Paths of Glory (1957)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers:  Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, Him Thompson
Cast:       Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou

When French soldiers in World War One refuse to continue with an impossible attack, their superior officers decide to make an example of them. They choose three soldiers to be court martialed and subsequently killed but their commanding officer, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), decides to defend them against the charge of cowardice in the court-martial. Film is an adaptation of novel with the same name by Humphrey Cobb.

I have been listening to Dan Carlin's podcasts on first world war lately and that acted as a trigger for revisiting this early classic from Stanley Kubrick. There are six episodes in total done by Carlin and they amount to around twenty four hours of engrossing account of the war. I am now onto the fourth episode and chronologically speaking Gallipoli battle is over. What makes Carlin's podcasts very interesting is the same reason that makes Stanley Kubrick's film great. Both of them take time to give a humane account of the war dealing with how it must have felt for the people involved in the trenches. 

Many other sources would have tried to depict something grand about some battle but in this film, the politicking superior officers orders the company to attack and hold a strategic position, which was an impossible task for them. While Col. Dax charges forward with men from his company, another group from the same company does it halfheartedly and then falls back into their trenches. The General goes batshit-crazy and demands 100 men to be shot which the colonel and the general's superior negotiate down to 3. Among the officers in the film, only Col. Dax is shown in a positive light, while almost all others are portrayed as careerists. Trench warfare was something that developed during the first world war and it made the entire Western Front a stagnant one with the front running for about 500 miles from Belgian coast to Switzerland. These soldiers were subjected to unthinkable terror with constant shelling living in the company of dead and wounded. The term shell-shocked was coined during the war but it was recognized as a term for cowardice in stead of the term PTSD that we are familiar with now. Dan Carlin describes that some of the people who were executed for 'cowardice' were convinced that they were doing an act of courage by setting themselves as an example for other troop members and in effect they were told  that they should be proud of dying for France. This aspect is not explored in the film but would have been interesting if Kubrick had pursued that line.

It is a film that is quite underrated when it comes to Kubrick films. He had always tried to convey his anti-war sentiment through his films and this one is the most scathing out of the three, with Dr. Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket being the other two, with him not using humor for it. Film was not exactly banned in France but since it was not submitted to French censors due to pressure from the government, it was released there only in 1975. Even Germany postponed the release of the film for two years so as not to strain its relationship with France. Out of all the films of Stanley Kubrick leading up to Dr. Strangelove, Paths of Glory is my favorite. Film is also technically excellent with some great tracking shots and foreboding background score. The German singer who is entertaining the troops during the last scene was Christiane Harlan, who went on to marry Stanley Kubrick and become his partner till death.

Rating: 5/5 

                                                                             

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers:   Stanley Kubrick, Frederic Raphael, Arthur Schnitzler
Cast:       Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack

A New-York doctor Bill Halford (Tom Cruise) is shocked to hear that his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) had fantasized about having an affair with a naval officer when they were on holiday. He leaves home after getting a call about the death of a female friend's father and proceed to have a sexually charged adventurous night. First the friend make a pass on him, then he has an encounter with a prostitute which almost leads to sex and finally he infiltrates a massive masked orgy of an unnamed secret society. 

Then real life couple Cruise-Kidman, are playing two people in a relationship that is getting a bit sterile like all relationships do at some point of time. The cocky and naive doctor's role is perfect for Cruise. Their relationship survives the ordeal that they go through over the course of the film but Bill appears to be still naive at the end of it as he insists on promising to stay together forever. It seems that Kubrick is also entering the Haneke territory by poking fun at Bill's bourgeoisie lifestyle with which Alice is obviously bored. This is also emphasized with the pity he shows towards his medical school dropout friend who is a pianist now and his admiration towards the rich socialite friend Ziegler (Pollack). 

Even though all the events depicted in the film appear straight-forward with the exposition that Ziegler gives to Bill in the latter part of the film, one could really question whether all those things  really happened. He has his encounter with the prostitute at 12 midnight after which he goes to meet the pianist. He then proceeds to get the costume for the secret meeting and he is back at home by 4 in the morning. A lot of things are supposed to have happened in just under four hours.

I had seen the film around three years back and have been meaning to revisit it for some time. I really liked it first time round but even so I was taken aback by the visual beauty of the film. Kubrick was inspired by Kieslowski's 'Three Colors Trilogy' and has tried to fit in the colors of rainbow in almost all the frames. Sounds are also amazing and especially the chants during the orgy scene. It was really cool to see that Stanley fucking Kubrick used some malayalam poetry in the orgy scene. The creepy venetian masks captures the foreboding and weirdness of the whole affair. 

Eyes Wide Shut is in the Guinness World Records for longest constant movie shoot at 15 months. Kubrick died five days after presenting the final cut to the studio. 

Rating: 5/5

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers:  Brian Aldiss, Ian Watson, Steven Spielberg
Cast:      Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, William Hurt

A highly advanced robotic boy longs to become 'real' so that he can get back to his human mother.

The film was in development from the 70s under Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was not convinced with the CGI capabilities of the times and thought that he needed a real robot to play the role of protagonist. He then passed on the project to Steven Spielberg who decided to make the film after Kubrick's death. The thing is that the two directors in question couldn't be further apart in the kind of style and themes they usually handle and the film was inevitably going to be skeptically reviewed by the critics. Predictably it didn't do that well both commercially and critically when it came out.

So with a similar mindset I sat down to watch it but was really bowled over by it. The film is really very dark for most parts and it was like watching a horror film. Haley Joel Osment gives another wonderful performance after 'The Sixth Sense' and carries the film on his young shoulders. Spielbergian sensibilities takes over in the latter part of the film with a totally unnecessary last act. Despite that it is a wonderful film and just a shame that Kubrick didn't make it because if he had, it would almost certainly have been one of his best. It certainly wouldn't have been a PG-13 either. As it stands it is a great film slightly spoiled by its last 20 minutes. 

Film came out just before 9-11 and have the twin towers still standing 2000 years from now.

Rating: 4.5/5

The Shining (1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers:  Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick
Cast:      Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Excellent performances from all the main cast with a standout performance from Jack Nicholson. I am not a fan of horror films but this is one of my favorite films.

Rating: 5/5

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers:  Terry Southern, Stanley Kubrick, Peter George
Cast:      Peter Sellers, George C.Scott, Sterling Hayden
An insane general starts a process to nuclear holocaust that a war room of politicians and generals frantically try to stop.

One of the best comedies of all time.

Rating: 5/5

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers:  Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Burgess (Novel)
Cast:      Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates
In future Britian, a charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is jailed for a murder. He volunteers for an experimental aversion therapy developed by the government in an effort to solve society's crime problems...but not all goes to plan.

Some elements of Nature vs. Nurture debate is handled in film and its essentially a satire on liberal and non-liberal attitudes to dealing with crime. The conservative government borders on being a totalitarian regime which thinks criminals can be treated by what essentially is a torture technique which takes away the moral choice away from the subject. They want to free up space in jails and save money, leaving prisons free for locking up political prisoners.

McDowell is excellent in the title role and as always the sets are colors are stunning as in a Kubrick film. It was banned in England following some criminal incidents that was thought to be inspired from the film. Kubrick requested Warner brothers to take the film off from cinema and such was Kubrick's power over them that they relented. It was re released years later.

Rating: 5/5

2001: A Space Odyssey(1968)

Director:      Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay:  Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C  Clarke
Starring:       Keir Dullea

I got to watching this magnificent film again, from Stanley Kubrick, whom I consider as the greatest director of all time. This in my opinion is the greatest sci-fi film of all time you do really wonder how this film could be created in 1967. Fantastic visuals, gob smacking sets and an ambiguous story to boot.

Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke collaborated on the screenplay and Arthur came out with the novel Sentinel as a by product. The novel is said to give a more clearer plot whereas in the film Stanley leaves the audience to make their own interpretations. There are some scenes in the film when you clearly see where from some of the scenes in Inception are inspired from.

2001 is a must watch for any serious film fan and it was made during the 7 years of pure film making genius from Stanley Kubrick starting from 1964 (Dr. Strangelove) to 1971 (Clockwork Orange).
Rating: 5/5