Every Stanley Kubrick Film example essay topic

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan on Thursday, July 26, 1928 to Gertrude Perveler and Jacques Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick has witnessed three wars, a slave revolt, and a superpower nuclear confrontation. Stanley has been to the edge of our universe and back, even though he has spent almost half his personal and professional life in the courtside just outside London, England. Stanley Kubrick arrived in Great Britain in the early 1960's as a filmmaker in total control of his personal life thanks to the cities Los Angeles, New York City, and the Bronx.

Stanley Kubrick would become a filmmaker born of the photographic still black and white photo era. The nature of photography itself, light, depth, space, composition, and seizing the reality seen through the eyes of a photographer, can all be well seen in every Stanley Kubrick film. Stanley Kubricks work as a photographer at Look Magazine for a period of a little over four years helped transform the photographer into a filmmaker. He learned to direct his subjects, to control light and shade, to understand lenses, composition, exposure, and balance within the frame. Time went by and Stanley continued to work for Look Magazine.

He got married to his high school sweet heart and saved his money that he got from working for the magazine. It wouldnt be until a few years later that he would realize that, not only did he want to make films, but he finds that directing is what he really wants to do. Stanley and his friend, Alex Singer, decided that they were going to make a short film together. Alex was going to be the director and Stanley was going to be the cinematographer. Alex decided to write a short story that he could later turn into a short film. It was about two teenagers who were at the beach and a short love that doesnt materialize.

Alex would later create a series of pictures that are now called storyboards and he also decided where th camera would be at every moment in the film. When all this was ready he took it to Stanley. Stanley looked at it and saw that everything was already done and that he was really of no use to Alex. From this point on Stanley knew that he had the skills and the knowledge to realize his dream. Stanley would use Alexs presentation of a directors cinematic ideas as a propeller to inspire him to create, direct, and produce his first film.

In 1950 Stanley Kubrick had come of age and was ready to put behind him the role of photojournalist for Look Magazine. He decided it was time for him to make his first motion picture. Movies have always been a part of Stanleys dreams. Stimulated by staring at a silver screen, his mind filled with his fathers great storytelling, and surrounded by his images from his work as a still photographer Stanley thought about filmmaking twenty-four hours a day. Stanley Kubrick had no formal filmmaking education and there was little to be found. There was no place on the East Coast for Stanley to learn the steps of filmmaking.

He would have to teach himself to be a filmmaker. For the subject of Stanleys first film he would turn to the story he had photographed on the middleweight boxer, Walter Cartier. The plan was to independently produce a segment on the boxer and to sell the completed short film. Stanley worked hard to get Day of the Fight into motion. He interviewed, used, and filmed Walter Cartier. Walter was more than happy to give a helping hand to Stanley.

He finished the short film and turned down one offer. Stanley finally sold the short film to RKO-Pathe for $4000, therefore only making a profit of only $100. In early 1951, at age twenty-two, with short film behind him, Stanley knew it was time to direct a feature-length film. Stanley managed to almost receive $10,000 from friends, family, and especially his Uncle Martin Perveler. On February 26, 1951 Stanley Kubrick signed an employment agreement with his Uncle Martin for his first feature film. Stanley formed Stanley Kubrick Productions and set out to become a one man filmmaking unit.

Stanley would be working on a project that would later be called The Trap. Stanley would work on a few other projects and now Stanley found himself in the gloomy years following World War 2. Stanley found means of expressing his gloomy and detached view in the film style that would later be known as film noir. Working on his projects at that time Stanley would design strategies to get around the complexities of shooting sync-sound dialogue sequences.

Student filmmakers would later use these techniques for the next four decades. Visual effects were also minimal at the time. Stanley turned to a wavy screen to denote time shifting in both directions. By 1952 Stanley Kubrick had made two short films and two feature films that included Fear and Desire and Killers Kiss, Stanley was well on his way to fulfilling his dream. Stanleys next project would take him in a back and forth direction.

The Killing would be first seen as a mixed up film, that didnt know which way it was going from beginning to end. Stanley Kubrick would work together with James B. Harris and they both would make a film found controversial by friends, family, agents, and other insiders. When Stanley and Harris held a sneak preview of the film many of the audience members found it confusing and some walked out. Harris and Stanley strongly believed in the picture they had made, but they had received so much negative criticism they decided to see if the people were right. Before turning in the final copy to United Artist they flew back to New York to re-edit the film. When re-editing the film they realized that their original version is what attracted them both to this project.

They put the film back to its original form and turned it in to United Artist. UA didnt like much more than the first people that saw it. Lucky for Stanley and Harris UA had emergency and they needed material. UA released The Killing and the movie never made its money back but it did serve as a base for future Stanley films.

Today the film is seen as a classic for its daring cinematic story telling and its use of nonlinear structure. Stanleys obsession with nuclear power would finally get to him. After things were almost finished with Lolita, Stanley could not get his mind of nuclear power. Since 1958, Stanley had been intrigued by thermonuclear war and has now reached that obsessive state. Having come of age in the post World War 2 era, he was constantly reminded of nuclear threat. Stanley had read intensively on the subject.

Stanley read the novel Red Alert and decided to go out and buy the screen rights for $3,500 dollars. Once again Stanley would be working together with James B. Harris on this film project. One night while they were both working in the script they started to depart from the serious aspect of the script. They began acting silly and found some things about nuclear threat funny. From this point on Stanley would have the thought of making this film into a satire comedy in the back of his mind. On December 31, 1962 Stanley told New York Times that he and Harris were doing a film called Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb with Seven Arts.

While this was going on James Harris would start to feel that he wanted to pursue a directorial career of his own. He decided not to pursue Red Alert or Dr. Strangelove and decided he would rather pursue the West Coast. The deal with Seven Arts signaled the end of Harris-Kubrick. For Stanley it was an ongoing quest for even greater control, but first it was nuclear war. Stanley was taking a bold and dangerous leap in trying to make Red Alert into a satire comedy. The majority of the films that were coming out during this time were focused as entertainment.

A comedy about nuclear war was hardly socially acceptable. Stanley worked hard in trying to make this film as serious as possible but everything he kept ignoring were the things that were the most truthful. So it occurred to him that he was approaching this project all wrong. The only way to tell the story was as a black comedy and the things that one would laugh at most would be the paradoxical postures that make a nuclear war possible.

All this hard work would be a waste of time and Red Alert would never happen because Stanley was hard at work with Dr. Strangelove. Dr. Strangelove is also a film that turned the fear of nuclear war into a comedy. Dr. Strangelove can be remembered best by having that huge War Room where the President and his men would decide the fate of the world. This room would also hold the scene where the famous pie-throwing event takes place. Stanley eventually decided to take out the pie-throwing sequence out because it was too farcical and didnt really fit in with the rest of the film.

Dr. Strangelove would finally come out in December in 1963. Dr. Strangelove still continues to stimulate our imagination. With the completion of Dr. Strangelove, Stanley Kubrick had achieved the status of international film director and producer. He had all the control he was looking for. Stanley Kubrick is seen as one of the best, if not the best, filmmakers this country has produced.

He continued making films after Dr. Strangelove and has gained more control than he probably expected. Stanley probably thinks that there is still more control that he needs to achieve. He has made other great films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket. It may almost be a decade since the world has seen a new release from Stanley but in 1995 the Warner Brothers News Department mentioned that Stanleys next project will be Eyes Wide Shut, a story of jealousy and sexual obsession. The film will include some of todays biggest stars such as, Tom cruise and Nicole Kidman.

Stanley is also reported to be working on another film called AI and is now in the final stages of set design and special effects development. Stanley is great at what he does and will continue to do this until the day he dies. He lives in England, doesnt travel much, he isnt an outgoing person, and is rarely seen in public. He may not go to film festivals and may not appear on any TV shows but Stanley Kubrick is out there. He is thinking about movies, doing his homework, playing chess, and always looking for something new. He will continue to do movies for as long as he lives and we will all be waiting to see what he comes out with next.

Alex would later create a series of pictures that are now called storyboards and he also decided where the camera would be at every moment in the film.