shloka
(verse).
5. The TV/cable distribution of this movie not contain this shloka
(verse).
I bought the CD in Italy, after EWS screening, in october 1999. My CD
has the original Jocelyn Pook's song, taken from her album Deluge,
released in 1997. She used this shloka for other compositions too: one
I like very much is Goya's Nightmare.

I don't understand how the CD can have been cut, because it was
released slightly *before* the film opened in America, and the film
itself was not cut (aside from the cuts for the 'R' rating) until its
European/international release some weeks later.

The Hindy community asked the film and the soundtrack CD to be edited.
I have always thought WB did edit the film but not the CD: I haven't
found a CD copy without the shloka. But, if your CD and the soundtrack
on the DVD film are the same, maybe I'm wrong.
http://www.hindunet.org/anti_defamation/eyes/newpage1.htm
http://www.hindunet.org/cgibin/dcguest97/eyes/
You can listen to the two different soundtrack versions (RealMedia
www.archiviokubrick.it/film/ews/audio/migrations.html
And I believe you can easily find the original 1997 Migrations song by
Jocelyn Pook somewhere on the Net ;-)
Can you please confirm if your CD does NOT have the sacred verses?
Filippo
www.archiviokubrick.it