Stanley Kubrick
Audiences everywhere would agree that Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a masterpiece. Its striking cinematography, eerie music,
but most importantly, the spectacular directing by Kubrick cemented his status as a visionary innovator. He was a genius, yet never felt that he needed to live up to any expectations. He did
once say, "Never put me on a pedestal. When someone's on a pedestal,
there's no creativity. “And I believe his films reflected that ideology. Each
of his films had puzzling endings that he felt never had to be explained; you
could interpret them any way you wanted to. His perfectionism was, at times,
intimidating, but his attention to details and most of all, imagery, is
why his directing set the bar so high for films. He is one of the most
respected directors of all time and I feel that not only did Stanley Kubrick
pave the way for other directors wanted to
capture life the way he did, his films also changed the way many people
interpret life today.
From an early age, Stanley was more fascinated
with filmmaking and photography than school. Stanley Kubrick
was born on July 26, 1928 in Manhattan, New York. He performed poorly academic-wise,
but everything changed when his father, Jack, taught him how to play chess. His
father hoped it “would stimulate him mentally and spur him on to greater
intellectual achievement.” His father was right. Stanley became a skillful
player and competed in clubs all around Manhattan and earned money playing.
On
his thirteenth birthday, his father presented him with a Graflex camera, which further stimulated his fascination with
photography. In 1946, he
graduated from William Taft High School, but due to low grades, was
unsuccessful getting into college. With
the camera his father had gifted him; he set out to the streets of New York
City and began his career as a freelance photographer. He sold many of his
photographs to Look magazine and
everyone with talent. Much of his skills were learned through self-teaching and
the hands-on experience he gained working as an apprentice photographer for the
magazine. As the hype surrounding his
photos grew stronger, Stanley began setting his sights on filmmaking. And by
1951, Stanley made that dream a reality when he began making short films.
By the early 50s,
Stanley was financing many of his short films, including Day of the Flight and Flying
Padre. In Day of the Flight,
Stanley was notable for using reversing tracking shots which was one of
Kubrick’s signature directing styles that he later on used in many of his
films. Also, during the filming of all these short films, Stanley served as the
director, editor, cameraman, even sound effects man which he later stated
served as an “invaluable experience, because being forced to do everything
myself I gained a sound and comprehensive grasp of all the technical aspects of
filmmaking.” Stanley soon filmed his first feature film called Fear and Desire. Film historian James
Naremore noted that Kubrick was “especially interested in how rational,
militaristic planning spins out of control and becomes irrational." This
theme is later seen in his other films including Paths of Glory, Dr.
Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket.
His first film that was met with critical and commercial success was Spartacus,
which Kubrick wasn’t originally picked to direct in the first place. He
replaced director Anthony Mann after a week of filming but consistently budded
heads with producer and actor Kirk Douglas. The film was the first and last
time when he didn’t have complete control or freedom as a director, so soon
after he moved to England and vowed to never allow anyone to stifle his
creative freedom.
In 1962, his dark comedy, Lolita, was his first film
that generated controversy due to the films material, which was adapted from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel of the same name.
The movie would serve as the beginning of Kubrick’s devotion of adapting novels
into screenplays and also choosing risqué material over “safer” ones. Dr.
Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, adapted from
the novel Red Alert by Peter George, followed and was first meant to be
a serious drama. But as Kubrick, George, and co-writer Terry Southern began
developing a script, Kubrick realized that the more and more they wrote, the
more he realized the film would work if it was scripted as a satire. It was a hit and is regarded as one of his
many masterpieces.
Kubrick then turned his sights on a short story by Arthur C.
Clarke, called The Sentinel. He spent the next five years developing 2001:
A Space Odyssey. Released in 1968, it’s regarded as one of the best sci-fi
film ever made and even Steven Spielberg called it “his generation’s big bang.”
The film explored the existence of man and the possibility of life beyond
Earth. The film’s breathtaking special effect stunned audiences and critics
everywhere, and the film was nominated for many Academy Awards. Stanley won his
only Oscar for special effects that year. After 2001, Kubrick continued
developing more scripts and after financing for Napoleon, fell through,
he began work on a new project, A Clockwork Orange. The novel, by
Anthony Burgess, is an exploration of human nature. It follows main character,
Alex, whose interests includes classical music and violence. He is later
captured by authorities and forcefully entered into rehabilitation for his
horrific crime sprees. Just like his film Lolita, A Clockwork Orange was
met with controversy due to the graphic nature it depicted. It was said that
Kubrick and his family received threats and even had protesters outside their
home. Kubrick was forced to withdraw his film from Britain due to many copycat
crimes that authorities said where influenced by the film.
After the
controversy died down, Kubrick followed up with Barry Lyndon and The
Shining, my personal favorite. The Shining was adapted from t
Stephen King novel of the same name. The use of the newly invented Steadicam
proved to be effective, with its smooth gliding across the vast, long hallways.
It’s eerie music and at times, puzzling story, grasped audiences and left many
questions unanswered. Many theories about the film can be seen in the movie Room
237, which explores many of the assumptions towards The Shining.
Like many of his films, Kubrick felt that his movies could and should be
interpreted in many ways and that the audience should leave the theatre still
wondering and yearning for what the film means.
Many stories from the film are legendary today, including that being the
perfectionist he was, Kubrick made actress Shelley Duvall, who played Wendy Torrance
in the film, had to perform 127 takes of the baseball bat scene until Kubrick
was fully satisfied he got it. Kubrick’s The Shining, is regarded as one
of the best horror films of all time and one of my inspirations for filmmaking
as well. Kubrick then followed up seven years later, with the film Full
Metal Jacket. It was an adaptation of Gustav Hasford’s novel The
Short-Timers. In an interview with film critic Steven Hall Kubrick stated
that his attraction to Gustav Hasford's book was because it was "neither
antiwar or pro-war", held "no moral or political position", and
was primarily concerned with "the way things are". The film was nominated for eleven Academy
Awards.
Kubrick’s final film took almost five years to develop. It was
conceived after Stanley read Arthur Schnitzler novella Traumnovelle. The film stars Tom Cruise and Nicole
Kidman as a couple whose home life is rocked when both character’s dark secrets
are revealed. It was met with critical
praise and many friends of Kubrick stated that he believed it was his “greatest
contribution to the art of cinema.” However on March 7, 1999, he died of a sudden
heart attack in his sleep. Kubrick was able to finish edited prior to his
death, but he was never able to see the final version of his film that was
released to the public.
Of all the contributions Stanley Kubrick was able to achieve, I believe
his greatest was establishing a new faith in cinema. Although many believed his
films lacked heart, Kubrick understood that by choosing material that at times
was unsettling, Stanley showed audiences the raw and biting truth to human
emotion. If all of his films would’ve ended in a predictable and optimistic
manner, we wouldn’t be regarding him as one of the greatest directors of all
time. Many other directors chose safer paths, whereas Stanley chose to leave
many questions unanswered and chose a style that differed from everyone. Those
long, smooth takes and the attention to the smallest of details proved
extraordinarily important to cinema. Even the subject matter he chose to film
was forward and beyond his time. Today we can see his work everywhere,
especially in other directors’ films. Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Christopher
Nolan, Gaspar Noe, James Cameron, Woody Allen, the Coen brothers, and George A.
Romero cite Kubrick as inspiration and a forefather of filmmaking. Stanley
Kubrick has also influenced a generation of young, ambitious filmmakers;
wanting and hoping for a chance to match the success and genius that is Stanley
Kubrick. But there will always be just one Stanley Kubrick. He was one man that
always demanded perfection, knowing that it would bring out the best in
everyone. Many can regard his films as reason to believe than there is no hope
for humanity and even fear our existence in the universe. But his films
embodied a discreet ray of light that could be seen if you looked persistently
enough. As he once said, “However vast the darkness, we must supply our
light.” and I believe that’s enough hope for all of us.
