Stanley Kubrick

• 1. The Bronx Photographer

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  Stanley Kubrick was born on the 26th of July 1928 in New York City's Manhattan borough. He grew up in the Bronx with his parents, Jack and Sadie Kubrick, who were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. His father worked as a homeopathic doctor while Stanley attended Public School 3 before moving to Public School 90 in June 1938. The family lived at 36 West 16th Street during his teenage years when he began exploring photography seriously. A Graflex camera purchased by his father for thirteen-year-old Stanley sparked an obsession that would define his early career. He spent countless hours in neighbor Marvin Traub's darkroom watching chemicals create images on photographic paper. By age seventeen, Kubrick had already published his first photo essay titled "A Short Story from a Movie Balcony" on the 16th of April 1946. This work staged a dramatic confrontation between a man and woman caught off guard by surprise. Another assignment featured eighteen pictures of people waiting in a dental office, demonstrating his ability to capture human emotion within mundane settings. These photographs appeared in Look magazine starting in 1945, establishing him as a staff photographer by 1946. He covered boxing matches including one featuring middleweight Walter Cartier published on the 18th of January 1949. Later assignments included jazz musicians like Frank Sinatra and Erroll Garner alongside circus performers at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Sarasota, Florida.

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• 2. Self-Taught Filmmaker

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  Kubrick quit his job at Look magazine after raising $1000 through screenings of his short films among friends and family. His first documentary Day of the Fight cost $3900 to produce but sold for $4000 to RKO-Pathé. The film featured boxer Walter Cartier walking toward the camera using backward tracking shots that became characteristic of his later work. CBS news veteran Douglas Edwards narrated the project while Gerald Fried composed its score. Flying Padre followed in 1951 documenting Reverend Fred Stadtmueller traveling four thousand miles across eleven churches. This film originally bore the title Sky Pilot before changing names during production. The Seafarers completed his trilogy of surviving documentaries shot in June 1953 for the Seafarers International Union. These early works taught Kubrick everything he needed about filmmaking since he handled most aspects himself. Fear and Desire marked his transition into feature films with a budget reaching $53,000 despite initial plans for silence. The story involved soldiers stranded behind enemy lines after crashing their plane. One soldier bound an attractive girl to a tree creating scenes critics called beautiful yet terrifying. Columbia University scholar Mark Van Doren praised these sequences as guaranteeing future success. Killer's Kiss followed in 1955 costing $75,000 to produce though it made very little money compared to its budget. Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail directly influenced this noir film featuring innovative shooting angles and atmospheric shots.

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• 3. Hollywood Breakthrough

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  Kubrick met producer James B. Harris while playing chess in Washington Square Park where Harris considered him "the most intelligent person I have ever come in contact with." They formed the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation in 1955 purchasing rights to Lionel White's novel Clean Break for ten thousand dollars. Their first feature The Killing starred Sterling Hayden and cost only $330,000 to shoot over twenty-four days. Despite clashes with cinematographer Lucien Ballard who was twenty years older than Kubrick, the film achieved critical acclaim comparing its camerawork to Orson Welles. Paths of Glory emerged from a seven-five-thousand-dollar offer by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executive Dore Schary. Kirk Douglas agreed to play Colonel Dax after MGM initially refused financing another war picture. The film shot in Munich during March 1957 featured six cameras lined up along no-man's land boundaries capturing specific fields numbered for hundreds of extras dying in battle zones. This production became Kubrick's first significant commercial success establishing him as an emerging filmmaker despite controversy surrounding its Christmas release date. France banned the film until 1974 due to unflattering depictions of their military while Switzerland censored it until 1970. Spartacus followed in 1960 costing six million dollars making it America's most expensive film at that time. Over ten thousand trained soldiers represented Roman armies using anamorphic Super Technirama process achieving ultra-high definition panoramic scenes. Disputes broke out during filming when Kubrick cut all but two lines from Kirk Douglas' opening thirty minutes yet still earned fourteen point six million dollars box office returns.

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• 4. Satire And Science Fiction

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  Kubrick moved production to England where he filmed Dr. Strangelove over fifteen weeks ending April 1963 before spending eight months editing. Peter Sellers played three different roles within this satirical black comedy exploring nuclear war absurdity through research spanning forty books on military and political subjects. Terry Southern joined writing duties transforming what began as serious thriller Red Alert into outrageous comedy loaded with sexual innuendo. The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called it "the most shattering sick joke I've ever come across" while Robert Brustein described it as "juvenalian satire." Critics eventually recognized Dr. Strangelove as one of the sharpest comedy films ever made holding near-perfect ratings today. Twenty years later A Space Odyssey emerged after five years development involving collaboration with science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke. Filming commenced the 29th of December 1965 excavating monoliths on moon surfaces while ape scenes completed later that year using Namib Desert locations. Special effects teams worked until year's end bringing total costs to ten point five million dollars. The film earned Kubrick his only Academy Award for Visual Effects despite initial criticism from Pauline Kael calling it "the biggest amateur movie of them all." By 1972 worldwide earnings reached thirty-one million dollars establishing its status among greatest films ever made. A Clockwork Orange followed in 1971 shot over nineteen hundred seventy to ninety-seven-one budgets totaling two million pounds. Malcolm McDowell portrayed Alex exploring violence and experimental rehabilitation through law enforcement authorities. The film received X ratings both UK and US before Christmas 1971 though critics saw much depicted violence as satirical rather than sadistic spectacle.

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• 5. Technical Innovation

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  Barry Lyndon required extensive research into eighteenth-century settings including photographs taken of locations artwork replicated from great masters' paintings. Production began autumn 1973 costing eleven million dollars employing one hundred seventy cast members crew. Heavy rain and political strife involving Northern Ireland forced Kubrick fleeing Ireland with family aboard ferry Dún Laoghaire under assumed identity resuming filming England. Interior scenes utilized specially adapted high-speed f/0.7 Zeiss camera lenses originally developed NASA satellite photography allowing candlelight-only illumination creating diffused images resembling eighteenth-century paintings. Cinematographer Allen Daviau stated method gave audience way seeing characters scenes exactly people at time would have seen them. Fight scenes employed handheld cameras producing documentary realism immediacy sense. Barry Lyndon grossed nine point five million American market failing generate thirty-million-dollar profit Warner Bros needed. The Shining released May twenty-three 1980 starred Jack Nicholson Shelley Duvall Danny Lloyd Scatman Crothers. Kubrick demanded up to eighty retakes same scene forcing Duvall perform exhausting baseball bat sequence one hundred twenty-seven times. Bar ghostly bartender shot thirty-six times kitchen scene between Danny Halloran ran fourteen-eight takes. Aerial shots filmed Timberline Lodge Mount Hood Oregon interiors Elstree Studios England May nineteen-seventy-eight April nineteen-seventy-nine. Cardboard models created all sets lighting took four months electrical wiring massive undertaking. Steadicam weight-balanced support allowed smooth hand-held movement previously impractical conventional tracks first picture using full potential according inventor Garrett Brown.

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• 6. Final Years And Unfinished Projects

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  Full Metal Jacket opened June 1987 taking over thirty million dollars first fifty days alone though critically overshadowed Oliver Stone's Platoon released year earlier. United States Marines patrolled ruins abandoned destroyed city singing Mickey Mouse Club theme song sardonic counterpoint. Eyes Wide Shut marked Kubrick final film starring Tom Cruise Nicole Kidman Manhattan couple sexual odyssey based Arthur Schnitzler Traumnovelle novella relocated Vienna New York City nineteen-nineties. Kubrick worked relentlessly fifteen months getting film out planned release date July sixteen 1999 maintaining complete confidentiality throughout process. He commenced script Frederic Raphael working eighteen hours daily while sending unfinished preview copy stars producers months before release. Sudden death March seven 1999 came few days after finishing editing never seeing final version public saw preview Warner Bros Cruise Kidman reportedly told Julian Senior it best film ever. A.I. Artificial Intelligence emerged following collaboration Brian Aldiss expanding short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long three-act film robot resembling behaving child similar Pinocchio. Steven Spielberg approached nineteen-ninety-five possibility directing Kubrick producing project holding long telephone discussions subject matter closer Spielberg sensibilities than his own. Following Kubrick sudden death Spielberg took drafts notes left writers composing new screenplay based Ian Watson nine-page treatment written under Kubrick supervision specifications. Napoleon remained unrealized despite two years research reading several hundred books gaining access personal memoirs commentaries. Screenplay drafted 1961 envisaged grandiose epic forty thousand infantry ten thousand cavalry intended hiring armed forces entire country making Napoleonic battles beautiful vast lethal ballets aesthetic brilliance requiring military mind appreciate. MGM canceled project ready begin filming 1969 citing projected cost change ownership poor reception Waterloo Soviet film about Napoleon received.

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