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Kubrick’s Most Mesmerizing Pictures

In our previous article, we introduced you to the early life of Stanley Kubrick. The brilliant director who eliminated any contenders or competition from cinematic presence or acknowledgement; broke cinematic history with each and every film he had released. Kubrick was a person with a miraculous view of human nature. Kubrick made uncompromising movies; he pursued meanings of humanity, empathy, and human goodness.

His primary vision, in my opinion was bringing to the viewers pictures, visuals, and sounds, are able to transport him onto the realms of fantasy, and meaning, onto realms of humanity, and brutality.

Within this article, we look at Kubrick’s most notable works:

Full Metal Jacket:

A two-segment look at the effect of the brutality, and inhumanity of military mindset and war itself on the American/ Vietnamese era. The first half of the film follows a group of recruits in boot camp under the command of the punishing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. The second half shows one of those recruits, Joker, covering the war as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes in Vietnam.

Eyed Wide Shut:

Eyes Wide Shut tells the story of a doctor who becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter after his wife admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, and after chastising him for dishonesty in not admitting to his own fantasies. This sets him off onto the exploration of unfulfilled encounters with a dead patient’s daughter and a hooker. But when he visits a nightclub, where a pianist’s friend Nick Nightingale is playing, he learns about a secret sexual group and decides to attend one of their congregations. However, he quickly learns he is in well over his head and finds that both he and his family are in danger.

A Clockwork Orange:

Protagonist Alex DeLarge is an “ultraviolent” youth in futuristic Britain. As with all luck, his eventually runs out and he’s arrested and convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, Alex learns of an experimental program in which convicts are programmed to detest violence. If he goes through the program, his sentence will be reduced and he will be back on the streets sooner than expected. But Alex’s ordeals are far from over once he hits the mean streets of Britain that he had a hand in creating. The film explores the meaning of goodness, and humanity.

2001 A Space Odyssey:

“2001” is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past, someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith on Earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well). Evolution then enabled humankind to reach the moon’s surface, where yet another monolith is found, one that signals the monolith placers that humankind has evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) and human (Bowman) to reach the monolith placers. The winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be. Kubrick in his film explored many themes, and created a film filled with timeless visual imagery. Portraying the future back in the 60s.

The Shinning:

Signing a contract, Jack Torrance, a normal writer and former teacher agrees to take care of a hotel which has a long, violent past that puts everyone in the hotel in a nervous situation. While Jack slowly gets more violent and angry of his life, his son, Danny, tries to use a special talent, the “Shining”, to inform the people outside about whatever that is going on in the hotel. The story was written by Stephen King, however Kubrick truly made this picture his very own.

 

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