Best Stanley Kubrick movie

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Not only have I seen 2001, I've seen it on 70mm.

but have you seen it in cinerama?

Edward III, Friday, 27 April 2007 15:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Is there such a thing as true 70mm projection anymore? I thought after the early '70s, all the prints are 35 blown up to 70. (plus 2001 was shot on 65mm)

The Killing is a good B movie, and a kindergarten painting for Kubrick.

Dr Morbius, Friday, 27 April 2007 15:36 (seventeen years ago) link

iirc warners struck actual 70mm prints for the 2001/2002 re-release.

I saw it in NYC, it was beautiful, only problem being that there was some blurring at the far ends of the image due to the lack of a curved screen.

Edward III, Friday, 27 April 2007 15:41 (seventeen years ago) link

yes, me too (Loews State before it closed). I guess the one I saw in '74 was 70mm also.

Dr Morbius, Friday, 27 April 2007 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Is there such a thing as true 70mm projection anymore? I thought after the early '70s, all the prints are 35 blown up to 70. (plus 2001 was shot on 65mm)

Yeah, that must be why I didn't immediately decide The Shining is a piece of shit.

Eric H., Friday, 27 April 2007 16:42 (seventeen years ago) link

? I don't think that was ever hyped as a 70mm film. Apocalypse Now was, tho.

Dr Morbius, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link

No, I mean seeing a 70mm print of 2001 was so obviously incorrect (as it was shot in 65mm) that I'm sure if I saw it again in a 65mm print with the Cinerama experience, I'd realize that I was wrong all along thinking The Shining was any good.

Eric H., Friday, 27 April 2007 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link

I missed Cinerama.

I don't think anybody has seen 2001 in 65mm since the first release. But who knows what 'mm' would make Nicholson not seem crazy from the first reel.

Dr Morbius, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:38 (seventeen years ago) link

The Shining has grown on me. It was 2.5 stars to me when I first saw it, but now I'd have to say 3 or 3.5. Out of 5.

Dominique, Friday, 27 April 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I would have voted for The Shining, but the bearsuit blowjob scene is disgusting and spoils the whole film.

Alba, Saturday, 28 April 2007 00:40 (seventeen years ago) link

er, cineassssssstes - 65mm is the camera negative format, 70mm is the projection print format (65mm never a projection format)

bobby bedelia, Saturday, 28 April 2007 06:39 (seventeen years ago) link

the bearsuit makes the Shining for me

latebloomer, Saturday, 28 April 2007 07:58 (seventeen years ago) link

2001 is easily the worst Kubrick film I've seen. The sets and the visuals might be great, but I find all that New Age sci-fi mumbo jumbo about the evolution of man silly and uninteresting.

Tuomas, Saturday, 28 April 2007 10:54 (seventeen years ago) link

"I would have voted for The Shining, but the bearsuit blowjob scene is disgusting and spoils the whole film.

-- Alba, Saturday, April 28, 2007 3:40 AM (10 hours ago)"

haha wtf

That one guy that quit, Saturday, 28 April 2007 10:57 (seventeen years ago) link

thanks, booby b, i was wondering. I honestly don't care much about that stuff tho.

OK ERIC

Dr Morbius, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link

actually having Scatman Crothers come halfway across the continent to get axed really made me throw up my hands

Dr Morbius, Saturday, 28 April 2007 19:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Well that was sort of the definitive moment of Kubrick ominously saying "this is not the novel of The Shining." In fact, about the only thing he DID retain from the book was that creepy bear-oral bit, IIRC.

Eric H., Saturday, 28 April 2007 21:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I used to love The Shining and kind of still do (final chase scene is as heart-pounding as anything in any scary movie, whether it's Alien or a slasher flick or whatever), but the last time I watched it I lost interest right around the time of Jack's meeting in the bathroom.

That's the point where Kubrick's distancing becomes a case of diminishing returns.

Never understood Rosenbaum's comments on FMJ - the Parris Island section accomplishes everything Kubrick wanted to accomplish with The Shining (or close, they're on the chireader site). Disorientation? Isolation? FMJ seems keen on bringing you together with the recruits, inside them - rather than pushing you away as in the Shining.

milo z, Saturday, 28 April 2007 21:57 (seventeen years ago) link

"the first section alone accomplishes most of what The Shining failed to do."

milo z, Saturday, 28 April 2007 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link

seven months pass...

I watched Killer's Kiss during the ILX downtime -- the acting is poor, but there are moments of real brilliance in there! The fight in the mannequin storeroom is creepy, the rooftop chase prior to that is well staged (and has a couple of funny pratfalls as well). The most omg wtf lol moment was Davey's nightmare, since it used an effect that Kubrick came back to in 2001.

Rock Hardy, Wednesday, 5 December 2007 05:53 (sixteen years ago) link

five months pass...

Watched the Criterion DVD of Spartacus, which I likely haven't seen since its early '90s restoration ... the Rome stuff is so much better than the slave scenes (which was apparently Dalton Trumbo's complaint on seeing the rough cut). Some pretty terrible acting too (John Dall, most of Tony Curtis, the gorgeously wooden John Gavin), tho the Brits rule the roost.

But yeah, anyone who thinks this is much of "a Kubrick film," whaaa? SK:

"I tried with only limited success to make the film as (historically) real as possible but I was up against a pretty dumb script which was rarely faithful to what is known about Spartacus. History tells us that he twice led his victorious slave army to the northern borders of Italy, and could quite easily have gotten out of the country. But he didn't, and instead he led his army back to pillage Roman cities. What the reasons were for this might have been the most interesting question the film might have pondered. Did the intentions of the rebellion change? Did Spartacus lose control of his leaders who by now may have been more interested in the spoils of war than in freedom? In the film, Spartacus was prevented from escape by the silly contrivance of a pirate leader who reneged on a deal to take the slave army away in his ships. If I ever needed any convincing of the limits of persuasion a director can have on a film where someone else is the producer and he is merely the highest-paid member of the crew, then Spartacus provided proof to last a lifetime."

Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:26 (sixteen years ago) link

morbs where do you rate lolita on your personal list?

J.D., Wednesday, 14 May 2008 03:20 (sixteen years ago) link

You mean the slaves-in-Rome vs. the slaves-free scenes? I actually thought the best scenes were anything to do with that slave salesman, and the lead-up-to and fight and aftermath with the black slave, especially that minute where they just look at each other.

Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 06:03 (sixteen years ago) link

yes, Woody Strode always awesome. But no, I meant the political machinations btwn Laughton and Olivier, tho Ustinov's (the slave/gladiator trader) ham is at its most digestible.

Lolita is fine second-tier Kubrick, the main problem being he should've made it 10 years later w/ greater thematic freedom.

Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 14 May 2008 13:32 (sixteen years ago) link

two months pass...

all of these movies are good.

ryan, Thursday, 24 July 2008 04:49 (sixteen years ago) link

Poll results pretty much as I'd rank them. I would probably have Paths of Glory above Barry Lyndon for 5th though.

circa1916, Thursday, 24 July 2008 06:13 (sixteen years ago) link

seven months pass...

S&S on the Lyndon adap:

Kubrick certainly put his stamp on the material. Thackeray's Europe is marked by bloody, corrupt politics, but Kubrick has no room for terrorist strikes against Irish landlords or German princes commissioning the murders of inconstant female dependents, or even Barry's self-serving term as a Member of Parliament. Thackeray's Barry yarns non-stop in the manner of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman; O'Neal's Barry is reticent, and only tells stories to his son, most affectingly on the boy's deathbed. For the novelist, the duels are divertissements, opportunities for Barry to misrepresent himself as a fine fellow; Kubrick depicts a series of ritual conflicts, which the hero loses even if he happens to win. Barry's adventures in life start with the death of his father in a duel (in the novel, he drops dead at the races), and his wanderings begin when he prevails in a fake duel with Captain Quin (Leonard Rossiter), his rival for his cousin, and has to flee Ireland. Enlisted in the British army, he fights bare-knuckled with a huge bruiser (Pat Roach). Then, in alliance with the Chevalier (Patrick Magee), he collects gambling debts with a sword. His chastisement of the shrill Bullingdon prompts a campaign of insolence that escalates into a horrific beating administered in public on slippery wood floors, a scene that snaps cinematographer John Alcott out of poised, perfect, tracking shots into a flurry of ugly, close, handheld work. Last is the irony-laden duel with Bullingdon, as a good turn earns Barry a crippling reward. Dialogue exchanges, with a bespectacled highwayman or a canny German officer, are similarly cut-and-thrust, and tend to find Barry the loser....

Michael Hordern's narration is a constant presence, at once soothing and peppery.... Writing his screenplay without a credited novelist to assist him, Kubrick simply tweaks sentences from Thackeray so that Barry's self-exposing asides become the objective, mildly regretful observations of, basically, God. A note about a soldier's widow who is, like nearby towns, "taken and retaken several times" during a campaign is self-justifying waffle in Barry's mouth, but coming from Hordern, a more authoritative voice even than the carping Fitz-Boodle, it is a mean-spirited writing-off of a minor character....

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49516

Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 21:03 (fifteen years ago) link

three years pass...

was the ending of paths of glory mandated by the studio? seemed like it would have been more kubrickian for him to have ended it with the soldiers just laughing and hooting

乒乓, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 04:29 (eleven years ago) link

it was not. His producing partner, James Harris, said SK came to him w/ the ending late and his reaction was "Stanley, you can't end it with your girlfriend singing!" But he did.

The singer became Mrs Kubrick for the next 42 years.

saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 07:24 (eleven years ago) link

Surprised The Shining didn't place higher in this poll.

my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 10:20 (eleven years ago) link

higher than Barry Lyndon & PoG is too high

saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 12:44 (eleven years ago) link

hah - well idk it seemed perfect for kirk to have laid it all on the line for his soldiers, and then to end with him watching his soldiers make total pigs of themselves gawking @ mrs. kubrick, without the eventual redemption into tearful reminiscence

乒乓, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 12:46 (eleven years ago) link

it is one of K's more 'humane' endings, along w/ 2001 & EWS perhaps

saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 12:49 (eleven years ago) link

this recently released region 2 set handily rounds up all of kubrick's pre-Killer's Kiss movies:

http://www.eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/catalogue/fear-and-desire/

Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 13:52 (eleven years ago) link

Surprised The Shining didn't place higher in this poll.

I'm all for a repoll.

Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 13:53 (eleven years ago) link

More for EWS's benefit, tho.

Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 13:54 (eleven years ago) link

yeah EWS is easily top-tier Kubrick

ryan, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:44 (eleven years ago) link

Is there really second-tier Kubrick?

Gollum: "Hot, Ready and Smeagol!" (Phil D.), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:47 (eleven years ago) link

yes, but no third tier!

ryan, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:50 (eleven years ago) link

Fear and Desire, much of The Shining, and some of the shit he didn't rewrite in Spartacus are third-tier.

saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:51 (eleven years ago) link

xxp yeah, the second-place finisher here

Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:51 (eleven years ago) link

Morbs, I'm just going to bash your brains in when I visit NY in April.

Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:52 (eleven years ago) link

But I'll be an outpatient!

saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:54 (eleven years ago) link

EWS ending secretly human, all too human:
http://www.idyllopuspress.com/meanwhile/30784/eyes-wide-shut-resolution-with-helena-in-the-toy-store/

Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 15:54 (eleven years ago) link

sonofagun

saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 16:01 (eleven years ago) link

Top tier:
The Shining
2001
Barry Lyndon
Full Metal Jacket
Dr Strangelove
Paths of Glory

Second tier:
Clockwork Orange
Eyes Wide Shut
The Killing
Lolita

Third tier:
Spartacus
Killer's Kiss
Fear & Desire

Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 16:11 (eleven years ago) link

EWS is a masterpiece of the "late style" type and I think The Killing is kind of a perfect movie.

ryan, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 16:30 (eleven years ago) link

Swap tiers for Strangelove and EWS and I can get with that.

Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 16:31 (eleven years ago) link

I need to see The Killing again...it's probably been 20 years.

HuffPo Sideboob/Underboob Bureau Chief (WilliamC), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 16:39 (eleven years ago) link

Rewatched Full Metal Jacket last year. It's sub-masterwork for sure. not solely cuz the second act is somewhat more conventional.

saltwater incursion (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 16:43 (eleven years ago) link


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