Kubrick: An Odyssey

Given that Stanley Kubrick remains one of the most written about film directors in the history of western cinema, it is no small venture to embark on another biography of a man who was often as vexing as the films he made. 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of Kubrick's death, and authors Robert Kolker and Nathan Abrams have taken the opportunity to revisit this monolith of film makers, adding much context to the times in which Kubrick worked and the relatively fresh approach to his Jewish identity which was often shrouded or ignored. While chronological in aspect, given that many of Kubrick's projects gestated over years and even decades, the ebb and flow of projects is recounted against the cultural and socio-political changes in America and the world of cinema from the 1950s to the end of the 20th Century. This is particularly resonant when discussing zeitgeist films such as Dr Strangelove, 2001 and Full Metal Jacket, given their emergence at times of global events - the nuclear arms race, the Apollo programme and arguably America's greatest waste of both money and youth, the Vietnam war. Kubrick's hyperactive personality, never one for kicking back and relaxing when there were so many great ideas bouncing around his head, led to a career CV littered with some of the greatest films ever made but also *not* made. On a personal level, a sense of neglect and declining health would ultimately rob the world of more than the 13 films on his CV. Kolker and Abrams document with equal depth and insight the films that Kubrick never got round to making as much as the ones he did; notably the long gestating Napoleon biopic, the science fiction AI, and Aryan Papers. In at least two of these cases Kubrick's fellow director and friend Steven Spielberg would play both an enabling and a disabling role, taking over the AI project at a time when CGI technology once impossible during Kubrick's heyday was now commonplace, and beating him to the punch with Schindler's List. Arguably the film that most cemented Spielberg as a director of artistic credence as well as technical guile, his own take on the Holocaust did unfortunately gazump Kubrick's own project at a time it was arguably at its closest to being made. While Schindler's List brought Spielberg awards and prestige, its focus on the microscopic amount of survivors over the horrific scale of victims of the Holocaust did leave something of a hole within the kind of docudramatic cinema Kubrick himself would have filled. Napoleon was more a victim of studio politics than anything else.Kubrick rode the zeitgeist of his times by essentially subverting the zeitgeist - films like Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket eviscerated American foreign policy and colonial thinking with both dark humour and brutal imagery. Kubrick's formative career as a photojournalist continued throughout his film career as a curator of images that tell a story as much as any written narrative. His adaptation of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange - examining state sanctioned mind control as a palatable means for dealing with the extremities of society - came just as the western world was leaving behind the hope and optimism of the counter-cultural 1960s, as much an epitaph to those times as the Manson murders or Watergate. It was Kubrick's most personally vexing film, leading him to withdraw its distribution following a number of copycat killings that if anything only underlined the cautious morality tale it was telling. And as America went into full-on therapy in the decade following the end of the Vietnam war - with both the flag-waving triumphalism of Rambo and the PTSD fused Platoon and Hamburger Hill - Kubrick once again provided the definitive take on a war of attrition that became as mad as any scenario of mutually assured destruction or the kangaroo courts of World War I (which he examined in one of his earliest features Paths of Glory).As the book dips in and out of the films that did and didn't reach the screen, the looming presence of Kubrick's final endeavour Eyes Wide Shut is threaded throughout his filmmaking years, finally reaching culmination in the mid to late 90s and proving to be Kubrick's last magnum opus. Clearly the strain of the longest filming shoot in history took a huge toll on an artist for whom downtime and relaxation were aleady foreign concepts; as well as being a passion project throughout his life, Eyes Wide Shut also became Kubrick's epitaph.Elsewhere Kolker and Abrams grasp as much as anybody possibly could the man behind the enigma, removing much of the hype that Kubrick's choice to avoid the limelight and tread his own path had generated in a mass media frustrated by his reluctance to open up about either himself or his work. Clearly most content as a workaholic family man, the twice-married director found contentment away from the camera in his adopted London home and a third wife equally driven by artistic fulfilment. Sadly, whilst Kubrick was surrounded by the children and grandchildren of passing times, his daughter Vivian became estranged and ultimately lost to first scientology and then any number of conspiracy-fuelled rhetoric which remained unresolved beyond her father's death. For a man with several dangling threads in a creative sense, this was clearly the biggest regret and most painful loss of his personal life.My praise for this work stems simply from my growing desire as the pages turned for the book to never end, but sadly its 600 pages still feel as truncated as Kubrick's own life was when so much was left to be made. As time passes and Kubrick's films become more and more embedded in the cinematic foundations of 20th century cinema, this consuming biography will only make you want to revisit each and every one of his films, again and again and again. Like the monolith of 2001, Stanley Kubrick and his work has been transformative on the cinematic landscape of not just generations gone but generations yet to come. This biography is the latest and best testament to that.

It seems almost churlish to criticise a biography that is so readable and admittedly well researched. As my headline implies, this is probably the last word on Kubrick, as many of his collaborators if not already, will soon be departed. But where these quotations are not recycled (and many of them are), they don't seem as though they really get to the heart of Kubrick. Naturally, he was an expert in deflecting any inquiry into his personal (or professional) life, but many of the interviews quoted from seem... well, cagey. It seems everyone had their own private perspective on K, and he did his very best to compartmentalise them all so no one (except perhaps his wife Christiane) saw the full man.It is rather annoying then, that the authors feel the need to bookend every film with an analysis of what themes and symbols connect the work to the artist (and do so highly speculatively). This is a biography for critics and cultural students - not one for filmmakers who have been, or are likely to be, inspired by the work of a cinematic genius. Much is made of Kubrick's endless curiosity and innovation, but there is not enough analysis or understanding of how these made his films compelling and disturbing, even when flawed. The authors gamely try to trace the thread of continuity in Kubrick's obsessions, but it would be equally valid to celebrate the extraordinary variety of his films, indeed he probably made more successful films in a greater variety of genres than anyone since the Studio days (Michael Curtiz comes to mind).To be fair to the authors this is a good read, but it now seems unlikely that anyone will truly crack the enigma of Kubrick in our lifetime.

Well written and brisk life of the New York born filmmaker who spent most of his life in self imposed exile in the English countryside, with his family - reading, planning and occasionally making movies.An interesting exploration of Kubrick’s unusual personality and rapid progression from magazine photographer to big budget movie director.Very interesting on Kubrick’s life, as well as his films - his love of family, his fear of flying, his dislike of travel and his self isolation in his book-filled English family home.

Stanley Kubrick didn't make as many movies as he would have liked to.The book covers films made and the ones that couldn't go ahead, usually for lack of funding.There's plenty here for film fans and those who would like to know what made Kubrick tick.A great page turner overall.Essential for film fans.

Weighing in at a hefty 600+ pages I still managed to get through it quite quickly as I basically could not stop reading it and was still disappointed at the end when there was no more pages to go.This is not just a book for fans of Kubrick - although they will not be disappointed with the detail and tales within - but it is for anyone who loves cinema and its inner workings.It is well written and the text flows wonerfully. There is a huge amount of detail but none of which is boring.This is a fantastic book and I will probably read it again in the not too distant furture.

I was eagerly awaiting the publication of this book for several months. I’m about half way through & am not disappointed. I have spent all my spare time reading the book this weekend. It is the best book on Kubrick I have read.

This is a great book, well presented and written. A real page turner. Very few photos. A must have book for any kubrick fan, and film enthusiasts.

Excellent and well researched book that examined the life of one of the giants of cinema, Stanley Kubrick. A personal and revealing look at the professional and private life of one of Hollywood's most elusive figures.

Quizá la biografía definitiva de Kubrick. Indispensable lectura para los fanáticos del director. Además el diseño de portada es fantástico, como el póster de El Resplandor.

A travesty of a biography. A copy-paste job of old sources and scattered bits lifted from new ones. Clumsy, disjointed, agonising to go through, in bad need of some serious editorial work. A rush job that really pays tribute to its subject, uh? What a joke.

It is sincerely and genuinely so incredibly hard to put this book down. Whether you are someone who has recently discovered his works, or if you are like me and have been obsessed with his work, essentially studying every fact since your pre-teens; whatever your interest level is, this is truly one of the most thorough and comprehensive bodies of knowledge on everything from his pre-directorial days, and boasting an insurmountable look into the research and production of Eyes Wide Shut. In an attempt to learn more about directing, I took acting classes at thirteen and obtained a scholarship for further studies. In 2019, I directed my very first feature film, titled "The Lost Thoughts of Midnight", available now on Amazon Prime. This would have never happened if my (slightly older) best friend didn't take the time to show me Stanley Kubrick's films as a young child. I am forever grateful.

Probably as close as we’ll ever get to having a definitive biography of the most talented film director ever.