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The Killing |
I consider this to be Stanley Kubrick's first proper film, although technically it's not. It's an interestingly structured heist film which Reservoir Dogs has more than a nodding acquaintance with. A group of men led by Sterling Hayden plan on robbing a racetrack in an elaborate hold-up. The story moves back and forward from before to during the robbery and the outcome is in doubt up until the last ten minutes or so. Of course, at the end of the day it's film noir, so Hayden can't be allowed to escape with the money. A great caper movie.
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Paths of Glory |
This is a classy attempt at a war film that's a little different from your average gung-ho propaganda. It's a fairly emotional story of four men who are up on charges of cowardice. There's corruption at the top of the tree and the viewer really feels for the four men who are patently not cowards but political pawns. Kirk Douglas puts in a powerful performance as the lawyer trying to have the men cleared and the injustice of it all makes for an engaging film. The black and white photography is sharp and crisp. |
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Spartacus |
Now that evreryone's so enamoured of Ridley Scott's Gladiator isn't it about time that I pointed out that it's really just Spartacus with some fancy cgi effects and some palace intrigue? Not that Gladiator is necessarily a bad film, but Spartacus did it first, and I think did it better. Kirk Douglas is full of piss and vinegar as the slave-about-to-revolt and there's some sort of goings-on with Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis that didn't go down too well at the time but everyone's cool about now. The battle scenes, by the way, are full of real people. |
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Lolita |
You've got to admire the intellectual audacity of Stanley Kubrick: He searches around for a novel that sparks his intellectual curiosity, and no matter of the practicalities of filming the subject or the commercial considerations he will attack that subject with gusto until it's done and just the way he wants it. It must have taken a lot of bottle to decide to film Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita considering the time it was made and the stink the book had already caused, but he carried on and I think he made a pretty decent film of it. |
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Dr Strangelove, Or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Bomb |
Dr. Strangelove is a very clever and funny film. Peter Sellars plays all three major characters in this film and is impeccably good in all three. The idea of the film captured the absurdity of modern warfare and global politics of the time in all it's bureaucratic glory and it still rings true today. Technically it's not quite as polished as some of Kubrik's later films, but even though it's a comedy - and quite a broad comedy at that - it has more emotional resonance than most of the others - it seems you can't get both in a Kubrick film. |
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2001: A Space Odyssey |
Probably my favourite Kubrick film. 2001 is a trip as they would say in the sixties when the film was first released. Technically it's an absolute marvel and could never be done nowadays due to budgetary constraints. It would all be done with cgi these days but this was done the old-fashioned way with animated cells and mechanical models and such. It's an intriguing story and the last half hour or so threatens sensory overload, but when all the dust settles it'll leave you thinking. The perfect symbiosis of brains and spectacle. |
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A Clockwork Orange |
Any movie buff from the UK of a certain age will remember trying to find a video copy of this film at memorabilia fairs, because Kubrick decided he didn't want it shown in the UK after some copycat violence following it's initial cinema release. Now that all the hype and hysteria has died down you can see it for what it is - a stylish take on a controversial cult book of the early seventies. A lot of the Nadsat teenspeak which made the book so original is kept as is the gratuitous violence and anarchic atmosphere. A good effort |
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The Shining |
I liked the Stephen King book a lot when I was younger, and Stanley made some significant changes to the book, which to be fair was not filmable at that time with the technology available. Jack Nicholson's performance has entered pop culture from a thousand skits on the 'Here's Johnny!' scene, but I still coudn't imagine anybody who could play the part better. Shelley Duvall I found annoying, but I think that may have been Kubrick's intention. The star of this film though is the impeccable camerawork. Very inventive use of steadicam. |
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Full Metal Jacket |
This vietnam war film was released around the same time as Platoon, and I like both films, but Full Metal Jacket just edges ahead for me because it's a bit different. The first half of the film is a record of a platoon of marines going through basic training and in the second half, which we're introduced to with no warning at all we follow the boys out in Vietnam during the tet offensive. This film is based on the Gustav Hasford book The Short Timers which was a pretty good read. There are some brutal set-pieces and some visceral action. |
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Eyes Wide Shut |
There was eleven years between Full Metal Jacket and this film - now that's just laziness, but that's what happens when you're given carte blanche to behave any way you see fit, as Kubrick was by Warner Brothers. Most people didn't care for this film because nothing much happens for most of it's two and a half hour running time. I liked it quite a bit, but I'm not entirely sure why. I like Tom Cruise and I think he's very good in this. The story is a bit of a mystery to me, but I found the whole thing kind of eerily riveting, especially from about the halfway point. Also director Sidney Pollack turns up in the film and I've always liked him as an actor. |
