Stanley Kubrick’s Legacy / The Legacy of Stanley Kubrick | MovieMaker Magazine
Stanley Kubrick’s Legacy
The Legacy of Stanley Kubrick
by Vincent LoBrutto | Published July 6, 1999
Stanley Kubrick was a living legend. He was a film director who invented
himself. Positioned between the directors of the Hollywood studio system and the
generation trained in university film schools, Stanley Kubrick was an autodidact
and a twentieth century filmmaking pioneer. He completed only 13 features in a
half-century, but his larger-than-life status was achieved by his consistency of
vision, fierce dedication to total control, and mastery of the cinematic medium.
Citing his unique contribution to the most popular art form of the 20th century,
Steven Spielberg called Kubrick the grand master of filmmaking and observed that
"He created more than just movies. He gave us complete environmental experiences
that got more, not less, intense the more you watched his pictures. He copied no
one, while all of us were scrambling to imitate him."
Kubrick was a poor student with low grades when he became captivated by still
photography as a teenage boy in the Bronx. His obsession with the photographed
image led to filmmaking. Kubrick was a wunderkind staff photographer for Look
magazine when he decided he was going to make a film short. The film Day of the
Fight, based on a Look photostory, was 22-year-old Kubrick's first venture into
the medium. Working with his documentary subject, middleweight boxer Walter
Cartier, Kubrick created the screenplay and learned how to operate a movie
camera by countertop instruction from a rental house salesman. Later, to edit
the film, he taught himself how to operate a Moviola and then constructed the
soundtrack frame by frame during the sound editing process. The project led to
Kubrick's second short subject, Flying Padre, and an industrial commission, The
Seafarers.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Kubrick made the leap to independent feature filmmaking by convincing his uncle
Martin Perveler to finance a low-budget film. Kubrick co-wrote the existentially
drenched script with Howard O. Sackler, who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for
The Great White Hope. Kubrick photographed the film himself in black and white
without studio assistance or Hollywood professionals. Although the film is
crude, it reveals the raw beginnings of his dynamic sense of cinematic
composition and introduces themes he tackled throughout his career-the futility
of war and the cruel nature of man.
Kubrick's second feature film, Killer's Kiss, was also a totally independent
venture. The film was shot on location in New York City with Kubrick behind the
camera. A testament to guerrilla filmmaking, it is a noir portrait of a
down-and-out boxer photographed in bleak black and white. Though Kubrick later
referred to the film as the equivalent of a student undertaking, Killer's Kiss
achieves a documentary environment with haunting, surreal overtones.
After two features Kubrick moved beyond his self-proclaimed amateur status and
formed Harris-Kubrick Pictures with producer James B. Harris. Their first
collaboration was The Killing, an adaptation of the novel Clean Break, the story
of a racetrack robbery which was structured in a time-shuttling narrative
presenting multiple points of view by moving back and forth in the timeline. The
film starred Sterling Hayden and featured a cast of veteran crime film actors.
Kubrick again wanted to photograph the film, which was being produced in
Hollywood, but the cameraman's union wouldn't allow it. Instead, Kubrick hired
master director of photography Lucien## Ballard and stood up to the venerable
cameraman for every shot of his dynamic uncompromising vision. The Killing is
the first mature Stanley Kubrick film. The hopelessness of crime is portrayed by
the noir narrative and the existential style. The characters are entrapped by
the use of space and camera movement. The Kubrick aesthetic of meticulously
symmetrical compositions gives The Killing an austere visual style.
The second Harris-Kubrick production was Paths of Glory, an adaptation of the
Humphrey Cobb World War I novel. The two filmmakers managed to entice Kirk
Douglas to star in the film and to produce the project under the aegis of his
Bryna Productions. Universally acclaimed as one of the great anti-war films,
Paths of Glory reveals the ugly politics of war as three innocent French
soldiers are sacrificed for the explosive egos of their superiors. Kubrick
continued to evolve his decisive visual style. Shots were centered and carefully
counterbalanced. Kubrick had long admired the fluid camera movement of Max
Ophuls and the gruesome trench scenes which open the film and fuel the narrative
are shot with a relentless tracking camera. Kubrick's powerful use of the dolly
shot leapt into cinematic parlance as a "Kubrick dolly shot" defining the
technique of moving the camera either forward or back while shooting straight on
to maintain a pristinely center-framed composition.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
In 1960 Kubrick directed Spartacus when star Kirk Douglas asked him to take over
for Anthony Mann who wasremoved from the production. Although Spartacus ranks
amongst the best of the "epic" genre, Kubrick's lack of artistic control
convinced him to turn away from Hollywood, a decision that lasted the full
extent of his career. Kubrick's displeasure with his limited authority caused
friction with Douglas on the Spartacus set. "He'll be a fine director someday,
if he falls flat on his face just once. It might teach him how to compromise."
Next, Harris-Kubrick took on the scandalous literary masterwork Lolita. Kubrick
mounted the production in England, far from Hollywood, for several logical
reasons. The studios were well-equipped, the technicians well-trained, the
budget costs restrained and he could exercise total control over the film.
Lolita was a handsome production in black-and-white. Kubrick's challenge was to
maneuver Nabokov's erotic and verboten sexual matter past the Code Seal censors
and the all-mighty and omniscient Catholic church. Kubrick and Harris acted on
high levels of diplomacy to pull off the feat while imbuing their Lolita with
rich black humor and layers of double entendres.
Lolita ended the 10-year Harris-Kubrick relationship and began Kubrick's
residency as an American film director who worked exclusively in the UK. Kubrick
next chose to tackle the subject of nuclear annihilation. He began by
researching the science and philosophy of nuclear war and optioning Red Alert, a
serious dramatic novel by Peter George. Although Kubrick had long been
personally terrified by the potential of an all-out nuclear war, he eventually
turned his devilish sense of black humor on the project. Novelist Terry Southern
turned the original story on its head and the film was renamed Dr. Strangelove
or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Shooting in black and
white on a soundstage in England, Kubrick was in supreme command of the content
and the visual style of the film. Production designer Ken Adam who had created
the look for the James Bond film series, invented the circular-structured War
Room and recreated the interior of the U.S. bomber cockpits without receiving
official permission to examine the real thing. Based on intensive research in
military magazines Adam brought realism to the outrageous comedy and imagination
to the notion of a War Room used to plan global conflicts. Adam and Kubrick were
so successful they even fooled President Ronald Reagan, who at the dawn of his
first term, anxiously asked to tour the White House War Room which only existed
in movieland.
Paths of Glory (1957)
In 1964 Stanley Kubrick embarked on a four year odyssey to make a new kind of
science fiction film. He collaborated with Arthur C. Clarke on a novel to be
adapted into a screenplay. Kubrick was not happy with any of the special effect
technology available so he set out with a team of four effects innovators and
invented the technology to bring his vision to the screen. The result, 2001: A
Space Odyssey, is a landmark film on many fronts. The non-narrative structure
which relies on issues/34/images and sound to communicate had a substantial
impact on commercial filmmaking. The look of the film inspired countless films
of the genre-notably the Star Wars series and Blade Runner. With 2001 Kubrick
established a new working method. He began taking more time between projects. He
would decide on a topic or genre and research the field totally. Now living
permanently outside of London, he would develop the visuals down to the most
minute detail. Exercising total and complete authority over all the crafts
involved in his movies, Kubrick was now operating on his own terms. His take
ratio began to climb. Soon his only contact with Hollywood was in connection
with the distribution of his work. After 2001, Kubrick made a deal with Warner
Bros. which would last for the rest of his career and life. Warner's would
distribute his films with no questions asked. Kubrick had final say over
subject, content, cast, crew and, of course, the director's beloved final cut.
Kubrick's "no compromise" reputation was burgeoning at the same time as
mythology was developing around his personality traits and work methods. Keir
Dullea, who starred in 2001, tried to set the record straight. "H's a very quiet
man and your dealings with him were intimate in that sense. Good directors are
wonderful con men. The best directors all have that facility. He had a quiet
power. He was such a stickler for detail, but there was nothing tyrannical about
him. Stanley was a true Renaissance man. He knew about so many things having
nothing to do with filmmaking."
Often Kubrick used the adaptation process to completely revise the narrative of
a novel to tell his own story, but his adaptation of Anthony Burgess's A
Clockwork Orange was absolutely faithful to the author in story and
visualization. Kubrick was attracted to the idea that a person's nature and will
could be altered by applied science. The violence and language are presented in
over-the-top comic book fashion, creating a disturbing impact on the audience.
The point of the film is to support free will wherever it surfaces, including in
violent and sexual impulses. A Clockwork Orange is structured in three sections
and is rendered in precise and vivid pictorial detail. The film was originally
rated 'X' in the U.S. and Kubrick himself banned the film in the UK when copycat
crimes began to surface. The film continues to speak directly to young audiences
even after over 25 years in release.
Next Kubrick chose to make the ultimate period film, selecting Barry Lyndon,
considered a minor Thackeray novel by scholars. Barry is a common thief and a
rogue who marries for wealth and power. Kubrick tells his story with dark humor
in the style of an English novel. A proper English-accented narrator and title
cards give the film a literary illusion. The visuals are highly pictorial,
perfectly centered and adorned with lavish details gathered from the exacting
study of paintings from the period. Barry Lyndon is the first film to shoot
scenes exclusively lit by candlelight. Kubrick had a still photography lens
mounted to his Panavision movie camera. The result is not only realistic, but
transports the viewer back in time as it illuminates the patina of the period
environment. The constant narration, repetitive classical music score and lack
of action and dramaturgy played poorly in the United States, but the film was
well-received throughout Europe. Eventually Barry Lyndon began to be recognized
and appreciated by critics and re-evaluation has placed it on international best
films lists.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Kubrick's next project began as a quest to make the most terrifying horror film
ever made. Kubrick read through the classic and contemporary canon of horror
fiction and selected Stephen King's The Shining. The novel was very loosely
adapted into a film that explored the horror of family violence and the ghosts
of a haunted hotel. Kubrick's work always combines a dark narrative of ideas
with technical virtuosity that brings the vision to life. King's Overlook Hotel
was actually built to full scale on a soundstage in London. Kubrick had learned
of the Steadicam, a new deviceinvented by Garrett Brown, which allowed free and
smooth movement of the camera. The massive and realistically detailed set was
built with the Steadicam in mind even though Kubrick had not yet seen the
prototype. Brown's work on the film following Danny Torrance around on his Big
Wheel trike helped expand the grammar of the moving camera. The Shining is an
unconventional horror film which provokes the audience with its creepy sound
design and well-positioned title cards as well as traditional effects like
ghosts and gore. The Shining has enduring popularity; the Jack Nicholson's
perennial star power memorialized Jack Torrance's "Here's Johnny" in modern film
vernacular. Nicholson praised Kubrick's perfectionism. "Stanley's demanding.
He'll do a scene 50 times and you have to be good to do that. There are so many
ways to walk into a room, order breakfast, or be frightened to death in a
closet. Stanley's approach is, 'How can we do it better than it's ever been done
before?' It's a big challenge. A lot of actors give him what he wants. If you
don't, he'll beat it out of you. With a velvet glove, of course."
Kubrick's obsession with war led him to take on the Vietnam conflict even though
major filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Cimino and Oliver Stone had
explored the subject from emotional, psychological and realistic vantages.
Kubrick used Gustav Hasford's novel The Short-Timers as an armature for Full
Metal Jacket. Never one for realism at the expense of what he found truly
interesting, Kubrick took the film's language and violence to a heightened
actuality. Kubrick and his production designer, Anton Furst, built the Marine
training camp on a soundstage and backlot. The barracks were created down to the
last meticulous detail, but Kubrick's center-perfect compositions and the fluid
forward and back dead-on positioned dolly shots gave the environment a surreal
quality as real-life drill Sergeant Lee Ermey articulated his training lingo at
absurdist levels. Other filmmakers took on the jungles of Vietnam, Kubrick went
into the heart of the city, mobilizing his camera and the Steadicam through the
rock and rubble he created.
Spartacus (1960)
Full Metal Jacket was released in 1987 and was a modest success. To the public,
Stanley Kubrick went into a long silence, but the secretive and reclusive
filmmaker continued to work every day on numerous projects. In 1993 Kubrick was
ready to put Aryan Papers into production in Europe. The film, an adaptation of
Louis Begley's Holocaust novel Wartime Lies, was canceled, many speculate
because of Steven Spielberg's award-winning production of Schindler's List.
Kubrick also was in pre-production on A.I. (artificial intelligence), based on a
short story by science fiction master Brian Aldiss. Kubrick felt the special
effect technology was not advanced enough for the film and put it on the back
burner.
Next up was Kubrick's longtime fascination with Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Novel,
a film he'd been developing since the early '70s. Kubrick sent a fax to Tom
Cruise and Nicole Kidman and immediately got the power couple on board as his
stars. Even in the "communications" age, Stanley Kubrick had the capacity to
keep Eyes Wide Shut shrouded in secrecy. Prior to its July 16, 1999 release only
select factoids were confirmed. The adaptation brings Schnitzler's story into
contemporary times and transplants the European locale to New York (built on a
London soundstage and backlot). The scenario is an erotic thriller and
tantalizing trailers show an unadorned Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in
compromising positions.
The Shining (1980)
Shortly after the completion of Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick died suddenly in
the early morning of March 7, 1999. For his fans worldwide, the unthinkable had
happened. Although Kubrick rarely gave interviews, almost never left his
residence in England and was absent to a hungry multimedia, his presence was
always felt. Stanley Kubrick was always out there makingmovies, a one-of-a-kind
filmmaker, the definition of a legend. He leaves Eyes Wide Shut as his last
major work. We will never see Aryan Papers or A.I. or his production of
Napoleon, one of the cinema's great unmade potential masterworks. After his
death a tearful Steven Spielberg announced he had been working with Kubrick for
three years on a project he would direct to be produced by Stanley Kubrick. Out
of respect for the master, Spielberg wouldn't elaborate on the project or even
reveal the subject matter.
Stanley Kubrick has now taken his place in the international pantheon of
celebrated 20th century film directors. His legacy is 13 feature films and some
of the greatest moments in all of world cinema. Though he left moviegoers with
so many unforgettable issues/34/images (the Star Child in 2001, the trenches of
doom in Paths of Glory, the mesmerizing maze of The Shining and a hundred
others) most of all he has left us with the confirmation that film is not only
an art form, but perhaps the greatest of art forms. MM
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