Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was anAmericanmoviedirector. Kubrick is thought to have been one of the great directors of the 20th century.
Stanley Kubrick's filmmaking style is characterized by meticulous attention to detail, iconic imagery, a unique and uncompromising vision, a wide range of genres, symmetrical framing, use of music, subtle satire, memorable characters, and bold stylistic choices, leaving a profound impact on cinema.[1]
Kubrick was born inManhattan, New York City and grew up in theBronx during his youth. Stanley was a poor student in school but his father, who was adoctor, taught Stanley how to playchess and gave him acamera. Kubrick finishedhigh school in 1946 and could not get into acollege. This was because of his poor grades in school and because colleges were full with manyAmericansoldier's who returned fromWorld 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 andphotography equipment. Kubrick got a job at a magazine in New York City that was calledLook Magazine. Kubrick also enjoyed watching movies and thought that he could make better movies than the movies that were being made at the time. He first made two smalldocumentaries. One of them was about aboxer and was calledDay of the Fight. The other documentary was about areligious man and was calledFlying Padre. He then made two full-length movies (calledfeature films) that made other people interested in his work. The first feature film was calledFear and Desire and the other was calledKiller's Kiss. His third feature film, calledThe Killing, was a success. The success ofThe Killing allowed Stanley to work on a bigger movie, calledPaths of Glory, that was aboutWorld War I and was made with the famous actorKirk Douglas. At this time Kubrick became well known in themovie industry and had started to create his own style.
After Stanley Kubrick completedPaths of Glory, he worked on a bigHollywood movie namedSpartacus in 1960. The movie is about a gladiator who fights Rome. It 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 movie who controlled it. Kubrick desired to have a lot of control in making his movies, and after makingSpartacus he only worked on movies that he had full control over.
Kubrick moved to theUnited Kingdom in 1962, to make his next movie,Lolita. He liked the United Kingdom very much and decided to live there for the rest of his life. The movieLolita was the first movie that Kubrick made that created a lot ofcontroversy. The movie was based upon a book by theRussian authorVladimir Nabokov that was also very controversial at the time. The movie shows the relationship between a very young woman and an older man. This is a forbidden topic in theUnited States and most of the world.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
For the movieLolita, Kubrick hired the talented and famous actorPeter Sellers. Kubrick respected Peter's acting and asked him to act as three different characters in Kubrick's next movie,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 calledblack comedies. The movie was about theCold War and was very controversial but also very successful. The movie had a largecultural influence and created some images that became very famous in the years to follow. The most famous image from the movie was of an Americanpilot sitting on anuclear bomb as it fell to earth from anairplane.
Kubrick's success withDr Strangelove convinced themovie studios that he was talented and that he could be trusted to make good, popular movies. Kubrick entered into a positive relationship with the movie studio,Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers gave him almost full artistic control on all of the movies he was to make in the future. A director being given so much control is rare. Such directors are called "auteurs".
Kubrick took five years to develop and plan his next movie. It was ascience fiction movie called2001: A Space Odyssey and it was released in 1968. Kubrick based the movie on ashort story called "The Sentinel" that was written by the science fiction authorArthur C. Clarke. Kubrick worked with Arthur C. Clarke to make the movie. The movie used many new ideas and techniques and hadspecial effects that no other movie at the time had. The great special effects used in the movie won Kubrick his first and onlyOscar award.2001 was made during the end of the 1960s and was very popular with members of theHippieCounterculture. This was because of the movies strange and dream-like visuals. When the movie was released it was both loved and hated by manymovie critics. Many of the movie 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 movie many years later.
His next movie was one of his most famous and also his most controversial. The movie was titledA Clockwork Orange and was released in 1971. The movie was darker than2001 and was originally released with an "X"motion picture rating in the US. The movie was based on a novel of the same title by the authorAnthony Burgess. The novel and movie are about acriminal who is given a new and experimental 'cure' for his violent nature. The story asks questions about how society definesmorality. The movie had an amount of sex and violence that was not often seen in big Hollywood movies at the time. The controversy of the movie increased when other people copied some of the acts that were committed by the characters in the movie. Kubrick and his family received violent threats from people, calleddeath threats. These threats were serious enough that Kubrick took the movie out of theaters in Britain. The movie was not shown again in Britain until the year 2000, after Kubrick's death.
Kubrick's next movie was to going to be aboutNapoleon but he canceled it after another similar movie 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 titledBarry Lyndon. The movie was based a book byWilliam Makepeace Thackeray and was about an 18th-century gambler named Barry Lyndon. The movie was not as well liked as his previous movies but, like2001: A Space Odyssey, it convinced people over time.
AfterBarry Lyndon, Kubrick made movies at a much slower rate than before. He only made three more movies in the next twenty-five years. He was still very popular and respected. Each of the movies he released became an event that many people waited for and celebrated.
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 ahorror movie and starredJack Nicholson andShelley Duvall. The movie was one of Kubrick's mostmainstream movies and was very popular. It was different from the other horror movies at the time and thecatch phrase, "Here's Johnny!" (which was also used on the TV'sThe Tonight Show hosted byJohnny Carson at the time) was made very popular after Jack Nicholson's character said it during an important scene in the movie. The author of the bookStephen 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.
Full Metal Jacket was Kubrick's next movie and was released in 1987. It was one of several movies that were made in the 1980s that were about theVietnam War. The movie was most famous for itsdrill instructor character, played byR. Lee Ermey, who was very cruel to his soldiers. After the movie was released, theUnited States Armed Forces changed some of its rules about how their drill instructors should behave.
Eyes Wide Shut was Kubrick's last movie and was released in 1999. He completedediting the movie just before his death in March. The movie starredTom Cruise andNicole Kidman, who were married to each other in real-life at the time. It was based on the novelTraumnovelle by theAustrian writerArthur Schnitzler. The movie took over 16 consecutive months (a world record) to complete and was released in July 1999. According to R. Lee Ermey, of Full Metal Jacket Fame, Kubrick revealed to him that he was rather disappointed 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.
Just a few days after completing the editing ofEyes Wide Shut, Kubrick died from a heart attack inHarpenden,Hertfordshire.
In the year 2001, the American movie directorSteven Spielberg filmedA.I.: Artificial Intelligence.A.I was a movie that Stanley Kubrick had worked on beforeEyes Wide Shut, but did not finish. Steven Spielberg based his movie on Kubrick's plans. The movie received a poor response from audiences and did not make as much money as expected. The movie was thought to be more Spielberg's movie than Kubrick's movie.
All of Stanley Kubrick's later movies, except forThe Shining, were nominated for Oscars or Golden Globes.2001: A Space Odyssey had many technical awards, including a BAFTA award for cinematographer and an Academy Award for best visual effects. As director of special effects on the movie, Kubrick got the award. This was Kubrick's only personal Oscar win among 13 nominations. Nominations for his movies were mostly in the areas ofcinematography, art design, screenwriting, and music. Only four of his movies were nominated by either an Oscar or Golden Globe for their acting performances:Spartacus,Lolita,Dr. Strangelove, andA Clockwork Orange.
Personal awards for Kubrick:
Year
Title
Awards (limited to Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Saturns and Razzies)
Nominated for Oscar: Best Adapted Screenplay (Kubrick's extensive work on this was uncredited- the nominee was Vladimir Nabokov) Nominated for Golden Globes: Best Director
Nominated for Oscars: Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay Won BAFTA Awards:Best British Film, Best Film from any Source, Nominated BAFTA: Best British Screenplay (nomination shared with Peter George and Terry Southern)
Won Oscar:Best Special Effects Nominated for Oscars: Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (nomination shared with Arthur C. Clarke) Nominated for BAFTA: Best Film
Nominated for Oscars: Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated for Golden Globes: Best Director, Best Drama Picture Nominated for BAFTA Awards: Best Direction, Best Film, Best Screenplay Won 2 recognitions by The New York Film Critics: Best Director, Best Picture
Nominated for Oscars: Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated for 2 Golden Globes: Best Director, Best Drama Picture Won BAFTA Award:Best Direction Nominated: Best Film
