The Movie Career Of Stanely Kubrick

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 2^nd 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.