Stanley Kubrick and His Cinema - Essay Example

and Number of the Teacher’s STANLEY KUBRICK AND HIS CINEMA Personal Impressions and Comments on the Film-Maker’s Work Introduction Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) was an American film writer, director, producer and photographer who lived in England for the last four decades of his career. Kubrick was well known for his careful selection of subjects, usage of formal visual style, slow, methodical system of working, a diverse variety of genres, meticulous attention to technical details, and the protective guarding of his work and personal life. Kubrick ensured that he had complete artistic control over the making of his films. He worked according to his time constraints and his own whims, but with an advantage of big-studio financial support. Kubrick’s later films are characterized by surrealism and expressionism, shifting away from structured, linear narratives. His slow and methodical cinema is considered to be a reflection of his obsessive and perfectionist nature (BFI, 2010). A recurring theme in his films is man’s inhumanity to man. Kubrick’s work is frequently viewed as expressing ironic pessimism; however, according to Rice (p.14), cautious optimism is also clearly evident in his films, when viewed more carefully. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to present personal impressions of Stanley Kubrick in relation to his distinguished career as a film-maker, and his cinema. The Philosophy and Wide Range of Reality in Kubrick’s Oevre During Stanley Kubrick’s fifty years of producing cinema, he has created some of the most haunting and unforgettable images on film. His films pertain to a wide range of topics replete with situations, conditions and questions about human life, behavior, and emotions. These include love and sex, war, crime, madness, social conditioning, and technology. Examining different sides of reality, Kubrick integrates them into a rich philosophical perspective similar to existentialism. As compared to other philosophical concepts, existentialism which is the belief that philosphical truth has meaning only if it is chosen by the individual, has now climbed down from its lofty heights to influence popular culture at large. Kubrick created his own brand of cinematic existentialism, combining it with his own brand of stoicism and pragmatism as well (Abrams 2). The main protagonist in virtually all of Kubrick’s films finds himself or herself in conflict with a hard and uncaring world, the opposition emerging from the natural world, or from human institutions. For example, in Kubrick’s war films such as Fear and Desire, Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket examine the ways in which humans deal with their worst fears, particularly the fear of death, “when facing the absurdity of war” (Abrams 2). Full Metal Jacket depicts a world of physical and moral change, and the continual shift in the nature of the environment renders any attempt to impose order, to be dangerous. The film explores the tragic consequences of a rigid moral code in a constantly changing world. Morality and fate are also significant elements in Kubrick’s works, revealing a stoic philosophy as the basis of several of his films. The film-maker’s oevre is considered as a unified philosophy consisting of “scepticism, irony, existentialism, and the unfettered pursuit of pleasure” (Abrams 4), besides unrestrained hedonism. In Kubrick’s films such as A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey, he employs the concept that people will inevitably have to struggle against their own scientific and technological innovations. Kubrick’s films about the future suggest that a potent form of nihilism which includes extreme scepticism regarding any meaning, purpose or intrinsic value of human life, will compel humans to accept the emptiness of the world, and to move beyond it to develop a free and creative view of humanity. The director’s stark vision of a constantly changing moral and physical universe adds depth and complexity in interpreting Kubrick’s films. 2001: A Space Odyssey chronicles the ascent from apes to humans to a final, planet-sized fetus, the Star Child. An unseen alien race directs this evolution, guiding viewers towards a higher conscious through technology. However, the advances in artificial intelligence results in our “struggling against the very creations of our imagination” (Abrams 6), losing control on our ideas. Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove adapted from Peter Bryant’s 1958 novel Red Alert is different from Kubrick’s other works in terms of editing patterns and other strategies. However, it is unmistakably Kubrick’s work in its distinctive departures from the norm. “The fictional or represented time of the film more or less corresponds to the film’s running time” (Falsetto 28). This direct correspondence between fictional and real time adds to the sense compressing time created by the film’s editing patterns. Althought Dr. Strangelove uses many long takes, it contains probably the shortest average shot length (ASL) of the director’s films. The film consists of 700 shots and runs 94 minutes for an ASL of approximately 8 seconds. However, the short ASL, the film contains crucial long takes to slow down the speed of the unfolding narrative (Falsetto 27,28). Stanley Kubrick’s Film The Clockwork Orange, 1971 The movie predicts a future time where society will be confronted with increased crime. It is based on the violence and sadism indulged in by a group of young thugs or ‘droogs’, who take pleasure in the ‘ultraviolence’ as they term it. They have a secret code language of their own, Nadsat. Kubrick’s main protagonist Alex played by Malcolm McDowell represents a force pitted against society, as well as an expression of how society has lost its soul. The film-maker has succeeded in making the victims of the thugs more repulsive and contemptible than the thugs, showing his love for the punk-sadist in society. Kael (p.135) reiterates that “the end is no longer the ironic triumph of a mechanized punk but a real triumph”. Among all the characters in the film A Clockwork Orange, the most likable person appears to be Alex. His cynical bravado suggesting a broad-nosed working class Olivier, appeals to the audience who take his side and view the situations from his perspective; and this is effectively achieved by Kubrick. Alex, who gets kicks out of violence appears more alive, younger, and more attractive than anybody else in the film. McDowell plays Alex’s part exuberantly, with great power and slyness. Despite Alex’s violence and sadism, the actor McDowell makes the audience appreciate his cunningness, his crookedness. For a large part of the film, he is shown to be beaten, tortured and humiliated. Hence when his bold, aggressive punk’s nature is restored to him, it seems to be a victory in which the audience shares, and not as a joke on the audience. Kubrick underscores the change in Alex’s experiences on an exultant tone.In the end, the expression in Alex’s eyes clearly say that he is not just a mechanized, choiceless sadist, but that he prefers sadism and also knows that he can manage to get by with it. Thus, the story is not a little parable about the dangers and horrors of soullessness and force whether used mutually by individuals against each other, or by society in conditioning individuals to comply with social rules. Uniquely, the film thus becomes a vindication of Alex, and Kael (p.35) supports this stating that film underscores that the punk was a free human being, and only the good Alex was a robot. A new attitude in films says that there is no moral difference between the attackers and the attacked victims. Besides, Kubrick has used a trick of making the attacked appear less human than the attackers, so the those viewing the film feel no sympathy for the former. The deformed, self-righteous approach of a vicious young punk considers everything to be rotten, and therefore demands why he should not do as he wants. Additionally, he considers the victims to be worse than he is. According to Kael (p.136), this is a new mood in which people want to believe the hyperbolic worst, they want to believe in the degradation of the victims, reducing them to dupes, phonies and weaklings. It is possible that Kubrick supports and caters to this new mood, rather than reflecting this approach as a possible perspective after the incidents of Charles Manson’s seriel killing and assassinations. A Clockwork Orange “plays with violence in an intellectually seductive way” (Kael 136). The violence is presented in a slow, heavy style, so that those in the audience prepared to like it, can believe that it is very informative on puzzling aspects. It can be perceived as a mystery play, and a warning against “the Establishment”. The viewer finds himself or herself justifying themselves for identifying with Alex in several different ways. These include the concept that Alex is fighting repression, that he is alone against the system, his actions are not as bad as the government’s, and violence is all that the Establishment has taught people, hence his violence is justified. The main point of the 1962 book by Anthony Burgess is that people should take responsibility for what they are, as men. The point of the movie, 1971 is more up-to-date in its informative nature. Stanley Kubrick has removed several of the obstacles to the audience identifying with Alex. The Alex characterised in the book has had his personal habits improved with regard to squishing small animals under his tyres, his liking for very young girls, his beating up of other prisoners, and other characteristics. The film-maker helps the audience to identify with Alex by directorial effects through the movie. The writer who Alex cripples, played by Patrick Magee, and the woman he kills are portrayed as cartoon-like dislikable characters with pronounced upper-class accents. Kael (p.136) states that Magee appears to have been directed to act like a madman, and seems to be preparing for a career in horror movies. The book A Clockwork Orange’s author Burgess gave the reader a deformed view of society through Alex’s perspective. Kubrick, on the other hand has carried over from Dr. Strangelove his adolescent, joking view of hypocritical authority figures, extended it to all adults, and added further deformity to the portrayal of society. Thus, “straight” people are more twisted than Alex to a far greater extent, and they appear more inhuman and incapable. Kubrick’s Film 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968 Stanley Kubrick’s work often invokes the idea that human beings are most often unpredictable. Human fallibility being a core aspect of humanity is explored in great depth in the film-maker’s works such as in A Clockwork Orange as seen above, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, in Barry Lyndon and in The Killing (Falsetto 5). Among all of Stanley Kubrick’s films, 2001: A Space Odyssey employs some of the most challenging spatial strategies. Realism and accuracy of representation are given high priority in the making of the film, in the presentation of weightlessness and space travel. The film also conveys that space and time are necessary conditions for any type of movement. Thus, movement is emphasized in many sequences which contain continuous movement and display a fascination with the mechanics, beauty and grace of that movement. Falsetto (p.43) supports this view, stating that “ the depiction of movement in real time is achieved through a combination of longtake editing, deep-focus photography, smooth camera movements and impeccable model work, resulting in a seamless illusionism”. It is impossible to determine the extent of movement appearing within the frame to be a result of model work and the movement of actors, and that which is due to camera movement. There seems to be a combination of both. A part of Kubrick’s achievement as a film-maker in this movie, emerges from the concept that spatial and temporal ambiguities and movements in space are fascinating to view on their own, and have little narrative purpose. These sequences are highly interesting, in complete contrast to the rather flat presentation of scenes portraying actors engaged in conversation. Thus, the sequences with actors in movement aboard the Discovery are more engrossing mainly due to the spatial ambiguities of the scenes. Some of the most dramatic and intense scenes are those where Bowman interacts with HAL the computer, rather than those sequences where acting is presented. The film tries to achieve psychological reality; for example in scenes that depict very little interaction between actors, there is a heightened intimacy of the personal. Through emphasizing character introspection, the highest moments of subjectivity are reached, as seen in Bowman’s final sequences (Falsetto 44). The film’s rationalization is done by giving the viewer a feeling of being personally involved in the experience, through being enveloped and drawn into the film. Thus, the audience can take the journey with Bowman and make it a personal experience. It is evident that Kubrick’s purpose of making the film based on cinema as experience, has been fulfilled. The film is concerned with presenting and experimenting with narrative, but is equally concerned with producing a visual and aural experience so distinctive that audiences would feel as though they experience film for the first time. Several elements of modernist narrative such as the “open text, distance presentation and de-emphasized psychological character motivation” (Falsetto 45) can be found in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is an art film with a modernist narrative, which also provides popular entertainment while producing a strong emotional impact on the viewers. Conclusion This paper has highlighted the works of the film-maker Stanley Kubrick, and focused on significant elements in his movies A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both films predict a future where advances in technology will cause great changes in society. Crime, violence and sadism would be a an acceptable norm, where there would be no difference between the attackers and the attacked, as in A Clockwork Orange. Through 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick’s greatest testament, according to Sharrett (p.1), he provides the key to human civilization. The point he makes through his films is that despite or because of scientific strides, humanity has evolved very little. Kubrick’s philosophies of existentialism, stoicism, pragmatism, morality and fate are evident in his films that depict human life and behavior in a wide range of situations and contexts. His perfectionism in every aspect of creating films, is seen in his works. Works Cited Abrams, Jerold J. The philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. The United States of America: University Press of Kentucky. (2007). BFI (British Film Institute). Kubrick, Stanley (1928-1999). BFI Screenonline. (2010). Retrieved on 30th June, 2011 from: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/459560/index.html Falsetto, Mario. Stanley Kubrick: A narrative and stylisti analysis. Connecticut: Praeger. (2001). Kael, Pauline. A Clockwork Orange: Stanley Strangelove. Review in The New Yorker, January 1, 1972. In Mcdougal, Stuart (Ed). Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’. England: Cambridge University Press. (2003): pp.134-140. Rice, Julian. Kubrick’s hope: Discovering optimism from 2001 to Eyes Wide Shut. The United States of America: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. (2008). Sharrett, Christopher. The legacy of Stanley Kubrick. USA Today, 128.2650 (1999): p.61. Read More