Kubrick An Odyssey
by Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams (Faber) 2025
£20 ISBN 978-0-571-37042-9
Throughout late 1980’s and all of the 1990’s the question that moviegoers often asked was what’s Kubrick up to now? We were aware that Stanley Kubrick took a long time creating a film because of his fastidious micro-managing of every aspect of filmmaking. Apart from directing, producing, attempting to complete scripts, with often exasperated writers, who were fired, re-hired and some cases not credited, he also searched for the right film music, designed film posters, checked film stills; had people make sure that books associated with his films were prominently displayed in bookshops and continued researching other projects too. Of course he had a team of assistants and researchers but his urge to control made him an Orson Welles, I have to be seen to be doing everything, character.
But the twelve-year gap between Full Metal Jacket (1987) and his final film Eyes Wide Shut (1999) would have dispirited, even crushed, any other director. However Kubrick had written into his unique contract with Warner that he would have the final cut which meant he could patiently wait till he was ready and knew the finance was promised. Besides Kubrick compulsively worked on his long term Napoleon film idea – never realised but to which he poured so much energy (I tend to agree with the authors of this book that the period costume drama Barrie Lyndon (1975) did discharge some of that Napoleon obsession.)
In forty six years Kubrick only directed thirteen feature films: though Kolker and Abrams suggest that AI directed by Steven Spielberg, from an idea, cherished by Kubrick, reveals Kubrick’s influence and possible a fourteenth film. For them “The film is a fascinating mix of what one writer has called Kubrickian irony and Spielbergian sentimentality.” For me AI is a consummate blend of those directors to produce a brilliant SF film. Indeed I much prefer it to the strained Full Metal Jacket or his shaky first feature Fear and Desire.
Kubrick An Odyssey is a big book (650 pages) and generally manages to maintain a fine balance between documenting his family life and his work. Kubrick’s wife Christiane and his children are sketched in not as mere put-uppers with Stanley’s heavy workload but creative individuals in their own right. There were stresses and strains but they were hugely tolerant and supportive living with a very loving father and faithful husband who happened to be a maddeningly driven talent. Myths are broken about Kubrick being a recluse. He was always entertaining people at home and known to travel to scout locations. He could be brutal with actors (Shelley Duval in The Shining) and warmly affable (Ryan O’Neal in Barrie Lyndon). The set designer Ken Adams (Dr. Strangelove) was driven to nervous breakdown after giving up work on Barrie Lyndon. But Kubrick adored Adam’s work and begged him to join him on projects. Kubrick was right to reject Alex North’s composed score for 2001 and opt for a classical music soundtrack. And correct to modernise Arthur Schnitzler’s novella A Dream Story (now Eyes Wide Shut) yet still retain its dreamlike atmosphere.
Kolker and Abrams have scrupulously researched their subject. As well as the features, Kubrick’s shorts and his remarkable work as a photographer for Look magazine in the late 1940s and 50s is examined. Of the latter the authors remind us of Kubrick’s comment to Jack Nicholson, whilst making The Shining, about the photograph of the photograph, “real is good; interesting is better.” It was the unusual that proved more interesting for Kubrick than conventional realism (think of the perfected surface of such films as 2001 and A Clockwork Orange, gleaming with mystery).
If I have one criticism of this excellent book it’s a case of Kubrick micro-managing rubbing off onto the authors. Full Metal Jacket is given far too much space. A lot of the detail became relentless and overdone. Only here did I sense padding. But for me the Kubrick masterpieces, Dr.Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barrie Lyndon are insightfully covered. For the time being this will be the definitive Kubrick biography and needs to be read alongside Michel Ciment’s Kubrick and John Baxter’s Stanley Kubrick: A biography. I would have liked more than eight photographs though and better reproduced. Stanley ought to return and do that job too!
Alan Price © 2025.
Kubrick An Odyssey
by Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams (Faber) 2025
£20 ISBN 978-0-571-37042-9
Throughout late 1980’s and all of the 1990’s the question that moviegoers often asked was what’s Kubrick up to now? We were aware that Stanley Kubrick took a long time creating a film because of his fastidious micro-managing of every aspect of filmmaking. Apart from directing, producing, attempting to complete scripts, with often exasperated writers, who were fired, re-hired and some cases not credited, he also searched for the right film music, designed film posters, checked film stills; had people make sure that books associated with his films were prominently displayed in bookshops and continued researching other projects too. Of course he had a team of assistants and researchers but his urge to control made him an Orson Welles, I have to be seen to be doing everything, character.
But the twelve-year gap between Full Metal Jacket (1987) and his final film Eyes Wide Shut (1999) would have dispirited, even crushed, any other director. However Kubrick had written into his unique contract with Warner that he would have the final cut which meant he could patiently wait till he was ready and knew the finance was promised. Besides Kubrick compulsively worked on his long term Napoleon film idea – never realised but to which he poured so much energy (I tend to agree with the authors of this book that the period costume drama Barrie Lyndon (1975) did discharge some of that Napoleon obsession.)
In forty six years Kubrick only directed thirteen feature films: though Kolker and Abrams suggest that AI directed by Steven Spielberg, from an idea, cherished by Kubrick, reveals Kubrick’s influence and possible a fourteenth film. For them “The film is a fascinating mix of what one writer has called Kubrickian irony and Spielbergian sentimentality.” For me AI is a consummate blend of those directors to produce a brilliant SF film. Indeed I much prefer it to the strained Full Metal Jacket or his shaky first feature Fear and Desire.
Kubrick An Odyssey is a big book (650 pages) and generally manages to maintain a fine balance between documenting his family life and his work. Kubrick’s wife Christiane and his children are sketched in not as mere put-uppers with Stanley’s heavy workload but creative individuals in their own right. There were stresses and strains but they were hugely tolerant and supportive living with a very loving father and faithful husband who happened to be a maddeningly driven talent. Myths are broken about Kubrick being a recluse. He was always entertaining people at home and known to travel to scout locations. He could be brutal with actors (Shelley Duval in The Shining) and warmly affable (Ryan O’Neal in Barrie Lyndon). The set designer Ken Adams (Dr. Strangelove) was driven to nervous breakdown after giving up work on Barrie Lyndon. But Kubrick adored Adam’s work and begged him to join him on projects. Kubrick was right to reject Alex North’s composed score for 2001 and opt for a classical music soundtrack. And correct to modernise Arthur Schnitzler’s novella A Dream Story (now Eyes Wide Shut) yet still retain its dreamlike atmosphere.
Kolker and Abrams have scrupulously researched their subject. As well as the features, Kubrick’s shorts and his remarkable work as a photographer for Look magazine in the late 1940s and 50s is examined. Of the latter the authors remind us of Kubrick’s comment to Jack Nicholson, whilst making The Shining, about the photograph of the photograph, “real is good; interesting is better.” It was the unusual that proved more interesting for Kubrick than conventional realism (think of the perfected surface of such films as 2001 and A Clockwork Orange, gleaming with mystery).
If I have one criticism of this excellent book it’s a case of Kubrick micro-managing rubbing off onto the authors. Full Metal Jacket is given far too much space. A lot of the detail became relentless and overdone. Only here did I sense padding. But for me the Kubrick masterpieces, Dr.Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barrie Lyndon are insightfully covered. For the time being this will be the definitive Kubrick biography and needs to be read alongside Michel Ciment’s Kubrick and John Baxter’s Stanley Kubrick: A biography. I would have liked more than eight photographs though and better reproduced. Stanley ought to return and do that job too!
Alan Price © 2025.
By Alan Price • books, film, year 2025 • Tags: Alan Price, books, film