Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker by David MIkics

        Better start by ripping off the band-aid: I love Stanley Kubrick’s films. I know that that sometimes sparks controversy because of his association with mansplaining and his reportedly demanding behaviour on set, driving actors into utter exhaustion (cf. The Shining and Shelley Duvall or Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut). The fact is, though, I find his films fascinating, unnerving, and visually compelling. Okay, Band-aid ripped off. Let’s talk about David Mikics’ Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker. It’s a biopic but made of words on a page (is there some kind of word for that?).

        Anyway, Mikics provides an overview of Kubrick’s life as a filmmaker, with each chapter grounding its narration alongside a film or set of films, going in chronological order throughout Kubrick’s filmography. It’s quite a nice overview of the genesis of each film, often supplemented by comments from actors or other crew members and sometimes populated with amusing anecdotes. One in particular that stood out to me was when they were filming with dozens of extras, Kubrick retreated to his place overlooking the field to imagine (?) what to do next. The waiting game went on and on and when extras spoke, Kubric came down to confront them. Mikics paints an intimidating picture of Kubrick, but then an extra makes a joke and Kubrick burst into laughter and the tension dissipated.

Mikics’ book has a similarly breezy tone. The book is informative, but casual. It’s a very accessible text that avoids technical language. Mikics does touch on some of the common motifs in the films (the bond between a child and parent, the ambitiousness of central characters, and so on), but a deeper analysis of the films is somewhat lacking. I suppose that’s not the purpose of this book. This book is meant to give you an overview of Kubrick’s career, not a full theoretical approach to his filmography.

I will say, though, that I appreciated Mikics’ characterization of the films. I’ve seen most of them, but discussion of the ones I haven’t was still engaging. Even some of the films I appreciate less were given their due and elevated by the commentary. Barry Lyndon has never been my favourite, but Mikics highlights why the film was important to Kubrick, how it went against the grain, and why it’s worth a rewatch.

On the topic of Barry Lyndon, I really appreciate Kubrick’s subversiveness. He had always wanted to do a period piece and was told that nobody wanted to watch films where people wrote with feathers. Then, after the sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey gained a huge following and A Clockwork Orange was essentially a cult classic, Kubrick just drops Barry Lyndon out there as the most different film imaginable (in some ways). I also like the subversiveness that arose in Spartacus. Reportedly, it was supposed to have the saccharine heroism of Hollywood that Kubrick hated and he tried to undermine it at every turn.

Having read all of Vladimir Nabokov’s novels, I was interested in the origin of Lolita as a film. It’s a pretty wild story that involved backroom deals, dropped agreements, and bringing in Nabokov himself to write the screenplay, a type of writing he had never done before and which he returned as an (essentially) reworked version of the novel three hundred pages long. I was also interested to know that at one time Kubrick had wanted to make a film adaptation of Nabokov’s novel Laughter in the Dark, which would have been perfect. It’s the perfect novel for a dark, noir-influenced film. I looked it up years ago (and just now) and a film version of Laughter in the Dark is still in pre-production with Anya Taylor Joy set to star (she will be perfect, mark my words), but it’s a shame Kubrick’s vision for it won’t ever see the light of day.

Actually, learning about Kubrick’s dropped projects is almost as interesting as the ones he completed. I imagine many people are familiar with AI: Artificial Intelligence, ultimately handed over to Spielberg by Kubrick after some time of working on it and leading to a happier ending than Kubrick would have done, although Mikics suggests that Kubrick proposed the uplifting ending. The other project Kubrick dropped was a Holocaust film, The Aryan Papers. He worked on it for decades before abandoning it in favour of Eyes WIde Shut. He heard about Schindler’s List, figured the movies would come out around the same time, and left the project behind.

As an aside, I feel like I should note that Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker is part of a series called Jewish Lives. Throughout the chapters, Mikics makes at least one reference to Judaism in some capacity. In my opinion, these references are somewhat shoehorned in, especially since the first reference to Kubrick’s Judaism underplays it, suggesting he would not have characterized himself along those lines.

If we think through the filmography of Kubrick, all of the “big hits” are here. Shall I attempt my own personal ranking of the filmography?

1. Eyes Wide Shut

2. A Clockwork Orange

3. The Shining

4. Full Metal Jacket

5. Lolita

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey

7. Spartacus

8. Dr. Strangelove

9. Barry Lyndon

10. Four-way tie between all the ones I haven’t seen.

As a result, I found the chapters on those films the most interesting and engaging. But even barring that, I was interested in the anecdotes of Kubrick’s life. For instance, I had no idea he would phone people to talk for hours about Hollywood gossip, or that he essentially third wheeled with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman for months, or that he would make actors do multiple takes, over-and-over-and-over again, without giving them any instruction. That last one is a weird power move and, though I’m sure it was terrible for the actors, it’s very entertaining to me in the abstract.

In any case, Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker is a good little book to get an outline of Kubrick’s life and work. It’s not particularly deep. It’s not particularly challenging. It’s just a fun, interesting book for fans of Kubrick’s films. Go for it.

…Also, maybe it’s time to rewatch the filmography…