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| Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) |
Among those whom I would call 'younger generation' Kubrick
appears to me to be a giant.
– Orson Welles
Watching a Kubrick film is like gazing up at a mountain top.
You look up and wonder, "How could anyone have climbed that high?"
–
Martin Scorsese
Stanley Kubrick Series
Part 1 : Introduction
This may seem like an all-too-familiar story. A young kid
who was not paying attention to school and having poor grades. Nothing really fascinated
him in school, with the exception of chess and photography. When his grades
meant that he could not be admitted to a university, he decided to go to
evening courses, played chess to earn money in the park, and frequently visited
the cinema. Sounds familiar, right? It is where the story starts to be unique. After
serving as a staff photographer for some time, he earned a chance to enter the
movie industry. He went on to make a couple of films. Often at the time of the
release, some critics would castigate his films as ‘cold’, ‘detached’,
‘mechanical’, ‘wooden’ and even ‘misanthropic’. Yet, the nasty comments from
these critics did not send these films to oblivion. Almost all these films have
stood the test of time, and they have become modern classics. The images in
these films have become so ingrained into modern culture that, you are likely
to have encountered them before even knowing where these are all from. This
great man has influenced so many subsequent filmmakers, and his spirit still
loomed over in today’s cinema. He is my favorite filmmaker of all time – Stanley
Kubrick (1928-1999) !!
Kubrick’s place in the movie universe
You may not have heard of Stanley Kubrick before, yet you
are likely to be watched, to have heard of, or at least to be aware of any one
of his films. 2001: A Space Odyssey. A Clockwork Orange . The Shining. Dr. Strangelove. Full
Metal Jacket. Eyes Wide Shut. Spartacus. Lolita. Barry Lyndon. These are all
powerful titles that do not require further descriptions. Kubrick has worked in
many of the film genres, yet due to his originality, his films would almost
always come out as the Number One in the genre or become the most iconic one in
the respective genre.
Kubrick has influenced so many great filmmakers of today,
including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas,
James Cameron, Ridley Scott, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen
Brothers, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, Guillermo del
Toro, Alfonso Cuarón and many more. These masters of cinema certainly know who
they should look upon in order to pursue cinematic excellence.
Kubrick’s spirit still finds presence in many of today’s
films. Fight Club, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, The Dark
Knight, Avatar, Inception, Wall-E, Toy Story (indeed, most of Pixar movies),
The Tree of Life, Gone Girl, Gravity, Interstellar, Mr. Robot – they are some
of the most popular and well-regarded films of our era, and one thing in common
for all – they are all somehow inspired by Kubrick’s style and ideas. Kubrick
has passed away 17 years ago, yet we can still feel his power in so many facets
of modern culture. Therefore, it is still totally relevant to discuss about
Kubrick’s legacy nowadays.
The School
of Kubrick
Kubrickian Style
Kubrick’s films are iconic because they all follow a very
consistent style. That means one can easily recognize the ‘Kubrickian’ elements
from his various work. Kubrick almost adapted the screenplay from other sources
in his major films, and he consistently made use of classical music in many of
his films – from ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ and ‘The Blue Danube’ in ‘2001’ to
Beethoven’s 9th symphony in ‘A Clockwork Orange’. He used consistent
imageries and motifs in his films. Examples include parallel or duplicity
elements in terms of imageries and also narrative, the symmetric and geometric perspective,
and his iconic ‘Kubrick stare’. They are so memorable and lasting that subsequent
film directors have ripped off all these elements numerous times. Kubrick
believes in his original ideas, and he is a stunning filmmaker with a unique
vision and style.
Theme 1 - The Dark Side
The 2 major themes of the Kubrick cinema can be summarized
by ‘D & D’ - The Dark Side and Dehumanization. Most of Kubrick’s films are
very dark, and very different from the subsequent filmmakers he has inspired.
Kubrick’s films present a bleak and pessimistic view of human nature, and while
they are highly popular - just look at
the number of the Kubrick films on the IMDB Top 250 - they are very different
from the more positive and hopeful films like that of Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron
and Scott. In a number of these films, like 2001, A Clockwork Orange and Path
of Glory, they are also existential in nature. While Kubrick has no
reservations to expose the worst moments of the human condition, he shows the
audience that our dark sides come hand-in-hand with dehumanization and control.
Theme 2 - Dehumanization
Kubrick truly believes in Nietzschean freedom. Yet, he urges
us to philosophize – what prevents us from being free, and hence makes us less human? Most of the key
characters in Kubrick films are tragic figures, because they are somehow
controlled or conditioned by some sort of authorities or forces they cannot escape.
Be it conditioning, technology, paranoia, psychic, rules and customs, or even
plain fatalism – these are the underlying powers that push the Kubrickian characters
to their limits. Kubrick’s universe is a bit like that of Spinoza’s – it is a
deterministic system that the characters find themselves to choose and find the
right way. Yet, more than anything, Kubrick wishes to convince that the
inability to choose freely is more likely due to authority’s control, which is
often instrumental to selfish motives and will effectively wipe out the traces
of human dignity. Thus, no matter how
dark or cold Kubrick films may appear, Kubrick is certainly not like this.
Because, he simply shows he cares.
(1/2)
by Ed Law
20/2/2016
Film Analysis - 63
