Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was and is one of the most influential and important writers and directors in film history. He leaves behind a body of work that is considered one of the most influential, critically acclaimed, and even controversial. His most famous works include The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Full Metal Jacket.

Born July 26th, 1928 in Manhattan, Kubrick was the first-born son of Jacques and Gertrude Kubrick, and was raised in The Bronx. Kubrick became fascinated with many hobbies and arts at a fairly early age. By his teenage years he already developed an affinity for chess, still-photography, and jazz music by the time he was thirteen years old, all of which he was introduced to by his father.

He remained an avid photographer all the way into his years at William Howard Taft High school, being chosen as the official photographer for a year. His academic skills were not as fleeting, however. His time there from 1941 to 1945 brought measly grades, graduating with a 67 average. Because of this, he was fairly skeptical of attending college; he only temporarily attended the City College of New York before leaving soon after.

His saving grace, once again, was his skills in taking photographs. By the time he graduated from high school he had sold a number of photos to be printed in Look Magazine, and made a living doing outside freelance photography and playing chess in several areas around Manhattan including Washington Square Park. Soon he would work his way up to being an official staff photographer for Look, which would be his primary occupation the next five years.

By 1951 he made his first move into film, directing a number of short documentaries for a newsreel series that was screened in US movie theaters entitled The March of Time. The first was titled Day of the Fight, a black-and-white film about a day in the life of a then-middleweight boxing champion Walter Cartier. Kubrick financed the film himself, and employed what would be a trademark film technique throughout his career known as the reverse tracking shot, in which the camera is mounted and moved across a rail in the opposite direction. Kubrick continued on to direct more documentaries, however only two others, Flying Padre and The Seafarers, have apparently survived the ravages of time. From there, he moved into directing full feature films.

By 1957, Kubrick had begun to establish a small of bit of a name for himself as a filmmaker. He started out with what he would later consider "embarrassingly amateur" films, such as "Fear and Desire" with his then-wife Toba Metz. Kubrick worked his way up and developed his craft until he caught the attention of major American media company MGM with "The Killing", Kubrick's first professional full-length done under his production company Harris-Kubrick Productions with producer James B. Harris. Although it did not make much money in theaters, it favorable cirtical acclaim, being most noted for a fragmented storyline and unhappy ending.

The following film was Paths of Glory, a World War I film starring and financially secured by actor Kirk Douglas, who plays a French humanitarian officer trying to prevent the execution of three innocent soldiers. Like The Killing, the movie was met with low financial success but great critical praise, noted for its black-and-white cinematography and intense action scenes. It marked Kubrick's place as the next major film director.

From there, he went on to direct the biggest films of his career, and some of the biggest films in history. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb of 1964 is now considered to be a cult classic, and his following film 2001: A Space Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It is unique in that, although it runs past 2-and-a-half hours, it only contains about 45 minutes of actual dialogue. The rest is left to the amazing visuals and sound to speak for the film, pioneering a generation of film led by advanced special effects such as Star Wars and Alien.

As an established director, Stanley Kubrick was most known for his unique style to every film, as well as the intricacy and meticulous care that he put into every project, with a great sense of perfectionism down the very people that he cast, and even the sense of philosophical statements that he seemed to make with every movie.

As a person, Kubrick was very reclusive about his personal life and beliefs, often refusing to speak in public. Personal opinions towards Kubrick often vary; family and relatives often make him out to be an intelligent and compassionate human being, actors and co-workers tend to describe him as cold, rude, and egotistical.

Whatever the case may be, Stanley Kubrick is still the mastermind behind some of the greatest cinema, worldwide, of all time. Although his catalogue is far less extensive as other directors, it is the fact that many of these are widely regarded as classics that makes him a truly exceptional directory. He had an extremely fluid, unique style to his projects, that would spark great controversy and later be considered masterpieces.