TOP 3, WHAT A HELL!!!, ALL KUBRICK´S FILMS ARE GREAT, ahora en español, todas las peliculas de kubrick son buenisimas, KUBRICK ES DIOS……EL CINE SE DIVIDE EN ANTES Y DESPUES DE KUBRICK…..
I wish he had directed A.I.
i find the idea of kubrick not being warm not completely without merit. the end of paths of glory is incredibly moving on a emotional level. Off that there is a great essay by harlan ellison about 2001 that everyone should read.
I’m so glad to see so many people with similar opinions pertaining to the great director. Stanley Kubrick pushed the limits of film-making in every capacity and brought the utmost much dedication and perfectionism to his films.
Top 3:
1. Tied between Barry Lyndon and The Shining (I love the Shining because I first saw it at Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood where all the exterior shots for the Overlook were filmed, and still routinely go snowboarding there)
2. Tied between 2001 and the first-half of Full Metal Jacket (the one film where I felt Kubrick could have brought more)
3. A Clockwork Orange
I would still say that I enjoy every single of one of his films. His scrapped Napoleon biopic with his choice of Ian Holm as Napoleon himself, would have been a great, sprawling epic had it not been for the reluctance of studio executives and the failure of other Napoleonic films.
(Orson Welles when asked about the new generation of film-makers) Among those whom I would call ‘younger generation’ Kubrick appears to me to be a giant.
Stanley Kubrick is just so easily one of the best directors the world has ever seen, that it’s just not funny. I am unable to understand why there are lots of people out there who think he is disgustingly overrated because there isn’t a thing about his talents which I think is getting too much attention and firmly believe he deserves all the praise he can ever get. His ability to constantly fluctuate between genres in his work and adapt to the genre better than most strict genre directors can is to this date unmatched by any other director anywhere, not now and not before his first film. I have only – and shamefully – seen three of his films to date, but I’ve seen parts of his other films and have “2001: A Space Odyssey” on Blu-ray which I need to hurry up and watch already; but here is my favourite of his work:
1. “A Clockwork Orange” (1972)
This is one of the best movies ever made. Malcolm McDowell is officially my favourite actor due to his portrayal of Alex DeLarge here. Everything about it is unbelievably flawless and perfectly executed in every possible way. A+
2. “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)
I didn’t know what to expect from this film given its mixed critical and audience reception, but nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. Even though I have only seen three of his films, I know that while there isn’t a film in his filmography that I haven’t seen which could possibly out-do “A Clockwork Orange”, I’m almost positive that it wouldn’t even be possible to outdo this one either. Beautiful, mesmerising, and haunting masterpiece. Everything about it is irresistible, entertaining and very powerful. The orgy scenes are among the best in all of cinema, and Tom Cruise gives easily the best performance he’s ever given. I love it almost as much as “Clockwork”. A+
3. “The Shining” (1980)
When I first watched this movie, for some unexpected reason I just hated it. I thought the acting was the worst I had ever seen in a movie so popular and critically praised. I found most of the acting performances incredibly forced, melodramatic and laughable. I still do, in fact. But after a re-watch, of which I forced myself to not focus on the acting and rather, the movie itself, I started to pick up on things that I was certain were not there before. The movie didn’t scare me at all when I first watched it, but after the re-watch I started to understand it a bit more and started to get genuinely terrified of some scenes. It is now on my top ten list of scariest movies ever. Jack Nicholson going crazy with the axe isn’t scary, what’s scary about the film is it’s unusually creepy and horrifying atmosphere, and what might just be even more scary than that are the things that are never explained; the bizarre and almost Lynchian scenes where we see two people performing some sort of sexual act while one of them is wearing a Rabbit costume; the things which are never explained to the viewer why they were in the film at all. A-
I’m glad to see ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ gets a lot of love in this forum. I thought it was a chilling film that stands with some of his better work. I think ‘Dr. Strangelove’ is probably my favorite. The contemporary director that seems closest to him in terms of range and outright nerve is definitely Danny Boyle: ‘Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine’ all great films and all very different. I think ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is his best work yet.
Top 3-
A Clockwork Orange
Dr. Strangelove
2001: A Space Odyssey
I liked Eyes Wide Shut (minus Nicole Kidman) even more than The Shining, just not enough to put it over any of the three above. Wasn’t a big fan of Full Metal Jacket..
1. Dr. Strangelove
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Paths of Glory
I have yet to see Barry Lyndon, Lolita, Eyes Wide Shut, and Killer’s Kiss.
Paths of Glory
Full Metal Jacket
2001: A Space Odyssey
I didn’t like A Clockwork Orange, and not because of the first 30 minutes
2001 is easily his best film in my opinion. No question there.
Top Kubrick Films In No Particular Order:
Clockwork Orange
2001
Barry Lyndon
Dr. Strangelove
Full Metal Jacket
The Shining
I love all of his movies but these are my top Kubrick picks.
I once started a thread on another movie forum: “Eyes Wide Shut: Masterpiece or Crap?”. Views on the film were mixed, to say the least. I’m slightly on the crap side, as I find too much of it embarrassing and cheesy. I think Lolita deserves more recognition, as it is a pretty unfilmable novel and Kubrick kept its essence of the novel and made a very good film of it, IMO, and the film stands up very well today. For me 2001 is at the top of the list.
1) Clockwork Orange
2) Full Metal Jacket
3) 2001: A Space Odyssey
4) Paths of Glory
5) Eyes Wide Shut
i recently saw 2001 Space Odyssey for the first time, and it blew my mind… mostly…
Has anyone ever read the Brakhage essay on AI? It is worth tracking down.
also, something to think on…
Has anyone ever looked at a trivia/mistakes list for Eyes Wide Shut? It is strangely lengthy. If you are working on one of the longest shoots in history, have time and money to CGI people in later, wouldn’t you also go back in and cut out some of the obvious? If you grew up in NY, why then wouldn’t you name the streets NY street names? If you are involved with every stage of everything, known for purposely messing with continuity (clockwork), would you let simple PD mistakes to happen while you are busy putting Fear and Desire refrences in frame? Kubrick considered hiring Woody Allen for Ziegler, but eventually gave it Pollack — both well known directors. He shot rear-projection. He also is known for liking stylized acting, dramatic acting (conversation post-Shining with Spielberg). The film’s concern with dreams may be a concern with film itself — and/or the relation between the two…
I meant for this to be short. It could probably be a lot longer though. EWS is a strange film with strange characteristics that make it stick out as an extreme outlier, no doubt. Take another look at it if you get a chance.
Full Metal Jacket
A Clockwork Orange
The Shining
The Killing
Dr. Strangelove
Kubrick’s peak achievement is the pair of films, one after the other, that set out the choice we have for the destiny of humankind- oblivion or the wondrous. Now what could be a more important issue? Anyway, he may have been a perfectionist, covering a range, willing to wait for everything to click into place, but there were other strong-willed perfectionists who were also prolific, e.g Mizoguchi.
2001
Dr. Strangelove
A Clockwork Orange
The Killing
Barry Lyndon
Just watched my 1st Kubrick film, Dr. Strangelove. It was truly moved by it, and was impressed by the way Kubrick could create a film that was chilling and comical at the same time. From what I’ve read, Kubrick’s films can be so powerful and haunting that they’re the type of films I’m not going to rush to see. I’m going to take my time working my way through his filmography, watching each film when the time is right. I think I’m going to check out 2001 next.
Beyond -
Saw your comment and noticed you mentioned that 2001 might be your next choice of his. My film tastes vary all over the board, but the Cahiers era is definitely at the top of my list. Anyhow – recently I started thinking about milestone films I hadn’t seen. enter 2001…. My preconceptions of this film allowed me to write this film off as nothing more than a dated science fiction with it’s main focus centered around a cheesy computer named HAL. Two days ago I saw 2001 for the very first time and I don’t think I’ve ever been more wrong on my thoughts concerning a film I’ve never seen. To put it simply – I was blown away. First off this film is in no way is dated. The special effects hold up extraordinarily well and it’s easily one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen. Also the use of not only music but sound was incredible. Now that I’m piecing things together I’ve noticed that Kubrick has a superb talent for submersing the viewer into his vision. This film was truely captivating straight out of the gate. My only impedent to this film was Kubrick’s message on evolution and the denial of God, but with that being said, and after only one viewing, I still consider this film a landmark in cinema history. I very much look forward to my second viewing of it and recommend you take your first leap soon.
1) Path of Glory
2) Clockwork Orange
3) 2001
>>Even his technical innovations seem to be pretty unremarkable now that they’ve been copied by every mainstream director<<
I’m trying to wrap my mind around this one…
His technical innovations have been copied by every mainstream directed but they seem unremarkable …??? They may have become familiar through repeated use, but they are still remarkable.
>>While I’ve always found Kubrick to be a very impressive technical director, his films have always hit me as cold and sterile. Kubrick seemed to have a rather contemptuous take on humanity that led to a detached sensibility throughout his films. He never really seemed to care about any of his characters which is probably important when you’re making largely character-driven films.<<
Well, personally, I feel that, rather like Brecht, he presents his characters’ good & bad traits & lets the viewer draw his/her own conclusions. And, yeah, as Daniel Kasman has noted, it’s probably easy to make warm, fuzzy films with the direction, writing, camera angles and music telling you what to feel about the characters. Lubutsch is lauded for his comedy philosophy that if you tell the audience 2+2, you don’t need to tell them 4 … but Kubrick is criticized for bringing the same approach to drama.
>>Didn’t the Illuminati kill Kubrick for revealing their inner machinations in Eyes Wide Shut? That’s what I heard.<<
Hey, they got Mozart for MAGIC FLUTE, didn’t they?
>>i find the idea of kubrick not being warm not completely without merit. the end of paths of glory is incredibly moving on a emotional level.<<
Am I the only one here who tears up at the end of 2001 when the Star Child appears, hovering over the earth?
Hell, the other night, in some between-movie mini-documentary (the subject of which I’ve forgotten), they showed that clip & the tears welled up immediately – very Pavlovian, I know.
I tear up when HAL is killed. “Daaaiiissyyyy daisssssyyy”
Just about two weeks ago, I saw a fascinating documentary titled “Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes” on the Sundance Channel (or was it IFC?).
The premise was built upon the thousands of boxes of research that Kubrick kept warehoused at his home and the insights that they revealed about his work process and mindset toward precision, detail and accuracy.
I am not a fan of Kubrick’s work but this was a very interesting peak into Kubrick’s professional life.
(One bit that is revealed- he had all of his out-takes burned!).
I reject all notions that Kubrick was cold and mechanical. Just the opposite, I say.
All of his films are a warning against the dangers of complacency in a dehumanizing society that he saw as steadily disintegrating. Kubrick was wary of technology and especially of people placing too much faith in the technology they had created.
I believe he was a deeply humane and committed social critic who used his art and the techniques of satire & dark humor to create cautionary tales.
Dr. Strangelove is actually more frightening because it is played as comedy.
As has already been stated, the final passage of Paths of Glory can move even the most jaded cinephile to tears.
In 2001, man’s faith in technology, in the infallibility of the HAL 9000, almost causes mankind to lose the opportunity to evolve.
Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange is the most charming-yet-terrifying character in film history: a true sociopath redeemed partly by good taste in music and ultimately manipulated by his own government, whose leaders are even more wicked than Alex — if that’s possible. (Clockwork is also the greatest satire ever filmed — and hasn’t dated one bit — but that’s the subject of another post).
Full Metal Jacket is the most accurate presentation of life in boot camp ever recorded. It presents an absolute convincing argument that soldiers are dehumanized, reprogrammed into killing machines and sent marching lockstep like so many Clockwork Oranges into a conflict so absurd that no one understood the rules, because the rules changed constantly to suit the circumstances of the leaders moving the pawn pieces around the battlefield. What did the pawns know? Having been programmed to never question authority, there was very little for them to do but follow orders. Pvt. Joker is the only character who clings to his own intelligence, who wryly observes the madness around him and uses his intelligence and humor as coping mechanisms for survival.
Kubrick’s AI project, ultimately completed by Spielberg, is fascinating. In his penultimate cinematic effort, it seems Kubrick had come full circle and was making the argument that if a machine is capable of loving, does it not deserve to be loved back? Interestingly, David, the mecha-boy of AI, is more sympathetic and humane than any of his human foils in the picture. Sub-themes of intolerance and prejudice bubble up here and there to reinforce the main idea: that if humanity is incapable of love and understanding and using its intelligence to achieve more than the banality of a leisurely lifestyle, then perhaps mankind has finished evolving, or lost its right to evolve, and so, technology wins in the end. The machines of AI are the only remaining sentient “life” by the end of the film.
Now, if that isn’t a warning against the dangers of complacency, then I give up.
Kubrick was an iconoclast whose most distinguishing characterisitc was his unwavering individuality and unwillingness to compromise his vision for anyone.
I believe he encouraged all of us to do likewise.
That is the fundamental message of his films.
And that is good enough for me.
Cheers,
Steve
CinemaUprising.Blogspot.com
I teared up the first time I watched the cut from bone to floating space station.
A Clockwork Orange—
Watching it on cinemax at age 10 did irreprable damage. Thank God! I’ve been obsessed with movies ever since!
Michael Sajkowicz-
“(One bit that is revealed- he had all of his out-takes burned!).”
No surprise there, outtakes are usually burned, as storing film costs plenty of money.
Christopher- Thanks for the feedback! I’m looking forward to watching 2001 and I’ll let you know what I think of it!!!
Jim W
Kubrick makes perfect films. They are amazing.
2001, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut are my favorites by him. I wish he was still alive to make more.