Stanley Kubrick: Love or Hate
- Thread starter jcf817
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I can see how it's not for everybody as a movie and yes I've rewatched it less times than some of his others. It's more a work of art that isn't supposed to be comfortable and is supposed to make you leave with questions. It's something I'd put in the time capsule for all man kind with some Michelangelo sculptures and Mozart symphonies. Meanwhile I spend saturday afternoons watching football if you know what I mean.
2001 is alarming in how decades later it is asking more urgent questions. The title itself is outdated but the themes get more relevant every passing second. Clockwork Orange as the other futuristic SK movie has stayed relevant in some ways but in others it's now of its own time.
I'd have loved to see his version of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Spielberg film is great in some ways, but I think it could have been a real mind bender if it got the full SK treatment.
I watched Eyes Wide Shut in the theater and for some reason several groups around the theater would laugh uncontrollably every time the empty piano key music played. I wanted to get up and strangle them. I've been fascinated how it gets more highly regarded every passing year.
- Mar 27, 2006
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2001 occupies very similar space as AI, to me. I see what it's trying to be, and on certain levels it definitely works, but on others it gets bogged down and lost in the weeds.
So, you saw Full Metal Jacket twice?
Just razzin' - I responded not to make fun, but if you intended to list 3, curious what the other movie is.
in terms of framing the existential threat...2001 is more accurate than AI made something like 40 years later
HAL is right now and portrayed in a very realistic worst case scenario way, and then the evolution from a monkey to HAL is so mind blowing. David and his like are 10-20 years from now and portrayed in a way that shows some of the dangers but really not most of them, they're mostly the good guys. I'm guessing the AI robots in SK's version would have been a little scarier.
Dune is another work that blows my mind on the threat of AI. In the mid 60s it projected that eventually it would be some huge threat and crafted a distant future world where thinking machines have been banned.
- Mar 27, 2006
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Tbf, SK does have some subtle hilarious aspects as he stares at absurdity. The Shining is one of the most terrifying films to watch alone, but becomes hilarious when you watch in a group.
I continue to believe that the real future of humanity will be a cross of Dune and Firefly, and not in a good way.
I disagree.
The character of Halloran in the Shining appeared at first to be just a plot device to set up an understanding of what Danny was experiencing and the Overlook's specialness. Later in the story he becomes the only hope for the survival of Wendy and Danny. Just when we think they are going to be saved by D!ck, that hope is wrenched away and viewers have to believe that they are doomed. The character wasn't thrown away, he was yanked away to yank away that last bit of hope.
The Shining doesn't work for people who have cut their teeth on the slasher genre, but as a psychological thriller it is a masterpiece.
The subtle psychological effects that are used in the movie set design are fascinating. Like doors to nowhere and hallways that can't exist used throughout the ever-changing layout of the hotel. Subtle enough that it isn't outright noticeable but disorienting enough to create a bit of discomfort and confusion.
It is also fascinating to me that the viewer is left for most of the film wondering if the other characters (other than his family, that is) Jack sees at the Overlook are just in his head, after all, only Danny shines.
Until, of course, Grady lets Jack out of the storeroom.
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I think this was an audience at the Sioux City mall showing up to watch Tom Cruise in a sexy movie and had no idea what to make of such a dark weird journey (so they laughed at the most tense parts). I agree it's very much an Alice in Wonderland type of situation that isn't supposed to be realistic...although a few years later though I was living in Illinois and a "sex club for rich people" scandal lost a candidate an election while launching the national career of another guy we all know. I don't think anybody was going to track down Jack Ryan and kill him for letting their secret club out into the public...but it showed a little sliver of truth behind the fairytale in a pretty prominent way just five years later.
The promotion of that film and press junket was all very strange. No one knew how to receive it, promote it, nor react to it. Few understood what it was at the time other than Tom and Nic in a steamy adult film.
Not to mention the lost minutes.
So, you saw Full Metal Jacket twice?
Just razzin' - I responded not to make fun, but if you intended to list 3, curious what the other movie is.
I mean to put Eyes Wide Shut for one of those. FML.
