Watched this on my small tv, and it's probably a film that belongs on the big screen. Something is lost. Well, at least I didn't watch it on an i-phone. But it's hard to get hooked on the story and care about these people. Was that the intention? It's hard to know with Kubrick. Ryan O'Neal is uncharismatic in the lead role, but I guess he's supposed to be. It would have worked less well with someone like Jack Nicholson. And then the character redeems himself at the end, in the duel scene. Great poster.
Top 5 Stanley Kubrick films:
1. The Killing
2. Paths of Glory
3. The Shining
4. 2001
5. Lolita
Yes, the poster has a great graphic design. I remember the movie to be beautifully shot, and the scene where Barry has to shoot his (own son?!) to be a real thriller. Kubrick's characters usually has something very "un-human" about them and it is hard to really care for them.
ReplyDeleteMy top-5 would probably look like this:
1. I.A. (no, wait… that's Spielberg!)
1. 2001
2. Dr. Strangelove
3. The Shining
4. A Clockwork Orange
5. Hmm, maybe Barry Lyndon
I am afraid that I haven't seen many of his earlier movies. I should watch Paths of Glory and I do have The Killing standing on the shelf still wrapped in foil.
I don't like Lolita at all and I think it is his one mistake, worse than Eyes Wide Shut.
Is Spartacus considered a true work of Stanley Kubrick?
A shame his Napoleon-movie was never realized, I would have liked to see that.
It's quite a while since I saw Lolita. I should re-watch. And I never read the book.
ReplyDeleteSpartacus isn't really considered a true Kubrick film, I believe, since he was brought in to do it after the original director was fired, and he had to work with someone else's script.
I recently read the book which has always been hailed as a literary masterpiece – and it is! I read in a danish translation that should be very true to Nabokov's original. It is a very crazy and funny book - and I don't think Kubrick captures this. He tries to do his own version of it much like he later did when he converted Red Alert into Dr Strangelove. I don't know the original book here - but the movie is great!
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