Stanley Kubrick is a very unique director in the sense that he will go to great lengths to make sure every aspect of the film is perfect in his eyes. He will have piles on top of piles of research for certain parts of a film he might be working on. Here are some examples:
2001: A Space Odyssey he created a fully detailed painting for a scene he never even used just for concept ideas. He wanted to make the future as accurate as he could so he got “IBM” and other companies to go into great detail about what they think could be possible in 20 or so years as they obviously specialise in that area. All the computers were modelled by IBM
Dr. Strangelove he made ‘top secret’ files which had context of every character in it, he themed it as if it was a military file so it was more interesting for the press as they would be giving impressions on the set.
The Shining had much detail go into the clothes, he had a few people researching exactly what clothes they would where when the film was set and then he would pick which ones he liked and didn’t like by circling or crossing items of clothing. He did this for every type of character
Full Metal Jacket had a load of research to make the atmosphere seem as real as possible. He was watching documentaries and footage, studying photographs, reading Vietnamese newspapers of the time and read books from the time. He combined all of this to get just an idea of the atmosphere needed.
Many consider every one of his movies artwork but I particularly enjoyed Full Metal Jacket and Dr. Strangelove. I think both of these films are significant in their own way. Dr. Strangelove is a satire film that mocks society and especially militaries for their skewed vision on peace. The film is based around nuclear bombs and total annihilation of the earth because “it’s the only way to achieve peace”. No matter what you opinion on war I think you can enjoy this film
Full Metal Jacket was a more action packed film but the story it told was still great. While the film is supposed to give you an experience of what the battlefield was like it ends up actually being a film about why war is bad. The whole film only shows the bad aspects of war (not that there are many good ones) but it doesn’t show how everyone is united in a squad or how they all respect each other it only shows the worst case scenarios.
The context in which Dr. Strangelove was created was during the Cold War when the fear of nuclear holocaust is very present. This was at the point where nuclear weapons had been tested and had proved to be even more destructive than anticipated, this strong fear of world elimination and not being bale to trust anyone is what inspired Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.
Full Metal Jacket’s context is the Vietnam war which isn’t a difficult one to figure out, the film is good at representing the grim parts of the Vietnamese war and how damaging it was. While it neglects almost any upside it paints a good picture of how traumatic the time was when this was set. Not many people could be trusted.
Stanley Kubrick is great at getting his message across in his films in a subtle way, it’s one of my favourite things about him. The key messages are usually simple but hidden within the film. For example, with Dr. Strangelove the story is actually about them preventing the bomb from going off that was sent out but what Kubrick was actually doing was subliminally saying how people always try and solve war with threats and by being aggressive. Solving violence with violence. This is shown often with the whole “peace is our profession” signs around the military base that gets shot up later on in the film
Similar with Full Metal Jacket the film appears to be an experience of war but what it really is about is putting down war, it’s an anti-war film. It only shows you the worse parts of war for example people going insane and killing their instructor and committing suicide. Being attacked when resting in the camps. By relating all these horrific scenes with war it puts people off it.
With Stanley Kubrick anything after 2001: A Space Odyssey was a massive hit almost guaranteed to make a big profit. Dr. Strangelove was when he made a name for himself profit wise but 2001 was the turning point. Strangelove made £7.7 million (GBP) and Full Metal Jacket due to being after 2001 made an astonishing £38 million (GBP). This shows after he had made a name for himself a lot more people started to pay to see his work, this is when he started to gain distributers trust that he can make almost any film a box office hit and he got even more creative freedom than ever before.
Some other films released at the same time as Dr. Strangelove (1964) are Mary Poppins, Zulu and Goldfinger. I would say films in that time were split having half of them more serious about battle or war, relating to the cold war at the time. The other half more, casual family films like Mary Poppins probably as a distraction for familys. As for films around the time of Full Metal Jacket (1987) Predator, RoboCop Leathal Weapon and some more films on the Vietnamese war. Good morning Vietnam was a comedy but it was based on Vietnam. Films during this time are much more action packet to give people more of a thrill now CGI had improved but there are as always the more serious undertone films like FMJ.
Stanley Kubrick uses sound excellently in his films, as does he with visual techniques. To better explain this I will compare two films but my point is he knows exactly what he is doing as Director. I’m going to be honest 2001: A Space Odyssey is dragged out so much it almost bores me, however the soundtrack to the film is great. The use of “Also sprach Zarathustra” at the start of 2001 works great at building suspense and making you feel small like you are experiencing something greater then you. During the whole film sound is used in a creative way, not using any sound at all other the breathing at times to give an eerie atmosphere. Full metal Jacket is similar in this aspect however the music is more of a backing track and less “half of the film” to me anyway. The music in FMJ is crucial but I didn’t notice it unless I wanted too unlike 2001 where it was clear when music was used.
On the visual side many people say 2001 was a cinematic breakthrough and I don’t disagree there are some impressive visuals in that for the time, the pans, the models, the space shots. It is smooth and uncomfortable at the same time. And I can’t forget the famous match cut in 2001 where the bone is thrown in the air and it instantly switches to a shot of a space ship and the music cuts out completely leaving you realising you are watching a film. Full metal Jacket is great with is use of symmetry, 2001 uses this a lot too but I noticed it more in FMJ (personally). I thought the scene of the Sargent walking down the hall was very aesthetically pleasing, there are many more examples but he uses very good one point perspective in this film to make you subconsciously focus on certain parts of the film; or direct your eyes towards something. Either way both films have very good film techniques and I don’t understand all of them but I appreciate both of them for what I can
Narrative Theories can be applied to most if not all of Kubrick’s films, Claude Levi-Strauss’s theory is very apparent in Kubrick’s films. In dr. Strangelove the Binary Opposition is America and Russia, there are both at war and the drama is that each of them are itching to fire the bomb but don’t want to be the first one. In A space Odyssey the conflict is between HAL and the humans on board the ship, it starts off as a partnership but as the conflict grows the story does. In full metal Jacket its similar to Dr. Strangelove it’s a war but this time the conflict is the Vietnamese war. I think the use of strong conflict works well in creating a really dramatic film. If there is no drama a lot of the time it is boring with exceptions like comedy. Kubrick is good at showing the conflict with visual, music, dialogue and scenery.
In summary Kubrick is a well-defined Director and gains many people respect including mine, he has a clear signature in his movies consisting of having strong conflict to fuel the story, then he uses music to set the tone in the back of you mind along with dialogue and his use of angles, symmetry and one point perspective. They all come together in harmony to create an atmosphere you can help but get surrounded in
Creative McMedia 