Stanley Kubrick has changed the world of cinema forever. There’s a joke out there that goes “Stanley Kubrick was once asked to fake the moon landing, but due to his perfectionism he filmed on location.” Stanley Kubrick was a man who knew what he wanted and was determined in his craft. Every great once in a while an individual comes along and creates works of art that trigger a response in the people of the world that pushes those that come after it to become better and causes such an influence that years from now we will be able to pinpoint the exact individual who sparked something in all these people. Stanley Kubrick was this person. Kubrick’s work was something to be treasured. He was a visionary who elevated himself with every film he created and left a legacy in his path. Stanley Kubrick’s movies Lolita and Dr. Strangelove; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb jumpstarted his career into making him a phenomena. Over the course of Stanley Kubrick’s career, he only made 13 feature films. With these 13 films he had meticulous involvement and perfected each individual shot. While looking through the lens he created something much more beautiful than a movie. With the help of his perfectionism and one of a kind mind, Stanley Kubrick had a film career worth remembering.
Stanley Kubrick was part of the New Hollywood phase. This phase in American filmmaking was also known as “American New Wave.” Its reign lasted from the early 1960’s all the way to the late 1980’s. Instead of a studio taking the role as making executive decisions in a movie, in the New Hollywood phase, the director of said film would have full creative authority. Some of Stanley Kubrick’s most notable films created during this period are 2001: A Space Odyssey, a Clockwork Orange, and The Shining. Many of these films were Kubrick’s adoptions from different novels and short stories.
Stanley Kubrick began pursuing his film career after high school. He was self-taught in areas of production and film making. Stanley Kubrick began his career as a photographer for the magazine Look from the late 1940’s to the early 1950’s. Look was a general interest magazine based in Des Moines, Iowa. While working for Look, Stanley Kubrick worked on over 300 assignments, and of those assignments, 100 are now in the Library of Congress. After his time with Look magazine Stanley Kubrick began focusing on his filmmaking career. With a small sum of money, Kubrick created his first Hollywood film The Killing. The Killing was written by Stanley Kubrick and Jim Thompson, and directed by Kubrick. The movie’s plot consists of a con artist who plans one last job before marrying. When one of the members of the heist team tells their wife of the plan, she creates a plan of her own, and things go south. The film flopped at the box office, therefore failing to get a proper release across the United States. Many were shocked at the outcome, seeing as though so many had high hopes in Stanley Kubrick. Time Magazine believed it would be a hit due to Kubrick having “shown more audacity with dialogue and camera than Hollywood as seen since obstreperous Orson Welles went riding out of town on an exhibitor’s poll.” (Time Magazine) At the time of The Killings release Stanley Kubrick was only 28. Although receiving poor reviews, The Killing largely influenced Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, Reservoir Dogs.
In1949 a levy was passed in the United Kingdom that provided tax incentives for foreign film producers who used 80% British labor. Stanley Kubrick took advantage of this levy and moved to England, where he would begin filming his film Lolita. This dark and gritty film is an adoption of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel of the same name. In the film a middle aged man becomes obsessed with a young teenager. The man’s obsession of the young girl drives him to marry the girl’s mother. Due to censorship restrictions a number of characteristics from the novel where changed in order to make the movie, such as changing the young girls age from 12 to 15. The film was a box office hit, grossing 9,250,000 domestically. This would become the Stanley Kubrick’s first successful film.
Although Lolita was Stanley Kubrick’s first popular movie, his next film Dr. Strangelove; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was his first controversial and most talked about film. The movie is a comedy about all the things that could go wrong during the Cold War era going wrong. While writing the script for the movie, Stanley Kubrick set out to make Dr. Strangelove a serious drama. In the process, although trying extremely hard not to, Kubrick couldn’t help but make the movie into a comedy. While allowing the movie have a comedic theme, Stanley Kubrick was still able to project the horrifying image of our earth being obliterated due to a small mishap. Dr. Strangelove was nominated for an Academy Award for best director, best picture, best actor, and best screenplay. The public view of Dr. Strangelove was polar opposites. Some absolutely loved it and claimed it to be the best movie they’d ever seen. Others believed it to be the worst, most offensive movie ever created. One New York Times writer wrote a review of the movie saying “Stanley Kubrick’s new film, called Dr. Strangelove or; How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is beyond any question the most shattering sick joke I’ve ever come across.” (New York Times) Despite the mixed reviews the movie had real life impact. The Pentagon’s Scientific Advisory Committee of Ballistic Missiles viewed Dr. Strangelove along with the movie Red Alert, which portrays another doomsday scenario playing out, to qualify the likelihood of if the scenarios in the films could play out in reality. Soon government procedure changed so that no one individual would know the complete code to unlocking a nuclear weapon. This is just the beginning of Stanley Kubrick’s impact.
Since the films of Stanley Kubrick have become popular he has been a large influence in pop culture. Famous filmmakers such as Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Guillermo Del Toro, Michael Mann, Lars Von Tier, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Gaspar Nie have all stated Stanley Kubrick as a large influence on their work. Many film directors have paid homage to Kubrick’s visual effects in their directing. The Simpsons have paid homage to Stanley Kubrick multiple times, referencing movies such as The Shining and a Clockwork Orange. Even without knowledge of Kubrick’s films many will see and hear reference to Stanley Kubrick’s work. The iconic scene in Dr. Strangelove where the pilot rides the nuke down on Russia while waving his cowboy hat is referenced in several other cartoons, movies, and commercials. The lines “All work and no play,” from The Shining has been repeated multiple times in other films and TV shows. The same goes for the line “Here’s Johnny,” from The Shining. Stanley Kubrick’s influence has created a world where in almost any form of media we can find a reference to one of his films. Kubrick has raised the bar for what we consider to be art. His meticulous work in all of his films has helped spark a new wave of creativity. Thanks to Stanley Kubrick, film directors should now examine every shot they take and each time think “how can I make this better.”
Works Cited
Crowther, Bosley. “Movie Review - - DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB.” New York Times (1964): n.pag. Web. 2 May 2016.
“Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2016, 1p.” n.d. Web. 3 May 2016.
Group, World Almanac Education. Kubrick, Stanley. 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
Inc, Time. “Cinema: The New Pictures, Jun. 4, 1956.” (1956): n.pag. Web. 2 May 2016.
Lucas, Sandy. “7 classic movies that influenced Quentin Tarantino horror, suspense, film noir - and plenty of laughs.” Entertainment. About.com Entertainment, 4 Dec. 2014. Web. 2 May 2016.
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