TOP 5 KUBRICK FILMS (RANKED)
In a fit of Strangelove-like megalomania, I recently pitched and half-wrote a Kubrick-inspired project entitled "Call Me Stanley" which I believed might become a half-decent stage play but once I got into it, I found myself quickly tangled up in the weeds of that complex genius and realised I was well out of my depth.
So humbly, at least for now, I have decided to rank my top 5 favorite Kubrick movies for you instead.
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
People I talk to about this iconic movie seem to veer from either excessive hyperbole about '2001 : A Space Odyssey (which I too have been guilty of) to harumphing negativity about its confusing plot, meandering pace and unclear cosmic symbolism.
Aside from its technical genius, the use of sound, image and an unusually minimalist (borderline Zen) screenplay makes it one of the most famous commercial experiments in the history of cinema pre-dating the actual moon landing of 1969 that many conspiracy theorists believe Kubrick shot the footage for. I don't buy into that (although it's a hugely fun thought experiment) simply because the framing of the video transmissions from the historic footage is all off. It lacks that Kubrick je ne sais quoi which in contrast is contained within in every single scene of '2001'.
Further testament to the film's greatness is that it blew me away even though my first time watching it was on a tiny television screen where an ape throwing a bone into space looked more like a tiny dog biscuit. Nevertheless such is the power of the scene's image, effortless transitions in time, and symbiosis between music and narrative that I could not take my eyes off it for one minute. And how can one not love the use of Strauss's (both Johann 11 and Richard) music to accompany the dawn of man and the dawn of space travel? It is transcendence personified in celluloid and for that reason, I feel exceptionally guilty that this is at number five and not number one on my list but I'll explain more about that decision shortly.
If there might be one criticism of the film (is that even possible?) then you might conclude watching the movie that the human characters are not written so well as to earn the audience's sympathy necessary for the final confrontation with the ultimate demon of artificial intelligence HAL. But perhaps it's Kubrick vision overall that brings the humanity needed as demonstrated in the final scene with the Star Child gazing at Planet Earth which seems both beautiful and possibly terrifying.
I still have no idea what it means.
4. Barry Lyndon (1975)
The ultimate coffee table movie, there is a God-like coolness in which Kubrick observes the chess pieces of Thackeray's novel move across the board of their lives with barely any interference. Occasionally the camera will revert to a less formal 18th Century landscape approach and become deliberately chaotic in order to reflect the violence inside of Barry whether it be the hand-held fight scene with a fellow soldier in the British Army or the shocking and savage attack of his nemesis and stepson Lord Bullingdon in front of a roomful of aristocrats that leads to his ultimate downfall.
Time and history play out seamlessly throughout the three-hour running time as Barry's inherent character flaws travel with him while he moves from peasant to the upper echelons of European nobility and aristocracy only to find he cannot elude the tragic destiny of his bitter and selfish heart or lack thereof.
3. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
I think Alexander Walker once posited that the Star Child at the end of '2001 : A Space Odyssey' might later turn out to become Alex in 'A Clockwork Orange' the fashy youth drunk on milk, ultra-violence and Ludwig Van Beethoven. My thinking on the matter has always been that Alex is more a composite of both Barry Lyndon and Star Child and in many ways bridges the past of Kubrick's Thackeray adaptation and future in '2001' with a dystopian timeless present which although is meant to be futuristic seems to also accurately depict 1970's Britain.
An evolution of art direction, editing, sound, and image combined with subversive, multi-layered characters and story, this is Kubrick's genius firing on all cylinders (or should that be boosters?)
In many ways, this is the epitome of a Kubrick film as it courts controversial themes, probes ever more deeply into the human psyche and delivers it with a visual and audio panache that no other director in the history of cinema could deliver to the same level of precise execution.
Yet another masterpiece from Stanley.
2. The Shining (1980)
On several criteria this would ordinarily be ranked behind '2001', 'Lyndon' and 'Orange' but in terms of delivering perhaps his purest form of cinematic hypnosis, I have to put 'The Shining' at number two. It's almost impossible to look away from it once you catch a glimpse of it on TV or any screen of varying size like Galadriel's mirror.
I have always had reservations about the casting of Jack Nicholson in the film and some of the dialogue seems weirdly artificial and clunky but somehow none of these factors change the fact that this is one of the most magnetic films ever made. I've written before about how Kubrick's camera seems to move like a living organism in and around the characters as if it's the omnipresent spirit/ghost of the Overlook following the Torrance family like a curse.
And Kubrick's deliberate deviation from Stephen King's original novel means that his film ultimately achieves a greater transcendence in how it looks at time and the cyclical nature of karma to create a far more chilling yet strangely familiar masterpiece of horror.
1. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Two things both Stanley and I agree on is that Ron Shelton's 'White Men Can't Jump' is a classic and 'Eyes Wide Shut' is Kubrick's best film.
Although an adaptation from Arthur Scnitzler's novella 'Traumnovelle' Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' seems remarkably prescient for these current modern times of ours where the concept of a traditional family and the virtue of fidelity finds no place in our hedonistic, promiscuous society saturated in pornography and desensitized to intimacy, it was met with mixed reception on its first release. Of course, in hindsight, this story where humans are encouraged to indulge their impulses without restraint clearly echoes the power elites debauched secret island parties hosted by Jeffrey Epstein and so the film grows in stature and symbolism now with each passing year.
The true brilliance of the film for me is the fact that Kubrick finally concludes his lifetime of work with his most human ending where husband and wife, Bill and Alice Hartford, finally resolve their misdirected desires of lust and sex with others back to themselves. It is a reminder that we humans, especially when nefarious dark forces are all-pervasive in almost all aspects of our lives need to return to the home where we can always find spiritual, emotional and physical sanctuary in one another.
For if the human race stands any chance of surviving the tech tyranny of a billion robot overlords a la Hal then we may just need to stick together and that is why 'Eyes Wide Shut' is my number one and '2001' is number five.