Kubrick's Kubrick

List creator: Eoliano Created on: February 14, 2003 - 11:47 AM PST Description: The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle --Stanley Kubrick

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	movie title	related list	average rating	MPAA rating	watch	rent	buy
	Killer's Kiss (1955)			Not Rated
This film noir about a has-been boxer has some superb black and white cinematography of New York and includes a great boxing sequence; Kubrick transcends the barely adequate performances of his actors and manages to deliver the goods.
	The Killing (Criterion) (1956)			Not Rated
Kubrick's cynical take on the heist genre is a gem of a film, with superlative editing, snappy dialog and featuring one of Sterling Hayden's best performances.
	Paths of Glory (Criterion) (1957)			Not Rated
Banned in France for nearly 20 years, Kubrick's biting anti-war film about military stupidity and injustice still packs a wallop. Douglas' Colonel Dax is outstanding, and George Macready is perfectly despicable as the ambitious, arrogant General Mireau.
	Spartacus (Criterion Collection) (1960)
Not a Kubrick film per se, but it's the last great epic about the Roman Empire, a big spectacle that, minus the romance, transcends most of the genre's pitfalls. Beautifully shot, with exceptional performances by Olivier, Laughton, and Ustinov.
	Lolita (1962)			Not Rated
Kubrick meets Nabokov, and the results are subversive and at times caustically funny; Sellers Quilty is crafty, and Mason's portrayal of Humbert is very fine, especially in the first act, but the film falters, leaving us unfulfilled and lustful for more.
	Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Without peer, Kubrick's terrifying black comedy is an out and out assault on the insanity of our suicidally apocalyptic need for nuclear arsenals; its never been more relevant and its last moments are disturbingly moving. Sellers and Hayden are terrific.
	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
A visually breathtaking, mesmerizing mind-bender, and a metaphoric abstract on man's place in the universe that is full of hope; never condescending, this extraordinarily humanistic film holds the viewer in the highest esteem. One of the great films!
	A Clockwork Orange (1971)
This stunningly realized adaptation of the Burgess novel is disturbing and inspired, at once repulsive and compellingly seductive. McDowell gives his best performance as the violent, smarmily rude droogie Alex. A bracing volocet cocktail of a film.
	Barry Lyndon (1975)
This sumptuously beautiful film is one of Kubrick's most accomplished films, a moody, sad and heartbreaking meditation on isolation and loss, with excellent performances by O'Neal, Magee, Kruger and Melvin, and very fine music by The Chietains.
	The Shining (1980)
Alternately brooding, funny and frightening, this is not simply a horror film about the paranormal or one man's madness, it's also a harrowing invective about man's eternal madness. An unbridled Jack Nicholson leads the way and takes us with him.
	Full Metal Jacket (1987)
The first half of this anti-war film is unrelenting and riveting as Ermey and D'Onofrio devour the scenery; its second half is less successful, as Kubrick again emphasizes, though not without some cynical humor, one of man's most natural born instincts.
	Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Kubrick's visually stunning swan song is part waking dream and erotically charged thriller, as Cruise's Dr. Hartman descends into his own vertiginous Walpurgisnacht, from which he emerges all the wiser, but not entirely unscathed. Hauntingly scored.