Stanley Kubrick July 26,1928-March 7,1999

Well, haven’t we lost a lot of people lately. First it was Gene Siskel. Then Joe DiMaggio. And on Sunday, March 7th, we lost one of the greatest and most eccentric directors of all time. He also happened to be one of my favorites. In fact, a girl in one of my classes thought about me when she heard the news. (Don’t ask me why I don’t have a page dedicated to him yet. I came very close to setting one up a few months ago, but I just never got around to it. Well, don’t I feel like the freakin’ bastard.)

Even though he was born in the Bronx, he’s always been considered a British director (even so far as to put him in a British Cinema class at U.T.–funny how that works). He moved to London after becoming disillusioned by the Hollywood machine because of his experience on the set of Spartacus.

He started out making documentary shorts for almost no money in the 50s. His 1950 docu-short, called The Day Of The Fight, was about a boxer and his twin brother. I caught the last few minutes of it on a local show called The Show With No Name that was doing a tribute to Kubrick. I didn’t know what it was until the end and it made me feel bad for not liking it. It was pretty boring, but I’m not a boxing fan at all, so maybe I wasn’t ready for it. I thought the bit that the host showed later with the humongoid-breasted woman crushing beer cans and lifting kegs was more entertaining. Then again, maybe I’m just an uncultured moron.

Luckily, Kubrick got better. I’ve never seen his first two movies (Killer’s Kiss and The Killing–Fear And Desire doesn’t count, it was only an hour long), but his third feature was where his real career started. Paths Of Glory was an amazing study of one man (Kirk Douglas) against the upper echelons of the French Army in WWI. He has to try to keep his men from being shot by a firing squad after they supposedly “chickened out” of taking a hill. It’s one of the most harrowing anti-war films ever made.

His next flick was his most commercial. Kirk Douglas was so impressed with him that he got him to direct the big-budget epic, Spartacus. The Biblical epic brought Kubrick the popularity that he still holds today. Pretty much the same story as the much later Braveheart and just as good (although I’m more inclined to watch Braveheart–really, I am a big Kubrick fan!).

Lolita was next and was his first controversy. But, if anybody could get away with making a film about a middle-aged man having an affair with a twelve year-old girl it would be Kubrick. And if anyone could play a man trying to bring the whole thing out in the open in new and interesting ways, it would be Peter Sellers. It’s a very good movie, if a bit sick. And Sue Lyon looks good for a “twelve year-old.” (She was sixteen at the time–not quite legal, but close.) I haven’t seen the new one, but I can’t imagine it being better than this one.

Dr. Strangelove brought another anti-war classic to Kubrick’s canon and a second collaboration with Peter Sellers, this time in three roles. Not only that, but there’s James Earl Jones in one of his earliest roles (he was thin!), George C. Scott Slim Pickens and one of the funniest phone conversations ever. One of the darkest comedies ever, but it doesn’t stop the laughs. It’s one of the few that does. And it takes jabs at some of my favorite subjects: politics and war. Two things that need to be abolished as soon as possible. Funny how they both make each other propagate.

After four years Kubrick finally came out with another film. And what a film! The sci-fi film of all time (well, until a little flick in 1977, 1980, 1983 and soon to be 1999.) 2001: A Space Odyssey was existential and though-provoking. Not to mention one of the most messed up film experiences ever made. It took reading the book to really understand the ending at all. I can’t say that I remember what happened in the book (it’s been a while), but I remember something clicking when I read it. Somehow the acid trip at the end of this film made sense! It was amazing! I understood why there was a baby at the end of the film! I understood the significance of the monolith! I got the monkeys at the beginning! That’s the connection! Anyway, it’s one of the greatest films ever made and should be seen by anyone who is interested in film or sci-fi. By the way, Arthur C. Clarke wrote the book for Kubrick to direct. Too bad he didn’t direct 2010. Not a bad movie, but not as good.

Three years later Kubrick was up for his third directing Oscar for the second X-rated film in the Oscar race, A Clockwork Orange. Once again Kubrick picked a nearly incomprehensible book (although still pretty damn good) and turned it into a classic film. Malcolm McDowell puts in his best performance (so good that I hated him for years after seeing it) as a member of an ultra-violent gang of Droogies who just want a little of the ol’ in-out-in-out. Some of the most horrific images of a Big Brother-type government come from this film. Just watch movies like Disturbing Behavior for its influence. (Especially the eye-opening conditioning scene.) It’s a classic movie about the evil effects that government can have on a life, even when it means well.

Next up was Barry Lyndon. I haven’t seen it yet (for shame!), but the stories I’ve heard are pretty amazing. He was so picky about the costumes that he had the actors wear authentic Revolutionary clothing…all the way down to the underwear! He also developed a new film with his cinematographer to allow them to film in candlelight.

In 1980 (five years later) Kubrick was looking for a novel to adapt. His secretary heard him throwing books against the door of his office after reading about five pages and getting disgusted. He finally started one that caught his interest. The author was surprised that he was caught so fast since he thought that it was his slowest starter. The author was Stephen King. The book was The Shining. (Are those lines trite enough for you?) Kubrick turned it into one of the most popular horror films ever and made Jack Nicholson into one of the most frightening actors to hit the screen in years. Although the line, “Here’s Johnny!” wasn’t in the book, it should have been. One of King’s best books was turned into a movie barely based on the book. The story was there, but Kubrick made it his own. As far as Stephen King adaptations go, it’s not very good. This doesn’t mean that it’s a bad movie. No, no, no, no, no, no. It means that it’s better Kubrick than King. (I think I ripped that off from someone.) Great movie. Pretty damn scary, too. It’s hard to see oceans of blood without thinking of Nicholson.

It took Kubrick seven years to find another subject. This time it was Vietnam. Full Metal Jacket was his take on the world’s most unpopular war. It made Vincent D’Onofrio into a star (albeit about ten years later) and brought Matthew Modine into a sort-of limelight. If it’s not the best Vietnam film ever made, it’s close. Platoon was more realistic, but the first half of this one is certainly more enjoyable (if a war movie is really supposed to be enjoyable). It’s hard to forget R. Lee Ermey as the caustic drill sergeant attacking the fat D’Onofrio. Not to mention the ultimate fate of the young soldier. The second half with Modine wasn’t quite as memorable, but it was still very good. It also brought us the lines, “How can you kill women and children?” “Easy. You don’t lead them as much.”

Now, over a decade later, Kubrick found something else to film. He once said that he wanted to direct a pornographic film with two A-list stars. He almost got his wish. The film isn’t quite pornographic (as far as I know), but it supposedly pushes some sexual envelopes and stars Tom Cruise (shudder) and Nicole Kidman (rowr). They play a pair of psychiatrists who cheat on each other with patients. The film has been in various stages of production for three years and is finally ready to be released. I’ve heard that they had to reshoot whole sections of the film just to get an actress (I think maybe Patricia Arquette or Jennifer Jason Leigh) out of it. He then holed up in his studios to take care of the editing.

Another project he was working on, called AI (for Artificial Intelligence) has, unfortunately, been shelved for good. I really don’t know anything about this except that it was a sci-fi film. I had heard at one point that it was going to follow the life of a character played by Joseph Mazzello (Radio Flyer and Jurassic Park) at various stages of his life. The film would have taken years to film as the crew would have to wait for Joseph to grow up, something the kid doesn’t seem to be too good at.

Kubrick was famous for his painstaking attention to detail (as seen in Barry Lyndon especially) and the amount of time it took for him to finish his films. He would sometimes take up to 90 takes of one scene just to get it perfect. Then he would print all of them just so he could have a choice. This is kind of strange considering the fact that, in Spartacus, there is a watch and a jeep. Oops. I guess he didn’t care that much about that one. He definitely didn’t care much for his first fictional short, Fear And Desire (which he financed mainly by playing chess in the park). He bought up all of the prints so that it would never be shown again. There could still be some floating around, but who knows?

After completing Spartacus and being kicked off the set of One-Eyed Jacks (with Marlon Brando), he moved to England where he stayed for the rest of his life. All of his films were made there and he never felt the need to leave.

Kubrick’s films bring up subjects of loneliness and dehumanization. 2001 is one of the loneliest sci-fi films ever made. Even though Dave has Frank to keep him company he doesn’t really connect with him and he loses even him to a computer that is almost more human than he is. Alex, in A Clockwork Orange, has friends, but they all leave him when he is caught by the police and turned into a non-emotional being. Even the little pleasures he had (Beethoven) were taken away from him. Jack Torrance is turned into a monster in a bleak hotel in Colorado in the middle of a snowstorm. Pvt. Leonard is made to feel like a moron by his drill sergeant until he is forced to take drastic measures.

You can learn a lot from watching Kubrick’s movies. First, there’s the filmmaking aspects. What to do. Rarely what not to do. Then there’s the personal bits. When you turn your mind off and just go with what he’s showing you. Don’t worry if you don’t get it the first time. Most of his movies are beyond mere mortals. We aren’t expected to get them. We are only expected to watch them, get something out of them and take that something with us to learn about ourselves. How would we feel in Alex’s shoes. We may never commit rape or murder, but what if our violent tendencies were so repressed that, when we even thought about them, they made us physically ill? What if we found out that our entire existence was made possible by an alien life form? What if we were stuck in a spooky hotel with our family with no means of escape? What if we were driven to madness by an overzealous leader? What if we were forced to look inside ourselves to see the evil that really lies within?

Kubrick was an amazing talent who brought his own style to many other people’s works, be it Stephen King, Anthony Burgess or Arthur C. Clarke. He was at his best when he tackled war or science-fiction, but he could do just about anything if he put his mind to it. Luckily we will see his final film in all of its Kubrickness this summer. You can bet that I’ll be one of the first in line. I guess we’ll have to rely on Woody Allen and Roman Polanski to be our insane geniuses from now on.