Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American movie director. Kubrick is thought to have been one of the great directors of the 20th century.
He was born in New York City but lived most of his life in England. His movies are respected for their great amount of detail and symbolism. Some of his movies were controversial when they were first shown. For example, the sex and violence in his movie A Clockwork Orange was very disturbing to many people who saw it when it was released in 1971. The reaction to the movie in the United Kingdom became so great that Stanley Kubrick stopped showing the movie there for over 25 years. Other famous movies that Kubrick made include Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining. Stanley Kubrick died from a heart attack on March 7, 1999.
Stanley Kubrick's filmmaking style is characterized by meticulous attention to detail, iconic imagery, a unique and uncompromising vision, a wide range of genres, symmetrical framing, use of music, subtle satire, memorable characters, and bold stylistic choices, leaving a profound impact on cinema.
Early life and work
Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City and grew up in the Bronx during his youth. Stanley was a poor student in school but his father, who was a doctor, taught Stanley how to play chess and gave him a camera. Kubrick finished high school in 1946 and could not get into a college. This was because of his poor grades in school and because colleges were full with many American soldier's who returned from World War II that same year. During this time, Kubrick played games of chess with people for money. He was a good chess player and won many games. He used the money he won from playing chess to buy food and photography equipment. Kubrick got a job at a magazine in New York City that was called Look Magazine. Kubrick also enjoyed watching movies and thought that he could make better movies than the movies that were being made at the time. He first made two small documentaries. One of them was about a boxer and was called Day of the Fight. The other documentary was about a religious man and was called Flying Padre. He then made two full-length movies (called feature films) that made other people interested in his work. The first feature film was called Fear and Desire and the other was called Killer's Kiss. His third feature film, called The Killing, was a success. The success of The Killing allowed Stanley to work on a bigger movie, called Paths of Glory, that was about World War I and was made with the famous actor Kirk Douglas. At this time Kubrick became well known in the movie industry and had started to create his own style.
Big movies
Spartacus
After Stanley Kubrick completed Paths of Glory, he worked on a big Hollywood movie named Spartacus in 1960. The movie is about a gladiator who fights Rome. It made a lot of money and was a success but Kubrick did not enjoy working on it. He did not enjoy working on it because of problems he had with the other people working on the movie who controlled it. Kubrick desired to have a lot of control in making his movies, and after making Spartacus he only worked on movies that he had full control over.
Lolita
Kubrick moved to the United Kingdom in 1962, to make his next movie, Lolita. He liked the United Kingdom very much and decided to live there for the rest of his life. The movie Lolita was the first movie that Kubrick made that created a lot of controversy. The movie was based upon a book by the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov that was also very controversial at the time. The movie shows the relationship between a very young woman and an older man. This is a forbidden topic in the United States and most of the world.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
For the movie Lolita, Kubrick hired the talented and famous actor Peter Sellers. Kubrick respected Peter's acting and asked him to act as three different characters in Kubrick's next movie, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which was released in 1963. Dr. Strangelove was a comedy but it was about very serious topics. These are called black comedies. The movie was about the Cold War and was very controversial but also very successful. The movie had a large cultural influence and created some images that became very famous in the years to follow. The most famous image from the movie was of an American pilot sitting on a nuclear bomb as it fell to earth from an airplane.