Introduction
Stanley Kubrick is widely regarded as one of the most important directors in film history. From his earliest documentary shorts to major works like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and The Shining (1980), Kubrick continually redefined cinematic form and storytelling, consistently pushing the boundaries of the medium. Often reclusive, fiercely private, and demanding to the point of obsession, he is a figure surrounded by both myth and meticulous reality. His work was rarely hurried, his methods often controversial, but the results—nearly always extraordinary—cemented his legacy in world cinema.
Throughout his career, Kubrick directed thirteen feature films, many of which are now regarded as masterpieces. He earned thirteen Academy Award nominations, winning once for Best Visual Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey. His films, including Dr. Strangelove (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), and Full Metal Jacket (1987), were all nominated for Best Picture or Best Director. Credited with pioneering new techniques in cinematography and special effects, and with his meticulous attention to detail, Kubrick has influenced generations of filmmakers.
Cinema Scholars concludes its Spotlight series on the life and career of Stanley Kubrick. This two-part article traces his development from a Bronx-born photographer to one of the greatest film directors the world has ever known.
Crossroads
Stanley Kubrick was at a career crossroads after the release of Lolita (1962). The film was neither a critical nor a commercial success. Furthermore, the subject matter, along with his frequent clashes on set with star Shelly Winters, gave the director the reputation of being difficult and demanding. Still, there was no denying that Kubrick had one of the most distinctive visual styles in the industry, and actors sought to work with him. Peter Sellers and Kubrick hit it off during the production of Lolita. Their next collaboration would take things to a whole other level.
Sellers and Strangelove
While Kubrick loved to shoot multiple takes to the point of agony, there were exceptions to this. The director loved actors who demonstrated range and were able to improvise on the spot. Peter Sellers was one of those actors. Sellers also had a wicked sense of humor, which Kubrick loved. The pair got along famously during the production of Lolita, to the point that Sellers had the director rolling on the floor in laughter during and in between takes. The late film critic and biographer Alexander Walker stated:
“One of the people Stanley admired unreservedly was Peter Sellers. First of all, Peter Sellers was mad. Stanley was in awe of him…He was always in awe of people who could give him performances, particularly performances that were not in the script, who could add something to a character that even Stanley had never anticipated…Stanley put people through 101 takes in order to get a variation in the way they played their role. With Peter Sellers, he only had to put him through three takes, and he got a different kind of interpretation every time”
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) solidified Kubrick’s status as a visionary satirist. A pitch-black comedy about nuclear annihilation, the film featured Sellers in three iconic roles. A box office hit, it was released at the height of Cold War paranoia. Brilliantly capturing the absurdity of mutually assured destruction with laser-like precision, Dr. Strangelove became a cultural touchstone and, sixty years later, is widely considered one of the greatest satirical comedies ever made.
Much like Kubrick’s previous efforts, Dr. Strangelove received mixed reviews and generated considerable controversy. This was the height of the Cold War, and critics didn’t find it amusing to lampoon the US military or the Department of Defense. In the early 1960s, satire was ok in the United States, as long as it was pointed towards someone (or someplace) else. Despite a mesmerizing performance from Sellers, the actor would never work with Kubrick again.
A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was a five-year collaboration with science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. The result was a film that was a monumental leap forward in cinematic language, special effects, and speculative storytelling. Kubrick’s meticulous and sometimes years-long dedication to research was on full display during preparation for his latest project. Granted permission by NASA to observe the Ranger 9 spacecraft for accuracy, the director vividly displayed what he thought future tech might look like in the year 2001. He wasn’t that far off.
Shot in Super Panavision 70, the film was a groundbreaking achievement in special effects. A whirlwind blending of both science and imagination. 2001: A Space Odyssey earned Kubrick his only personal Oscar for Visual Effects. Also, like much of his other work to date, the film was both celebrated and derided by critics upon release. While a massive hit at the box office, the critics pointed to the lack of dialogue, slow pacing, and incomprehensible storyline. Yet, once again, time would be on Kubrick’s side. 2001: A Space Odyssey is now regarded as one of the most influential films ever made. Kubrick spoke to Playboy in 1968:
“…You’re free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film—and such speculation is one indication that it has succeeded in gripping the audience at a deep level—but I don’t want to spell out a verbal road map for 2001 that every viewer will feel obligated to pursue or else fear he’s missed the point…”
The Droogs
After his extensively researched Napoleon undertaking fell apart, Kubrick was looking for a project that he could get off the ground quickly. One that he could make without having to spend a fortune. Colleague Terry Southern had introduced Kubrick to the 1962 Anthony Burgess novel A Clockwork Orange. This was back when they were working together on Dr. Strangelove in 1963. Kubrick, however, had rejected it due to the hard-to-understand “Nadsat” slang used throughout.
By the early 70s, the director was having a change of heart. He started to embrace Burgess’s novel and its potential for adaptation. Especially with the emergence of youth-oriented cinema, exemplified by films such as Easy Rider (1969), M.A.S.H. (1970), and Zabriskie Point (1970). Kubrick’s wife, Christiane, read the novel while the director was developing Napoleon. She pushed her husband to adapt it for the screen. Kubrick eventually relented and would write a script that would be faithful to Burgess’s now-classic novel.
The budget for A Clockwork Orange (1971) came in at a respectable $2 million. Filming commenced during the winter of 1970-71. Kubrick, rumored to have had a longstanding fear of flying, rarely ever left England. As a result, Kubrick used his house located in Abbots Mead (close to London) as the production center. It was also the home base for the film. The director’s garage would serve as his office, and he converted numerous bedrooms into editing suites, as well as converting his living room into a screening center. Kubrick would continue his use of symmetrical framing and one-point perspective, which was becoming his trademark.
Violence and Controversy
A Clockwork Orange was a commercial success but was controversial and received mixed reviews. New York Times critic Pauline Kael referred to the movie as “pornographic,” calling Kubrick a “bad pornographer.” Fellow Times critic Vincent Canby recognized the film’s technical brilliance, pointing out the director’s unique use of wide-angle lenses. Author Anthony Burgess stated that he loved Malcolm McDowell’s performance but had issues with Kubrick’s film.
The censors considered the sex and violence in the film to be over the top. Kubrick’s movie was also tied to murder and manslaughter cases in Great Britain in 1972. The British media were blaming the film for a rape that took place where the perpetrators were singing “Singin’ In The Rape.” An awful homage to Kubrick’s film. Christiane Kubrick has also indicated that their family received numerous threats of violence because of the film.
In the US, the film was given an X rating by the censors. Kubrick would need to edit out approximately thirty seconds of sexually graphic footage to gain an R rating. At the insistence of Kubrick, it was withdrawn from British release in 1973 by Warner Bros. A Clockwork Orange wouldn’t be seen by the British until after Kubrick died in 1999. This was because of numerous allegations that it was the cause of copycat violence. Kubrick would later comment:
“To try and fasten any responsibility on art as the cause of life seems to me to put the case the wrong way around. Art consists of reshaping life, but it does not create life, nor cause life”
A Clockwork Orange received four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing. It was also named the Best Film of 1971 by the New York Film Critics Circle. After William Friedkin took home the Best Director Oscar for The French Connection, he told the press, “…I think Stanley Kubrick is the best American filmmaker of the year. In fact, not just this year, but the best period…”
Barry Lyndon
Perhaps Kubrick’s most visually stunning film up to this point, Barry Lyndon (1975), was an 18th-century period drama based on the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray. Kubrick, who had planned to direct his Napoleon biopic after A Clockwork Orange, lost his financing for the project due to the critical and box-office disaster that was the Dino De Laurentiis–produced Waterloo (1970).
Barry Lyndon was shot largely with natural light, including scenes illuminated only by candlelight—a feat achieved using specially modified Zeiss lenses developed for NASA. Set during the Seven Years’ War in the mid-1700s, this allowed Kubrick to utilize a significant portion of the research he had done on the Napoleon project, as well as use the costumes that had been commissioned during the pre-production phase of the now-shelved project.
At the time of production, the details of Stanley Kubrick’s new project were shrouded in secrecy, following the drama that A Clockwork Orange had caused. All that was known was that it would star current Hollywood heartthrob Ryan O’Neal and former model Marisa Berenson. Even the actors themselves were given minimal details. Director Martin Scorsese would later say:
“…I’m not sure if I can say that I have a favorite Kubrick picture, but somehow I keep coming back to Barry Lyndon. I think that’s because it’s such a profoundly emotional experience. The emotion is conveyed through the movement of the camera, the slowness of the pace, and the way the characters move in relation to their surroundings. People didn’t get it when it came out. Many still don’t…”
Though initially met with mixed reviews and modest box office returns, Barry Lyndon has since been reevaluated as one of Kubrick’s greatest achievements. It won four Academy Awards for its technical accomplishments, including cinematography. The film epitomized Kubrick’s commitment to visual authenticity. Filmed entirely on location in Ireland, it was named the greatest Irish film of all time in 2020. Like so much of Stanley Kubrick’s work, the film has since been critically reevaluated in the ensuing decades.
The Shining
By the end of the 1970s, Kubrick was growing frustrated by the negative critical analysis of his films as well as the lack of box office success. He knew he needed to make a film that would put people in the seats as well as be artistically rewarding. The director decided that venturing into the horror genre might be the answer he was looking for. In a now legendary recounting of how Kubrick decided on Stephen King’s novel, The Shining, the author reflected years later:
“…Kubrick’s secretary heard the sound of each book hitting the wall as the director flung it into a reject pile after reading the first few pages. Finally, one day, the secretary noticed it had been a while since she had heard the thud of another writer’s work biting the dust. She walked in to check on her boss and found Kubrick deeply engrossed in reading a copy of the manuscript of The Shining…”
The Shining tells the story of a recovering alcoholic and aspiring novelist (Jack Nicholson) who descends into insanity when he and his family take a job as winter caretakers for a mountain resort hotel. Co-starring Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers, production took place almost exclusively in England at Elstree Studios, with principal photography commencing in May 1978 and wrapping up in April 1979.
Stephen King has gone on record for decades stating that he disapproved of Kubrick’s adaptation of his work, as well as the casting of Nicholson. Nicholson also preferred Jessica Lange for the role of Wendy over Duvall. Further, Kubrick’s penchant for breaking down actors and shooting dozens upon dozens of takes reached its zenith while making The Shining. In a behind-the-scenes documentary filmed by Kubrick’s daughter, Duvall is so broken down by the director that her hair starts to fall out, and the actor is reduced to tears.
Going to War
While The Shining had been both a critical and box-office success, the shoot was exhausting. Kubrick retreated with his family for several years while he searched for his next project. He contacted author Michael Herr to discuss working on a film about the Holocaust. However, the director decided a film about the Vietnam War would be more topical. Kubrick and Herr both agreed that Gustav Hasford’s novel The Short-Timers was a masterpiece. Kubrick would spend the next three years convincing Herr to revisit his harrowing years in the Vietnam War.
After Herr turned in the first draft of the screenplay, Kubrick changed the title of the work in progress to Full Metal Jacket to avoid any confusion with the audience. Also, Kubrick once again insisted on filming everything in his now native England, preferring to be close to home. Recreating the Vietnam War in the backlots of Elstree Studios would be a daunting task. The director would recount this to Rolling Stone in 1987:
“…So we had real rubble. We brought in palm trees from Spain and a hundred thousand plastic tropical plants from Hong Kong. We did little things, details people don’t notice right away, that add to the illusion. All in all, a tremendous set dressing and rubble job…”
Full Metal Jacket was divided into two distinct halves: the brutal training of Marine recruits and their subsequent experiences in Vietnam. The first half, dominated by R. Lee Ermey’s drill instructor, became instantly iconic. The second half showcased Kubrick’s distinctive vision of war’s absurdity and horror. Though not as universally acclaimed as Paths of Glory or Dr. Strangelove, the film was, for a change, a critical and commercial success.
Final Years
After Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick receded from the public eye for over a decade. He continued to live and work in England, where he had settled permanently in the 1960s. During this time, he developed several projects, including A.I. (2001). Kubrick had purchased the rights to the 1969 short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss in the early 1970s. It languished in development hell for decades until he handed it off to Steven Spielberg.
His final film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), was an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Traumnovelle. Starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, the film explored themes of fidelity, jealousy, and the hidden undercurrents of desire within marriage. Kubrick spent years in pre-production and over 400 days shooting the film, a testament to his perfectionism. He delivered his final cut to Warner Bros. in March 1999 but died just six days later, on March 7, at the age of 70. Perhaps Martin Scorsese best summed up Kubrick’s collected works, stating:
“…When Eyes Wide Shut came out a few months after Stanley Kubrick died in 1999, it was severely misunderstood, which came as no surprise. If you go back and look at the contemporary reactions to any Kubrick picture (except the earliest ones), you’ll see that all his films were initially misunderstood. Then, after five or ten years came the realization that 2001 or Barry Lyndon or The Shining was like nothing else before or since…”
