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Stanley Kubrick: A Filmmaker's Odyssey

© Kevin Reed

Too much the maverick to be reined in by the studio system, too extreme to even be cast as an "independent" director the likes of Woody Allen or Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick carved out for himself an exclusive nitch. It was not in their place for studio executives to badger and tap their feet expectantly waiting for the filmmaker to polish and hone his latest project - no matter if that process required over a year's time and endless reshoots. They would see footage when he said so, and not until.

Born in New York City in 1928 into a middle-class Bronx family, Kubrick developed an interest in photography when his physician-father presented him with his first camera at age thirteen. He served as a class photographer through high school, but a series of failed courses and a 68 average dashed his plans to attend college. By the age of sixteen, however, Kubrick's flair for visual technique caught the attention of LOOK magazine, which hired him onto their staff.

Kubrick stayed on for five years, describing himself at the time as a "Skinny, unkempt kid who carried his cameras in a paper bag so he wouldn't be mistaken for a tourist." The job enabled Kubrick the learning opportunity to take the next step into film, and he soon quit to produce documentaries. As a feature director, Kubrick made his debut with Fear and Desire in 1953, followed up by Killer's Kiss in 1955.

It wasn't until his fourth outing with the graphic World War I drama Paths of Glory in 1957 that Kubrick cemented his reputation and led to his being tapped to helm Universal Studio's Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas when director Anthony Mann walked off the project.

The controversial subject matte of his next movie, Lolita, convinced Kubrick to move the production to England, where the director put down roots and remained there for the better part of his life.

His first flirtation with Oscar came with the 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb, a stark tale of nuclear doomsday starring Peter Sellers in the title role. The film earned him nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Director, losing out to Edward Anhalt for Becket and George Cukor for My Fair Lady, respectively.

Four years would elapse between that film and his next - an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's 2001:A Space Odyssey, an exploration into mans past and of his first steps into deep space and a meeting with an advanced intelligence. Kubrick would go on to round out his career with the look into a twisted future with A Clockwork Orange, the period piece Barry Lyndon, and the cinematic version of Stephen King's horror novel The Shining and the Vietnam War saga, Full Metal Jacket.