A colossal Kubrick praise in essay form written for my Film Appreciation class.

Stanley Kubrick emerged onto the creative scene when his photographs started appearing in Look Magazine during the mid-1940s. What was so unusual about this was perhaps the fact that Stanley was still only in high school at the time and by the time he graduated (with an assortment of poor grades), he landed a full time job at the magazine. This remarkable success could partly be contributed to his father's support, who introduced his son to photography when he observed his lack of academic achievement, and the family even had a dark room their home. Stanley's interest in the visual form was thereupon established and marked the beginning of his rise to the top as one the greatest directors of film history, his career spanning the second half of the 20th century.

After a few flourishing years at Look, Stanley's attention turned to motion pictures. His father's support was still prevailing as he cashed in his life insurance to help finance his son's first feature. Just six years after making his first moving picture, which was a small documentary, Stanley found himself calling the shots on the set of the critically and commercially successful film Paths of Glory, and from there he was summoned to take over the major production Spartacus, which ultimately recognized him as one of Hollywood's finest film directors (the film won four Academy awards). However, Stanley didn't stop long in Hollywood and moved to England in the early 1960s with his new wife whom he met at the set of Paths of Glory, and the couple would reside there for the remains of his days.

Kubrick's films are defined by his surreal graphic interpretation and his exploration into the deepest and darkest realms of the human psyche, using music to underline the tone of his work. Moreover, there's a profusion of humor in his films which helps create the unusual mood he's so known for. Stanley was extremely well read and there wasn't much that didn't interest him. His film catalog contains a variety of genres, such as comedy, war, epic, and sci-fi. No subject was so out of his element that he couldn't turn it into a visual masterpiece. Kubrick's style is very distinctive as he had an astonishing degree of creative independence and always got final say on his films. His high reputation allowed him to pick his projects freely and he is possibly the most powerful director ever to operate within the Hollywood studio system.

After shocking the Catholic Church with his vision of Nabokov's Lolita, Kubrick made Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which became an instant cult phenomenon. Strangelove explores what might happen if it came to battle between the USA and the USSR during the height of the Cold War, but instead of following his original plan of making it a serious drama film, Stanley realized while writing the screenplay that the events of the story were so absurd that it would be more effective if told in a sarcastic manner. The outcome became one of the funniest films in movie history, with Peter Sellers, the master of comedy, in three major roles. The film starts with an US general who goes "a little funny in the head" and commands an attack on the USSR. The result is a hilarious round-table meeting, lead by the president of the USA who involves the intoxicated president of the USSR through a phone conversation and gets suggestions from a wheelchair bound, former Nazi scientist with the name of Dr. Strangelove about what to do in the events of triggering the Soviet's "Doomsday Machine". We also get to follow the chain of events in one of the nuclear bomb laden aircrafts, as well as the ones in the base from where the general commanded the attack.

Kubrick's next project became his most critically acclaimed work, and he got the assistance of the renowned science-fiction expert Arthur C. Clark in developing the story. The result was 2001: A Space Odyssey. 2001 spans an enormous time period, starting with the "dawn of man", then jumping to the year 2000 (in one of the most legendary form cuts in film history), and finally traveling to "Jupiter and beyond the Infinite" on board of the computer controlled Discovery One spaceship. In the first segment of the film, pre-historic men are presented with a giant monolith placed on earth by alien visitors. In the next segment, men find an identical monolith on the moon and send Discovery One to Jupiter to investigate a signal sent from the monolith. This is however only known by the computer in charge, HAL, who surprisingly starts killing off crew members. The only surviving member manages to disconnect HAL and afterwards travels through a magnificent "star tunnel" which results in a puzzling ending when the space traveler meets a much older version of himself, and then turns into a fetus floating in space. I was relieved when I read Clark's statement, "If you understand 2001 completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered."

The next project Kubrick tackled is also my personal favorite film of his. A Clockwork Orange is a surreal look on violence in a futuristic world and addresses the question of morality (alluded to in Full Metal Jacket when Joker suggests the duality of men by wearing a peace button and "born to kill" inscription on his helmet) from a behavioralistic view, which was a popular practice around the time Anthony Burgess wrote the book (bearing the same title) the film was adapted from. Our protagonist and narrator is a young lad, Alexander de Large (even the name suggests the grandness of this memorable character), whose favorite pastime is drinking narcotic-laden milk with his "droogs", going into the night to commit acts of violence, and finally winding down to the tunes of Beethoven. It seems as Alex has no conscience and there doesn't seem to be anything holding him back, that is until his mates turn on him (ironically with a milk bottle as a weapon) and he falls into the hands of the law. After serving a couple of years in prison, Alex gets chosen for a new "treatment" which makes you "good" through conditioning the subject against violence. Upon his release, Alex finds out that he's defenseless against the violence in the society and barely makes it through his first day out of prison. At the end, Alex gets turned back to his normal self after a media outrage about his condition and attempted suicide.

Following his epic drama, Barry Lyndon, and his classic horror piece, The Shining, Kubrick made his Vietnam War movie which he had been preparing for several years. Full Metal Jacket has been considered one of the best Vietnam War portrayals released in movie theaters. The first half of the film follows an intense training lead by the unforgettable drill Sergeant Hartman who at the end of the training gets blown to pieces by one of his men, who consequently shoots himself. The second half carries the viewer to Vietnam and follows couple of the soldiers from the boot camp through the ruins of the war.

Kubrick frequently found his film subjects in books (with exceptions such as in the case of 2001, even though the starting point was a short story by Clark) and would often work closely with the novelists on the screenplay, but would usually end up with a frustrated writer because he would stray away from the material and make it fit his unique perspective. Kubrick was more of a visual man than a story teller, which makes him such an exceptional director since the medium relies on the visual. The story and its suspense is subordinate to the overall mood of the film, such as how the bomb and doomsday machine in Strangelove don't really pose a threat because of the humor, how the craftiness of the images in 2001 overshadow the doings of a wicked robot, how Alex's brutality gets lost in the stunning set and the hilarious portrayal of bureaucracy in Clockwork Orange, and how the viciousness of the Vietnam War becomes a backdrop of the hypnotizing composition of Full Metal Jacket. And often his films don't really have a strong leading character (exceptions would clearly be films such as A Clockwork Orange) but are more about the mood, style, and philosophical riddles.

Kubrick was once quoted saying that artists don't function because of what they want to say, but because of what they feel. He furthermore said that film was, or at least should be, more like music than fiction – a progression of moods and feelings. This is not to say that his choice of stories doesn't leave a strong impact, after all he did pick them with a particular thought in mind. I especially find his endings haunting because they are often indeterminate and ambiguous and linger in the viewer's mind. One could say that Kubrick owns you completely for the duration of his films, even in films such as 2001 where there is no dialogue for almost half of the running time and the characters are flat and secondary to the picture as a whole, but this was compensated with the celebrated soundtrack, which becomes essential for the narrative drive of the film, and unforgettable images. In fact, Kubrick uses music more efficiently than any other film director I can think of, whether it's to intensify the image, as he did in 2001 where the classical tracks fit the slowly floating and orbiting motions perfectly, or to create a sense of irony, as was done by using lighthearted songs during the bomb droppings in Strangelove, Alex's rampage in Clockwork Orange, and the war setting of Full Metal Jacket.

His films follow a simple linear structure and are more often than not slowly paced, the tranquil mood drawing attention to the visual form. The only exception that I noticed from this and where a faster tempo was presented was where chaotic atmosphere was being created, such as when Alex listens to music and images rush through his mind, and when he gets attacked by a group of hobos (Clockwork Orange), and when the audience realizes that HAL is evil in 2001. I remember seeing The Shining and Clockwork Orange when I was much younger, and even though I might not have understood them completely at the time (and might not even fully do so now) I was still mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the images, despite the fact that this beauty comes in the form of extravagant terror and violence.

Stanley's use of color is compelling, such as in the whole set creation of Clockwork Orange (even the title has color), and many of the costumes are radiant, like the attires of Alex's mother, who even wears colorful wigs on every occasion. The sensational set design of The Shining is another example of Kubrick's dazzling color scheme. But to continue with the style of Clockwork Orange, there are several elements of this film that gained a huge cult following, for instance the astonishing Korova Milk Bar, and the catchy outfits and make-up of the "droogs" which have been copied in countless of Halloween celebrations ever since. Another thing that is very distinctive about Clockwork Orange is its dialect, or "Nadsat", a language created by Anthony Burgess which places the viewer even more vigorously in the futuristic dystopian landscape of the film. Another thing Kubrick did for Clockwork was to frequently use fisheye lenses for fantasy-like quality. One of Kubrick's strong skills was indeed his ability to create a vivid envision of the future, and this was perhaps due to his flair for visual inventiveness. Out of the four movies I viewed for this project, only one looked back on history (Full Metal Jacket) while all the others dealt with the possibilities stored in the future. But even though Clockwork deals with the future, there's something very gracefully ancient about it as well; gang members wear old-fashioned hats of all kinds, and the cadence of the speech is Shakespearian at times. Another element that fits perfectly in this old vs. new setting is the brilliant synthesized theme song (my favorite piece of film music) vs. the classical tracks used.

Kubrick's department of expertise was undeniably lighting, which could be traced back to his photography career. Examples of this are found in the gorgeously cold blue backlighting in Clockwork Orange, a particularly memorable scene being when the droogs approach a drunkard underneath a bridge (directly after the amazing opening scene) and their shadows are cast long as a result of the bright backlight, making the droogs appear even more powerful and frightening. Other masterful examples are several shots in the so-called "magic hour" light (twilight) in Full Metal Jacket, and of course the use of light in Barry Lyndon which I will come to later.

Kubrick has a few trademarks associated with his name. The best known is doubtlessly the "glare", which is a disturbing close-up of a character with his face pointed down, but looking up and staring directly into the camera. The "glare" is frequently used when a character is losing his mind, or has already turned psychotic. Examples are found in the opening scene of Clockwork Orange, which also incorporates another trademark of Kubrick's, the backward zoom. This is my personal favorite opening scene of a film (I have a lot of favorites when it comes to Clockwork) and Alex's visage is so convincing that it's as the camera is afraid of him and therefore slowly backs off, as if not to provoke him. Other examples of the "glare" are found in The Shining where Jack is going insane, and in Full Metal Jacket right before Leonard shoots Sgt. Hartman and then himself. (Even though there are close-up shots of General Jack in Strangelove, Kubrick had probably not developed the "glare" at this point). And even Beethoven himself has the "glare" on the poster Alex has hanging in his room. Another example of the backward zoom is in Full Metal Jacket where Joker encounters a mass grave. I find this method especially tactful because it builds suspense as the viewer first sees the character's facial expression, and then the scene the character is looking at.

Kubrick also uses slow-motion effectively, such when Mr. Alexander finds out that Alex attacked him and his wife ("Singing in the rain" gained a new meaning after this film was released and displays Kubrick's play with irony), when Alex gets beaten up by his former gang members (both from Clockwork Orange, and there are many more), when the sniper makes her attack at the end of Full Metal Jacket and when Leonard shoots his drill Sergeant in the same movie, in several scenes in 2001, for example when a pre-historic man discovers a new use as a weapon for a bone, and of course in the stirring elevator blood scene in The Shining.

Other trademarks Kubrick frequently used were low-angle shots (General in Strangelove, Mr. Alexander and prison chaplain in Clockwork, Sergeant in Metal Jacket), long hallways (best remembered in The Shining but also appear in Metal Jacket and Clockwork), tracking shots (again, The Shining, but also in F.M.J. and C.O.), and colorful bathrooms in significant scenes (general's suicide in Strangelove, final scene in 2001, Alex singing in the bathtub in Clockwork, murder/suicide scene in Metal Jacket, and a couple of scenes from Shining (I mention Shining a lot even though I didn't view it for this project and haven't seen it in a while, but there are just so many classic Kubrick trademarks that come to mind)).

The choice of cast in Kubrick's films has proved to be very successful and has added to the overall quality of the films. Kubrick even said that he would never have made Clockwork Orange if he wouldn't have gotten Malcolm McDowell for the leading role. And who can imagine Dr. Strangelove, or The Shining, without Peter Sellers or Jack Nicholson? Not me. McDowell and Sellers are supposedly the only two actors Kubrick worked with whom he referred to as being "geniuses". Kubrick formed a close relationship with McDowell during the shooting, and while filming with Sellers he would often be seen rolling around with laughter on the floor. Sellers was actually the only actor Kubrick allowed to improvise, that is, with the exception of R. Lee Ermey, who depicts the dictorial drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket. Ermey had been a real life drill instructor and was working as an advisor on the film but asked to audition for the role. After making a videotape of himself improvising insults for fifteen minutes straight while being pelted with oranges and tennis balls, without flinching, ducking, repeating himself, or losing his rhythm, Stanley gave him the role. Another great talent who emerged onto the scene after appearing in Full Metal Jacket was Vincent D'Onofrio, who plays the soldier who shoots the drill instructor and then himself. In fact most, if not all, of the actors in the film were unknown aspiring actors who Stanley found by advertising for the roles and then going through some 800 tapes before making his choice.

Stanley stirred up the rules of society on many occasions. His films were always contentious and dealt with delicate and/or taboo matters. Dr. Strangelove was a very unusual take on the Cold War and was considered daring and racy at the time it came out. The sarcastic tenor of the film allows the president of the US to be a gentle man who speaks to the drunk president of the USSR as he was a child, and the flyboys are depicted as dumb, stumbling around their aircraft and mindlessly obeying orders while communicating in a thick southern drawl. The satire also emerges in familiar phrases, such as the classic "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the war room!" Furthermore, there's a great deal of suggestive wordplay to be found within the names in Strangelove, often times contributing to the sexual undertone of the film. Despite the initial controversy, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" in 1989 (which was also the year the Cold War ended) and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

2001 was made a few years after Strangelove and also deals with issues springing from the spirit of the era. Made during the high-point of the space-race (it was released a year before man landed on the moon and was the last film to be made where a man is seen on the moon before this happened in reality) and captures some of the things that I can imagine was going through people's minds at the time, such as man vs. machine, the possibility of extra terrestrial life, and the overall uncertainty of the future. 2001 was also deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation.

Even though Full Metal Jacket was not meant to criticize the Vietnam War but was more supposed to be an objective view of the event, there's no denying that the contents of the film leave the viewer (even more) bitter towards the US army. The first part of the film is carried by the overwhelming and in-your-face drill trainings of Sgt. Hartman who doesn't seem to breathe for the 45 minutes of screen time he has before getting shot. In fact, the whole first part is so consuming and focused that it's almost as if the audience is being drilled as well. What is so unusual about this first part is that since Hartman is so overpowering, we barely get to hear the recruits speak, unless they are answering to him. This gives the viewer a sense of their worthlessness Hartman is aiming for. In the second part of the film there are scenes that show the terrors of the war, such as the horrifying helicopter scene where one of the soldiers is shooting civilians. In fact, there are many indicators of soldiers gone insane in this film and the whole feel of it is said to represent the war pretty accurately.

The overpowering sexuality and violence in Clockwork Orange gave the film its initial X-rating in the US, but Stanley sacrificed a few minutes in order to get it into the theaters with an R-rating (Clockwork Orange is the only other initially X-rated movie, along with Midnight Cowboy, that got nominated for an Oscar). The repercussions of the films were much graver in the UK where a wave of violence after the release of the film got blamed on Kubrick, resulting in threatening hate mail and angry protestors showing up at the Kubrick home. To protect himself and his family, Stanley asked for a withdrawal of the movie from UK cinemas. No other filmmaker had, or has since, stopped a successful studio distribution and this clearly demonstrates just how powerful Stanley was. It was much more important for Warner Brothers to have Stanley under contract than making a few more millions from one of his films. The film was banned in the UK for almost 30 years, or until Kubrick passed away in 1999.

Stanley Kubrick was a very controversial man who left strong opinions on everyone he worked with, whether those were positive or negative. He was perhaps best known for his compulsiveness which lead him to get so immersed in the project he was working on that he got every little detail down perfectly (for example extensive and precise toilet instructions visible only momentarily in 2001, and the interior of bomber planes in Strangelove, which were so accurate that Kubrick was afraid of getting in trouble due to restrictions of presenting US military planes in movies). This could be seen in his long preparation process when he would often read several (sometimes up to a hundred) books on a particular subject, as well as do further research such as examining paintings from the time period, or watching numerous films, to make sure his interpretation would be genuine. This resulted in his slow working process because he refused to be constricted by time and continually pushed his capabilities, as well as others', to the limit.

Stanley had a curious nature and was always experimenting and wanted to explore every avenue and then make decisions based on the outcomes. For example, while making Barry Lyndon, Stanley requested a classic film camera through his production company that he believed could be improved by attaching a special lense on. This special lense then had to be acquired through NASA and modified to fit the camera. All this work was for the sole purpose of shooting a scene for Barry Lyndon where the only light came from several candles. This was done to convey the natural lighting and atmosphere of the time, and other scenes for the film used only the sunlight coming in from the windows (the film was nominated for seven Academy awards, more than any other Kubrick film, and won four including best art direction and best cinematography). This was not the last time Kubrick would have a lense made for a particular purpose. He had a special lense designed to keep every single soldier in focus during the barrack scenes in Full Metal Jacket because he felt that they were all equally significant and none of them was to stand out.

Being a superb and enthusiastic chess player from an early age (another interest his father introduced him to), Kubrick was afraid of making mistakes without checking his actions thoroughly. His biggest regret as a director was how few films he completed during his lifetime, but as Woody Allen points out in Stanley Kubrick: Life in Pictures, his films are so brilliant and rich that it's like you're seeing a new film every time you watch them. But despite his weakness concerning lengthy productions, he was a fearless and confident director with an unlimited imagination, the latter perhaps most evident in 2001 where Stanley came up with many of the groundbreaking special effects, which for he received his only ever Academy award.

Stanley was versatile when it came to making pictures, which is probably why they bear such a distinctive flair, and why they are so superior. He was the only crew member, apart from assistance from his first wife, on his first feature (Fear and Desire) and he would always be known for a small set on his films, perhaps due to his multitalented nature. He was involved in every aspect of the production, no matter how insignificant it looked to his crew members, who often thought he did work that was beneath him. Stanley saw it as a package deal - either you cared or you didn't. He even got involved in the marketing for A Clockwork Orange, and whether or not it was thanks to this, A Clockwork Orange remains the second highest grossing Warner Brothers production to this date (despite being pulled out of UK cinemas prematurely). Later in his career he moved into a mansion in rural England where he combined work and family life (mainly so he could spend more time with his family, seeing that he was constantly working) and set up an impeccable work base where he would do all pre- and post-production work with the assistance of a small and dedicated team. He would continually have friends and business collaborators over to his vibrant residence and his children and several cats would frequent in his editing room where Stanley made up for time spent working away from home.

Stanley's mind was constantly working on a project and he was relentless when it came to his profession. His wife once convinced him to accompany her on a vacation (a rare thing for Kubrick) but he would be taking notes and planning his next movie for the duration of the break. A long-time friend and colleague of his remarked that it was as if Stanley knew what was wrong with the world and made that into art. It has also been said that after 2001, his primary influence became himself, and he sought to reinvent himself with every film he made. Release of a "Kubrick film" had become an enormous, anticipated event and so much was expected of him each time because he constantly insisted on raising the bar, but he never failed his audience and delivered an exceptional piece of work every time. It is unfortunate that there will never be another Kubrick film, but as Woody pointed out, we can perpetually continue to enjoy his work without the slightest loss of fascination.