Top 10 Kubrick movies

Stanley Kubrick's movies are the greatest ever made. Almost any single movie of his could beat any other director's entire filmography, and then when you consider that he had 13 films, his filmography is second to NONE. But what is it about each film of his that hits the audience's chords? What is it about them that shocks, provokes, and inspires awe? I'm here to rate his movies from 10 to 1, explaining what makes them worth your while and what makes them work on the audience, and also why they are such a place on the list. For non-Kubrick fans, see this as an opportunity to better understand the master, and for Kubrick fans, see it as a fan-boy talking about his favorite movies! 10.Eyes Wide Shut. Ya, it may offend some people that this was number 10 on the list, seeing as how people find it his most underrated. However, I haven't seen it yet, so I can't honestly put it any higher. But what I HAVE seen beats the 3 movies that I ignored in order to put this on the list. I do know enough about this film to share my thoughts, though. The film concerns a man who becomes devastated after learning of his wife's potential infidelity. He experiences occurrences throughout the night, and ends up not cheating on his wife after many encounters where he could have. The film is supposed to say things about marriage and power and fidelity and dream-like nature, but I haven't seen it, so I can't rate it very high. 9.Lolita Lolita is a somewhat serious toned comedy, and an early work of Kubrick's. I didn't laugh that hard during the film, but it is a well made film. The camera work is very good, although Kubrick had yet to perfect his trademark visual style, that is to say visual perfection. The film deals with an implied affair between a step dad and his underage step-daughter Lolita. The film is good for the time, but it'll be hard for you to get into the film at first, if you ask me. The characters in this film, may feel a lot more genuine, but they may also feel a lot LESS genuine than in Kubrick's other films, so it's really a hit or miss opportunity, and the film's main themes are love and desperation. 8.Paths of Glory Finally we get into the start of Kubrick's true "masterpieces". Paths of Glory is a look at World War 1, and 3 men who are being tried for cowardice as representatives of a larger group who refused to engage in a suicide mission. The film has the most striking authenticity and sincerity of Kubrick's filmography, not feeling like a film that is supposed to make you analyze, and not feeling like a "movie", but feeling like a real situation of real people. The film is very bleak but if you can stand bleak, then this is well worth the time. It has a theme of right versus wrong and how power corrupts. It has excellent cinematography and excellent acting. It's well worth your time. 7.The Killing This film may not be as well executed as Paths of Glory, but it's so much more fun. Sterling Hayden is a really interesting actor for his delivery and mannerisms. Just watching him be a criminal is so much fun. The film is a non-chronological account of a group of ordinary men who are organized by Johnny Clay, a criminal, to steal millions of dollars from a horse racing track. The way everything unfolds feels much like a Film Noir, which is what the film kind of is. People think Tarantino is great? Watch this film, as Orson Welles himself said that it was a great film. 6.Dr. Strangelove Or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb This may upset some people, but I put this film relatively low. This is considered one of Kubrick's masterpieces, and ties with some later entries as people's choice for "greatest Kubrick film". But there's a reason I left it low. The film is a black comedy, very depressing in nature, and only really half-comedy at all. It deals with the annihilation of the entire human race through cold war mutually assured destruction. This film's strengths lie with it's performances, from George C. Scott to Slim Pickens to Peter Sellers, to my personal favorite, Sterling Hayden! The film's hilarious, looks AMAZING, and brilliantly paced. It's easy to get immersed in it, as it's a truly incredible film. However, the thing that holds it back is the lack of insane depth that the next few films contain. 5.A Clockwork Orange It took me a while to really figure out if I liked this better than Barry Lyndon or not. Actually, it was a toss up between this, Barry Lyndon, and Dr. Strangelove, but this is how I think I'll order them. A Clockwork Orange, much like Dr. Strangelove is a semi-serious black comedy that forces you to think just a little bit about the many things that you see on screen. A Clockwork Orange is brutal but it doesn't show much. It deals with a violent young rapist whose pleasures all circle around the dystopian society in which he inhabits. He is free to do whatever he wishes, and he wishes for inconsequential violence and rape. It's also about that same man being captured and brainwashed against said activities, and the result being a complete reversal of fortune. The film is genius in this respect, but a billion more ways too. It has many themes, including violence and morality, power struggles and corruption of high society, a great moral decay of culture and so forth. It is so layered that I couldn't justify myself by explaining that. But this film is great for people who are willing to stomach uncomfortable yet not entirely explicit scenes depicting implied rape and murder, and so forth. It looks amazing, the performances are great, the plot is great, the humor is subtle but over the top, and it's a great study film. But don't get lost in pretentiousness as it's got more to offer than making you look clever. The first portion of the film is definitely considered people's favorite, but the change in style and pacing when he enters prison is flawless, and the humor is much more interesting at that point. It's best parts, for me, are in the prison sequence. 4.Barry Lyndon I finally decided that I liked Barry Lyndon best of those three. The film is Martin Scorsese's favorite film ever, and I can see why. It's an old timey version of a gangster film, a man in Ireland and his rise to power, and fall from power as well. The film is humorous, classy, and intelligent. It deals with Barry Lyndon, who starts out Redmond Barry, and through a series of bad/good luck occurrences and actual cunning from his character, leads to him becoming a nobleman, and then we watch as it all caves in on him. It's genius lies in it's subtlety. It's not as stylish as A Clockwork Orange, and yet it's very similar in tone. It has some very brutal, real moments, and some very comical moments as well. It's a really long film, but it's a great film to study as it's themes of power, the family struggle, and classiness versus brutal reality are well worth looking into. The character is a journey all by himself, as we sympathize with him, and then grow to hate him (as the exact opposite of how some have perceived A Clockwork Orange to be), and the way certain elements of his life just come and go shows how unimportant it all is, and the way the film is shot is "beautiful", and it highlights just how unimportant our main character is. The film seems to take an omniscient look of his life, and allows us to get up on a pedestal and judge the way he lived his life, although it's also saying something about our own nature. 3.Full Metal Jacket Now we get into new territory. I could write VOLUMES on FMJ. But I won't. The film is essentially 3 films - part 1 is a tale of Private Joker, who avoids the brainwashing techniques of military training. Private Pyle is the main character of this segment as we see him be mistreated much, and systematically made into a killer, which backfires in everybody's favorite scene in the film. Part 2 is a tale of Joker out in Vietnam, aimless because he's lost his sense of direction, he is just sitting around waiting for something to happen. This leads to part 3, in which he finally finds something to do, and it backfires on him. The film's themes are about brainwashing, enemy versus friend, the duality of man, war propaganda, and much more. The film's first section is fast paced and comedic, while the second section is slow paced and a series of vignettes that are somewhat hard to follow and don't serve much purpose (an artistic touch that actually benefits the film). The third section is a more collected series of bad things happening as the soldiers experience a personal hell. The performances are witty but also emotional, and you really feel an unspoken sense of vehemence. The film is serious but funny, and prompts us with many questions. It's again shot very beautifully, but this time to give it a bleak feeling, as opposed to ACO's or Barry Lyndon's more vibrant feeling. It's a masterpiece, and the best war film ever made. Highly recommended. 2.The Shining This is the greatest horror film ever. The sets are incredible, the look of the film is incredible and swiftly shot, and everything switches between disturbing, depressing, and hilarious. It's part serious, part funny, but all horror. The plot revolves around a family of three with a "supernatural" (debatable) child who inhabit a hotel. They slowly go insane, which leads to an axe chase at the end. Jack Nicholson's performance is the greatest in horror film history, and you will almost be guaranteed to be unsettled by at least SOME of the scenes in the film (237 scene, twins in the hallway, etc). The film's themes are that of isolation, abuse, alcoholism, generational cycles, and so on. It's a horror film you can study, but it's also just a film to sit back and enjoy. Everything about it has an unspoken creepiness, which subconsciously affects people's opinion on the film. Because I catch on to what Kubrick is doing, I'm not unsettled at all. But if you can sit through this film, The Exorcist and Alien and all of the classics should be NO problem, as this might be the scariest film ever made. 1.2001: A Space Odyssey Simply genius. The greatest movie EVER MADE. This film brought arthouse cinema into the mainstream, while affecting pop culture extremely, and also embedding Kubrick in film's hall of greats forever. It's a film about human kind and machine kind, and the ultimate battle between the two. It's about technology. It's about a God-like presence affecting our evolution. It's simply genius. The highlight to most people is HAL9000's segment, but it's all great. It's shrouded in ambiguity (as most of Kubrick's films are), and it lacks the over-acting style of most movies, preferring a very subtle, slow pace and with actors who feel much more suited to the world we see them in. The film leaves everything open ended, and forces the audience to think about what it means. It has the biggest divide of film fans, and thus, it might be the most controversial film ever, as fans of the film debate each other all of the time, as well as debate enemies of the film all of the time. It's a masterpiece that demands it's audience to pay attention, to endure slow pacing for what is far beyond the normal films they see. People like Inception, but they should go back and watch this masterpiece, as 2001 is a film that will go down as one of the greats, and I personally find it superior to Citizen Kane and so forth. 2001 looks perfect, it feels perfect, it sounds perfect, it IS perfect. And each scene can be dissected to figure out a deeper meaning. If you don't like this film, you haven't given it a fair chance, as this film is the best film EVER MADE.