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April 25, 2011
Ranked: Stanley Kubrick Films from Worst to Best
With the recent rediscovery of the master's lost first film, we look back at 2001, Dr. Strangelove, et al.
By Matthew Dessem
Archivists recently discovered a rare print of Stanley Kubrick's "lost" debut film, Fear and Desire, in a Puerto Rican film lab. They're now working to restore it (in the meantime, you can watch a warbly copy on Google Video). This exciting find gives us a rare excuse to examine Kubrick's filmography in full. Ranking the films is Matthew Dessem, whose own site, The Criterion Contraption, aims to review every Criterion Collection DVD, and is thoroughly worth repeated visits.
13. Fear and Desire (1953)
Kubrick's first feature acquired cult status over the years, mostly because almost no one could see it. There were very few surviving prints (supposedly because Kubrick was buying and destroying them) and when it was finally screened in New York, he issued a public statement discouraging people from seeing it. Now that Fear and Desire can be seen on the internet, it's easy to see why Kubrick did his best to keep it under wraps. Nominally a war film, it's really a misbegotten exercise in pop existentialism (sample dialogue: "It's better to roll up your whole life into one night and one man and one gun..."). Kubrick himself called this a "bumbling, amateur film exercise." He was right.
12. Spartacus (1960)
It's not entirely fair to call this a Stanley Kubrick film. He was hired a week into shooting, after Kirk Douglas fired original director Anthony Mann. Kubrick came on board a multi-million-dollar production with actors he didn't cast, sets he didn't design, a script he didn't like, and no time to change anything. The result is a film that, for all its grandeur, feels like it was designed by committee: there are Peter Ustinov scenes and Kirk Douglas scenes, and never the twain shall meet. There's no question this was a smart career move for Kubrick, though — under normal circumstances, he never would have been entrusted with such a massive production.
11. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
All of Kubrick's films have a certain coldness to them, but none are as misanthropic as this, easily his most overrated film. It occupies a similar place in our culture as Taxi Driver, which is to say that college-age sociopaths take to it like flies to corpses. But while college students like Taxi Driver for all the wrong reasons, they've got A Clockwork Orange dead to rights: Kubrick really does encourage the audience to identify with Malcolm McDowell's murderous rapist. And he doesn't do this by showing us anything about Alex's humanity, he does it by making the on-screen violence cool.
10. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Eyes Wide Shut was marketed as an erotic thriller to audiences in 1999, which led to a lot of shocked moviegoers realizing they'd walked into a Stanley Kubrick film by mistake. Kubrick's last film was something of a shibboleth among cinephiles; you're supposed to call it dream-like, and hypnotic, and surreal, and it is. But it's also overlong and dull, and despite the pleasure of seeing Tom Cruise hit on by every character he meets, it's only barely in Kubrick's top ten.
9. Killer's Kiss (1955)
The soundtrack is poorly dubbed, the foley work is laughable, the acting is wooden, and the less said about the script, the better: this is not a good movie. And yet there are two minutes and forty-one seconds in the middle of the film that represent the rawest work Kubrick ever did. As Jaime Smith's fading boxer gets pummeled in the ring in his last professional fight, the editing becomes more frenetic, the camera pushes in closer, the angles become odder. It's as subjective as the fights in Raging Bull (or the ballet in The Red Shoes) — perfect cinema. Unfortunately, the film around the boxing scene is nowhere near as good. I rate it higher than Eyes Wide Shut purely on the basis of its beautifully photographed New York. It also doesn't hurt that Kubrick ends the film with a sequence as gonzo as anything Samuel Fuller ever dreamed of: an ax fight in a mannequin factory.
8. Lolita (1962)
This is not a novel that should be made into a film. If you insist, most of Kubrick's choices are pretty good ones. James Mason is perfectly cast as Humbert Humbert, and Shelley Winters embodies Charlotte Haze from the moment she refers to Humbert as "Euro-peen." But as over-the-top as Winters is, Peter Sellers appears to be checking in from a completely different movie, and possibly a completely different planet. This reaches its apotheosis in the sequence where Sellers' Clare Quilty impersonates Lolita's school psychologist, basically performing an early version of Dr. Strangelove. Kubrick's film has its moments, but it's not Lolita.
Commentarium (77 Comments)
Very interesting list. I like. Totally agree on Spartacus. I mean, it's not the worst thing I've seen and it's not unwatchable, but it is definitley not his vision and what he wanted. And not that it's even my favorite, I still think it's good and has alot of power to it, surprised to see A Clockwork Orange rated so low on the list. Surprised in a good way of course. But I hear you on people liking that and/or Taxi Driver for the wrong reasons. However, I don't think that's the movies fault that people don't see the moral crisises or underpinnings in those two stories.
"Kubrick really does encourage the audience to identify with Malcolm McDowell's murderous rapist" I disagree with that part. I think we are supposed to see alex as the murdering,rapist s.o.b that he is. However, we are also supposed to see the system as being wrong for exploiting and using him. Simply put, it's a case of two wrongs don't make a right.
"And he doesn't do this by showing us anything about Alex's humanity, he does it by making the on-screen violence cool." Disagree with this part. This isn't supposed to be about Alex's humanity. We are meant to see him as the awful monster that he is. I mean, that's the point of the story. The main character is a villain. However, I think Kubrick was most not definitley looking to make onscreen violence "cool". If anything, he was trying to show the ugliness,unpleasantness,and reality of it. I.E It's not like in James Bond movies. There was actually a quote from him relating to the controversy over a clockwork orange, and how cartoon violence is ok,tom and jerry, james bond, but real violence is not. And then something about when young men go to war and see the reality is not what they were shown in propaganda movies. I forget the whole quote, but powerful nonetheless.
But the violence in "A Clockwork Orange" isn't unpleasant the way the violence in, say, "Salò" is (although I find "Salò" pretty reprehensible in its own right, no one could say it glamorizes violence). I think you're underestimating how much Kubrick valorizes Alex. Think of Alex & his gang in the stolen car on the night they cripple Mr. Alexander & rape his wife: there's that closeup of Alex driving that, with some costume changes, could actually be used in a Bond movie. Alex is cool in that shot in the same way Bond is. Imagine how that scene would go with Travis Bickle behind the wheel.
"A Clockwork Orange" is about free will, plain and simple. Kubrick explains this in a 1970 interview with Joseph Gelmis: "There are sociological implications of whether it's worse immorality to deprive a man of his freedom, by imprisoning him, or his free will, by turning him into a clockwork orange, a robot being." Anthony Burgess has covered this as well (in his 1986 foreword): "A human being is endowed with free will. If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange. It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. The important thing is moral choice." Alex is a man. He has free will. He chooses to be evil. The government alters his behavior so that he still wants to be evil, but he can no longer can act evil. He no longer has free will. Therefore, he is no longer truly a man. This is bad. The violence is there simply to illustrate his wickedness. Oh, and that scene in the car, the one you say glamorizes Alex? Did you know that exact scene is in the book? So maybe it's Anthony Burgess you've got a beef with. But sandwiched as it is between an old man's beating, the rape and murder of a couple and the bludgeoning of an old lady, I'm thinking maybe you're just desensitized to this kinda thing.
Oh, and I am glad Barry Lyndon is near the top. That movie kicks ass.
It's not that Alex is cool so much as he is fascinating in the way a car accident is.
Alex's sociopathic condition feels real unlike most horror films. He is the ultimate
"bad boy" brought low and everyone loves to see the mighty fall. I have a friend who enjoys horror films, but hates this one because singing in the rain was once her favorite song and now has a terrible association for her.
Sadly, Kubric chose to leave out the final resolution of the book where Alex grows up and puts his sociopathic ways behind him. Instead, he leaves him as evil child who does not need to grow up because those in power have a use for him. He is their monster because he can be used as a bludgeon against their political foes.
The film is full of people being self indulgent, having a kind of freedom many of us
with we had, though hopefully we would use it in a more benign fashion.
Consider
The arrogance of the art collector, who's art is a huge phallus.
The animal farm type nature of his former Drugges who are now policemen.
The "liberal" who gleefully tortures Alex once he is in his grasp.
The naked woman who throws out a ta-da for her power over Alex who once would
have had his way with her.
The politician who cares not for Alex's nature, but only that he can be used.
It is a disturbing film, but it makes us think, which is more than you can say
about most of the films made today.
I'm 23 and haven't seen one of his films, feel super uncultured. Thanks.
oops, at least you realize it.
You need to see a Kubrick, and a Kurosawa, a Peckinpah, a Coppola, a Scorsese, a Fellini, a Rohmer, a Besson, a Frears, a Woo, ....
especially a Fellini. he's so goddamn funny. 'la dolce vita', 'white shiek,' '8 1/2', 'nights of cabiria'. try a bergman too - 'persona' fascinated me.
A better list than many of the similar ones here. The top two would be my top two, and I wish more people would see "Paths of Glory." And I'm glad you called "A Clockwork Orange" over-rated. Some of the early scenes were very impressive when I first saw them, but it's hard to even watch the film now without feeling soiled.
But you are supposed to feel soiled. If now, having grown up, you see the actions of
the sociopath as bad, then the film has made its mark.
Sorry I lost interest in this list when I saw Clockwork ranked so low.
Realy? Eyes Wide Shut was'nt at the top of the list for his worst. I mean Dr. Strange Love is the best of his films butthis list is just awful. But everyone is entiltled to their opinion, and I'm sure alot of people will think I'm wrong.
Yes, Clockwork Orange may appeal to adolescents because of the realistic and often sexualized violence (I would offer "asexualized" because that's what violence does to sex), but the adults who love this movie (like me) are amazed at how Kubrick gets us to sympathize with Alex, not just because he is subjected to the type of cold, institutionally sanctioned cruelty we all fear, but because Alex has personality (no matter how sociopathic) in one of the most colorfully mundane worlds ever depicted in film. I do agree with Yanqui that you do feel soiled after viewing it, because it is psychologically a "dirty" film on so many levels. And I was not aware of the interview that "F***You" mentions, although it provides some great context. I would add that the violence actually finds this strange place between realistic and cartoonish -- everything from the Batman-ish gang fight (that is, the TV show version of Batman -- KaPow!) to the interrupted Billy-boy gang rape scene in which the huge breasted woman wrestles with her attackers with all the gratuitously staged visuals (I mean, she's actually on a stage) of a girls-prison sexploitation film. Of course, the rape scene in the home is the most disturbing because it is brutally realistic despite the emotional sterility of the victims.
I'll post the full quote soon. It's in this book I got, and it's very like uh,deep if you would. The quote that is.
Interesting order. I'm happy to see Clockwork take the low side of the list.
You are stupid
He's not. Like him, I am one of the film's detractors. It was heavily flawed, awkwardly stylized and filled with terrible performances (with the exception of Malcolm McDowell). I couldn't agree more with Roger Ebert, who called it an "ideological mess." Kubrick is cold director, he works best with material meant to be treated with detachment. In Dr. Strangelove for instance, the humor is very biting and outrageous and there's a sense of guilt every time you laugh because nuclear war and the end of the world isn't supposed to be funny. I think Kubrick did make an effort to create a persuasive argument against violence in ACO but warmth just isn't his thing and what we get is a missed opportunity and several fanboys who liked the film for its "cool" imagery.
Do we know which Puerto Rican film lab discovered this print? IMDB lists it was discovered in the late 1980's and was later acquired by the Library of Congress...really curious!
I could never really get behind 2001. More like "Space Narcolepsy" than "Space Odyssey" it just goes on and o,n mired in self-impotance. It doesn't help Arthur C. Clarke was a painfully pedantic and bloodless writer. I understand it's significance as milestone in vfx, but zzzzzz.
Hahahaha couldn't agree more!
Kubrick was amazing. My personal top 5:
3. The Shining
2. Barry Lyndon (often overlooked - glad to see it highly ranked)
1. 2001 - the best movie ever made
Eyes Wide has some problems, but is still compelling. Metal Jacket is only half good (1st half), Clockwork is a dystopian marvel.
Yeah top 3. Oppy
"Eyes Wide Shut" is dreadful, tedious, pointless, formless. It's awful, period.
I agree with "Dr Strangelove" and "Paths of Glory" as one and two and am glad to see "The Killing" rated as high as it is ... that one's a real gem, too.
I think A Clockwork Orange is appropriately placed, but I would definitely rate Eyes Wide Shut well below it. That film is almost unwatchable, especially that god-awful pool scene between Sydney Pollack and Tom Cruise that never ends.
You know what the worst part about that scene is? It's exactly the way that people talk in real life instead of being paced snappily the way that movie conversations usually are. That whole movie suffers from the same sense of real time and experience. I mean, shit, why would you go to a movie to see reality?
I would put Clockwork way higher, but then I loved the book too. 2001 I would put way lower because it just dragged on and on.
"So it seems churlish to point out that the only character [in 2001] with recognizable human emotions is a murderous computer."
Yeah! And while we're at it, lets mention that the Moby Dick is really weakened by all the action being driven by a sea captain who seems somewhat obsessed. It really would have been much better if it was like "The Most Dangerous Catch."
Sarcasm aside, the deadpan delivery by every single actor, in a movie by a director in his other films for characters who are, if anything, overly emotional, is clearly deliberate. How you interpret that choice is up to you, but you really can't treat it as if it were an accidental flaw on the part of the director.
(In deciding how you want to interpret it, you might consider a) That a director whose major themes have always been about human emotion and the human spirit, who is also known for his technophilia and spectacular, innovative special effects might have realized before it became a truism the risk of special effects overshadowing the human elements, and perhaps even might see that as possibly relevant to the effects of technology on human society; and b) That the final sequences (from the passage through the star gate), which many see as just kind of tacked on are clearly about transcendence of some kind and probably were not just tacked on in Kubrik's mind.
It's also really, really important to point out that Arthur C. Clarke did not write books about the individual experience of anything. He wrote about very nuanced and developed ideas and their effect on humanity as a collective. The treatment and (lack of) development of the characters in "2001" is absolutely in keeping with the source material.
"Clockwork Orange" has not aged well, though it's society's fault and not the movie's.
I think "Clockwork Orange" has aged the exact same way that "Airplane" has aged - brilliant, but ripped off and diluted by so many others, and integrated so deeply into social conscious, that when you see it now you almost wonder what was so great and groundbreaking about it in the first place.
"So it seems churlish to point out that the only character [in 2001] with recognizable human emotions is a murderous computer."
That is the frickin' point!
Love the top three. Good placement too. I saw Barry Lyndon in rotation on some film channel awhile back. I can't tell you how many times I watched it but I liked it better every time - and never got tired of it (for reasons which still defy my reason - I mean, how many time in a row can you see the same movie and not even get just a little fatigued with it?). 2001 SO's meticulously composed, geometrically precise framing and elegance always seemed to me actually of a piece with its lack/loss of human emotion, as played out by the jump from the wild passions of the prehistoric apes' murderous possessive drama to the possessive drama played out over an identical artifact by the coldly calculating, dispassionate humans at the space station. That seemed precisely his point, and as CO followed it, I always saw them as related, the murderous computer and the murderous Alex being kindred spirits (kindred non-spirits? kindred inhumans?) in a way. Something gained and something lost, leaving us to reflect on the value and the final cost of the exchange.
This list is awful, there are so many better arrangements for these films.
I agree. It seems the ranker clearly misinterpreted much of Kubrick's intentions, and what is plainly visible to a sensitive viewer. My biggest gripes are about A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, and 2001.
A Clockwork Orange is not meant solely to put us into the mind of Alex, it shows the system, the society, the victims, and the perpetrators. An intelligent viewer can separate commentary and critique from a first-person narrative. The inability to perceive multiple layers of commentary staggers me.
Eyes Wide Shut is slowly paced, deliberate, realistically dialogued, and yet you graze on the very surface by buying into what's right in front of you, on the top level. Eyes Wide Shut -- that's what yours are, and that was Kubrick's point. Yet again, the ranker misses the mark. This is an intricately structured and nuanced film that has multiple layers of meaning and deep symbolism. I can understand if you criticize it based on Kubrick's own misogynistic infatuations, but that is not the level of critique you give.
2001 is again slowly paced and deliberate. The dialogue is deadpan humor from Kubrick. As time moves forward, humans become more mechanized while machines become more advanced. That is the *point*. It's not clear that HAL really was in the wrong, as he was trying not to jeopardize the mission. HAL defeats Frank in chess, and then defeats him in life. Dave has human creativity and ingenuity and perseveres. How you fail to grasp the subtleties disturbs me.
I do agree that A Clockwork Orange is often overrated, and that Barry Lyndon is underrated. I might move Barry Lyndon within one or two places, but it is a gorgeous piece of cinema. Dr. Strangelove, on the other hand, is brilliant but too campy for my taste. I think that Peter Sellers overacts, though that is in keeping with such comedies from that era.
I knew this list would spark some controversy.
I stopped reading when A Clockwork Orange was put behind Eyes Wide Shut. You've got to be kidding me.
The vastly under rated Marie Antoinette, in some of it's early scenes (esp. the forest transfer of power), look v. much like Barry Lyndon. (great list, though!)
I feel like the sole purpose of making this list was just to give A Clockwork Orange a poor review and call it overrated. But whatever. I enjoyed it, and I actually really enjoyed Eyes Wide Shut. I'm no Kubrick aficionado, but I like everything I've seen for the most part. I'll have to check out the others on the list.
And yeah, A Clockwork Orange is definitely hyped up by a lot of college kids. But I've always felt that Dr Strangelove was every nerdy funny kid's wet dream. It was entertaining, but it definitely is not my fave.
mentioning 'marie antoinette'(or anything sofia coppola) in this article about GOOD cinema made me cringe.
it's v. close to barry lyndon, and i find a lot of misogyny in the critics who didn't like it. Have you read Lee's review in film comment?
You totally missed the point on "Clockwork Orange". The film, like the book, created a great schism between good & evil and unfettered free will & social programming for the "good of society".
Good people, like myself (I think) were horrified at their sense of identification with Alex especially after he underwent the Ludivico technique, BUT we were torn nevertheless and still are to this day. On the other hand bad people cheered Alex on & didn't like the mechanations of Ludivico. I show this movie to "kids" born 20 years after this film was released & they're bothered by it. I rank behind "2001" as Kubrick's best. (Make no mistake about it I'd double tap Alex twice in the sternum & finish him with a shot to the forehead in a heartbeat, but that the Dirty Harry in me.)
I would say that we aren't meant to be identify or sympathize with Alex, but see how he is exploited by the system for there own means.
Dr. Strangelove definitely deserves the top spot. It's true that Clockwork Orange is overrated, but I wouldn't say it's THAT overrated, probably deserved a spot in the top 10 at least. I personally refuse to allow a film's popularity alone to spoil it.
you no allowed to make lists anymore
I know you can always claim this is an opinion article. But you off way WAY off.
1. 2001
2. Clockwork Orange
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. Full Metal Jacket
5. The Shining
6. Paths of Glory
7. Eyes Wide Shut
8. The Killing
9. Barry Lyndon
10. Lolita
11. Sparticus
12. Killers Kiss
13. Fear and Desire
@Seth, your list is much closer to my preference for Kubrick films. 2001 still impresses me every time I watch it (which is about once a year). Well done.
I had a film studies professor who made it his mission to get college students to just let go of the Clockwork Orange worship for a minute and check out Paths of Glory. I'm so glad he did that. Paths of Glory is such a wonderful and important film. Oh, and this professor had no issue with Dr. Strangelove.
I am not a film a critic, or even really a buff. I do hate it when someone tells me I like something for the wrong reasons. Is there a list of reasons to appropriately like something? Isn't the emotional response of liking or disliking completely subjective?
If I told you I liked Jaws because of the unique treatment of the 'monster' to build tension in a way that would be mimicked by every horror movie for the next decade, would you say " oh no no, you are supposed to like that movie for the rich characters and killer score"?
I got derailed, but I just felt your comments were presumptuous and condescending.
There are different types of movies and different reasons for liking them. This is not about "favorite" movies, it's about greatest movies. Movies that aspire to a certain goal can be judged on its success or failure in achieving it, as well as that goal to begin with. If a movie is designed purely to shock you, then a really scary movie might be one of the "scariest." Is it the "greatest"? Only if the only goal you have for a movie is for it to be scary. If you want movies to be intelligent and creative on a narrative, symbolic, visual, and literary level, there are other prizes to be won. Kubrick, as with other great directors, succeeded in accomplishing many things in his best films. Look at The Shining or Full Metal Jacket -- both are completely "approachable" for the layman and yet very well done, with enough other things going on for a "movie person" to appreciate and a cinemophile to relish. No one should judge somebody for wanting to gorge on poppy trash movies, but don't anti-intellectualize. We have enough of that in society already.
wow, the response to a reader feeling the article was condescending was a commenter to be snidely, smugly, snobbily condescending. Bravo!
I determined this list was shit as soon as I saw a Clockwork Orange at #11.
Couple of comments:
We all look for different things in films and will have different orderings of a list like this. This is especially true for Kubrik's films because, despite some consistent themes and approaches, his films were not "all of a piece" and easily placed on a single scale. He experimented with all aspects of cinema, and each film contained multiple experiments. For me this worked and this failed, for you it might be the reverse. I commented that it was wrong to treat the lack of humanity in the characters in 2001 as an accident, but it is perfectly valid for the list-makers to feel that this "didn't work" for them and for that reason place this film right where they did (though it did work for me and I would place 2001 much higher).
I'm hardly doddering, but those of you who are not old enough to have seen these films when they came out really cannot fully understand them (same for me for Kubrik's earlier films). Before 2001 science fiction films were a joke for most people. 2001 lead to people considering that it was possible for there to be such a thing as a quality science fiction film. 2001 was the first film to successfully present space as not just an environment where the action takes place but as an actual, if odd, place -- one, furthermore, capable of beauty and grandeur. Before 2001 all science fiction films except a few pure action films like the Flash Gordon serials, had as an underlying theme "There are things that Man is not meant to know." After 2001, SF films could explore issues found in literary SF, like the effects of environment on people and culture, human development and the beneficial aspects of technology. 2001 was mind-blowing in part because it included implicit concepts about film which have become so routine it is next to impossible now, even or us old fogies, to recognize them.
I'll give a simpler example of this -- Barry Lyndon. It was the first major film (maybe the first commercial film) to use the new high-speed color films that allowed indoor film to be shot in ambient light. Those scenes of people sitting at dinner in candlelight, which now look (even to my eyes) like the point was to show that people's evening life was poorly lit and reddish back then (because this was the very first generation of film that could photograph anything at all in those conditions) were stunningly clear and stomach-clenchingly realistic (without people necessarily putting there finger on it -- the f**ing shadows acted like the light was coming from those flickering candles and not from outside the scene) to those of us in the original audiences.
Of course, that doesn't mean that it isn't totally valid to rate these films according to what they are now. In talking about films like Clockwork Orange though, its worth remembering that part of its value was that it said things so well and so influentially that it is hard to now to see it as something even being said (e.g., in CO, showing that extreme violence ("ultra-violence") could be performed so casually by someone who other than a propensity for such violence, was an interesting, even attractive, complete human being, who, except for some affectations not obviously "deranged" or "sick" -- contrast Richard Widmark's character from 1947 Kiss of Death).
Imagine how good Barry Lyndon might have been had Kubrick cast an actor in the lead role.
Evidently the ranking has been made by someone expert in Tom & Jerry cartoons. That's ok with me - I like Tom and sometmes Jerry too.
My ranking, instead:
1st ex-aequo: the "Today-as-seen-decades-ago" series:
2001: man/machine relationship & life on Mars (brought to you by: NASA & Mike Bara)
Dr. Strangelove: Fukushima meets Osama & Obama, 40 years before
Clockwork Orange: Big Brother, the press, the politicians & violence
Paths of Glory: politics with a patriotic sugar-coating
The Shining: when short-circuits happen, they happen in the brain and beyond
2nd ex-aequo: the "Reality used to be a friend of mine" series
The Killing: Newton-mechanics don't rule the human world; idiocy perhaps does.
Eyes Wide Shut: a serious parody of the "better-really-shut than wide-open" TV-reality world
Full-Metal Jacket: sons of the "War is a Drug" fraternity, filmed in a (correctly so) fake Vietnam
Barry Lyndon: excerpts from "Small-time-Swindling, for dummies"
3rd ex-aequo:
Spartacus: the geometry of violence and cast ranks
Lolita: spiritual rot, illusions and delusions in provincial America
Not ranked:
Killer's Kiss: great b&w and some ideas for Scorsese to exploit
Fear & Desire: what Don Quixote has been for Welles - unripe
Make no mistake, there has never been a film-maker of Stanley's stature. Hope there will, but to date he is the one.
I would rank the following his 5 best: 1.Full Metal Jacket 2. The Killing 3. The Shining 4.Dr.Strangelove 5.Paths of Glory. I would rank the following his 5 worst: 1.Fear and Desire 2.Killer's kiss 3.2001 4.Eyes Wide Shut 5.Spartacus I think the best kubrick films,are both endlessly entertaining,while still being thought provoking.The 5 worst along with lolita,barry lyndon are just to languid and slow.Though there not bad,just bad kubrick films.He never made a bad film,to many iconic,memorable moments in EVERY one of his films.My favorite director
i watched 2001 40 years after it was released and still i loves it so much. it is the best Kubrick's film. infact best film ever made. remember it was made on 1968. Kubrick = Genius.
I really enjoyed your list. I also liked how you put 2001 so far up at the top. Kubrick has certainly done some fantastic films in the past. I really admire him. My favorite in A Clockwork Orange. I know that you put it low down on the list but I do respect your opinon, because honestly, everyone has a vastly different opinon of that film. All opinons of the film are unique because it is a unique film. Even if you didn't like it, the cinematography was exquisite and Malcom McDowell did an excellent job. I for one think of Clockwork Orange on three different levels... a cautionary tale, a journey through the human phscye, and a look at what the boundries between good and just downright evil are depending on one individual's thoughts. I do think that the violence was horrific, but he doesn't glorify it... he uses it. None the less, I really like your list. I can't wait to see Dr. Strangelove. Keep making lists.
Yes as soon as I saw Eyes Wide Shut rated better than A Clockwork Orange, I knew this listed was very twisted. The rest of the choices are very odd too...not even sure if this is one of those lists that is an honest opinion or just wacked out to be more "controversial".
1.Barry Lyndon
2.Paths of Glory
3.Full Metal jacket
4.2001
5.Clockwork Orange
6.Eyes Wide Shut
7.Spartacus
8.The Shining
9.Dr.Strangelove (I found it very overwrated and boring, though the concept is awesome)
The first 5 are master works, but I really found perfect only the first 3 movies
==Left to see
Lolita, The Killing, Killers Kiss, Fear and Desire
paths of glory, the killing & 2001 are in the Top 5. Good enough for me
You totally misunderstood A Clockwork Orange the violence and rape part was just to show you that you every human being has the right to do what ever he wants maybe not the right but I mean that right now you can go to the street and kill somebody yes you would go to jail but I mean that you have the free will to do that and yes everybody loves Alex and that is okay everybody wants to have the freedom that Alex has and the second part of the movie is like what if we removed Alex's free will? and that makes nature work against him because he wasn't normal he didn't choose to be a good citizen he was forced to be a perfect citizen and that caused a series of events that if he had his free will he could have easily avoided.
sorry about my punctuation I was typing fast
This article is a home run, pure and silmpe!
#1 A Clockwork Orange
#2 The Shining
#3 Full Metal Jacket
#4 Barry Lyndon
#5 Paths of Glory
#6 2001: A Space Odyssey
#7 Dr. Strangelove
#8 The Killing
#9 Lolita
#10 Eyes Wide Shut
#11 Killer's Kiss
#12 Fear and Desire
#13 Spartacus
ok, I will always love 2001 no matter what anybody says about it, simply too incredible to deny...strangelove, I can see why it's ranked so high, being a bureaucratic satire complete with a man-made apocolypse, it's fine...I can see that people don't think too highly of the second half of full metal jacket, I personally like how it is separated and think the whole movie is pretty great...I never know what to say about clockwork, I agree with it being overrated, but I'm not gonna be an asshole about it to anyone...I also THOROUGHLY agree with Taxi Driver being overrated, it's not a Kubrick, but it was mentioned in the list, that movie had so much lost potential...I remember thinking during that movie how amazing it COULD be, and then I saw the last 45 minutes, and then Mad Dog & Glory totally channeled the exact same thought...once again, de niro movies not related to Kubrick...but whatever...go 2001
Without a doubt Kubrick is the most over rated film director ever. Bar none. As for Clockwork Orange being dated it wasn't even great at the time. It came out around the same time as two works of brilliance: Ken Russell's The Devils and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, both of which can still be watched today with feelings of awe. ( By the way, Russell is much, much funnier than Fellini!)
Having said that, I think that Barry Lyndon is not only the far and away best thing Kubrick ever made but is also one of the best and most beutiful films ever made.
Try This list on for size.
1.Barry Lyndon (A shapeless man who is reshaped by society) (And neglected by the unimaginative)
2.Dr. Strangelove (Do you watch this film for a gag, or for a scare?)
3.2001: Space Odyssey (You're Mind is going)
4.A Clockwork Orange (The Most Dangerous film of all time)
5.The Shining (Jack overacts, but is it deliberated by Kubrick?)
6.Lolita (A perfect film if Kubrick's name weren't on it, but still perfect)
7.Paths of Glory (The only flaw with this movie is the New York accents)
8.Eyes Wide Shut (A Masterpiece that lacks Kubrick's final touches)
9.Full Metal Jacket (2nd half is underrated, but has flaws)
10.The Killing (Narration bore agreed, that's all)
11.Spartacus ( Barely a Kubrick film, could be someone else's best film)
12.Killer's Kiss (overall boring, but photogenic)
13.Fear and Desire. (couldn't finish this one)
What's interesting about Kubrick's career is the different periods of his filmmaking. "Killer's Kiss" through "Spartacus" all seem like an attempt to break into Hollywood, with "Paths of Glory" having the most recognizable elements that you would see in his later films.
Lolita and Dr. Strangelove could belong to another director entirely, imagining that he made no films before or after these two. They're both essentially comedies that have moments of tongue in cheek humor mixed with biting wit. You're up close to the characters and you're allowed to make fun of them.
The Rest of his films are split up into two periods. The perfect Masterpieces "2001", "Clockwork Orange", and "Barry Lyndon". Followed by his imperfect masterpieces "The Shining", "Full Metal Jacket", "Eyes Wide Shut". The Difference between these two periods is that while films in the First Category (eg.2001) are instantly recognized at wholly original films and not a thing about it can justly be criticized, His latter half (eg.The Shining) has many moments that can be picked apart where the viewer might imagine how it could have been done differently and better.
The second half of this period is simply a play on the audiences expectations of Kubricks films. Although they might be flawed, you can return to them many more times then the films you love, that you eventually have watched so much you can get nothing more out of it. With "The Shining" - "Eyes Wide Shut", you can never stop returning because you're drawn into it's Maze and you'll never be able to find the answer, but you'll always keep trying.
What's the worst thing I can say about his films?
"Napoleon" and "Aryan Papers" suck! Because they were never made.
"A.I"....what can you expect from Spielberg.
"Seafarers" Is worth a watch. Have never got around his other Docs.
Finally someone putting that mess called A Clockwork Orange in its place.
I'd rank them in this order:
1. Dr. Strangelove - A+
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey - A+
3. Paths of Glory - A+
4. The Killing - A+
5. Barry Lyndon - A
6. Lolita - B+
7. The Shining - C
8. Full Metal Jacket - C-
9. Spartacus - D
10. A Clockwork Orange - D
Overall an impressive body of work. He was at his best in the 50s and 60s. What happened from then on, I'm not sure. Rarely venturing out of your home can sap a person's perception of reality.
Have not seen: Eyes Wide Shut, Killer's Kiss and Fear and Desire
Anyone that hated A Clockwork Orange gets my respect.
Btw, Kubrick himself hated the narration in The Killing but he was forced to include it by his investors because they felt the non-linear structure of the film would be too confusing for audiences.
I totally 100% disagree with the list that is made. I mean honestly you have Barry Lyndon way too low. The shining and clockwork are in his top 5 easily and you have them way up in the list. Obviously you haven't seen a Kubrick film in a while. Also spartacus and killers kiss are easily his worst movies.
My preferences are very subjective, as are all those listed above: A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut, and Dr. Strangelove would be my top three. I didn't like what he did to my favorite Stephen King story The Shining.
you don't like a clockwork orange because it promotes violence? are you kidding me? unless you're an idiot, you wouldn't let anything like this influence you, it's a movie for chirst sakes. if other people get brainwashed by it, that's their problem, but why let it affect your view towards the film? This movie is not supposed to make violence "cool" just for that sake. The whole point of films with the unreliable narrator is that we see the world the way that they do.
Alex is evil. He's supposed to be evil. What better way to make a story about government plots towards dehumanization than by taking the most evil, the most vile enemy towards society like Alex. In this world there are many people worse than him that others would say deserve some kind of "anti-violence conditioning" done on them. This movie is ugly, but that's how the world is. So it makes us ask questions about morality and society. About human nature and free will. The best way to do this is by taking such a charismatic, even likeable character like Alex. We feel what he feels. We see violence as funny and normal because that's the way Alex sees it. After he's been ridden of his free-will, the movie goes off into a dreadful pitiful tone, so we feel Alex's agony. It's all really exaggerated, the overall tone of the movie, but it works. If the portrayal of Alex and violence would have been done any different, this movie and its message would not have been as effective as it is.
Just as too much power over the mind can be bad in the hands of a desperate government, this movie can also be bad in the hands of all those easily-brainwashed, mindless zombies out there. The mind is not a toy, and this movie illustrates that perfectly.
But whatever, you're free to have your own opinion, I guess.
Plus the camerawork, acting and editing is masterful.
I think this list is bogus.
Here's mine (best to worst):
1 The Shining
2 Eyes Wide Shut
3 2001: A Space Odyssey
4 Dr. Strangelove
5 Lolita
Paths of Glory should be on the list, for sure.
Kubrick was an utter genius. This will become more apparent years from now.
nothing like another internet list by someone who doesn't have the slightest clue what he's talking about.
Wow, terrible list. The guy who made it is definitely a hater, he makes it look like 90% the movies suck. I don't even want to get into how wrong is A Clockwork Orange in #11.
Well, at least someone has the balls to call out A Clockwork Orange. I've given that movie a couple of tries and both times have been a snooze and a half. Easily my least favorite Kubrick film.