Kubrick, Stanley 1928-

KUBRICK, STANLEY 1928-

Film writer, director, producer

Notable Director

Though producing a film only every few years, writer and director Stanley Kubrick stands out as one of the most notable and unconventional filmmakers of the 1960s. Kubrick is a perfect example of what critics in the 1960s called the auteur theory, the belief that, despite the collaborative nature of film, the director infuses the work with his or her personal artistry and vision.

Early Potential

He began writing, producing, and directing low-budget films in the 1950s, scoring a success with the World War I film Paths of Glory (1957). One of its stars, Kirk Douglas, was producing Spartacus (1960), and he hired Kubrick as its new director. Though this was his first experience with a larger budget, the 1960 film dissatisfied Kubrick, who preferred doing things his way. His adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita (1962), though memorable for Peter Sellers's antic portrayal of Clare Quilty, was panned by critics, but audiences came in droves for his next two efforts.

Maturity

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), which Kubrick called a "nightmare comedy" about the threat of nuclear war, was both a critical and commercial success. Critical opinion was more divided on 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), based on a science-fiction story by Arthur C. Clarke, but the film was an enormous hit. Fans praised its philosophical bent and its special effects, which revolutionized science-fiction film. Though Kubrick has directed various pictures since, he is largely identified with 2001, which also forever linked Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, the theme music of the movie, with space exploration and portentous discoveries in popular culture.

Sources:

Thomas Nelson, Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982);

Gene Phillips, Stanley Kubrick: A Film Odyssey (New York: Popular Library, 1975);

Alexander Walker, Stanley Kubrick Directs, expanded edition (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972).