Stanley Kubrick Fans? Join New Forum!

Post Reply New Topic

If you're a fan of any/all of Stanley's films:-

Fear and Desire (1953), Killer's Kiss (1955), The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) & Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

- you're more than welcome to join in the fun at my new forum:

http://stanleykubrick.yuku.com

I'm a massive Kubrick fan. I write this sitting under my Lolita poster...

There was a good doco last year called Stanley's Boxes - that showed his extensive cataloguing of potential story ideas. Truly one of a kind.

I only know A Clockwork Orange...

That was a great documentary. My wife and I are going to London to browse through the Kubrick Archive. It's only available to film students, apparently!

Hope to see you on the Forum,
Simon.

That was rather spooky. He was a textbook OCD.

My goodness, I'm going to have to take a trip there then. Do you know where it's actually stored now? They mentioned it in the doco but I can't remember. Some of those ideas were pretty good.

To think that since he started the archive he only made 2 films out of thousands indexed is just staggering.

I'm writing this as a response to some poorly informed person who wrote in the "Shining is Boring" thread that Kubrick is shallow. I have this fear that younger people who have only seen films full of gore and car wrecks are losing the ability to appreciate films without those elements. Kubrick was a marvelous chameleon, leaping from one genre to another throughout his career. I believe he is unique among directors for doing this. As to the charge that his films are too slow, several of them are paced a little slowly for today's ADD addled audiences. But how can you say "Full Metal Jacket" is slow? Or "Clockwork Orange", for that matter? Both of these are black-as-tar comedies that grab you by the throat. I could also ask the same of "Dr. Strangelove", which clicks along nicely, cutting back and forth between the bomber crew and the Generals and President in the war room. There is absolutely nothing in any of these films that could point to Kubrick as 'shallow'. You might not like "2001", but it stands as the most realistic space films ever made in it's attention to the minutiae of space travel. The middle third is better than any given Sci-Fi film made recently. But 'shallow'? Just go to YouTube and check some of the in-depth analysis of these films. Granted, some people such as Ager simply have far too much time on their hands when he analyzes "The Shining" down to the images on the food in the pantry. I think the overload of crap movies has dulled the senses of young people these days ....

That says it all. I don't know a single person under 30 who can appreciate Dr. Strangelove at all.

It's a shame too.

That movie is just so absurdly accurate AND influential (when it isn't accurate). How many movies include a Kubrick style"war room"? It's taken for granted that "the war room" is a real place, but it's purely a Kubrick invention.

Unfortunately, the insane dialog spouted by the Dr., General Turgidson, and others, comes (largely) right out of Herman Kahn's On Thermonuclear War, a very real source of American cold war strategy in the 60s.


Just one exceptional work by a great artist.

Last edited by GoonSquad on 30 Nov 2011, 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I though -Eyes Wide Shit- was dreadful. I liked the others a lot. -Dr. Strangelove- was the blackest of black comedies.

ruveyn

I loved 2001: A Space Odyssey and its accompanying novel and was wondering if any of his other movies are suitable for a mature 15 year old. The harshest I can handle would be Neon Genesis Evangelion-level, though. I know that his movies can be quite harsh.

Dr. Strangelove certainly, no violence (except a brief fistfight that gets one of the funniest lines in the movie).

I've never seen Spartacus, but it was a Hollywood Bible-style costume epic and would be very appropriate.

Paths of Glory might be, but having never seen it, there may be bloody war scenes.

Barry Lyndon, a costume drama, again I haven't seen it, but I think it would be viewer friendly.

Don't cue up Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, or The Shining.

(You loved 2001 ?? Bravo for you, it's most often the butt of jokes for it's languid pacing.)

Full Metal Jacket

I think "A Clockwork Orange" is a sick, heartless film and I don't see what the big deal is.
Why would anyone like it? Within the first 45 minutes an Innocent woman is raped while the main character is singing.
If you are not bothered by that you are emotionally dead or on some kind of really strong drug. You probably have to be on acid to enjoy it.
I could not get past the first hour because I thought it was sick. I like to feel emotionally connected to a film and the main character was psychotic.

That was the idea of "A Clockwork Orange" - it's about a psychotic person in a (then) psychotic future. It's meant to make you think about how a society can go horribly wrong. Not for everyone though...

Last edited by ictus75 on 01 Dec 2011, 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I didn't understand it at all

And that's fine. I don't understand or enjoy every film I see or book I read.