Stanley Kubrick

I marvel this man. Hes a director like no other. I start this thread after watching Eyes Wide Shut on TV a few nights ago. It was a rather creepy movie. He is also the creator of other great films such as Spartacus, Dr Strangelove, Full Metal jacket, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. Your thoughts on Kubrick and his movies?

Kubrick on wiki

Brilliant director, made quite a handful of great movies, but 2001: A Space Oddysey was more like 2001: A Sleep Oddysey.
I mean.. classical music+space. It's just impossible to stay awake. The story is great though, it's just so damn slow-moving.
I just wish he made THE Napoleon movie wich he was so obsessed about.

Full Metal Jacket...

This is one fine piece of Alabama black-snake, but not to beaucoup...

Nuff said...

This is my old siggy


I think that Lolita and Dr. Strangelove were masterpieces although I could not really choose my second bests (Shining, Full metal Jacket, Barry Lyndon). I just feel sorry that his last movie was this undescribable "Eyes wide shut"...

Originally Posted by Ghoulem

Brilliant director, made quite a handful of great movies, but 2001: A Space Oddysey was more like 2001: A Sleep Oddysey.
I mean.. classical music+space. It's just impossible to stay awake. The story is great though, it's just so damn slow-moving.
I just wish he made THE Napoleon movie wich he was so obsessed about.

Don't knock A Space Odyssey, or classical music. They both kick ass!

Originally Posted by Eric

Don't knock A Space Odyssey, or classical music. They both kick ass!

Especially not the soundtrack in this movie heh... I think we can finally agree on something Eric :laughing:

I love the music in "Lolita"!

You have to be a hardcore Kubrik fan to sit through Barry Lyndon i think.

A Space Odyssey is very great, but you indeed need a cup of cofee... beautiful movie though... very. I would like a more modern version of a movie like this made with the same genius and awesome soundtrack.

@ westy

You actually liked Eyes Wide Shut?

Indeed, great director. I enjoyed Barry Lyndon immensely and watched it thrice, something few people can claim to have done.

Originally Posted by Octavian

@ westy

You actually liked Eyes Wide Shut?

I didnt hate it or like it i just found it to be very strange, unique and something that only someone like Kubrick would do.

Well, then I guess we are the few, the proud, the DVD-owners.

Originally Posted by Ghoulem

Well, then I guess we are the few, the proud, the DVD-owners.

Indeed, let us start a club! Though it would make more sense if we were proud of owning and watching old VHS tapes. I still do.

Stanley Kubrick was an excellent film maker (though he must have been hell to work with), my two favourites would have to be Paths of Glory (a superb film) and Lolita (James Mason+Peter Sellers=perfection). The three films of his that I did not enjoy at all were Full Metal Jacket, 2001: A Space Oddysey and Clockwork Orange. Alas, I have not yet had the opportunity to watch Dr Strangelove, though I would dearly love to.

I agree, Classical Music simply rocks, right now I am listening to Beethoven's 5th. Just great music.

I like the first part of 2001 but the ending was drug induced. Worse than alice in wonderland. You have a hotel suite in the middle of space, dave ages rapidly only to be turned into a baby by the monolith. What was that all about.

While we could argue about this, since there's no official interpretation for it, here it goes, from what I have understood and read.

Basically, in the last scene, we see the human facing his death, and all his technology and intelligence is useless now. He has only one thing left, (you know when the glass breaks, it's to show that even when the container is broken, there's still something - the wine, or the spirit), the human only has his spirit left when he dies, and that's why materialism is useless and we must take the next step in our evolution through our spirit.

It's explained why with the computer, that tries to eliminate the humans - the human tool for his evolution (technology) has tried to destroy him, but the human, by himself, has saved himself or with a screwdriver, which is quite not as technological as the computer destroyed. Technology has tried to destroy the human, he saved himself, now how can he evolve without his technology? Well see above... :laughing:

And basically the embryo we see at the end is the new step of human evolution.

I like the first part of 2001 but the ending was drug induced.

And if you're going to dismiss everything that's drug induced, you might as well dismiss 90% of all artistic and philosophical thought, and most probably most of the existing religions, christianity included.

Originally Posted by LegionnaireX

I like the first part of 2001 but the ending was drug induced. Worse than alice in wonderland. You have a hotel suite in the middle of space, dave ages rapidly only to be turned into a baby by the monolith. What was that all about.

Freud, Rimbaud, Beaudelaire, De Quincy, Huxley, Coppola, Rolling Stones, Beatles,Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Francis Bacon: to name a few people that have admitted being under influence of "drugs" during their work. The list of authors, artists or musicians for whom we can speculate is endless.

And apart from what Fenris said, I remember a French film-critic interpreting the baby as the end of the inter-planetary and the birth of the inter-stellar era...although I think that 2001 was by and large, a symbolic and not factual work.

Originally Posted by Garb Richards

Rolling Stones

They do drugs... Say it aint so.

The ending of 2001 is just Kubrick's way of telling us that maybe art should be sometimes seen as art and not as story driven.

Originally Posted by Garbarsardar

Freud, Rimbaud, Beaudelaire, De Quincy, Huxley, Coppola, Rolling Stones, Beatles,Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Francis Bacon: to name a few people that have admitted being under influence of "drugs" during their work. The list of authors, artists or musicians for whom we can speculate is endless.

And apart from what Fenris said, I remember a French film-critic interpreting the baby as the end of the inter-planetary and the birth of the inter-stellar era...although I think that 2001 was by and large, a symbolic and not factual work.

But the difference is when it is you you has to be on drugs to (seem) to understand it.

You have a hotel suite in the middle of space, dave ages rapidly only to be turned into a baby by the monolith. What was that all about.

I believe he entered a blackhole, and this was the author's interpretation of what happens.