Stanley Kubrick
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Stanley Kubrick (26 July 1928 - 7 March 1999) was an American film (movie) director. Kubrick is thought to be one of the great directors of the 20th century.
He was born in New York City but he has lived most of his life in Britain. His films are respected for their great amount of detail and symbolism. Many of his films were very controversial when they were first shown. For example, the sex and violence in his film A Clockwork Orange was very disturbing to many people who saw it when it was released in 1973. The reaction to the film in the United Kingdom became so great that Stanley Kubrick stopped showing the film there for over 25 years. Other famous movies that Kubrick made include Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining. Stanley Kubrick died from a heart attack on March 7th, 1999.
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[change] Early life and work
Kubrick was born in New York City and lived there during his youth. Stanley was a poor student in school but his father, who was a doctor, taught Stanley how to play chess and gave him a camera. Kubrick finished high school in 1946 and could not get into a college. This was because of his poor grades in school and because colleges were full with many American soldier's who returned from World War II that same year. During this time, Kubrick played games of chess with people for money. He was a good chess player and won many games. He used the money he won from playing chess to buy food and photography equipment. Kubrick got a job at a magazine in New York City that was called Look Magazine. Kubrick also enjoyed watching films and thought that he could make better films than the films that were being made at the time. He first made two small documentaries. One of them was about a boxer and was called Day of the Fight. The other documentary was about a religious man and was called Flying Padre. He then made two full-length films (called feature films) that made other people interested in his work. The first feature film was called Fear and Desire and the other was called Killer's Kiss. His third feature film, called The Killing, was a success. The success of The Killing allowed Stanley to work on a bigger film, called Paths of Glory, that was about World War I and was made with the famous actor Kirk Douglas. At this time Kubrick became well known in the film industry and had started to create his own style.
[change] Big films
[change] Spartacus
After Stanley Kubrick completed Paths of Glory he tried working on a big Hollywood movie called Spartacus in 1960. The film made a lot of money and was a success but Kubrick did not enjoy working on it. He did not enjoy working on it because of problems he had with the other people working on the film who controlled it. Kubrick desired to have a lot of control in making his films, and after making Spartacus he only worked on films that he had full control over.
[change] Lolita
In the 1962 Kubrick moved to United Kingdom to make his next film, Lolita. He liked the United Kingdom very much and decided to live there for the rest of his life. The film Lolita was the first film that Kubrick made that created a lot of controversy. The film was based upon a book by the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov that was also very controversial at the time. The film shows the relationship between a very young woman and an older man. This is a forbidden topic in the United States and most of the world.
[change] Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
For the film Lolita, Kubrick hired the talented and famous actor Peter Sellers. Kubrick respected Peter's acting and asked him to act as 3 different characters in Kubrick's next film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was released in 1963. Dr. Strangelove was a comedy but it was about very serious topics. These are called black comedies. The film was about the Cold War and was very controversial but also very successful. The film had a large cultural influence and created some images that became very famous in the years to follow. The most famous image from the film was of a American pilot sitting on a nuclear bomb as it fell to earth from an airplane.
Kubrick's success with Dr Strangelove convinced the film studios that he was talented and that he could be trusted to make good, popular films. Kubrick entered into a positive relationship with the film studio, Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers gave him almost full artistic control on all of the films he was to make in the future. A director being given so much control is rare. Such directors are called "auteurs".
[change] 2001: A Space Odyssey
Kubrick took five years to develop and plan his next film. It was a science fiction film called 2001: A Space Odyssey and it was released in 1968. Kubrick based the movie on a short story called the "The Sentinel" that was written by the science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. Kubrick worked with Arthur C. Clarke to make the film. The film used many new ideas and techniques and had special effects that no other movie at the time had. The great special effects used in the film won Kubrick his first and only Oscar award. 2001 was made during the end of the 1960's and was very popular with members of the Hippie Counterculture. This was because of the films strange and dream-like visuals. When the film was released it was both loved and hated by many film critics. Many of the film critics who did not like the movie when they saw it in 1968 have changed their opinions. Some of them have written a second, positive review of the film many years later,
[change] A Clockwork Orange
His next film was one of his most famous and also his most controversial. The film was titled A Clockwork Orange and was released in 1971. The film was darker than 2001 and was originally released with an "X" motion picture rating in the US. The film was based on a novel of the same title by the author Anthony Burgess. The novel and film are about a criminal who is given a new and experimental 'cure' for his violent nature. The story asks questions about how society defines morality. The film had an amount of sex and violence that was not often seen in big Hollywood films at the time. The controversy of the film increased when other people copied some of the acts that were committed by the characters in the film. Kubrick and his family received violent threats from people, called death threats. These threats were serious enough that Kubrick took the film out of theaters in Britain. The film was not shown again in Britain until the year 2000, after Kubrick's death.
[change] Barry Lyndon
Kubrick's next film was to going to be about Napoleon but he canceled it after another similar film was released before his own. Kubrick worked very hard researching and learning about Napoleon and about the world at that time. Kubrick chose to make another movie set in that time that was titled Barry Lyndon. The film was based a book by William Makepeace Thackeray and was about an 18th century gambler named Barry Lyndon. The film was not as well liked as his previous films but, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, it convinced people over time.
After Barry Lyndon, Kubrick made films at a much slower rate than before. He only made three more films in the next twenty-five years. He was still very popular and respected. Each of the films he released became an event that many people waited for and celebrated.
[change] The Shining
The Shining was Kubrick's next movie. It was based on the book of the same name by the American author, Stephen King and was released in 1980. It was a horror film and starred Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. The film was one of Kubrick's most mainstream films and was very popular. It was different from the other horror films at the time and the catch phrase, "Here's Johnny!" (which was also used on the TV's The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson at the time) was made very popular after Jack Nicholson's character said it during an important scene in the film. The author of the book Stephen King hated the movie and did not like that Kubrick changed many things from the book. King made his own version, a TV mini-series in 1997, which was much more like the book.
[change] Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket was Kubrick's next film and was released in 1987. It was one of several films that were made in the 1980s that were about the Vietnam War. The film was most famous for its drill instructor character, played by R. Lee Ermey, who was very cruel to his soldiers. After the film was released, the United States Armed Forces changed some of its rules about how their drill instructors should behave.
[change] Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut was Kubrick's last film and was released in 1999. He completed editing the film just before his death in March. The film starred Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were married to each other in real-life at the time. It was based on the novel Traumnovelle by the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler. The film took over 16 consecutive months (a world record) to complete and was released in July of 1999. According to R. Lee Ermey, of Full Metal Jacket Fame, Kubrick revealed to him that he was rather dissapointed with his work. Kubrick supposedly went further, saying that both Kidman and Cruise "had their way with" him. Apparently a reference to a clashing of large-Hollywood personas to Kubrick's more reserved demeanor.
[change] Kubrick's death and influence
Just a few days after completing the editing of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick died from a heart attack.
In the year 2001, the American film director Steven Spielberg filmed A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. A.I was a film that Stanley Kubrick had worked on before Eyes Wide Shut, but did not film. Steven Spielberg based his film on Kubrick's plans. The film received a poor response from audiences and did not make as much money as expected. The film was thought to be more Spielberg's film than Kubrick's film.
[change] Movies he made (Filmography)
- Day of the Fight (1951)
- Flying Padre (1951)
- The Seafarers (1952)
- 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 (1963)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- A Clockwork Orange (1971)
- Barry Lyndon (1975)
- The Shining (1980)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
[change] Other websites
- Stanley Kubrick at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
- Official site (requires Macromedia Flash)
- Arthur C. Clarke links & image archive
