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Furthermore, The Early Part Of His Career Serves To Underline The Previously ...

Furthermore, the early part of his career serves to underline the previously point made that although Kubrick was a cinematic auteur he was also a very hard working man who had to experiment with various film-making techniques in order to locate the best vehicle through which to transport his talents to a place where the film, the director and the audience all stood to benefit. In addition, it would be foolish to overlook the reality of where Kubrick's career was at the end of the 1950's in comparison to where he wanted it to be. Thus, Killer's Kiss, The Killing and his fourth feature film Paths of Glory (1957) can be seen as potential ‘calling cards' to Hollywood whereby he was able to expose the full range of his talents rather than fixing one particular style that may or may not have been of interest to the movie making elite in California. Kubrick was a successful man and successful men are generally pragmatists who are able to manipulate the industry in which they operate to suit their own ambitious needs. It is an important point and one that should be borne in mind throughout the remainder of the discussion.
There is no doubt that Spartacus (1960) represents a watershed in the film-making career of Stanley Kubrick. Moreover, this movie was the only time that Kubrick performed the role of ‘mercenary director'. This movie also marks the moment when Kubrick began to do much more than merely break even at the box office; the film was a huge commercial success. Likewise, in the view of the Hollywood elite, Spartacus was also widely acknowledged as one of the best films of the early 1960's with Academy Awards meted out for costume design, art direction, cinematography and a Best Supporting Actor Award for Peter Ustinov.
Yet while Spartacus placed Kubrick firmly in the sights of the most powerful producers in the United States, it is also a strange film in so far as it does not seem to be a discernibly ‘Kubrick film'. Although it is a very measured, controlled movie with superb performances from screen icons such as Laurence Olivier, Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis and Peter Ustinov, there seems to be a sizeable discrepancy between Spartacus and his later movies. Again, mention must be made of the need to cement his growing reputation in Hollywood with a commercially astute film. One should recall he was only just thirty years old at this time and not yet the master of his own cinematic destiny. Yet the major directorial difference between Spartacus and the remainder of Kubrick's cinematic output concerned the issue of location. While the rest of his movies were either largely or entirely made in film studios, Spartacus was shot on location a factor that directly challenged the film-maker's tried and tested methods of maintaining total directorial control.
Kubrick found working out of doors or in real locations very distracting, and preferred the tight control to be achieved only in a studio.


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