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No Matter How Brilliant The Script May Be, No Matter How Beautiful The ...


No matter how brilliant the script may be, no matter how beautiful the production design, the lighting, the cinematography, the editing and the music, if the events that (the director) and the actors have created are lacking then the entire film will suffer. (Travis, 2002:9)
There is a tendency to view this film as more autobiographical than any other in Kubrick's catalogue. Certainly, the symbolic representation of the tortured writer living all alone in a country retreat can be read as a metaphor for Kubrick's own reclusive existence. Yet what might at first appear to be a sure symptom of a cinematic auteur in practice can in fact be understood as simply another instance of a director donning a new directorial mask in order to attempt to make movies about as many different genres as was possible bearing mind limitations on financial and logistical resources. This is an illustration of the point made during the introduction whereby the myth constructed around Kubrick's private life might have a negative effect upon efforts at understanding the ideological purpose of his work.
Stanley Kubrick made two more movies in his life. One was complete; the other was not. Both, however, were opportunities for him to direct more culturally ‘comfortable' films in the twilight of his career and in both instances he rejected the chance to conform and continued along the auteurist path of the crossgenre film-maker. Full Metal Jacket (released in 1987) drew its inspiration from Gustav Hasford's first person novel, ‘The Short Timers' about his training as a marine and his subsequently short stint on the ground in Vietnam.
The topic of Vietnam was not, by the late 1980's, a topic that had escaped the attention of Hollywood. Films such as The Deer Hunter (1977) had already effectively portrayed the cinematic horror of war. Therefore, seeking to add a new perspective to a well known period of history, Kubrick focused on the way in which the US military itself was guilty of ruining the lives of its men before they had even managed to leave American soil. This was a wholly unique interpretation of the war, which makes the second ‘act' of the film (which takes place in Vietnam) appear somewhat disjointed. Full Metal Jacket does, though, represent another instance of the director moving across different genres while maintaining a distinctive sense of his own style.
Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut (released in 1999) represents something of a departure for the filmmaker not only in genre (although this film could be allied to The Killer's Kiss in both content and style) but also in the tempo of the movie. Eyes Wide Shut is an engaging, well paced film (similar in tempo to A Space Odyssey) that connects the director's interest in how sexual conformity can result in psychological distress with his favourite symbolic tool, music.


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