Stanley Kubrick: A man deemed
one of the most influential film directors of all time, inspiring filmmakers such
as Spielberg, Scorsese and Wes Anderson.
Kubrick started his life with
an immense passion for photography. A talent he later exploited in his movie
making. When Kubrick was 13 he was given a camera from his Father which he took
numerous photos with while standing in the street and just hoping to get a
great picture. This camera sparked his passion for photography. Shortly after,
he was given the role of school photographer.
Fast forward a few years Stanley had finished
School and was looking for work. He then took a picture of a Newspaper stand
with the papers reading the headline “FDR Dead.” He took the photo with the
Newspaper vender looking distraught about the headline. He then proceeded to
send the photo to numerous magazines.
Look magazine brought Stanley’s photos for $25
before hiring him full time. A few months later Stanley was given the opportunity to work for
the magazine and he took it. Unfortunately, after a while of working there the
magazine went bankrupt, this left Kubrick struggling for work. At that point he
was playing Chess in the park for sometimes up to 12 hours a day betting people
for quarters and sometimes made $3 a day which he said “Went surprisingly far
when only spent on food.”
After Kubrick’s work for Look
Magazine, his friend told him something very interesting, that a movie cost
$40000 to make so Kubrick thought “ We can make a movie for half that and make
a profit.” Funny enough, the studio that made the $40000 movie went bankrupt
shortly after.
Kubrick made his first full
length feature film in 1953 titled “Fear and Desire.” A movie that later on
Kubrick tried to disown after saying how much it was a mess he didn’t want his
name to it. The movie was an extremely short (62 minute) anti- war movie with a
very small amount of people working with him. A total of 6 people were cast and
only 15 working on the production team. The movie had a budget of $10,000 which
came from Stanley’s
Uncle who agreed to give him the money for a producer credit. Kubrick was
quoted saying “There was only a baby carriage to move the camera.” To reduce
production costs, Kubrick had intended to make it a silent picture but in the
end, the adding of sounds, effects and music brought the production over budget
to around $53,000, a fee that the producer agreed to ‘ bail’ him out on for the
condition that he help in his mini series about Abraham Lincoln.
Although the movie was far
from Kubrick’s best work it showed a glimpse of the excellence we would come to
see and love.
Two years after Kubrick’s
Directing debut he made the two movies Killers Kiss and The Killing. Two pure
action movies which had a much bigger budget of $320,000 for Killing and
$75,000 for Killers Kiss. The two movies
had short run times (less than 3 hours
between the two) but were much better received than Fear and Desire. These two
movies are long forgotten now among Kubrick’s massive catalogue of very famous
movies. These are truly two hidden gems.
After Kubrick made his first
3 movies one of his best came out next “Paths of Glory.” The movie came out on
Christmas day in 1957. The movie had a massive budget of nearly $1000000.
The movie starred Kirk
Douglas as a commanding officer of French soldiers who refuses to continue a
suicidal attack.
Kubrick’s early work from the
1950’s is mostly forgotten due to the massive amount of famous movies from his
46 year catalogue. Paths of Glory is truly an excellent movie with superb
acting and excellent directing from Kubrick which would lead to his next movie
and one of his most famous, “Spartacus.”
Spartacus came out in 1960. A
movie which would be Kubrick’s big break after nearly ten years of making films.
Kirk Douglas starred yet
again in another Kubrick movie playing the slave “Spartacus.” The film became
the biggest money maker in Universal Studios history until it was surpassed by
“Airport” in 1970. The movie had a massive budget of $12, 000000 which Kubrick
managed to make back five times over.
In 2017 the film was selected
for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Liberty of Congress as
being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The movie was a
big hit winning many awards which led to Kubrick’s next movie “Lolita.”
Lolita was a very
controversial movie for its story line. Lolita is about a man who becomes sexually
obsessed with a young adolescent girl. The girl in filming was only 14 years
old which made the movie heavily censored forcing Kubrick to not go very far
with the premise of the movie. Lolita had a very small budget compared to his
previous movie only coming in at $2000000 and making $9000000. The movie was one of Kubrick’s less successful
most likely due to the very controversial storyline that was bound to make many
people uncomfortable and shocked. The movies that followed this were two of
Kubrick’s finest work Dr Strangelove and 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Dr Strangelove is a dark
black humour/war comedy about an unhinged US Air Force general who orders a
first strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.
It follows the Presidents of the United States and his advisors as
they try to recall the bomb to prevent a nuclear apocalypse. In 1989 the US
Library of Congress included Dr Strangelove in the first group of films
selected for preservation in the National Film Registry (not Kubrick’s first
movie to receive this honour). The movie was due to come out in December 1963
but due to Kennedy being assassinated Kubrick assumed the audience wouldn’t be
in the mood for a war movie and postponed it to early 1964.
This was a movie that showed
Kubrick’s talent for filming and set design, such as the scene at the war table.
Where the entire UN are meeting to decide what to do about the insane US
President who sent this bomb that could possibly trigger World War 3. Dr
Strangelove is a very critically acclaimed movie, so much so that it’s the
highest rated Kubrick movie on Rotten Tomatoes beating other classics such as
2001 and A Clockwork Orange. Overall Dr Strangelove is a very clever movie with
a bit of everything including comedy and serious moments but never losing the
tone of the movie that makes it stand out from other comedies of this era.
To follow Kubrick’s black
comedy Dr Strangelove he made his best movie yet. A masterpiece that breaks the
boundaries of all Sci-Fi movies. That movie? 2001 A Space Odyssey, possibly the
most technically perfect movie ever put to screen. The movie starts with what’s
meant to be humans as apes 4 million years ago. The main ape of the tribe was
acted by a mime which was a great idea as he made a very lifelike performance
of an Ape. When the two ape tribes are in the desert a monolith suddenly
appears which all the apes begin to worship. The monolith was a huge piece of
wood painted black. The original idea was going to be a triangle but after
realising that would be too hard to put to screen they made it a rectangle.
Kubrick used some mind blowing techniques in
this movie such as the beginning of the movie when all the apes are in the
desert; in the background it’s really a still photo that Kubrick made look like
the desert. After the apes learn to kill other tribes, one of the apes picks up
a bone and throws it in the air in one of the most famous jump cuts of all time
ends up in space 4 million years later. The spaceships in this movie were 2- 3
foot models made to look like it was much bigger by Kubrick’s great camera
trickery. Arthur C Clarke wrote the movie with Kubrick which he later adapted
into a book. It was said in an interview that Kubrick and Arthur spent 4 hours
a day for a year writing this movie. 2001 has no dialogue for the most part of
the movie being told by visual storytelling with classical music playing. Around
30 minutes in we get our first look inside the spaceship which is one of the
most visually stunning sets ever created; shown in massive wide shots so you
can see the whole room. After the first hour of the movie it completely changes
its character and plot after the original characters go to the Monolith to see
what is and are shortly killed by its high frequency noises.
The 2nd part of the movie sees Dave
and Frank on a different spaceship controlled by the AI Hal. The AI becomes
increasingly paranoid when it discovers Dave and Frank want to shut him off
after realising the problems it’s causing them. Shortly after Hal realises
there plan he kills Frank by sending him out in his suit then cutting him off
from Oxygen. The movies last 40 minutes focuses on Dave trying to kill Hal
which he succeeds in doing by finding his memory and destroying each part while
Hal proceeds to plead with Dave that he not kill him. After killing Hal Dave
goes through the most weird, trippy and psychedelic flash of lights ever for 15
minutes which gives the effect of Dave traveling through time. After 15
minutes of weirdly shot lights flashing it ends with Dave in a room where he
sees himself dying. The movie later has a sort of twist which I won’t discuss
as to not spoil everything, but this movie is a technical Masterpiece with
Kubrick putting his life in danger just for some shots to be done accurately. If
you have never seen 2001 it is one of the best movies of all time with stunning
visual effects (especially for 1968), a very interesting story that will make
you think, and Hal; 1968’s Siri.
The next movie Kubrick
started working on was highly controversial. Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is
deemed to be one of the most controversial movies of all time. Getting an X
rating and being banned when it came out and a C rating (condemned) which
forbade Roman Catholics from seeing the movie. It was only after Kubrick’s
death in 1999 that the movie was theatrically re-released and made available on
DVD and VHS. Aside from all
the controversy, A Clockwork Orange is a highly praised movie among film
critics for its great use of music and cinematography throughout the film. The
movie was also winner of many awards such as; Best Director, Best Film, and
Best Dramatic Presentation. The story of the movie instantly tells you why it
got the X rating. In a futuristic Britain, Alex is the leader of his
“droogs “, Georgie, Dim and Pete. One night, after getting intoxicated on
drug-laden “milk plus”, they engage in an evening of “ultra-violence”.
4 years later, Kubrick comes
out with a movie that was not banned like its predecessor, Barry Lyndon.
Barry Lyndon is quite
possibly one of the most spectacular looking movies of all time due to Kubrick
being such a perfectionist while filming the movie ( using natural light,
getting all soldiers to hold there guns together exactly on time)
All of these techniques show
Kubrick’s excellent attention to detail. Unfortunately, the movie is not one of
Kubrick’s best, with a very annoying main character this movie doesn’t really
make you care. If you’re a massive fan of visually excellent movies then you
would love this. The movie had a very long run time at 187 minutes and to go
along with it a very big budget of $11, 000000 (which was nearly doubled at the
box office). Kubrick resumed planning a Napoleon movie after 2001 but due to a
similar movie failing at a box office Kubrick’s financiers pulled funding, and
instead he focused towards A Clockwork Orange. Barry Lyndon was not the
commercial success Warner Brothers were hoping for (probably due to the very
long run time) but, the movie fared better in Europe.
Kubrick spent years planning this movie and it paid off. The cinematography is
incredible, the costumes stunning and all of the scenes where the soldiers are
moving perfectly in sync are stunning to view.
5 Years later after Barry
Lyndon, The Shining was released. Kubrick’s suspense/horror movie Masterpiece.
The Shining is one of the most suspenseful movies you could ever watch.
Focusing on a family of three, Jack Nicholson plays the part of the mentally
unstable Dad. This was one of the best casting choices of all time.
The movie follows Jack Nicholson who is being
interviewed as winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel. Once hired, he plans to
use the solitude to write. Many shocking discoveries are made at the hotel,
after discovering the previous winter caretaker went insane and killed his
entire family. There are many disturbing scenes in this movie such as a young
boy seeing blood pouring through the hallways, dead twin sisters and many, many
more. Kubrick used some unorthodox techniques while filming this movie such as,
telling everyone on set to be mean to Shelley Duval who played Jacks wife so
they could have her look more miserable for the movie. Kubrick was also known
for being an extreme perfectionist during filming; making cast members
sometimes do the same scene over 100 times!
Kubrick’s war masterpiece
Full Metal Jacket came out 7 years after his previous movie, taking the time to
make the movie as good as it could be, and he did a terrific job. This war
movie about young soldiers in Vietnam
is one of the most emotionally intense war movies you will ever see. Private
Leonard is one of the most saddening stories of the young men, being beaten
with sand bags, insulted a lot and all of this leads him to a very bad decision
which I won’t spoil. In the spring of 1980 Kubrick decided to work on a movie
about the Holocaust, an idea he later dropped in favour of a movie about Vietnam.
Kubrick’s daughter Vivian
composed the score for this movie and also shot 18 hours of behind the scenes
footage for a potential documentary which was unfortunately never made. The
movie changes a lot for the second half from the first hour being about the
troops starting off in the army with training and drills, then the second half
about the soldiers actually being in the war in Vietnam which is very intense to
watch.
12 years after Full Metal
Jacket, Kubrick’s final movie was made before his unfortunate death. Eyes Wide
Shut is an erotic drama starring Tom Cruise (Bill) and Nicole Kidman (Alice) as a couple who
attend a Christmas party hosted by one of Bills wealthy patients. The party
turns out to be a swinger’s party with some very disturbing rituals taking place.
To ensure a theatrical R rating Warner Brothers digitally altered several
sexually explicit scenes. One of the interesting things about this movie is the
speculation about Kubrick’s death behind it. Dying 6 days after showing his
final cut to Warner Brothers after suffering a “massive heart attack” has
caused people to theorise about his death due to the fact that the movie has
some occult elements shown such as the ceremonies they perform and the
swinger’s party are all things that the Illuminati take part in (supposedly). I
myself am not a 100% sure his death was a coincidence but one thing I am
certain on is Kubrick made a very interesting movie here which is overlooked by
many.
After 5 decades of making
masterpieces Kubrick unfortunately died which was a massive blow to the film
industry. The one thing Kubrick did do was influence many of today’s best
filmmakers and for that and the work he left us with we are forever grateful.
