Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
Name	Mogwai
Landscape	yes
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Instruments
Genre	Post-rock, instrumental rock
Years active	1995–present
Label	Chemikal Underground, Matador, Play It Again Sam, Rock Action, Sub Pop
Website	www.mogwai.co.uk
Current members	Stuart BraithwaiteDominic AitchisonMartin BullochJohn CummingsBarry Burns
Past members	Brendan O'Hare }}

Mogwai are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), John Cummings (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drum kit). The band typically compose lengthy guitar-based instrumental pieces that feature dynamic contrast, melodic bass guitar lines, and heavy use of distortion and effects.

History

Stuart Braithwaite and Dominic Aitchison originally met in April 1991, and four years later added old schoolfriend Martin Bulloch to their ranks, forming the band Mogwai in the process. The band is named after the creatures from the film ''Gremlins'', although guitarist Stuart Braithwaite comments that "it has no significant meaning and we always intended on getting a better one, but like a lot of other things we never got round to it." 'Mogwai' means "evil spirit" or "devil" in Cantonese (). The band debuted in February 1996 with the "Tuner"/"Lower" single and by the end of the year they received 'single of the week' from ''NME'' for "Summer", a feat repeated early in 1997 with "New Paths to Helicon". After playing a few shows the band expanded with the introduction of John Cummings on guitar, and Teenage Fanclub drummer Brendan O'Hare joined whilst they recorded their debut album ''Mogwai Young Team''. The album, released in October 1997, reached number 75 on the UK Albums Chart, and featured a guest appearance from Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap. In 1998 the band had their first singles chart success with a split single with Magoo of Black Sabbath cover versions reaching number 60 in the UK and an EP of "Fear Satan" remixes reaching number 57. In the same year, an album of remixes of the band's tracks by the likes of Kevin Shields, Alec Empire, and μ-ziq was issued (''Kicking a Dead Pig''). The band also remixed tracks for David Holmes and Manic Street Preachers. The band have often been critical of other musicians, including Blur (who were the subject of T-shirts sold by the band featuring the words "Blur Are Shite"), Robbie Williams, Axl Rose and Fred Durst.

The band were for several years signed to renowned Glasgow indie label Chemikal Underground, but are now distributed by different labels, such as Matador in the US and Play It Again Sam in the UK. They have also developed their own label, Rock Action Records, named after Stooges drummer Scott Asheton, who had his name changed to Rock Action.

O'Hare was sacked after the release of the album (reportedly after upsetting the rest of the band by talking all through a performance by Arab Strap), before Barry Burns was brought in prior to the recording of ''Come On Die Young'', the band's second album. He had already played a few shows with the band, as a flautist and as an occasional pianist. According to Stuart, Barry was invited into the band because he was a good laugh. The album reached number 29 in the UK. Since 1998, and for the recording of every album since ''Young Team'', the band line up has remained unchanged. However, fellow Scot musician Luke Sutherland has contributed violin (and more recently vocals and guitar) to Mogwai's records and live performances.

The band's 2001 album ''Rock Action'' gave them their highest album chart placing, reaching number 23.

In 2006, the band provided the soundtrack to the film ''Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait'', with the soundtrack album released the following year. The band also collaborated with Clint Mansell on the soundtrack to ''The Fountain'' in 2006. Mogwai are also featured in the 2009 post-rock documentary ''Introspective''.

The band's 2008 ''Batcat'' EP featured a collaboration with Roky Erickson, with Erickson providing vocals on "Devil Rides".

In 2010 the band announced the release of their first live film (''Burning'', premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival in February 2010) and live album (called ''Special Moves''); Both contain content from their Brooklyn shows during their 2008/2009 American tour. Braithwaite also stated that the band were working on material for a new album for release in early 2011. In January 2010 the band auctioned off several items including the piano used by Burns during their 2006-2007 world tour in aid of the 2010 Haiti earthquake appeal. The band also donated an exclusive track to the ''PEACE'' project in April 2010 in support of Amnesty International.

As of September 2010, Mogwai have left longtime home Matador Records, and have signed with Sub Pop to distribute their releases in North America. On 27 October 2010, Mogwai announced their seventh studio album, ''Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will''. The album was released on the 14th February in the UK and entered the UK Albums Chart at number 25.

Musical style

Their style has been influenced by bands including MC5, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Fugazi, and post-rock pioneers Slint. During 2004, the band supported tours by two major influences, Pixies and The Cure. Mogwai's style has easily identifiable connections to genres like shoegazing, math rock, art rock and occasionally instrumental metal. Debut album ''Mogwai Young Team'' was described as "stunningly dynamic...[shifting] seamlessly from tranquil, bleakly beautiful soundscapes to brain scrambling white noise and sledgehammer riffing". Douglas Wolk, writing for ''SPIN'' in 1999 said of the band: "Their compositions have gotten increasingly drawn-out and austere over time, sometimes barely more than a single arpeggiated chord or two evolving for ten minutes or more, whisperingly brutal in a way that recalls Slint more than any other band".

Barry Burns once stated in an interview with Chillville that he and the rest of the band don't like the categorization of post-rock because he believes it overanalyses everything.

Braithwaite has commented on the absence of lyrics in most of Mogwai's music, saying:

Band members

Current:

Stuart Braithwaite – guitar, vocals (1995–present)

Dominic Aitchison – bass (1995–present)

Martin Bulloch – drums (1995–present)

John Cummings – guitar (1995–present)

Barry Burns – guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizer, flute, vocals (1998–present)

Former:

Brendan O'Hare – keyboards, guitar (1997)

Discography

Studio albums

''Mogwai Young Team'' (1997)

''Come On Die Young'' (1999)

''Rock Action'' (2001)

''Happy Songs for Happy People'' (2003)

''Mr Beast'' (2006)

''The Hawk Is Howling'' (2008)

''Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will'' (2011)

Live albums

''Special Moves'' (2010)

Soundtracks

''Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, An Original Soundtrack by Mogwai'' (2006)

''The Fountain (soundtrack)'' (2006)

EPs

''4 Satin'' (1997)

''No Education = No Future (Fuck the Curfew)'' (1998)

''EP'' (1999)

''EP+6'' (2000)

''Travels in Constants, Vol. 12'' (2001)

''Travel is Dangerous'' (2006)

''Batcat'' (2008)

''Earth Division'' (2011)

See also

List of post-rock bands

External links

Mogwai's official website

Bright light! - unofficial website with complete gigography, articles and interviews

References

Category:Mogwai Category:Scottish alternative rock groups Category:Scottish post-rock groups Category:Nineties Glasgow-scene groups Category:Ableton Live users Category:Musical groups established in 1995 Category:Scottish rock music groups Category:Live Music Archive artists Category:Musical groups from Glasgow

bg:Могуай ca:Mogwai cs:Mogwai da:Mogwai de:Mogwai (Band) el:Mogwai es:Mogwai eo:Mogwai fr:Mogwai (groupe) it:Mogwai nl:Mogwai (band) ja:モグワイ no:Mogwai pl:Mogwai pt:Mogwai (banda) ru:Mogwai sr:Mogwai fi:Mogwai sv:Mogwai tr:Mogwai uk:Mogwai

Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
name	Jim Morrison
background	solo_singer
birth name	James Douglas Morrison
alias	Mr. Mojo Risin' (anagram of "Jim Morrison"), The Lizard King
born	December 08, 1943Melbourne, Florida, United States
died	July 03, 1971Paris, France
genre	Psychedelic rock, blues rock, acid rock, rock and roll, hard rock
occupation	musician, songwriter, poet, filmmaker, actor
instrument	Vocals, Piano
years active	1963–1971
label	Elektra, Columbia
associated acts	The DoorsRick & the Ravens
website	thedoors.com }}

James Douglas "Jim" Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors, as well as a poet. After The Doors' explosive rise to fame in 1967, Morrison developed a severe alcohol and drug dependence which culminated in his death in Paris in 1971 at age 27, due to a suspected heroin overdose. However the events surrounding his death continue to be the subject of controversy, as no autopsy was performed on his body after death and the exact cause of his death is disputed by many to this day.

Jim Morrison would often improvise poem passages while the band played live, which was his trademark. He is widely regarded, with his wild personality and performances, as one of the most iconic, charismatic and pioneering frontmen in rock music history. Morrison was ranked number 47 on ''Rolling Stone's'' "100 Greatest Singers of All Time", and number 22 on ''Classic Rock Magazine's'' "50 Greatest Singers In Rock".

Early years

James Douglas Morrison was born in Melbourne, Florida, to future Rear Admiral George Stephen Morrison and Clara Morrison. Morrison had a sister, Anne Robin, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and a brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in 1948 in Los Altos, California. He was of Irish and Scottish descent. Morrison reportedly had an I.Q. of 149.

In 1947, Morrison, then four years old, allegedly witnessed a car accident in the desert, where a family of American Indians were injured and possibly killed. He referred to this incident in a spoken word performance on the song "Dawn's Highway" from the album ''An American Prayer'', and again in the songs "Peace Frog" and "Ghost Song."

Morrison believed the incident to be the most formative event of his life, and made repeated references to it in the imagery in his songs, poems, and interviews. His family does not recall this incident happening in the way he told it. According to the Morrison biography ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'', Morrison's family did drive past a car accident on an Indian reservation when he was a child, and he was very upset by it. The book ''The Doors'', written by the remaining members of The Doors, explains how different Morrison's account of the incident was from the account of his father. This book quotes his father as saying, "We went by several Indians. It did make an impression on him [the young James]. He always thought about that crying Indian." This is contrasted sharply with Morrison's tale of "Indians scattered all over the highway, bleeding to death." In the same book, his sister is quoted as saying, "He enjoyed telling that story and exaggerating it. He said he saw a dead Indian by the side of the road, and I don't even know if that's true."

With his father in the United States Navy, Morrison's family moved often. He spent part of his childhood in San Diego. In 1958, Morrison attended Alameda High School in Alameda, California. He graduated from George Washington High School (now George Washington Middle School) in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 1961. His father was also stationed at Mayport Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida.

Morrison was inspired by the writings of philosophers and poets. He was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, whose views on aesthetics, morality, and the Apollonian and Dionysian duality would appear in his conversation, poetry and songs. He read "Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Greeks" (''Parallel Lives''). He also read the French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose style would later influence the form of Morrison’s short prose poems. He was also influenced by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Kenneth Patchen, Michael McClure and Gregory Corso. His English teacher once commented, "I felt that Jim was the only one in the class who read Ulysses, and understood it." Honoré de Balzac, Jean Cocteau, and Molière also interested Morrison, along with most of the French existentialist philosophers. His senior-year English teacher said that, "Jim read as much and probably more than any student in class, but everything he read was so offbeat I had another teacher, who was going to the Library of Congress, check to see if the books Jim was reporting on actually existed. I suspected he was making them up, as they were English books on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century demonology. I’d never heard of them, but they existed, and I’m convinced from the paper he wrote that he read them, and the Library of Congress would’ve been the only source."

Morrison went to live with his paternal grandparents in Clearwater, Florida, where he attended classes at St. Petersburg Junior College. In 1962, he transferred to Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee, where he appeared in a school recruitment film. While attending FSU, Morrison was arrested for a prank, following a home football game.

In January 1964, Morrison moved to Los Angeles, to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He attended Jack Hirschman's class on Antonin Artaud in the Comparative Literature program within the UCLA English Department. Artaud's brand of surrealist theatre had a profound impact on Morrison's dark poetic sensibility of cinematic theatricality.

Morrison completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA's film school and the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts in 1965. In an early display of rebellion, he refused to attend the graduation ceremony, his degree diploma being mailed to him. He made two films while attending UCLA. ''First Love'', the first of these films, made with Morrison's classmate and roommate Max Schwartz, was released to the public when it appeared in a documentary about the film ''Obscura''. During these years, while living in Venice Beach, he became friends with writers at the ''Los Angeles Free Press''. Morrison was an advocate of the underground newspaper until his death in 1971. He later conducted a lengthy and in-depth interview with Bob Chorush and Andy Kent, both working for the Free Press at the time (January 1971), and was planning on visiting the headquarters of the busy newspaper shortly before leaving for Paris.

The Doors

In the Summer of 1965, after graduating from the UCLA, Morrison led a bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach. Living on the rooftop of a building inhabited by his old UCLA cinematography friend Dennis Jakobs, he wrote the lyrics of many of the early songs the Doors would later perform live and record on albums, the most notable being "Moonlight Drive" and "Hello, I Love You". According to Jakobs, he lived on canned beans and LSD daily for several months. Morrison and fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek were the first two members of The Doors, forming the group during that same Summer of 1965. They actually met months earlier as fellow cinematography students. The now-legendary story claims that Manzarek was lying on the beach at Venice one day, accidentally encountered Morrison, he was impressed with Morrison's poetic lyrics, claiming that they were "rock group" material. Thereafter, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger joined. Krieger auditioned at Densmore's recommendation and was then added to the lineup. All three musicians shared a common interest in the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Meditation practices at the time, attending scheduled classes, but Morrison was not involved in this series of classes, claiming later (prior to the famous Hollywood Bowl show in July 1968) that he "did not meditate".

The Doors took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley's ''The Doors of Perception'' (a reference to the "unlocking" of "doors of perception" through psychedelic drug use). Huxley's own title was a quotation from William Blake's ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'', in which Blake wrote: "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

Although Morrison is known as the lyricist for the group, Krieger also made significant lyrical contributions, writing or co-writing some of the group's biggest hits, including "Light My Fire", "Love Me Two Times", "Love Her Madly" and "Touch Me". On the other hand, Morrison, who didn't write songs using an instrument, would come up with melodies for his own lyrics, with the other band members contributing chords and rhythm. He didn't play any instrument live (except for maracas on a few occasions) or in the studio, but he played the piano on "Orange County Suite".

In June 1966, Morrison and The Doors were the opening act at the Whisky a Go Go on the last week of the residency of Van Morrison's band Them. Van's influence on Jim's developing stage performance was later noted by John Densmore in his book ''Riders On The Storm'': "Jim Morrison learned quickly from his near-namesake's stagecraft, his apparent recklessness, his air of subdued menace, the way he would improvise poetry to a rock beat, even his habit of crouching down by the bass drum during instrumental breaks." On the final night, the two Morrisons and the two bands jammed together on "Gloria".

The Doors achieved national recognition after signing with Elektra Records in 1967. The single "Light My Fire" eventually reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Pop Singles chart. Later, The Doors appeared on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', a popular Sunday night variety series that had introduced The Beatles and Elvis Presley to the nation. Ed Sullivan requested two songs from The Doors for the show, "People Are Strange", and "Light My Fire". The censors insisted that they change the lyrics of "Light My Fire" from "Girl we couldn't get much higher" to "Girl we couldn't get much better"; this was reportedly due to what could be perceived as a reference to drugs in the original lyric. Giving assurances of compliance to Sullivan, Morrison then proceeded to sing the song with the original lyrics anyway. He later said that he had simply forgotten to make the change. This so infuriated Sullivan that he refused to shake their hands after their performance and had a show producer tell the band that they would never do ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' again. Morrison reportedly said to the producer: "Hey man. We just ''did'' the Sullivan Show." In 1967, Morrison and The Doors produced a promotional film for "Break on Through (To the Other Side)", which was their first single release. The video featured the four members of the group playing the song on a darkened set with alternating views and close-ups of the performers while Morrison lip-synched the lyrics. Morrison and The Doors continued to make music videos, including "The Unknown Soldier", "Moonlight Drive", and "People Are Strange".

By the release of their second album, ''Strange Days'', The Doors had become one of the most popular rock bands in the United States. Their blend of blues and rock tinged with psychedelia included a number of original songs and distinctive cover versions, such as their rendition of "Alabama Song", from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's operetta, ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny''. The band also performed a number of extended concept works, including the songs "The End", "When the Music's Over", and "Celebration of the Lizard".

In 1967, photographer Joel Brodsky took a series of black-and-white photos of Morrison, in a photo shoot known as "The Young Lion" photo session. These photographs are considered among the most iconic images of Jim Morrison and are frequently used as covers for compilation albums, books, and other memorabilia of the Doors and Morrison. In 1968, The Doors released their third studio album, ''Waiting for the Sun''. Their fourth album, ''The Soft Parade'', was released in 1969. It was the first album where the individual band members were given credit on the inner sleeve for the songs they had written.

After this, Morrison started to show up for recording sessions inebriated. He was also frequently late for live performances. As a result, the band would play instrumental music or force Manzarek to take on the singing duties.

By 1969, the formerly svelte singer gained weight, grew a beard, and began dressing more casually — abandoning the leather pants and concho belts for slacks, jeans and T-shirts.

During a 1969 concert at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience. He failed, but a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Dade County Police department three days later for indecent exposure. Consequently, many of The Doors' scheduled concerts were canceled. In 2007 Florida Governor Charlie Crist suggested the possibility of a posthumous pardon for Morrison, which was announced as successful on Dec. 9, 2010. Drummer John Densmore denied Morrison ever exposed himself on stage that night.

(See also Miami incident)

Following ''The Soft Parade'', The Doors released the ''Morrison Hotel'' album. After a lengthy break the group reconvened in October 1970 to record their last album with Morrison, ''L.A. Woman''. Shortly after the recording sessions for the album began, producer Paul A. Rothchild — who had overseen all their previous recordings — left the project. Engineer Bruce Botnick took over as producer.

Solo: poetry and film

Morrison began writing in adolescence. In college, he studied the related fields of theater, film, and cinematography.

He self-published two volumes of his poetry in 1969, ''The Lords / Notes on Vision'' and ''The New Creatures''. ''The Lords'' consists primarily of brief descriptions of places, people, events and Morrison's thoughts on cinema. ''The New Creatures'' verses are more poetic in structure, feel and appearance. These two books were later combined into a single volume titled ''The Lords and The New Creatures''. These were the only writings published during Morrison's lifetime.

Morrison befriended Beat Poet Michael McClure, who wrote the afterword for Danny Sugerman's biography of Morrison, ''No One Here Gets Out Alive''. McClure and Morrison reportedly collaborated on a number of unmade film projects, including a film version of McClure's infamous play ''The Beard'', in which Morrison would have played Billy the Kid.

After his death, two volumes of Morrison's poetry were published. The contents of the books were selected and arranged by Morrison's friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro, and girlfriend Pamela Courson's parents, who owned the rights to his poetry. ''The Lost Writings of Jim Morrison'' Volume 1 is titled ''Wilderness,'' and, upon its release in 1988, became an instant ''New York Times'' best seller. Volume 2, ''The American Night,'' released in 1990, was also a success.

Morrison recorded his own poetry in a professional sound studio on two separate occasions. The first was in March 1969 in Los Angeles and the second was on December 8, 1970. The latter recording session was attended by Morrison's personal friends and included a variety of sketch pieces. Some of the segments from the 1969 session were issued on the bootleg album ''The Lost Paris Tapes'' and were later used as part of the Doors' ''An American Prayer'' album, released in 1978. The album reached number 54 on the music charts. The poetry recorded from the December 1970 session remains unreleased to this day and is in the possession of the Courson family.

Morrison's best-known but seldom seen cinematic endeavor is ''HWY: An American Pastoral'', a project he started in 1969. Morrison financed the venture and formed his own production company in order to maintain complete control of the project. Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill assisted with the project. Morrison played the main character, a hitch hiker turned killer/car thief. Morrison asked his friend, composer/pianist Fred Myrow, to select the soundtrack for the film.

Personal life

Morrison's family

Morrison's early life was a nomadic existence typical of military families. Jerry Hopkins recorded Morrison's brother, Andy, explaining that his parents had determined never to use corporal punishment on their children. They instead instilled discipline and levied punishment by the military tradition known as "dressing down". This consisted of yelling at and berating the children until they were reduced to tears and acknowledged their failings.

Once Morrison graduated from UCLA, he broke off most of his family contact. By the time Morrison's music ascended to the top of the charts in 1967 he had not been in communication with his family for more than a year and falsely claimed that his parents and siblings were dead (or claiming, as it has been widely misreported, that he was an only child). This misinformation was published as part of the materials distributed with The Doors' self-titled debut album.

In a letter to the Florida Probation and Parole Commission District Office dated October 2, 1970, Morrison's father acknowledged the breakdown in family communications as the result of an argument over his assessment of his son's musical talents. He said he could not blame his son for being reluctant to initiate contact and that he was proud of him nonetheless.

George Morrison was not supportive of his son's career choice in music. One day, an acquaintance brought over a record thought to have Jim on the cover. The record was the Doors self-titled debut. The young man played the record for Morrison's father and family. After hearing the record, Morrison's father wrote him a letter telling him "to give up any idea of singing or any connection with a music group because of what I considered to be a complete lack of talent in this direction."

Women in his life

Morrison met his long-term companion, Pamela Courson, well before he gained any fame or fortune, and she encouraged him to develop his poetry. At times, Courson used the surname "Morrison" with his apparent consent or at least lack of concern. After Courson's death on April 25, 1974, the probate court in California decided that she and Morrison had what qualified as a common-law marriage (see below, under "Estate Controversy").

Morrison's and Courson's relationship was a stormy one, with frequent loud arguments and periods of separation. Biographer Danny Sugerman surmised that part of their difficulties may have stemmed from a conflict between their respective commitments to an open relationship and the consequences of living in such a relationship.

In 1970, Morrison participated in a Celtic Pagan handfasting ceremony with rock critic and science fiction/fantasy author Patricia Kennealy. Before witnesses, one of them a Presbyterian minister, the couple signed a document declaring themselves wedded, but none of the necessary paperwork for a legal marriage was filed with the state. Kennealy discussed her experiences with Morrison in her autobiography ''Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison'' in an interview reported in the book ''Rock Wives''.

Morrison also regularly had sex with fans and had numerous short flings with women who were celebrities, including Nico, the singer associated with The Velvet Underground, a one night stand with singer Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane, an on-again-off-again relationship with ''16 Magazine'''s Gloria Stavers and an alleged alcohol-fueled encounter with Janis Joplin. However rock musician and rock star expert, Alice Cooper, declared on his syndicated radio show that Jim was scrupulously true to Pamela on tour, eschewing all sexual encounters. Linda Ashcroft in her book "Wild Child: My Life With Jim Morrison" details her life with Morrison as well. Judy Huddleston also recalls her relationship with Morrison in "This is The End...My Only Friend: Living and Dying with Jim Morrison". At the time of his death there were reportedly as many as 20 paternity actions pending against him, although no claims were made against his estate by any of the putative paternity claimants.

Death

Morrison flew to Paris in March 1971, took up residence in a rented apartment on the rue Beautreillis on the Right Bank, and went for long walks through the city, admiring the city's architecture. During that time, Morrison shaved his beard and lost some of the weight he had gained in the previous months. The last studio recording was with two American street musicians  — a session dismissed by Manzarek as "drunken gibberish". The session included a version of a song-in-progress, "Orange County Suite", which can be heard on the bootleg ''The Lost Paris Tapes''.

Morrison died on July 3, 1971. In the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison's cause of death.

In ''Wonderland Avenue'', Danny Sugerman discussed his encounter with Courson after she returned to the U.S. According to Sugerman's account, Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose, having insufflated what he believed to be cocaine. Sugerman added that Courson had given numerous contradictory versions of Morrison's death, at times saying that she had killed Morrison, or that his death was her fault. Courson's story of Morrison's unintentional ingestion of heroin, followed by accidental overdose, is supported by the confession of Alain Ronay, who has written that Morrison died of a hemorrhage after snorting Courson's heroin, and that Courson nodded off instead of phoning for medical help, leaving Morrison bleeding to death.

Ronay confessed in an article in ''Paris Match'' that he then helped cover up the circumstances of Morrison's death. In the epilogue of ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'', Hopkins and Sugerman write that Ronay and Agnès Varda say Courson lied to the police who responded at the death scene, and later in her deposition, telling them Morrison never took drugs.

In the epilogue to ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'', Hopkins says that 20 years after Morrison's death, Ronay and Varda broke silence and gave this account: They arrived at the house shortly after Morrison's death and Courson said that she and Morrison had taken heroin after a night of drinking. Morrison had been coughing badly, had gone to take a bath, and vomited blood. Courson said that he appeared to recover and that she then went to sleep. When she awoke sometime later Morrison was unresponsive, and so she called for medical assistance.

Courson died of a heroin overdose three years later. Like Morrison, she was 27 years old at the time of her death. Contrary to initial reports circulating in 1974, she is not buried with Morrison, but rather her cremated ashes are interred in a wall at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, CA USA, with the plaque bearing the name "Pamela Susan Morrison".

In the epilogue of ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'', Hopkins and Sugerman also claim that Morrison had asthma and was suffering from a respiratory condition involving a chronic cough and throwing up blood on the night of his death. This theory is partially supported in ''The Doors'' (written by the remaining members of the band) in which they claim Morrison had been coughing up blood for nearly two months in Paris. None of the members of the Doors were in Paris with Morrison in the months before his death.

According to an outside individual who witnessed the funeral at Père Lachaise, a woman by the name of Madame Colinette who was at the cemetery that day mourning the recent loss of her husband, the ceremony was "pitiful", with several of the attendants muttering a few words, throwing flowers over the casket, then leaving quickly and hastily within minutes as if their lives depended upon it. Those who attended included Alain Ronay, Agnes Varda, Bill Siddons (manager), Courson, and Robin Wertle (Morrison's Canadian private secretary at the time for a few months).

In the first version of ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'' published in 1980, Sugerman and Hopkins gave some credence to the rumor that Morrison may not have died at all, calling the fake death theory “not as far-fetched as it might seem”. This theory led to considerable distress for Morrison's loved ones over the years, notably when fans would stalk them, searching for evidence of Morrison's whereabouts. In 1995 a new epilogue was added to Sugerman's and Hopkins's book, giving new facts about Morrison's death and discounting the fake death theory, saying “As time passed, some of Jim and Pamela [Courson]'s friends began to talk about what they knew, and although everything they said pointed irrefutably to Jim's demise, there remained and probably always will be those who refuse to believe that Jim is dead and those who will not allow him to rest in peace.” In a July 2007 newspaper interview, a self-described close friend of Morrison's, Sam Bernett, resurrected an old rumor and announced that Morrison actually died of a heroin overdose in the Rock 'n' Roll Circus nightclub, on the Left Bank in Paris. Bernett claims that Morrison came to the club to buy heroin for Courson then did some himself and died in the bathroom. Bernett alleges that Morrison was then moved back to the rue Beautreillis apartment and dumped in the bathtub by the same two drug dealers from whom Morrison had purchased the heroin. Bernett says those who saw Morrison that night were sworn to secrecy in order to prevent a scandal for the famous club, and that some of the witnesses immediately left the country. There have been many other conspiracy theories surrounding Morrison's death but are less supported by witnesses than are the accounts of Ronay and Courson.

Morrison's death at age twenty-seven included him in a phenomenon called the 27 Club, which currently consists of six other prominent musicians who have died at the same age.

Grave site

Morrison is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, one of the city's most visited tourist attractions. The grave had no official marker until French officials placed a shield over it, which was stolen in 1973. In 1981, Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin placed a bust of Morrison and the new gravestone with Morrison's name at the grave to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death; the bust was defaced through the years by cemetery vandals and later stolen in 1988. In the 1990s Morrison's father, George Stephen Morrison, placed a flat stone on the grave. The stone bears the Greek inscription: ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ, literally meaning "according to his own daemon" and usually interpreted as "true to his own spirit". Mikulin later made two more Morrison portraits in bronze but is awaiting the license to place a new sculpture on the tomb.

Estate controversy

In his will, made in Los Angeles County on February 12, 1969, Morrison (who described himself as "an unmarried person") bequeathed his entire estate to Courson, also naming her co-executor with his attorney, Max Fink; she thus inherited everything upon Morrison’s death in 1971.

When Courson died in 1974, a battle ensued between Morrison’s and Courson’s parents over who had legal claim to Morrison’s estate. Since Morrison left a will, the question was effectively moot. Upon his death, his property became Courson’s, and on her death her property passed to her next heirs at law, her parents. Morrison's parents contested the will under which Courson and now her parents had inherited their son’s property.

To bolster their position, Courson’s parents presented a document they claimed she had acquired in Colorado, apparently an application for a declaration that she and Morrison had contracted a common-law marriage under the laws of that state. The ability to contract a common-law marriage was abolished in California in 1896. California's conflict of laws rules provided for recognition of common-law marriages when lawfully contracted in foreign jurisdictions — and Colorado was one of the eleven U.S. jurisdictions that still recognized common-law marriage.

Artistic influences

As a naval family the Morrisons relocated frequently. Consequently Morrison's early education was routinely disrupted as he moved from school to school. Nonetheless was drawn to the study of literature, poetry, religion, philosophy and psychology, among other fields.

Biographers have consistently pointed to a number of writers and philosophers who influenced Morrison's thinking and, perhaps, behavior. While still in his teens Morrison discovered the works of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He was also drawn to the poetry of William Blake, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud. Beat Generation writers such as Jack Kerouac also had a strong influence on Morrison's outlook and manner of expression; Morrison was eager to experience the life described in Kerouac's ''On the Road''. He was similarly drawn to the works of the French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Céline's book, ''Voyage au Bout de la Nuit'' (''Journey to the End of the Night'') and Blake's ''Auguries of Innocence'' both echo through one of Morrison's early songs, "End of the Night". Morrison later met and befriended Michael McClure, a well known beat poet. McClure had enjoyed Morrison's lyrics but was even more impressed by his poetry and encouraged him to further develop his craft.

Morrison's vision of performance was colored by the works of 20th-century French playwright Antonin Artaud (author of ''Theater and its Double'') and by Julian Beck's Living Theater.

Other works relating to religion, mysticism, ancient myth and symbolism were of lasting interest, particularly Joseph Campbell's ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces.'' James Frazer's ''The Golden Bough'' also became a source of inspiration and is reflected in the title and lyrics of the song "Not to Touch the Earth".

Morrison was particularly attracted to the myths and religions of Native American cultures. While he was still in school, his family moved to New Mexico where he got to see some of the places and artifacts important to the Southwest Indigenous cultures. These interests appear to be the source of many references to creatures and places such as lizards, snakes, deserts and "ancient lakes" that appear in his songs and poetry. His interpretation of the practices of a Native American "shaman" were worked into parts of Morrison's stage routine, notably in his interpretation of the Ghost Dance, and a song on his later poetry album, ''The Ghost Song''.

Jim Morrison's vocal influences were Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, which is evident in his own baritone crooning style used in several of the Doors songs. It is mentioned within the pages of "No One Here Gets Out Alive" by Danny Sugerman, that Morrison as a teenager was such a fan of Presley's music that he demanded people be quiet when Elvis was on the radio. The Frank Sinatra influence is mentioned in the pages of "The Doors, The Illustrated History" also by Sugerman, where Frank Sinatra is listed on Morrison's Band Bio as being his favorite singer. Reference to this can also be found in a Rolling Stone article about Jim Morrison, regarding the top 100 rock singers of all time.

Legacy

Morrison remains one of the most popular and influential singer-songwriters in rock history as The Doors' catalog has become a staple of classic rock radio stations. To this day he is widely regarded as the prototypical rock star: surly, sexy, scandalous and mysterious. The leather pants he was fond of wearing both on stage and off have since become stereotyped as rock star apparel. In 2011, a ''Rolling Stone'' readers' pick placed Jim Morrison in fifth place of the magazine's "Best Lead Singers of All Time".

Iggy and the Stooges are said to have formed after lead singer Iggy Pop was inspired by Morrison while attending a Doors concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One of Pop's most popular songs, "The Passenger", is said to be based on one of Morrison's poems. After Morrison's death, Pop was considered as a replacement lead singer for The Doors; the surviving Doors gave him some of Morrison's belongings and hired him as a vocalist for a series of shows. Wallace Fowlie, professor emeritus of French literature at Duke University, wrote ''Rimbaud and Jim Morrison,'' subtitled ''"The Rebel as Poet – A Memoir".'' In this he recounts his surprise at receiving a fan letter from Morrison who, in 1968, thanked him for his latest translation of Arthur Rimbaud's verse into English. "I don't read French easily", he wrote, "...your book travels around with me." Fowlie went on to give lectures on numerous campuses comparing the lives, philosophies and poetry of Morrison and Rimbaud.

Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, Layne Staley, the late vocalist of Alice in Chains, Scott Weiland, the vocalist of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, James LaBrie of Dream Theater, as well as Scott Stapp of Creed, claimed Morrison to be their biggest influence and inspiration. Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver have both covered "Roadhouse Blues" by the Doors. Weiland also filled in for Morrison to perform "Break On Through" with the rest of the Doors. Stapp filled in for Morrison for "Light My Fire", "Riders on the Storm" and "Roadhouse Blues" on ''VH1 Storytellers''. Creed performed their version of "Roadhouse Blues" with Robbie Krieger for the 1999 Woodstock Festival.

The book ''The Doors'' by the remaining Doors quotes Morrison's close friend Frank Lisciandro as saying that too many people took a remark of Morrison's that he was interested in revolt, disorder, and chaos “to mean that he was an anarchist, a revolutionary, or, worse yet, a nihilist. Hardly anyone noticed that Jim was restating Rimbaud and the Surreal poets.”

Books

By Jim Morrison

''The Lords and the New Creatures'' (1969). 1985 edition: ISBN 0-7119-0552-5

''An American Prayer'' (1970) privately printed by Western Lithographers. (Unauthorized edition also published in 1983, Zeppelin Publishing Company, ISBN 0-915628-46-5. The authenticity of the unauthorized edition has been disputed.)

''Wilderness: The Lost Writings Of Jim Morrison'' (1988). 1990 edition: ISBN 0-14-011910-8

''The American Night: The Writings of Jim Morrison'' (1990). 1991 edition: ISBN 0-670-83772-5

About Jim Morrison

Dylan Jones, ''Jim Morrison: Dark Star'', (1990) ISBN 0-7475-0951-4

Linda Ashcroft, ''Wild Child: Life with Jim Morrison'', (1997) ISBN 1-56025-249-9

Lester Bangs, "Jim Morrison: Bozo Dionysus a Decade Later" in ''Main Lines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader'', John Morthland, ed. Anchor Press (2003) ISBN 0-375-71367-0

Patricia Butler, ''Angels Dance and Angels Die: The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison'', (1998) ISBN 0-8256-7341-0

Stephen Davis, ''Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend'', (2004) ISBN 1-59240-064-7

John Densmore, ''Riders on the Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and the Doors'' (1991) ISBN 0-385-30447-1

Dave DiMartino, ''Moonlight Drive'' (1995) ISBN 1-886894-21-3

Wallace Fowlie, ''Rimbaud and Jim Morrison'' (1994) ISBN 0-8223-1442-8

Jerry Hopkins, ''The Lizard King: The Essential Jim Morrison'' (1995) ISBN 0-684-81866-3

Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman, ''No One Here Gets Out Alive'' (1980) ISBN 0-85965-138-X

Patricia Kennealy, ''Strange Days: My Life With and Without Jim Morrison'' (1992) ISBN 0-525-93419-7

Frank Lisciandro, ''Morrison — A Feast of Friends'' (1991) ISBN 0-446-39276-6, ''Morrison — Un festin entre amis'' (1996) (French)

Frank Lisciandro, ''Jim Morrison — An Hour For Magic'' (A Photojournal) (1982) ISBN 0-85965-246-7, ''James Douglas Morrison'' (2005) (French)

Ray Manzarek, ''Light My Fire'' (1998) ISBN 0-446-60228-0L. First by Jerry Hopkins and Danny Sugerman (1981)

Peter Jan Margry, The Pilgrimage to Jim Morrison's Grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery: The Social Construction of Sacred Space. In idem (ed.), ''Shrines and Pilgrimage in the Modern World. New Itineraries into the Sacred.'' Amsterdam University Press, 2008, p. 145–173.

Thanasis Michos, ''The Poetry of James Douglas Morrison'' (2001) ISBN 960-7748-23-9 (Greek)

Mark Opsasnick, ''The Lizard King Was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia'' (2006) ISBN 1-4257-1330-0

James Riordan & Jerry Prochnicky, ''Break on through : The Life and Death of Jim Morrison'' (1991) ISBN 0-688-11915-8

Adriana Rubio, ''Jim Morrison: Ceremony...Exploring the Shaman Possession'' (2005) ISBN

The Doors (remaining members Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore) with Ben Fong-Torres, ''The Doors'' (2006) ISBN 1-4013-0303-X

Films

Documentaries featuring Jim Morrison

''The Doors Are Open'' (1968)

''Live in Europe'' (1968)

''Live at the Hollywood Bowl'' (1968)

''Feast of Friends'' (1969)

''The Doors: A Tribute to Jim Morrison'' (1981)

''The Doors: Dance on Fire'' (1985)

''The Soft Parade, a Retrospective'' (1991)

''Final 24: Jim Morrison'' (2007), The Biography Channel

''The Doors: No One Here Gets Out Alive'' (2009)

''When You're Strange'' (2009)

Films about Jim Morrison

''The Doors'' (1991), A fiction film by director Oliver Stone, starring Val Kilmer as Morrison and with cameos by Krieger and Densmore. Kilmer's performance was praised by some critics. Members of the group criticized Stone's portrayal of Morrison, and noted that numerous events depicted in the movie were pure fiction.

References

External links

Earliest film of Jim Morrison

A lost painting collaboration with Jim Morrison intended for his American Prayer Album

George Washington High School Alumni Association, Alexandria, Va., Morrison page

Category:1943 births Category:1971 deaths Category:American baritones Category:American expatriates in France Category:American film actors Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:American poets Category:American rock singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:American spoken word artists Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:The Doors members Category:Florida State University alumni Category:Military brats Category:Musicians from Florida Category:Obscenity controversies Category:People from Brevard County, Florida Category:Psychedelic drug advocates Category:Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni Category:Writers from Florida

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Coordinates	33°51′35.9″N151°12′40″N
Name	Stanley Kubrick
Birth date	July 26, 1928
Birth place	Manhattan, New York City, United States
Notable works	''Dr. Strangelove'', ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''The Shining'', ''Full Metal Jacket'', ''A Clockwork Orange''
Influences	Max Ophüls, Sergei Eisenstein, Elia Kazan, David Lynch, Fritz Lang, G.W. Pabst, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Orson Welles, Pavel Klushantsev
Influenced	Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Woody Allen, Terry Gilliam, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, David Lynch, Lars von Trier, Michael Mann, George A. Romero, Coen brothers, Quentin Tarantino, Gaspar Noé, Michael Moore, Tim Burton, P.T. Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Matt Groening, Frank Darabont
Death date	March 07, 1999
Death place	Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Religion	Agnostic
Death cause	Heart attack
Spouse	Toba Etta Metz (1948–51; divorced)Ruth Sobotka (1954–57; divorced)Christiane Harlan (1958–99; his death)
Occupation	Film director, film producer, film editor, screenwriter, cinematographer
Years active	1951–1999 }}

Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career. Kubrick was noted for the scrupulous care with which he chose his subjects, his slow method of working, the variety of genres he worked in, his technical perfectionism, his reluctance to talk about his films, and his reclusiveness. He maintained almost complete artistic control, making movies according to his own whims and time constraints, but with the rare advantage of big-studio financial support for all his endeavors.

Kubrick's films are characterized by a formal visual style and meticulous attention to detail. His later films often have elements of surrealism and expressionism and often lack structured linear narrative. His films are frequently described as slow and methodical, and are often perceived as a reflection of his obsessive and perfectionist nature. A recurring theme in his films is man's inhumanity to man. While often viewed as expressing an ironic pessimism, some critics feel his films contain a cautious optimism when viewed more carefully.

The film that first brought him attention from many critics was ''Paths of Glory'', the first of three films of his about the dehumanizing effects of war. Many of his films at first got a lukewarm reception, only to be acclaimed years later as masterpieces that had a seminal influence on later generations of film-makers. Considered groundbreaking was ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', noted for being one of the most scientifically realistic and visually innovative science-fiction films ever made while also maintaining an enigmatic non-linear storyline. He voluntarily withdrew his film ''A Clockwork Orange'' from Great Britain, after it was accused of inspiring copycat crimes which in turn resulted in threats against Kubrick's family. Both living authors Anthony Burgess (eventually) and Stephen King (immediately) were unhappy with Kubrick's adaptations of their novels ''A Clockwork Orange'' and ''The Shining'' respectively; both authors became involved with subsequent stage or TV adaptations. His films were largely successful at the box-office, although ''Barry Lyndon'' performed poorly in the United States. All of Kubrick's films from the mid-1950s onward, except ''The Shining'', were nominated for Oscars, Golden Globes, or BAFTAs. Although he was nominated for an Academy Award as a screenwriter and director on several occasions, his only personal win was for the special effects in ''2001: A Space Odyssey''.

Even though all his films, apart from the first two, were adapted from novels or short stories, his works have been described by Jason Ankeny and others as "original and visionary". Although some critics, notably Andrew Sarris and Pauline Kael, frequently disparaged Kubrick's work, Ankeny describes Kubrick as one of the most "universally acclaimed and influential directors of the postwar era" with a "standing unique among the filmmakers of his day."

Early years

Family life

Stanley Kubrick was born on July 26, 1928, at the Lying-In Hospital in Manhattan, New York, the first of two children born to Jewish parents, Jacques (Jacob) Leonard Kubrick (1901–85) and his wife Sadie Gertrude (''née'' Perveler; 1903–85). His sister, Barbara Mary Kubrick, was born in 1934. Jacques Kubrick, whose parents and paternal grandparents were Jewish of Austrian, Romanian and Polish origin, was a doctor. At Stanley's birth, the Kubricks lived in an apartment at 2160 Clinton Avenue in The Bronx.

Kubrick biographer, Geoffrey Cocks, writes that although Kubrick descended from eastern European Jews, and was raised in a Jewish neighborhood in New York City, his family was not religious, although his parents had been married in a Jewish ceremony. When critic Michel Ciment asked him in 1980 whether he had a religious upbringing, Kubrick replied "No, not at all." He had no bar mitzvah and apparently did not attend synagogue. Although after his death, both his daughter and wife stated that "He did not deny his Jewishness, not at all." His daughter noted that he wanted to make a film about the Holocaust, to have been called ''Aryan Papers'', and spent years researching the subject. Most of his friends and early photography and film collaborators were Jewish, and his first two marriages were to daughters of recent Jewish immigrants from Europe.

A friend of Kubrick's family notes that although his father was a prominent doctor, "Stanley and his mom were such regular people. They had no airs about them. . . . His mother was so down to earth, she was lovely." As a boy, he was considered "bookish" and generally uninterested in activities in his Bronx neighborhood. According to a friend, "When we were teenagers hanging around the Bronx, he was just another bright, neurotic, talented guy—just another guy trying to get into a game with my softball club and mess around with girls . . ." Many of his friends from his "close knit neighborhood" would become involved with his early films, including writing music scores and scripts.

Chess and photography hobbies

Kubrick's father taught him chess at age twelve, and the game remained a lifelong obsession. Kubrick later recalled the significance of his chess hobby to his career:

He also bought his son a Graflex camera when he was thirteen, triggering a fascination with still photography. As a teenager, Kubrick was interested in jazz, and briefly attempted a career as a drummer. His father was disappointed in his failure to achieve excellence in school, which he felt Stanley was capable of. His father encouraged him to read from his large library at home while at the same time permitting him to take up photography as a serious hobby. These additional interests outside of school may have ironically contributed to his poor performance as a student. However, British screenwriter Frederic Raphael, who worked closely with him in his final years, believes that the originality of Kubrick's films was partly because he "had a (Jewish?) respect for scholars," noting that it was "absurd to try to understand Stanley Kubrick without reckoning on Jewishness as a fundamental aspect of his mentality." He points out, nonetheless, that when Kubrick died, "few of the obituaries mentioned that he was a Jew."

High school

Kubrick attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 45. He was a poor student, with a meager 67 grade average. According to his English teacher, Kubrick was not a great student, and school didn't interest him. However, "the idea of literature and the reading of literature, from a non-academic, from a more human point of view, clearly was what interested him. He was a literary guy even as a young man . . . " Kubrick also had a poor attendance record, and often skipped school to take in double feature films.

He graduated from high school in 1945, but his poor grades, combined with the demand for college admissions from soldiers returning from the Second World War, eliminated any hopes of higher education. Later in life, Kubrick spoke disdainfully of his education and of education in general, maintaining that nothing about school interested him. His parents sent him to live with relatives for a year in Los Angeles in the hopes that it would help his academic growth.

While still in high school, he was chosen as an official school photographer for a year. In 1946, since he was not able to gain admission to day session classes at colleges, he briefly attended evening classes at the City College of New York (CCNY) and then left. Eventually, he sought jobs as a freelance photographer, and by graduation, he had sold a photographic series to ''Look'' magazine. Kubrick supplemented his income by playing chess "for quarters" in Washington Square Park and various Manhattan chess clubs. He became an apprentice photographer for ''Look'' in 1946, and later a full-time staff photographer. (Many early [1945–50] photographs by Kubrick have been published in the book ''Drama and Shadows'' [2005, Phaidon Press] and also appear as a special feature on the 2007 Special Edition DVD of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''.)

During his ''Look'' magazine years, Kubrick married Toba Metz (b. January 24, 1930) on May 29, 1948. They lived in Greenwich Village, eventually divorcing in 1951. During this time, Kubrick began frequenting film screenings at the Museum of Modern Art and the cinemas of New York City. He was inspired by the complex, fluid camerawork of director Max Ophüls, whose films influenced Kubrick's later visual style, and by director Elia Kazan, who he described as America's "best director" at that time, with his ability of "performing miracles" with his actors.

Film career and later life

Early works

In 1951, Kubrick's friend Alex Singer persuaded him to start making short documentaries for ''The March of Time'', a provider of newsreels to movie theatres. Kubrick agreed, and shot the independently financed ''Day of the Fight'' in 1951. The film notably employed a reverse tracking shot, which would become one of Kubrick's signature camera movements. Although its distributor went out of business that year, Kubrick has been said to have sold ''Day of the Fight'' to RKO Pictures for a profit of $100, although Kubrick himself said he lost $100 in ''Jeremy Bernstein, Interview With Stanley Kubrick'' in 1966. Inspired by this early success, Kubrick quit his job at ''Look'' magazine and began working on his second short documentary, ''Flying Padre'' (1951), funded by RKO. A third short film, ''The Seafarers'' (1953) was filmed just after his first feature ''Fear and Desire'' (see below) in order to recoup costs. It was a 30-minute promotional film for the Seafarers' International Union and was Kubrick's first color film. These three films constitute Kubrick's only surviving work in the documentary genre. It is believed, however, that he was involved in other shorts, which have been lost—most notably ''World Assembly of Youth'' (1952). He also served as second unit director on an episode of the ''Omnibus'' television program about the life of Abraham Lincoln. None of these shorts has ever been officially released, though they have been widely bootlegged, and clips are used in the documentary ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures''. In addition, ''Day of the Fight'' and ''Flying Padre'' have been shown on TCM.

1950s: ''Fear and Desire'', ''Killer's Kiss'', ''The Killing'' and ''Paths of Glory''

Kubrick moved to narrative feature films with ''Fear and Desire'' (1953), the story of a team of soldiers caught behind enemy lines in a fictional war. While wracked with anxiety about how they will escape, they stumble across a woman whom they capture for fear of her reporting them. One of the soldiers begins to fall in love with her, but shoots her when she tries to escape. He then abandons the troop. Another soldier becomes unsatisfied with a simple escape down the river and persuades the remaining soldiers to engage in a scheme to kill a general in a surprise attack at a nearby base.

Kubrick and his then-wife, Toba Metz, were the only crew on the film, which was written by Kubrick's friend Howard Sackler, who later became a successful playwright. ''Fear and Desire'' garnered respectable reviews but was a commercial failure. Later in life, Kubrick was embarrassed by the film, which he dismissed as an amateur effort. He refused to allow ''Fear and Desire'' to be shown at retrospectives and public screenings and did everything possible to keep it out of circulation. At least one copy remained in the archives of the film printing company, and the film subsequently surfaced in bootleg copies.

Kubrick's marriage to Toba Metz ended during the making of ''Fear and Desire''. He met his second wife, Austrian-born dancer and theatrical designer Ruth Sobotka, in 1952. They lived together in New York's East Village from 1952 until their marriage on January 15, 1955. They moved to Hollywood that summer. Sobotka, who made a cameo appearance in Kubrick's next film, ''Killer's Kiss'' (1955), also served as art director on ''The Killing'' (1956). Like ''Fear and Desire,'' ''Killer's Kiss'' is a short feature film, with a running time of slightly more than an hour. It met with limited commercial and critical success. The film is about a young heavyweight boxer at the end of his career who gets involved in a love triangle in which his rival is involved with organized crime. Both ''Fear and Desire'' and ''Killer's Kiss'' were privately funded by Kubrick's family and friends.

Alex Singer introduced Kubrick to a young producer named James B. Harris, and the two became close friends. Their business partnership, Harris-Kubrick Productions, would finance three out of the next four Kubrick films. The two bought the rights to the Lionel White novel ''Clean Break'', which Kubrick and co-screenwriter Jim Thompson turned into ''The Killing''. The story is about a meticulously planned racetrack robbery gone wrong after the mobsters get away with the money. (The film title may refer either to the robbery or the subsequent murder of a group of mobsters by a jealous boyfriend). Starring Sterling Hayden, ''The Killing'' was Kubrick's first full-length feature film shot with a professional cast and crew. As does the novel's narration, the story in the film is told out of sequence in a non-linear narrative as a consequence of retelling the events of the same day (and sometimes the same events) from the perspective of different characters. (This is not the same as using successive multiple in-world flashbacks as ''Citizen Kane'' does.) While this technique was highly unusual for contemporary 1950s American cinema, it was imitated nearly 40 years later in ''Reservoir Dogs'' by director Quentin Tarantino who has acknowledged Kubrick's film as a major influence, and critics have noticed the similarity in plot structure. In many ways, ''The Killing'' followed the conventions of film noir, both in its plotting and cinematography style. That kind of crime caper film had peaked in the 1940s; but today, many regard this film as one of the best of the noir genre. While it was not a financial success, it received good reviews.

The widespread admiration for ''The Killing'' brought Harris-Kubrick Productions to the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio offered them its massive collection of copyrighted stories from which to choose their next project. During this time, Kubrick also collaborated with Calder Willingham on an adaptation of the Austrian novel ''The Burning Secret''. Although Kubrick was enthusiastic about the project, it was eventually shelved.

Kubrick's next film ''Paths of Glory'' was set during World War I and based on Humphrey Cobb's 1935 antiwar novel of the same name. It follows a French army unit ordered on an impossible mission by their superiors. As a result of the mission's failure, three innocent soldiers are charged with cowardice and sentenced to death, allegedly as an example to the troops, but actually serving as scapegoats for the failings of their commanders. Kirk Douglas was cast as Colonel Dax, a humanitarian officer who tries to prevent the soldiers' execution. Douglas was instrumental in securing financing for the ambitious production. The film was not a significant commercial success, but it was critically acclaimed and widely admired within the industry, establishing Kubrick as a major up-and-coming young filmmaker. Critics over the years have praised the film's unsentimental, spare, and unvarnished combat scenes and its raw, black-and-white cinematography. Spielberg has named this one of his favorite Kubrick films.

During the production of ''Paths of Glory'' in Munich, Kubrick met and romanced young German actress Christiane Harlan (credited by her stage name, "Susanne Christian"), who played the only female speaking part in the film. Kubrick divorced his second wife, Ruth Sobotka, in 1957. Christiane Susanne Harlan (b. 1932 in Germany) belonged to a theatrical family and had trained as an actress. She and Kubrick married in 1958 and remained together until his death in 1999. During her marriage to Kubrick, Christiane concentrated on her career as a painter. In addition to raising Christiane's young daughter Katharina (b. 1953) from her first marriage to the late German actor Werner Bruhns (d. 1977), the couple had two daughters, Anya (1959–2009) and Vivian (b. 1960). Christiane's brother Jan Harlan was Kubrick's executive producer from 1975 onward.

1960s: ''Spartacus'', ''Lolita'', ''Dr. Strangelove'' and ''2001: A Space Odyssey''

Upon his return to the United States, Kubrick worked for six months on the Marlon Brando vehicle ''One-Eyed Jacks'' (1961). The two clashed over a number of casting decisions, and Brando eventually fired him and decided to direct the picture himself. Kubrick worked on a number of unproduced screenplays, including ''Lunatic at Large'', which Kubrick intended to develop into a movie, until Kirk Douglas asked him to take over Douglas' epic production ''Spartacus'' (1960) from Anthony Mann, who had been fired by the studio two weeks into shooting.

Based upon the true story of a doomed uprising of Roman slaves, ''Spartacus'' was a difficult production. Creative differences arose between Kubrick and Douglas, and the two reportedly had a stormy working relationship. Frustrated by his lack of creative control, Kubrick later largely disowned the film, which further angered Douglas. The friendship the two men had formed on ''Paths of Glory'' was destroyed by the experience of making ''Spartacus''. Years later, Douglas referred to Kubrick as "a talented shit."

Despite the on-set troubles, ''Spartacus'' was a critical and commercial success and established Kubrick as a major director. However, its embattled production convinced Kubrick to find ways of working with Hollywood financing while remaining independent of its production system, which he called "film by fiat, film by frenzy."

''Spartacus'' is the only Stanley Kubrick film in which the director had no hand in the screenplay, no final cut, no producing credit, or any say in casting. It was largely Kirk Douglas's project.

''Spartacus'' would go on to win 4 Oscars with one going to Peter Ustinov, for his turn as the slave dealer Batiatus, the only actor to win one under Kubrick's direction.

In 1962, Kubrick moved to England to film ''Lolita'', and would live there for the rest of his life. The original motivation was to film ''Lolita'' in a country with laxer censorship laws. However, Kubrick had to remain in England to film ''Dr. Strangelove'' since divorce proceedings prevented Peter Sellers from leaving the country, and the filming of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' required the Shepperton Studios sound stages for their large capacity, which was unavailable in America. It was after filming the first two of these films in England and in the early planning stages of ''2001'' that Kubrick decided to settle in England permanently.

Prior to its release, Kubrick realized that to get a Production Code seal, the screenplay would have to downplay the book's provocativeness by treading lightly with its theme. Kubrick tried to make some elements more acceptable by omitting all material referring to Humbert's lifelong infatuation with "nymphets" and possibly ensuring Lolita looked like a teenager. James Harris, Kubrick's co-producer and uncredited co-screenwriter of ''Lolita'' decided with Kubrick to raise Lolita's age. Nonetheless, Kubrick had liaised with the censors during production and it was only "slightly edited", in particular removing the eroticism between Lolita and Humbert. As a result, the novel's more sensual aspects were toned down in the final cut, leaving much to the viewer's imagination. Kubrick would later say that had he known the severity of the censorship he would face, he probably would not have made the film.

''Lolita'' was Kubrick's first film to generate major controversy. The book, by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov, had been one of the most controversial novels of the century, already notorious as an "obscene" novel and a ''cause célèbre'', given its theme, when Kubrick embarked on the project. It dealt with an affair between a middle-aged professor named Humbert Humbert (James Mason) and his twelve-year-old stepdaughter. The difficult subject matter was mocked in the film's famous tagline, "How did they ever make a film of ''Lolita''?" Kubrick originally engaged Nabokov to adapt his own novel for the screen. The writer first produced a 400-page screenplay, which he then reduced to 200. Nabokov estimated that only 20% of his work made it into the final screenplay, which was written by Kubrick himself. The shorter version of Nabokov's original draft was later published under the title ''Lolita: A Screenplay''.

''Lolita'' was the first of two times Kubrick worked with British comic actor Peter Sellers, the second being ''Dr. Strangelove'' (1964). Sellers plays Clare Quilty, a second older man (unknown to Humbert) who is involved with Lolita, serving dramatically as Humbert's darker doppelganger. In the novel, Quilty is behind the scenes for most of the story, but Kubrick brings him to the foreground, resulting in an expansion of his role (although it is only about thirty minutes of screen time). Exercising his dramatic license, Kubrick had Quilty pretend to be multiple characters in the film, allowing Sellers to employ his gift for mock accents.

Critical reception of the film was mixed; many praised it for its daring subject matter, while others were surprised by the lack of intimacy between Lolita and Humbert. Andrew Sarris panned it in ''The Village Voice'' for being miscast and too restrained, and it was also panned in London's ''The Observer'' and by Eric Rhode on BBC Television News. The film was highly praised by Pauline Kael in ''The New Yorker'', though she later became one of Kubrick's greatest detractors. Recent reviews of the film in conjunction with its DVD release have been overwhelmingly positive. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Sue Lyon, who played the title role, won a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer.

Film critic Gene Youngblood holds that stylistically ''Lolita'' is a transitional film for Kubrick, "marking the turning point from a naturalistic cinema...to the surrealism of the later films."

Kubrick's next project, ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' (1964), became a cult film and is now considered a classic. Roger Ebert called it the best satirical film ever made. The screenplay—based upon the novel ''Red Alert'', by ex-RAF flight lieutenant Peter George (writing as Peter Bryant)—was co-written by Kubrick and George, with contributions by American satirist Terry Southern. ''Red Alert'' is a serious, cautionary tale of accidental atomic war. However, Kubrick found the conditions leading to nuclear conflict so absurd that the story became a sinister, macabre comedy. Once re-conceived, Kubrick recruited Terry Southern to polish the final screenplay.

The story centers on an unauthorized American nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, initiated by renegade U.S.A.F. Gen. Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden). All U.S. bombers are at their fail-safe points, from which they cannot proceed without direct orders. When Ripper issues false attack orders, the planes will only return in response to a prearranged recall code. The film intercuts between three locales: Ripper's Air Force Base, where RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Sellers) tries to stop the mad Gen. Ripper by obtaining the code; the Pentagon War Room, where the President of the United States (Sellers) and U.S.A.F. Gen. Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott) try to develop a strategy with the Soviets to stop Gen. Ripper's B-52 bombers from dropping nuclear bombs on Russia; and Major Kong's (Slim Pickens) B-52 bomber, where he and his crew (never realizing their orders are false) doggedly try to complete their mission. It soon becomes clear that Kong's bomber may reach Russia, since, unlike all the other bombers, his damaged radio cannot receive the recall code Mandrake has deduced from Gen. Ripper's notes. At this point, the character of Dr. Strangelove (Sellers' third role) is introduced. His Nazi-style plans for ensuring the survival of the fittest of the human race in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust are the black-comedy highlight of the film.

Peter Sellers, who had played a pivotal part in ''Lolita'' and had appeared in several previous films in multiple roles, was hired to play four roles in ''Dr. Strangelove''. He eventually played three, due to an injured leg and his difficulty in mastering bomber pilot Major "King" Kong's Texas accent. Kubrick later called Sellers "amazing", but lamented the fact that the actor's manic energy rarely lasted beyond two or three takes. Kubrick ran two cameras simultaneously and allowed Sellers to improvise, as he had earlier on the set of ''Lolita''.

Although, Peter Sellers would later become an international star after the release of his subsequent Pink Panther films and ''What's New Pussycat'', at the time ''Doctor Strangelove'' was released Peter Sellers was still mainly a British comedy actor, relatively unknown in the United States. Although this was the sixth film with Peter Sellers in multiple roles, most American viewers did not initially realize that Kubrick had cast him in three roles, all with distinctly different appearances, accents, and personalities. Dr. Strangelove is a manic German mad scientist, while the bald President of the United States is a mild-mannered model of sanity (the "straight man" of the comedy) with an American MidWestern accent, and Lional Mandrake is a stiff and stuffy mustachioed British officer.

The film prefigured the antiwar sentiments which would become explosive only a few years after its release. It was highly irreverent toward war policies of the U.S., which were largely considered sacrosanct up to that time. Eight months after the release of ''Strangelove'', the straight thriller ''Fail-Safe'' with a plot remarkably similar to that of ''Dr. Strangelove'' was released. ''Strangelove'' earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director) and the New York Film Critics' Best Director award.

Kubrick spent five years developing his next film, ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968). The film was conceived as a Cinerama spectacle and was photographed in Super Panavision 70. Kubrick co-wrote the screenplay with science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke, expanding on Clarke's short story "The Sentinel". Kubrick reportedly told Clarke that his intention was to make "the proverbial great science fiction film."

''2001'' begins four million years ago with an encounter between a group of apes and a mysterious black monolith, which seems to trigger in them the ability to use a bone as both a tool and a weapon. This new knowledge allows them to reclaim a water hole from another group of apes, who have no tool-wielding ability. A victorious ape tosses his bone into the air, at which point the film makes a celebrated match-cut to an orbiting satellite, circa 2000. At this time, a group of Americans at their moon base dig up a monolith similar to that encountered by the apes, which sends a radio signal to Jupiter. Eighteen months later, a group of astronauts aboard the spaceship Discovery are sent to explore Jupiter, their true purpose of investigating the signal is initially concealed from them. During the flight, the ship's sentient HAL 9000 computer, aware of the truth about the mission, malfunctions but resists disconnection. Believing its control of the mission to be crucial, the computer terminates life support for most of the crew before it is shut down by the surviving astronaut, David Bowman (Keir Dullea). Using a space pod, Bowman explores another monolith in orbit around Jupiter, whereupon he is hurled into a portal in space at high speed, witnessing many strange cosmological phenomena. His interstellar journey ends with his transformation into a fetus-like new being enclosed in an orb of light, last seen gazing at Earth from space.

The $10,000,000 (U.S.) film was a massive production for its time. The groundbreaking visual effects were overseen by Kubrick and were engineered by a team that included a young Douglas Trumbull, who would become famous in his own right for his work on the films ''Silent Running'' and ''Blade Runner''. Kubrick extensively used traveling matte photography to film space flight, a technique also used nine years later by George Lucas in making ''Star Wars'', although that film also used motion-control effects that were unavailable to Kubrick at the time. Kubrick made innovative use of slit-scan photography to film the Stargate sequence. The film's striking cinematography was the work of legendary British director of photography Geoffrey Unsworth, who would later photograph classic films such as ''Cabaret'' and ''Superman''. Manufacturing companies were consulted as to what the design of both special-purpose and everyday objects would look like in the future. In a filmed press conference before the Los Angeles premiere of the film, later released as a DVD extra, Arthur C. Clarke predicted that a generation of engineers would design real spacecraft based upon ''2001'' "...even if it isn't the best way to do it." The film also is a rare instance of portraying space travel realistically, with complete silence in the vacuum of space and a realistic representation of weightlessness.

The film is famous for using classical music in place of an original score. Richard Strauss's ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' and Johann Strauss's ''The Blue Danube'' waltz became indelibly associated with the film for a while, especially the former, as it was not well known to the public prior to the film. Kubrick also used music by contemporary avant-garde Hungarian composer György Ligeti, although some of the pieces were altered without Ligeti's consent. The appearance of ''Atmospheres'', ''Lux Aeterna'', and ''Requiem'' on the ''2001'' soundtrack was the first wide commercial exposure of Ligeti's work. This use of "program" music was not originally planned. Kubrick had commissioned composer Alex North to write a full-length score for the film, but Kubrick became so attached to the temporary soundtrack he had constructed during editing that he dropped the idea of an original score entirely.

Although it eventually became an enormous success, the film was not an immediate hit. Initial critical reaction was extremely hostile, with critics attacking the film's lack of dialogue, slow pacing, and seemingly impenetrable storyline. One of the film's few defenders was Penelope Gilliatt, who called it (in ''The New Yorker'') "some kind of a great film". Word of mouth among young audiences—especially the 1960s counterculture audience, who loved the movie's "Star Gate" sequence, a seemingly psychedelic journey to the infinite reaches of the cosmos—made the film a hit. Despite nominations in the directing, writing, and producing categories, the only Academy Award Kubrick ever received was for supervising the special effects of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Today, however, many consider it the greatest science fiction film ever made, and it is a staple on All Time Top 10 lists.

Artistically, ''2001'' was a radical departure from Kubrick's previous films. It contains only 45 minutes of spoken dialogue, over a running time of two hours and twenty minutes. The fairly mundane dialogue is mostly superfluous to the images and music. The film's most memorable dialogue belongs to the computer HAL in HAL's exchanges with Dave Bowman. Some argue that Kubrick is portraying a future humanity largely dissociated from a sterile and antiseptic machine-driven environment. The film's ambiguous, perplexing ending continues to fascinate contemporary audiences and critics. After this film, Kubrick would never experiment so radically with special effects or narrative form; however, his subsequent films would still maintain some level of ambiguity.

Interpretations of ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' are numerous and diverse. Despite having been released in 1968, it still prompts debate today. When critic Joseph Gelmis asked Kubrick about the meaning of the film, Kubrick replied:

They are the areas I prefer not to discuss, because they are highly subjective and will differ from viewer to viewer. In this sense, the film becomes anything the viewer sees in it. If the film stirs the emotions and penetrates the subconscious of the viewer, if it stimulates, however inchoately, his mythological and religious yearnings and impulses, then it has succeeded.

''2001: A Space Odyssey'' is perhaps Kubrick's most famous and influential film. Steven Spielberg called it his generation's big bang, focusing attention upon the space race. It was a precursor to the explosion of the science fiction film market nine years later, which began with the release of ''Star Wars'' and ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind''.

1970s: ''A Clockwork Orange'' and ''Barry Lyndon''

After ''2001'', Kubrick initially attempted to make a film about the life of Napoleon. When financing fell through, Kubrick went looking for a project that he could film quickly on a small budget. He eventually settled on ''A Clockwork Orange'' (1971). His adaptation of Anthony Burgess' novel is a dark, shocking exploration of violence in human society. The film was initially released with an X rating in the United States and caused considerable controversy. The film's iconic poster imagery was created by legendary designer Bill Gold.

The story for ''A Clockwork Orange'' takes place in a futuristic Great Britain that is both authoritarian and chaotic. The central character is a teenage hooligan named Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), who, along with his companion "droogs", gleefully torments, beats, robs, tortures, and rapes without conscience or remorse. His brutal beating and murder of an older woman finally lands Alex in prison. Alex undergoes an experimental medical aversion treatment, known as the Ludovico Technique, that inhibits his violent tendencies, though he has no real free moral choice. At the public demonstration of the success of the technique, Alex is treated cruelly but does not fight back; the treatment has made him less than human. He has been conditioned against classical music, his love of which was his one human feature, and apparently all of his sex drive is gone. We further see hints that the promotion of the treatment is politically motivated. After being freed, he is found by his former partners in crime who had betrayed him and who are now policemen, and they beat him mercilessly.

He then comes to the home of a political writer who disdains "the modern age" and is initially sympathetic to Alex's plight until he recognizes Alex as the young man who brutally raped his wife and paralyzed him a few years before. Alex then becomes a pawn in a political game.

Kubrick held that the film held comparisons between both the left and right end of the political spectrum and that there is little difference between the two. Kubrick stated, "The Minister, played by Anthony Sharp, is clearly a figure of the Right. The writer, Patrick Magee, is a lunatic of the Left...They differ only in their dogma. Their means and ends are hardly distinguishable."

Kubrick photographed ''A Clockwork Orange'' quickly and almost entirely on location in and around London. Despite the low-tech nature of the film as compared to ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', Kubrick showed his talent for innovation; at one point, he threw "an old Newman Sinclair clockwork mechanism camera" off a rooftop in order to achieve the effect he wanted. For the score, Kubrick enlisted electronic music composer Wendy Carlos—at the time, known as Walter Carlos (''Switched-On Bach'')—to adapt famous classical works (such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) for the Moog synthesizer.

It is pivotal to the plot that the lead character, Alex, is fond of classical music, and that the brainwashing Ludovico treatment accidentally conditions him against classical music. As such, it was natural for Kubrick to continue the tradition begun in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' of using a great deal of classical music in the score. However, in this film, classical music accompanies scenes of violent mayhem and coercive sexuality rather than of graceful space flight and mysterious alien presences. Both Pauline Kael (who generally disliked Kubrick's work after ''Lolita'') and Roger Ebert (who often praises Kubrick) found Kubrick's use of juxtaposing classical music and violence in this film unpleasant, Ebert calling it a "cute, cheap, dead-end dimension," and Kael, "self-important." Burgess, in his introduction to his own stage adaptation of the novel, held that ultimately, classical music is what will finally redeem Alex.

The film was extremely controversial because of its explicit depiction of teenage gang rape and violence. It was released in the same year as Sam Peckinpah's ''Straw Dogs'' and Don Siegel's ''Dirty Harry'', and the three films sparked a ferocious debate in the media about the social effects of cinematic violence. The controversy was exacerbated when copycat crimes were committed in England by criminals wearing the same costumes as characters in ''A Clockwork Orange.'' British readers of the novel noted that Kubrick had omitted the final chapter (also omitted from American editions of the book) in which Alex finds redemption and sanity.

After receiving death threats to himself and his family as a result of the controversy, Kubrick took the unusual step of removing the film from circulation in Britain. It was unavailable in the United Kingdom until its re-release in 2000, a year after Kubrick's death, although it could be seen in continental Europe. The Scala cinema in London's Kings Cross showed the film in the early 1990s, and at Kubrick's insistence, the cinema was sued and put out of business, thus depriving London of one of its very few independent cinemas. It is now the Scala club. In early 1973, Kubrick re-released ''A Clockwork Orange'' to cinemas in the United States with footage modified so that it could get its rating reduced to an R. This enabled many more newspapers to advertise it, since in 1972 many newspapers had stopped carrying any advertising for X-rated films due to the new association of that rating with pornography.

In the mid-1990s, a documentary entitled ''Forbidden Fruit'', about the censorship controversy, was released in Britain. Kubrick was unable to prevent the documentary makers from including footage from ''A Clockwork Orange'' in their film.

Kubrick's next film, released in 1975, was an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's ''The Luck of Barry Lyndon'', also known as ''Barry Lyndon,'' a picaresque novel about the adventures and misadventures of an 18th-century Irish gambler and social climber. After serving in the Prussian army, Lyndon slowly insinuates himself into English high society, eventually marrying the Countess of Lyndon. The world of the aristocracy turns out to be a hollow paradise, dull and decaying. Lyndon is ultimately unable to maintain his good standing there and falls from grace after a series of persecutions.

Reviewers such as Pauline Kael, who had been critical of Kubrick's previous work, found ''Barry Lyndon'' a cold, slow-moving, and lifeless film. Its measured pace and length—more than three hours—put off many American critics and audiences, although it received positive reviews from Rex Reed and Richard Schickel. ''TIME'' magazine published a cover story about the film, and Kubrick was nominated for three Academy Awards. The film as a whole was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, more than any other Kubrick film. Despite this, ''Barry Lyndon'' was not a box office success in the U.S., although the film found a great audience in Europe, particularly in France. The French journal of film criticism, ''Cahiers du cinéma'', included ''Barry Lyndon'' at 67 on its top 100 list of all-time films.

As with most of Kubrick's films, ''Barry Lyndon'''s reputation has grown through the years, particularly among other filmmakers. Director Martin Scorsese has cited it as his favorite Kubrick film. Steven Spielberg has praised its "impeccable technique", though, when younger, he famously described it "like going through the Prado without lunch."

As in his other films, Kubrick's cinematography and lighting techniques were highly innovative. Most famously, interior scenes were shot with a specially adapted high-speed f/0.7 Zeiss camera lens originally developed for NASA. This allowed many scenes to be lit only with candlelight, creating two-dimensional diffused-light images reminiscent of 18th-century paintings.

Like its two predecessors, the film does not have an original score. Irish traditional songs (performed by The Chieftains) are combined with works such as Antonio Vivaldi's Cello Concerto in B, a Johann Sebastian Bach Double Concerto, George Frideric Handel's ''Sarabande'' from the Keyboard suite in D minor (HWV 437), and Franz Schubert's German Dance No. 1 in C major, Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat, and Impromptu No. 1 in C minor. The music was conducted and adapted by Leonard Rosenman, for which he won an Oscar.

In 1976, production designer Ken Adam, who had worked with Kubrick on ''Dr. Strangelove'' and ''Barry Lyndon'', asked Kubrick to visit the recently completed 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios to provide advice on how to light the enormous soundstage, which had been built and prepared for the James Bond movie ''The Spy Who Loved Me''. Kubrick agreed to consult when it was promised that nobody would ever know of his involvement. This was honored until after his death in 1999, when in 2000 the fact was revealed by Adam in the documentary on the making of ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' on the special edition DVD release of the movie.

1980s: ''The Shining'' and ''Full Metal Jacket''

The pace of Kubrick's work slowed considerably after ''Barry Lyndon'', and he did not make another film for five years. ''The Shining'', released in 1980, was adapted from the novel of the same name by bestselling horror writer Stephen King. The film starred Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a failed writer who takes a job as an off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, a high-class resort deep in the Colorado mountains. The job requires spending the winter in the isolated hotel with his wife, Wendy (played by Shelley Duvall) and their young son, Danny (played by Danny Lloyd), who is gifted with a form of telepathy—the "shining" of the film's title.

As winter takes hold, the family's isolation deepens, and the demons and ghosts of the Overlook Hotel's dark past begin to awaken, displaying horrible, phantasmagoric images to Danny, and driving his father Jack into a homicidal psychosis.

The film was shot entirely on London soundstages, with the exception of second-unit exterior footage, which was filmed in Colorado, Montana, and Oregon. In order to convey the claustrophobic oppression of the haunted hotel, Kubrick made extensive use of the newly invented Steadicam, a weight-balanced camera support, which allowed for smooth hand-held camera movement in scenes where a conventional camera track was impractical. Although used for some scenes in a few previous motion pictures, Garrett Brown, Steadicam's inventor, was closely involved with this production and regarded it as the first picture to fully employ the new system's potential.

More than any of his other films, ''The Shining'' gave rise to the legend of Kubrick as a megalomaniac perfectionist. Reportedly, he demanded hundreds of takes of certain scenes (approximately 1.3 million feet of film was shot). This process was particularly difficult for actress Shelley Duvall, who was used to the faster, improvisational style of director Robert Altman.

Stephen King disliked the movie, calling Kubrick "a man who thinks too much and feels too little." In 1997, King collaborated with Mick Garris to create a television miniseries version of the novel that was more faithful to King's original.

The film opened to mixed reviews, but proved a commercial success. As with most Kubrick films, subsequent critical reaction has treated the film more favorably. Among horror movie fans, ''The Shining'' is a cult classic, often appearing at the top of best horror film lists alongside Hitchcock’s ''Psycho'' (1960), William Friedkin’s ''The Exorcist'' (1973), and other horror classics. Much of its imagery, such as the elevator shaft disgorging blood and the ghost girls in the hallway are among the most recognizable and widely known images from any Stanley Kubrick film, as are the lines "Redrum" and "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" as well as "Here's Johnny!". The financial success of ''The Shining'' renewed Warner Brothers' faith in Kubrick's ability to make artistically satisfying and profitable films after the commercial failure of ''Barry Lyndon'' in the United States.

Seven years later, Kubrick made his next film, ''Full Metal Jacket'' (1987), an adaptation of Gustav Hasford's Vietnam War novel ''The Short-Timers,'' starring Matthew Modine as Joker, Adam Baldwin as Animal Mother, R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, and Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence. Kubrick said to film critic Steven Hall that his attraction to Gustav Hasford's book was because it was "neither antiwar or prowar", held "no moral or political position", and was primarily concerned with "the way things are."

The first half of the film takes place during basic training at boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina. Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman relentlessly pushes his recruits to transform them into motivated and disciplined killing machines. He instructs recruits to be "married" to their rifles treating them like a spouse, and to give their rifles girl's names. A slow-witted recruit, Private Lawrence, whom Hartman nicknamed "Gomer Pyle", eventually cracks under the strain, starting to talk to his rifle. He is found loading live ammunition into it in the restroom, whereupon he first kills Sergeant Hartman and then himself. This sequence only takes up about a fifth of the novel, but fully half of the film.

The second half of the film jumps abruptly to Vietnam, following Joker who has been promoted to sergeant. As a reporter for the United States military's newspaper, ''Stars and Stripes'', Joker occupies war's middle ground, using wit and sarcasm to detach himself from the carnage around him. Joker also takes part in actual combat. The film climaxes in a bloody battle between Joker's platoon and a sniper hiding in the rubble who kills three of Joker's men. The sniper is revealed to be a teenage girl. She is eventually severely injured by Joker's partner, and Joker then shoots her to put her out of her misery.

Filming a Vietnam War film in England was a considerable challenge for Kubrick and his production team. Much of the filming was done in the Docklands area of London, with the ruined-city set created by production designer Anton Furst. As a result, the film is visually very different from other Vietnam War films such as ''Platoon'' and ''Hamburger Hill'', most of which were shot in the Far East. Instead of a tropical, Southeast-Asian jungle, the second half of the story unfolds in a city, illuminating the urban warfare aspect of a war generally portrayed (and thus perceived) as jungle warfare, notwithstanding significant urban skirmishes like the Tet offensive. As actor Adam Baldwin put it "When you think of Vietnam, its natural to imagine jungles. But this story is about urban warfare". Reviewers and commentators thought this contributed to the bleakness and seriousness of the film. During the making of the film, Kubrick was also helped by R. Lee Ermey, who acted and worked as technical adviser.

''Full Metal Jacket'' received mixed critical reviews on release but also found a reasonably large audience, despite being overshadowed by Oliver Stone's ''Platoon'' and Clint Eastwood's ''Heartbreak Ridge''. Like Kubrick's other films, its critical status has increased immensely since its initial release.

1990s: ''Eyes Wide Shut''

Kubrick's final film was ''Eyes Wide Shut'' (1999), starring then-married-to-each-other actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a wealthy Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. The story is based on Arthur Schnitzler's Freudian novella ''Traumnovelle'' (''Dream Story'' in English), although the story has been moved from Vienna in the 1920s to New York City in the 1990s. The film follows Dr. William Harford's journey into the sexual underworld of New York City, motivated by his shock at his wife's revelations to him of her recent fantasy of abandoning him and their child for a handsome soldier.

Actor Jack Nicholson, who starred in ''The Shining'', describes the film's theme as delving into questions about the "dangers of married life," and the "silent desperations of keeping an ongoing relationship alive," although "Stanley was very much a family man." Kubrick's wife explains that "over the years he would see friends getting divorced and remarried, and the topic [of the film] would come up." She knew that this was a subject he wanted to make into a film. Kidman notes that "Stanley's expectations of people were not really high," adding, however, that his wife, with whom he had been married for over 41 years, "was the love of his life. He would talk about her, he adored her, something that people didn't know. His daughters adored them . . . I would see that, and he would talk about them very proudly."

When Kubrick directed this film, although he was seventy years of age, he worked continually for nearly fifteen months to complete the film by its established U.S. release date of July 16, 1999. Press releases had been sent to the media, stating briefly that "Stanley Kubrick's next film will be ''Eyes Wide Shut'', a story of jealousy and sexual obsession . . . " He worked 18 hours a day, all the while maintaining complete confidentiality about the film, which was to become his last. He sent an unfinished preview copy to the stars and producers a few months before release. However, his sudden death on March 7, 1999, came a few days after he finished editing, and he never saw the final version when it was released to the public. Biographer Michel Ciment believes that "he literally worked himself to death," trying to complete the film to his liking. Ciment explains that Kubrick's desire to keep this, and many of his earlier films, private and unpublicized during its production, was an expression of Kubrick's "will to power," and not a penchant for secrecy: }}

The film was in production for more than two years, and two of the main members of the cast, Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh, were replaced in the course of the filming. Although it is set in New York City, the film was mostly shot on London soundstages, with little location shooting. Shots of Manhattan itself were pickup shots filmed in New York City by a second-unit crew. Because of Kubrick's secrecy about the film, mostly inaccurate rumors abounded about its plot and content. Most especially, the story's sexual content provoked speculation, some journalists writing that it would be "the sexiest film ever made." The casting of then celebrity-actor supercouple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as a husband-wife couple in the film along with Kubrick's characteristic secrecy increased the pre-release journalistic hyperbole.

''Eyes Wide Shut'', like ''Lolita'' and ''A Clockwork Orange'' before it, faced censorship before release. In the United States and Canada, digitally manufactured silhouette figures were strategically placed to mask explicit copulation scenes so as to secure an R rating from the MPAA. In Europe, and the rest of the world, the film has been released uncut, in its original form. The October 2007 DVD reissue contains the uncut version, making it available to North American audiences for the first time.

Co-star Nicole Kidman explains that while some critics describe the film's theme as "dark," in essence "it is a very hopeful film." During one interview in the documentary, ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'', she states that Kubrick was indirectly stressing the moral values of "commitment and loyalty," adding that "ultimately, ''Eyes Wide Shut'' is about that commitment." Sidney Pollack, who acted in the film, adds that "the heart of [the film] was illustrating a truth about relationships and sexuality. But it was not illustrated in a literal way, but in a theatrical way." Michel Ciment agrees with Kidman, and likewise notes the positive meaning underlying the film, pointing out how some of it is voiced through the dialog, and suggests that the words "resonate like an epitaph" to Kubrick:

Death

In 1999—four days after screening a final cut of ''Eyes Wide Shut'' for his family, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Warner Bros. executives—70-year-old Kubrick died of a heart attack in his sleep. He was buried next to his favorite tree in Childwickbury Manor, Hertfordshire, England, U.K.

Following his death, several directors and actors discussed their experiences with Kubrick. Steven Spielberg said in a 1999 interview that ''Dr. Strangelove'' made him forget about being drafted into the Army.

In 2001, a number of persons who had worked with him on his films over the years, created the documentary ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'', released by Warner Bros. It was produced and directed by Kubrick's brother-in-law, Jan Harlan, who had also been executive producer of Kubrick's last four films. The camera and sound for the documentary was managed by his son, Manuel Harlan, who was also the still photographer for ''Eyes Wide Shut'' and video operator for ''Full Metal Jacket''.

Projects completed by others

''One-Eyed Jacks''

''The Hollywood Reporter'' announced on October 18, 1956 that producer Frank Rosenberg had bought rights to Charles Neider's novel ''The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones'' for $40,000. Two years later, Pennebaker Inc., Marlon Brando's independent production company, bought the rights to the novel as well as Sam Peckinpah's first-draft screenplay adaptation for $150,000. Even at this time, it was announced that Brando might direct.

Later that year, Kubrick was announced as director of ''Gun's Up'', the working title for the production. Shortly after this announcement, the name of the film was changed to ''One-Eyed Jacks'' and Pina Pellicer was announced as "the unanimous choice of Brando, Rosenberg, and Kubrick" to play the female lead.

On November 20, 1958, Kubrick quit as director of ''One-Eyed Jacks'', stating that he had the utmost respect for Marlon Brando as one of "the world's foremost artists" but had recently acquired the rights to Nabokov's ''Lolita'' and wanted to begin production work immediately in light of this wonderful opportunity. Speaking more candidly in a 1960 interview Kubrick stated, "When I left Brando's picture, it still didn't have a finished script. It had just become obvious to me that Brando wanted to direct the movie. I was just sort of playing wingman for Brando, to see that nobody shot him down." The film was completed with directorial credit given to Marlon Brando.

''A.I. Artificial Intelligence''

Throughout the 1980s and early '90s, Kubrick collaborated with Brian Aldiss on an expansion of his short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long" into a three-act film, along with other writers, such as Sara Maitland and Ian Watson, under various names, including ''Pinocchio'' and ''Artificial Intelligence''. It was a futuristic fairy-tale about a robot that resembles and behaves as a child, sold as a temporary surrogate to a family whose real son is in suspended animation with a deadly disease. The story focuses on the efforts of the robot to become a 'real boy' in a manner similar to ''Pinocchio''.

Kubrick reportedly held long telephone discussions with Spielberg regarding the film, and, according to Spielberg, at one point stated that the subject matter was closer to Spielberg's sensibilities than his. In 1999, following Kubrick's death, Spielberg took the various drafts and notes left by Kubrick and his writers and composed a new screenplay and, in association with what remained of Kubrick's production unit, made the movie ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence.'' The film was released in June 2001.

The film contains a posthumous producing credit for Stanley Kubrick at the beginning and the brief dedication "For Stanley Kubrick" at the end. The film contains many recurrent Kubrick motifs, such as an omniscient narrator, an extreme form of the three-act structure, the themes of humanity and inhumanity, and a sardonic view of Freudian psychology. In addition, John Williams' score contains many allusions to pieces heard in other Kubrick films.

Many critics found the film to be a peculiar merging of the disparate sensibilities of Stanley Kubrick and Spielberg. In a mostly positive review, Tim Merrill wrote }}

Unrealized projects

Frequent and memorable collaborators

Kubrick did not generally reuse actors on film after film in the manner of John Ford, Martin Scorsese, and Akira Kurosawa. However, Kubrick did on several occasions work with the same actor more than once. In lead roles, Sterling Hayden appeared in both ''The Killing'' and ''Dr. Strangelove'', Peter Sellers in ''Lolita'' and ''Dr. Strangelove'', and Kirk Douglas in ''Paths of Glory'' and ''Spartacus''. In supporting roles, Joe Turkel appears in ''The Killing'', ''Paths of Glory'', and ''The Shining'', Philip Stone appears in ''A Clockwork Orange'', ''Barry Lyndon'', and ''The Shining'', Leonard Rossiter is featured in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' and ''Barry Lyndon'', while Timothy Carey is in both ''The Killing'' and ''Paths of Glory''. ''A Clockwork Orange'' and ''Barry Lyndon'' saw the largest crossover, with six actors (including Patrick Magee) having roles of various lengths in each film.

Although Kubrick had a reputation as a non-collaborative and controlling director, he atypically allowed actors Peter Sellers (in both ''Lolita'' and ''Doctor Strangelove'') and R. Lee Ermey (in ''Full Metal Jacket'') to freely improvise most of their own dialogue.

Photographer Dmitri Kasterine, himself regarded as "one of the most significant portrait photographers working in Britain from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s", began a long association with film director Stanley Kubrick in 1964, when he began shooting stills during filming of ''Dr Strangelove'' and later era-defining projects, ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' and ''A Clockwork Orange''. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kasterine was commissioned to take portraits of Kubrick for publications including the ''Daily Telegraph Magazine, Harpers & Queen'' and a variety of his work was published in ''The Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Interview,'' and ''The New York Times.'' Though Kubrick was noted for keeping his production sets extremely private by banning uninvited visitors, Kasterine was allowed onto the sets of numerous Kubrick films to shoot both candid and posed photos. In 2010 and 2011, many of his Kubrick photos were on display for the first time in the United Kingdom at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Four writers who co-authored screenplays with Kubrick subsequently wrote memoirs of their experience working with Kubrick. Arthur C. Clarke's ''The Lost Worlds of 2001'' traces all the intermediate versions of the story from first draft to final project. Diane Johnson published an essay about her experience collaborating with Kubrick and has discussed it frequently in both lectures and interviews. Michael Herr, Kubrick's co-screenwriter on ''Full Metal Jacket'' wrote a book simply titled ''Kubrick'' which covers not only his collaboration on the film, but also his friendship with the director over the last 20 years of his life. Kubrick's co-screenwriter on ''Eyes Wide Shut'', Frederic Raphael, wrote a notoriously unflattering memoir of Kubrick entitled ''Eyes Wide Open'' which has been denounced by Kubrick's family, notably on Christianne Kubrick's website Similarly, Diane Johnson has stated

Two authors of studies of Kubrick's films, Alexander Walker and Michel Ciment, worked closely with Kubrick on their books, with Kubrick personally providing the authors with many production photos and film stills and crucial information about the production of his films. Walker's book ''Stanley Kubrick, Director'' saw both a 1972 (entitled ''Stanley Kubrick Directs'') and a 2000 edition, and Michel Ciment's book ''Stanley Kubrick'' saw both a 1980 and 2003 edition (the latter called ''Stanley Kubrick- The Definitive Edition'')

One of Kubrick's longest collaborations was with Leon Vitali, who, after playing the older Lord Bullingdon in ''Barry Lyndon'', became Kubrick's personal assistant, working as the casting director on his following films, and supervising film-to-video transfers for Kubrick. He also appeared in ''Eyes Wide Shut'', playing the ominous Red Cloak, who confronts Tom Cruise during the infamous orgy scene. Since Kubrick's death, Vitali has overseen the restoration of both picture and sound elements for most of Kubrick's films. He has also collaborated frequently with ''Eyes Wide Shut'' co-star Todd Field on his pictures.

Family cameos

Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian has cameos in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (as Heywood Floyd's daughter), ''Barry Lyndon'' (as a girl at the birthday party for young Bryan Lyndon), ''The Shining'' (as a party ghost), and ''Full Metal Jacket'' (as a TV reporter). His stepdaughter Katharina has cameos in ''A Clockwork Orange'' and ''Eyes Wide Shut'', and her character's son in the latter is played by her real son. Kubrick's wife Christiane Kubrick appeared prior to her marriage to Kubrick in ''Paths of Glory'', billed as Susanne Christian (her birth name is Christiane Susanne Harlan), and as a cafe guest in ''Eyes Wide Shut''.

Trademark characteristics

Stanley Kubrick's films have several trademark characteristics. All but his first two full-length films and ''2001'' were adapted from existing novels (''2001'' being based on ''The Sentinel'' as well as having its own planned novelization), and he occasionally wrote screenplays in collaboration with writers (usually novelists, but a journalist in the case of ''Full Metal Jacket'') who had limited screenwriting experience. Many of his films had voice-over narration, sometimes taken verbatim from the novel. With or without narration, all of his films contain extensive character's-point-of-view footage. The closing of films with "The End" went out of style in the wake of the advent of long closing credits in the 1970s. (Disney films, for example, stopped using "The End" in 1984). However, Kubrick continued to put it at the end of the credits in every one of his films, long after the rest of the film industry stopped using it. On the other hand, Kubrick occasionally dispensed with opening credits (in ''A Space Odyssey'' and ''A Clockwork Orange''), long before it became commonplace -- as had Welles in ''Citizen Kane'' and Disney in ''Fantasia'' before him and George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola would later do, most notably in ''Star Wars'' and ''Apocalypse Now''. Kubrick's credits are always a slide show. His only rolling credits are the opening credits to ''The Shining''.

Kubrick paid close attention to the releases of his films in other countries. Not only did he have complete control of the dubbing cast, but sometimes alternative material was shot for international releases—in ''The Shining'', the text on the typewriter pages was re-shot for the countries in which the film was released; in ''Eyes Wide Shut'', the newspaper headlines and paper notes were re-shot for different languages. Kubrick always personally supervised the foreign voice-dubbing and the actual script translation into foreign languages for all of his films. Since Kubrick's death, no new voice translations have been produced for any of the films he had control of; in countries where no authorized dubs exist, only subtitles are used for translation.

Beginning with ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', all of his films except ''Full Metal Jacket'' used mostly pre-recorded classical music, in two cases electronically altered by Wendy Carlos. He also often used merry-sounding pop music in an ironic way during scenes depicting devastation and destruction, especially in the closing credits or end sequences of a film.

In his review of ''Full Metal Jacket'', Roger Ebert noted that many Kubrick films have a facial closeup of an unraveling character in which the character's head is tilted down and his eyes are tilted up, although Ebert does not think there is any deep meaning to these shots. Lobrutto's biography of Kubrick notes that his director of photography, Doug Milsome, coined the phrase the "Kubrick crazy stare". The connection of this stare with psychoanalysis is often made through the concept of "The Gaze" and its implications in visual culture. Kubrick also extensively employed wide angle shots, character tracking shots, zoom shots, and shots down tall parallel walls.

Critic and Kubrick biographer Alexander Walker has noted Kubrick's repeated "corridor" compositions, of which two particularly well-known ones are the StarGate sequence in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' and the extensive use of the hotel corridors in ''The Shining''.

Almost all Stanley Kubrick movies have a scene in or just outside a bathroom. (The more frequently cited example of this in ''2001'' is Dr. Floyd's becoming stymied by the Zero-Gravity Toilet en route to the moon, rather than David Bowman's exploration [while still wearing his spacesuit] of the bathroom adjacent to his celestial bedroom after his journey through the StarGate.)

Stanley Kubrick was a passionate chess-player, often playing on the set of his films. Chess appears as a motif or a plot-device in three of his films, ''The Killing'', ''Lolita'', and ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Mario Falsetto believes that the marble floor in the room of the prisoner's trial in ''Paths of Glory'' is deliberately chosen to represent a chess-board, with prisoners as "pawns in the game".

Many of Kubrick's films have back-references to previous Kubrick films. The best-known examples of this are the appearance of the soundtrack album for ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' appearing in the record store in ''A Clockwork Orange'' and Quilty's joke about Spartacus in ''Lolita''. Less obvious is the reference to a painter named Ludovico in ''Barry Lyndon'', Ludovico being the name of the conditioning treatment in ''A Clockwork Orange''.

CRM-114

Although ''Dr. Strangelove'' employs a device called ''CRM-114'', and ''A Clockwork Orange'' has a sound-alike medicine called ''Serum 114'', numerous and oft-repeated claims that the numbers 114 appear in other Kubrick films are apocryphal. ''CRM-114'' is also used in the source novel ''Red Alert'', upon which ''Dr. Strangelove'' is based, although claims have been made that the acronym appears in Kubrick's earlier film ''The Killing''. Nonetheless, in a remarkable case of a director's influence over popular culture through an exaggerated urban legend, there is in honor of this Kubrick trademark, an e-mail spam filtering system, a progressive rock band, a right-wing website, a sound amplifier in the film ''Back to the Future'', a catalog code in the TV series ''Heroes'', and a weapon in the TV series ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', all named ''CRM-114'', as well as a short film called ''Serum 114''. The ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' episode, "Business as Usual", had as guest star actor Steven Berkoff from ''A Clockwork Orange'' and ''Barry Lyndon'', and it was directed by regular cast member Alexander Siddig, who is a nephew of ''A Clockwork Orange'' star Malcolm McDowell.

Aspect ratio

There has been a longstanding debate regarding the DVD releases of Kubrick's films, specifically regarding the aspect ratio of many of the films. The primary point of contention relates to his final five films: ''A Clockwork Orange'', ''Barry Lyndon'', ''The Shining'', ''Full Metal Jacket'', and ''Eyes Wide Shut''.

Kubrick's initial involvement with home video mastering of his films was a result of television screenings of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Because the film was shot in 65 mm, the composition of each shot was compromised by the pan-and-scan method of transferring a wide-screen image to fit a 1.33:1 television set.

Kubrick's final five films were shot "flat"—the full 1.37:1 area is exposed in the camera, but with appropriate markings on the viewfinder, the picture was composed for and cropped to the 1.85:1 aspect ratio in a theater's projector.

The first mastering of these five films was in 2000 as part of the "Stanley Kubrick Collection", consisting of ''Lolita'', ''Dr. Strangelove'' (in association with Sony Pictures), ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''A Clockwork Orange'', ''Barry Lyndon'', ''The Shining'', ''Full Metal Jacket'', and ''Eyes Wide Shut''. Kubrick oversaw the video masters in 1989 for Warner Home Video, and approved of 1.33:1 transfers for all of the films except for ''2001'', which was letterboxed.

Kubrick never approved a 1.85:1 video transfer of any of his films; when he died in 1999, DVDs and the 16:9 format were only beginning to become popular in the US. Most people were accustomed to seeing movies fill their television screen. Warner Home Video chose to release these films with the transfers that Kubrick had explicitly approved.

In 2007, Warner Home Video remastered ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''A Clockwork Orange'', ''The Shining'', ''Full Metal Jacket'', and ''Eyes Wide Shut'' in High-Definition, releasing the titles on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc. All were released as 16:9 transfers, preserving the theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratios for all of the flat films except ''A Clockwork Orange'', which was transferred at the aspect ratio of 1.66:1.

In regards to the Warner Bros. titles, there is little studio documentation that is public about them other than instructions given to projectionists on initial release; however, Kubrick's storyboards for ''The Shining'' do prove that he composed the film for wide-screen. In instructions given to photographer John Alcott in one panel, Kubrick writes: ''THE FRAME IS EXACTLY 1.85–1. Obviously you compose for that but protect the full 1.33–1 area.''

More confusion results regarding Kubrick's non-Warner distributed titles. During the days of laserdisc, The Criterion Collection released six Kubrick films. ''Spartacus'' and ''2001'' were both native 70 mm releases (exhibited in their roadshow engagements at a ratio of 2.20:1) at the same ratio as their subsequent DVD releases, and ''The Killing'' and ''Paths of Glory'' were both transferred at 1.33:1, despite the latter being hard matted extensively. Both pictures were theatrically projected at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.

''Dr. Strangelove'' and ''Lolita'' were also transferred at 1.33:1, although ''Strangelove'' exhibits a number of hard mattes at a ratio of 1.66:1 in second-unit footage. This is sometimes falsely attributed to the use of stock footage in ''Strangelove''. Both films were presented theatrically at ratios of 1.85:1.

The DVD versions of ''The Killing'' and ''Paths of Glory'' released by MGM Home Entertainment retained the same 1.33:1 aspect ratio as the laserdisc versions, while the Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray editions of the two films feature a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. The initial DVD releases of ''Strangelove'' maintained the 1.33:1, Kubrick-approved transfer, but for the most recent DVD and Blu-ray editions, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment replaced it with a new, digitally remastered anamorphic transfer with an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. All DVD and Blu-ray releases of ''Lolita'' to date have been at a uniform 1.66:1 aspect ratio. The Blu-ray edition of ''Barry Lyndon'' presents the film in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio.

Laserdisc releases of ''2001'' were presented in a slightly different aspect ratio than the original film. The film was shot in 65 mm, which has a ratio of 2.20:1, but many theaters could only show it in 35 mm reduction prints, which were presented at a ratio of 2.35:1. Thus, the picture was slightly modified for the 35 mm prints. The laserdisc releases maintained the 2.20:1 ratio, but the source material was an already cropped 35 mm print; thus, the edges were slightly cropped and the top and bottom of the image slightly opened up. This seems to have been corrected with the most recent DVD release, which was newly remastered from a 70 mm print.

Personal life and beliefs

Alternative adaptations

Three of Stanley Kubrick's films have had their source material re-adapted in some fashion: Anthony Burgess's stage adaptation of ''A Clockwork Orange'' in 1990, which he hoped would be considered a more definitive adaptation than Kubrick's film; the Stephen King written and produced television miniseries of ''The Shining'', which King hoped would stand as the authorized adaptation; and Adrian Lyne's adaptation of ''Lolita'', which had the blessing of Vladimir Nabokov's son, Dmitri (who echoed his father's moderate misgivings about Kubrick's version). Both Burgess and King overtly stated that they were annoyed by Kubrick's denying their lead characters (Alex DeLarge and Jack Torrance, respectively) a final redemption that was present in the source material, but absent from Kubrick's adaptation.

Influences

Alexander Walker in his book ''Stanley Kubrick Directs'' notes that Kubrick often mentioned Max Ophuls as an influence on his moving camera, especially the tracking shots in ''Paths of Glory''. Geoffrey Cocks sees the influence of Ophuls as going beyond this to include a sensibility drawn to stories of thwarted love and a preoccupation with predatory men. Kubrick once named Ophul’s ''Le Plaisir'' his favorite film. A very young Jean-Luc-Godard in a (pejorative) review of ''The Killing'' also noted the influence of Ophuls on Kubrick's camera movements.

Critic Robert Kolker sees evident influence of Welles on the same moving camera shots, while biographer Vincent LeBrutto states that Kubrick consciously identified with Welles. LeBrutto sees much influence of Welles' style on Kubrick's ''The Killing'', "the multiple points of view, extreme angles, and deep focus" and on the style of the closing credits of ''Paths of Glory'', and Quentin Curtis in ''The Daily Telegraph'' describes Welles as "[Kubrick's] great influence, in composition and camera movement." One particular film of John Huston, ''The Asphalt Jungle'', sufficiently impressed Kubrick as to persuade him he wanted to cast Sterling Hayden in his first major feature ''The Killing''.

Walker states that Kubrick never acknowledged Fritz Lang as an influence on him, but holds that Lang's interests are analogous to Kubrick's with regard to an interest in myth and "the Teutonic unconscious". Michael Herr's memoir ''Kubrick'' states that Kubrick was deeply inspired by G. W. Pabst. In particular Pabst had for several decades also considered adapting Schnitzler's ''Traumnovelle'', the basis of ''Eyes Wide Shut'', although Pabst had been unable to come up with a suitable approach

As a young man, Kubrick also was fascinated by the films of Russian filmmakers such as Eisenstein and Pudovkin. Kubrick also as a young man read Pudovkin’s seminal theoretical work, ''Film Technique'' which argues that editing makes film a unique art form, which needs to be effectively employed to manipulate the medium to its fullest. Kubrick recommended this work to others for years to come. Thomas Nelson describes this book as "the greatest influence of any single written work on the evolution of [Kubrick's] private aesthetics".

Russian documentary film maker Pavel Klushantsev made a groundbreaking film in the 1950s entitled ''Road to the Stars'', which is believed to have significantly influenced Kubrick's technique in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', particularly with regard to its accurate depiction of weightlessness and rotating space station. Indeed ''Encyclopedia Astronautica'' describes some scenes from ''2001'' as a "shot-for-shot duplication of ''Road to the Stars''". Specific comparisons of shots from the two films have been analyzed by filmmaker Alessandro Cima. A 1994 issue of ''American Cinimatographer'' states "When Stanley Kubrick made 2002: a Space Odyssey in 1968, he claimed to have been first to fly actor/astronauts on wires with the camera on the ground, shooting vertically while the actor's body covered the wires" but observes that Klushantsev had actually preceded him in this.

Kubrick was also a great admirer of the films of Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, Jean Renoir, and Federico Fellini, but the degree of their influence on his own style has not been assessed. In an early interview with Horizon magazine in the late 1950s, Kubrick stated, "I believe Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica and Federico Fellini are the only three filmmakers in the world who are not just artistic opportunists. By this I mean they don't just sit and wait for a good story to come along and then make it. They have a point of view which is expressed over and over and over again in their films, and they themselves write or have original material written for them."

Late in life, Kubrick became enamored with the works of David Lynch, being particularly fascinated by Lynch's first major film ''Eraserhead'', which he asked cast members of ''The Shining'' to watch to establish the mood he wanted to convey.

Legacy

Kubrick made only thirteen feature films in his life. His oeuvre was comparatively low in number (compared to contemporaries such as Ingmar Bergman or Federico Fellini) due to his methodical and meticulous dedication to every aspect of film production. A number of his films are recognized as seminal classics within their genre.

Awards and recognition

All Kubrick films from ''Paths of Glory'' to the end of his career were nominated for at least one Golden Globe or Oscar (along with several BAFTA nominations) with the notable exception of ''The Shining'' which is not only the least honored of Kubrick's films since 1956's ''The Killing'', but was actually nominated for the infamous Razzie award. (However, this was the first year of the Razzies which at that time was run out of one person's home and was voted on by less than 10 people, rather than the large international committee that votes on it today.) Ironically, at least two published books, ''The Wolf at the Door'' by Jay Cocks and ''Kubrick, inside a film artist's maze'' by Thomas Nelson, consider ''The Shining'' to be a kind of master key to Kubrick's whole body of work in which all of Kubrick's philosophical preoccupations merge into a grand synthesis.

Six of Stanley Kubrick's films were nominated for Academy Awards in various categories, including acting Oscars for ''Spartacus''. ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' received numerous technical awards, including a BAFTA award for cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth and an Academy Award for best visual effects, which Kubrick (as director of special effects on the film) received. This was Kubrick's only personal Oscar win among 13 nominations.

Most awards for which Kubrick's films were nominated tended to be in the areas of cinematography, art design, screenwriting, and music. For these, see articles on the individual films. However, only four of his films were nominated for their acting performances, notably ''Lolita'', getting three acting nominations from the Golden Globes, and Peter Sellers getting nominated for both an Oscar and a BAFTA for his triple roles in ''Dr. Strangelove''. Of all his movies, only ''Spartacus'' rewarded a cast member with an acting award, Peter Ustinov for Best Supporting Actor.

This list includes a list of awards for which Kubrick himself was personally nominated or won in the area of Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTA, and the notorious Raspberry.

''The Killing (film) ''The Shining (film)

Year !! Title !! Awards (limited to Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Razzies)
1953	''Fear and Desire''
1955	''Killer's Kiss''
1956	The Killing'' ||rowspan=2|Nominated for BAFTA Award: Best Film from Any Source
1957	''Paths of Glory''
1960	Spartacus (1960 film)>Spartacus''
1962	Lolita (1962 film)>Lolita''
1964	''Dr. Strangelove''
1968	2001: A Space Odyssey (film)>2001: A Space Odyssey''
1971	A Clockwork Orange (film)>A Clockwork Orange''
1975	''Barry Lyndon''
1980	The Shining'' || Nominated for Razzie: Worst DirectorNominated for Saturn: Best Direction
1987	''Full Metal Jacket''
1999	''Eyes Wide Shut''

For many individual films Kubrick was nominated for and won awards from various societies of film critics, film festivals, and both the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.

Kubrick's lifetime achievement awards were the D.W. Griffith award from the Directors Guild of America, and another from the Director's Guild of Great Britain, and the ''Career Golden Lion'' from the Venice Film Festival. Posthumously, the Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival awarded him the "Honorary Grand Prize" in 2008.

In the science fiction world, Kubrick has thrice won the especially coveted Hugo Award, a prize mainly for print writing and only secondarily for drama production. He also received four nominations (with one win) of the science-fiction-film-oriented Saturn awards from the Academy of Science Fiction for ''The Shining'', an award that did not exist when Kubrick won his three Hugos.

Kubrick received two awards from major film festivals: "Best Director" from the Locarno International Film Festival in 1959 for ''Killer's Kiss'' and "Filmcritica ''Bastone Bianco'' Award" at the Venice Film Festival in 1999 for ''Eyes Wide Shut''. He also was nominated for the "Golden Lion" of the Venice Film Festival in 1962 for ''Lolita''. The Venice Film Festival awarded him the "Career Golden Lion" in 1997 and the Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival awarded him the "Honorary Grand Prize" in 2008.

In 1997, three of Kubrick's films were selected by the American Film Institute for their list of the 100 Greatest Movies in America: ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' at #22, ''Dr. Strangelove'' at No.26 and ''A Clockwork Orange'' at #46. In 2007, the AFI updated their list with ''2001'' ranked at #15, ''Dr. Strangelove'' ranked at No.39 and ''Clockwork Orange'' ranked at #70; ''Spartacus'' was one of the new selections, ranking at #81.

In 2000, BAFTA renamed their Britannia award to the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award. Kubrick is among filmmakers such as Griffith, Olivier (whom Kubrick directed him in ''Spartacus''), Cecil B. DeMille, and Irving Thalberg, all of whom have had annual awards named after them. Kubrick won this award in 1999, one year prior to its being renamed in his honor.

Reviews from critics

Many of Kubrick's films initially received lukewarm reviews, only to be hailed as major and seminal classics decades later. Film critic Andrew Sarris was consistently highly dismissive of Kubrick, often considering him as impersonal and misanthropic. In his 1968 book, ''The American Cinema'', Sarris said Kubrick had "a naive faith in the power of images to transcend fuzzy feelings and vague ideas". Pauline Kael was more positive towards Kubrick's earlier work (giving one of the most glowing reviews of anyone of ''Lolita''), but shared Sarris' view of his latter films. She derided ''A Clockwork Orange'' as being exploitative and as inverting Burgess' meaning", and criticized ''The Shining'' for being a cheat with "static dialogues" lacking the " scary fun or mysterious beauty" of other horror films, but instead being obsessed with metaphysical issues that she felt bogged the film down. Long after she retired she publicly denounced Kubrick's final film ''Eyes Wide Shut'' as utterly ludicrous, although in the same interview she defended Kubrick's ''Lolita'' as far better than the 1998 remake.

Dublin-based film critic Paul Lynch both commends the arresting power of Kubrick's images while concerned that Kubrick has an unfeeling ivory-tower approach to life. In the same essay, he wrote both while also saying Acknowledging Andrew Sarris' above-quoted dismissal of Kubrick's over-reliance on images, Lynch acknowledges that the images indeed are, profoundly potent.

''Film Threat'''s Tim Merrill is more generous stating This is from a review of the Spielberg-completed Kubrick project ''A.I.''}}

Writer Mark Browning has noted that critics seem divided between those that consider him "immensely profound" or "just plain pretentious." Likewise, Tony Mills in the Sunday Times Book review said he is "depending on who you ask either the greatest film director since Orson Welles or...a hypnotically pretentious fake". Initially, Roger Ebert gave a poor review of ''The Shining'' which now Ebert has canonized in his series of reviews of great films. It has been argued that this frequent shift in opinion is due to the consistently idiosyncratic and unconventional character of his film-making style, and this also accounts for his enormous influence on the film community. (See section ''Opinions of filmmakers'' below.) Ronnie Lankford notes "It is fascinating, when reflecting upon Kubrick, how many times he made a seminal film." which approached subjects in a new way. In the same essay he writes,

...critical opinion has always lagged behind when it came to Kubrick. Look up ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968) in the average movie guide. Most call it an innovative masterpiece and forget to mention that a number of critics hated the film when it was released. Kubrick’s films have often been groundbreaking, controversial, and misunderstood. But critics who dare to question his artistry usually have to eat their review.

As for Kubrick's own opinion of the critics, he once said: "I find a lot of critics misunderstand my films; probably everybody's films. Very few of them spend enough time thinking about them. They look at the film once, they don't really remember what they saw, and they write the review in an hour. I mean, one spent more time on a book report in school."

Style

''See also Trademark characteristics above''

For Kubrick, written dialogue is one element to be put in balance with mise en scène (set arrangements), music, and especially, editing. Inspired by Pudovkin's treatise on film acting, Kubrick realized that one could create a performance in the editing room and often re-direct a film.

As he explained to a journalist,

Everything else [in film] comes from something else. Writing, of course, is writing; acting comes from the theatre; and cinematography comes from photography. Editing is unique to film. You can see something from different points of view almost simultaneously, and it creates a new experience.

Kubrick's method of operating thus became a quest for an emergent vision in the editing room, when all the elements of a film could be assembled. The price of this method, beginning as early as ''Spartacus'' (when he first had an ample budget for film stock), was endless exploratory re-shooting of scenes that was an exhaustive investigation of all possible variations of a scene.This enabled him to walk into the editing room with copious options. John Baxter has written:

Instead of finding the intellectual spine of a film in the script before starting work, Kubrick felt his way towards the final version of a film by shooting each scene from many angles and demanding scores of takes on each line. Then over months... he arranged and rearranged the tens of thousands of scraps of film to fit a vision that really only began to emerge during editing.

Kubrick also pioneered the use of long takes extended over the course of a picture, such as the extended tricycle riding sequence in ''The Shining'' or the long pullback from Alex's face at the beginning of ''A Clockwork Orange''. While not an unknown technique before Kubrick, it became seen in the film community as a Kubrickian trademark.

Kubrick pioneered the use of music as a "black joke" to achieve a chilling, ironic effect (one now often employed by Quentin Tarantino) by incongruously combining mismatched moods and styles. Igor Stravinsky was arguably the innovator of this musical technique during his Neo-Classic period (1920s to the 1950s), but it was Kubrick who extended this idea to the big screen. This gives the intended emotional impact of a scene even more power. Brief examples of this include Vera Lynn singing We'll Meet Again in the final scene of ''Dr. Strangelove'' (during a nuclear holocaust), using some older classical music for the futuristic ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', and using Gene Kelly's version of ''Singin’ in the Rain'' for the end credits in the dystopian world of ''A Clockwork Orange'', and light pop music in ''Full Metal Jacket''. The music for ''Barry Lyndon'' is a notable exception to this rule, however, as classical music dominates the 18th century setting it is placed in.

In a book-length study of how Kubrick adapts novels to the screen, writer Greg Jenkins derives the following generalizations about Kubrick's screenplays:

1. Regardless of how a novel may begin, Kubrick launches his adaptation of it with a heavily visual sequence that immediately and purposefully seizes our attention. 2. Where it suits his purpose, Kubrick expunges parts of the original, including some characters, episodes, and swatches of dialogue. 3. Addressing himself to the portion of the narrative that remains, Kubrick distorts, reorders, and conflates many of its components. 4. Although skilled with words, Kubrick is equally skilled with and devoted to images, and he tells his stories as visually as possible. 5. In general, Kubrick lowers the amount and intensity of violence found in the original. 6. As Kubrick remakes the original narrative, he tends, with some exceptions, to simplify it. 7. Kubrick makes his heroes more virtuous than the novels' and his villains more wicked. 8. Predominately, Kubrick imbues his films with a morality that is more conventional than the novels'. 9. Kubrick's films are more obviously laced with moments of moderate-to-high drama than are the source materials. 10. From time to time, though it countervails his mainly reductive thrust, Kubrick expands one or more aspects of the original narrative. 11. Now and then, Kubrick invents his own material outright, and imposes it on the new narrative.

Opinions of filmmakers

Leading directors, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Woody Allen, Terry Gilliam, Joel & Ethan Coen, Ridley Scott, David Lynch and George A. Romero have cited Kubrick as a source of inspiration, and in the case of Spielberg, collaboration. On the DVD of ''Eyes Wide Shut'', Steven Spielberg, in an interview, comments on Kubrick that "nobody could shoot a picture better in history" but the way that Kubrick "tells a story is antithetical to the way we are accustomed to receiving stories". Writing in the introduction to a recent edition of Michel Ciment's ''Kubrick'', film director Martin Scorsese has noted that most of Kubrick's films were misunderstood and under-appreciated when first released. Then came a dawning recognition that they were masterful works unlike any other films.

Even today, Kubrick continues to be cited as a major influence by many directors, including Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Guillermo del Toro, David Lynch, Lars Von Trier, Michael Mann, and Gaspar Noé. Many filmmakers imitate Kubrick's inventive and unique use of camera movement and framing. For example, several of Jonathan Glazer's music videos contain visual references to Kubrick. The Coen Brother's ''Barton Fink'', in which the hotel itself seems malevolent, contains a hotel hallway Steadicam shot as an homage to ''The Shining''. The story telling style of their ''Hudsucker Proxy'' was influenced by ''Doctor Strangelove''. Director Tim Burton has included a few visual homages to Kubrick in his work, notably using actual footage from ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' in ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', and modeling the look of Tweedledee and Tweedledum in his version of ''Alice in Wonderland'' on the Grady girls in ''The Shining''. Film critic Roger Ebert also noted that Burton's ''Mars Attacks!'' was partially inspired by ''Dr. Strangelove''. Burton's only music video, that of The Killers' ''Bones'' (2006), includes clips from Kubrick's ''Lolita'', as well as other films from the general era.

In particular, Paul Thomas Anderson (who was fond of Kubrick as a teenager) in an interview with ''Entertainment Weekly'', stated "it's so hard to do anything that doesn't owe some kind of debt to what Stanley Kubrick did with music in movies. Inevitably, you're going to end up doing something that he's probably already done before. It can all seem like we're falling behind whatever he came up with." Reviewer William Arnold described Anderson's ''There Will Be Blood'' as being stylistically an homage to Kubrick "particularly "2001: A Space Odyssey" – opening with a similar prologue that jumps in stages over the years and using a soundtrack throughout that employs anachronistic music."

Although Michael Moore specializes in documentary film-making, at the beginning of shooting his only non-documentary feature film ''Canadian Bacon'', he sat his cast and crew down to watch Stanley Kubrick's ''Dr. Strangelove''. He told them "What this movie was in the '60s, is what we should aspire to with this film." Moore had previously written Kubrick a letter telling him how much ''Bacon'' was inspired by ''Strangelove''.

Film director Frank Darabont has been inspired by Kubrick's use of music. In an interview with ''The Telegraph'' he states that ''2001'' took "the use of music in film" to absolute perfection, and one shot employing clasical music in ''The Shawshank Redemption'' follows Kubrick's lead. On the other hand, while Darabont has followed Kubrick in directing two Stephen King adaptions, Darabont shares Stephen King's negative view of Kubrick's adaption of ''The Shining''. In the same interview, Darabont said Darabont also echoes these criticisms in }}

Many more directors have simply cited Kubrick as having made one of their favorite films such as Richard Linklater, Sam Mendes, Joel Schumacher, Taylor Hackford. and Darren Aronofsky.

Occasionally, critics may detect a Kubrickian influence when the actual filmmaker acknowledges none. Critics have noticed the influence of Stanley Kubrick on Danish independent director Nicolas Winding Refn. Jim Pappas suggests this comes from his employment of Kubrick's cinematographer for ''The Shining'' and ''Barry Lyndon'' in his film ''Fear X'', suggesting " it is the Kubrick influence that leaves us asking ourselves what we believe we should know is true" The apparent influence of Kubrick on his film ''Bronson'' was noted by the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the French publication ''Evene'' However, when asked by ''Twitch'' about the very frequent comparisons by critics of the film ''Bronson'' to ''A Clockwork Orange'' Refn denied the influence. Refn stated

Some filmmakers have been critical of Kubrick's work such as filmmakers of the remodernist film movement, Jesse Richards described Kubrick's work as "boring and dishonest". Peter Rinaldi, in his essay on the ''Remodernist Film Manifesto'' for Mungbeing, ''The Shore as Seen from the Deep Sea'', defends the manifesto, writing:

I certainly don't share in my friend's opinion of this man's work, but I actually think this is a hugely important part of the manifesto. A lot of us came to be filmmakers because a particular director's (or a number of directors) work inspired us. A friend of mine calls these inspirational figures his "Giants", which I think is a great word for them because sometimes they are built up so much in our minds that we don't think we, or our work, can ever really reach them and theirs. I think, for the most part, the generation that I grew up in had Kubrick as their Giant. His work has a mystical "perfectionism" that is awe-inspiring at times. This perfectionism is anathema to the Remodernist mentality and for many healthy reasons, this giant (or whatever giant towers over your work) must fall in our minds. We must become the giant.

Analysts of the TV series ''The Simpsons'' argue it contains more references to many films of Stanley Kubrick than any other pop culture phenomenon. References abound not only to ''2001'', ''A Clockwork Orange'', and ''The Shining'' but also to ''Spartacus'', ''Dr. Strangelove'', ''Lolita'', and ''Full Metal Jacket''. It has been noted that while references to "fantastic fiction" in ''The Simpsons'' are copious, "there are two masters of the genre whose impact on ''The Simpsons'' supersedes that of all others: Stanley Kubrick and Edgar Allan Poe." Similarly, it has been observed that

In January 2001, Kubrick's stepdaughter, Katharina, posted on alt.movies.kubrick that when the Director's Guild of Great Britain gave Kubrick a lifetime achievement award, among the many clips of Kubrick's films they included a cut together sequence of all the Simpsons homage's to his films to that date.

Homages

In 2009 there was an exhibition of paintings and photos inspired by Kubrick's films in Dublin, Ireland, entitled 'Stanley Kubrick: Taming Light'. Curated by Irish film critic John Maguire, the exhibition featured 25 new works from Irish and international painters, photographers and illustrators. It was displayed at the Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin from October 1 to 31.

In 2010, painter Carlos Ramos held an exhibition entitled "Kubrick" at the Copro gallery in Los Angeles. It featured paintings in a variety of styles based on scenes from Stanley Kubrick films.

In October 2009, online toymaker "quartertofour" released a version of Rubik's Cube with prints of photos from six of Kubrick's films on the side of the cube. (This is not to be confused with the online game Kubrick with computer images of Rubik's Cube which has no connection with Stanley Kubrick.)

The video for Pop singer Lady Gaga's song ''Bad Romance'' was found by Daniel Kreps of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine to be heavily influenced by the film-making style of Kubrick. Lady Gaga has also introduced a few concerts with a hip-hop styled remix of the electronic version of Purcell's ''Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary'' that opens the film ''Clockwork Orange'' which also is used in her mini-movie ''The Fame.'' Finally, her song ''Dance in the Dark'' has the lines "Find your Jesus, Find your Kubrick".

Studies of Kubrick

At least two full-length books on Stanley Kubrick are devoted to frame-by-frame analysis of his visual style: ''Stanley Kubrick, Director: A Visual Analysis'' by Alexander Walker, and ''Stanley Kubrick: Visual Poet 1928–1999 (Basic Film)'' by Paul Duncan. History professor Geoffrey Cocks notes that Kubrick has what he calls an "open narrative" style that "requires the audience to derive meaning actively rather than being passively instructed, entertained, and manipulated." On the other hand, Cocks believes that Kubrick's preoccupation with sweeping overarching historical themes causes him to frequently sacrifice character development. "His films consistently display a basic taxonomy of violence, systems of control, and inherent human evil. This idée fixe freezes the people in his films into types rather than fully developed characters."

Social commentary and vision

Kubrick has been noted both for his social commentary and for his distinctive visual style. Regarding social commentary, Kubrick has been noted for the recurring theme of concern with the over-mechanization of society which, in its attempt to create a safe environment, creates an artificial sterility that breeds the very evils it tries to exclude. Multiple critics have noted that Kubrick's earlier films have more straightforward linear narrative while the later films are moderately and subtly surreal reflecting a sense of social dislocation and confusion The emotional distance Kubrick maintains from many of his characters have caused critics to see Kubrick as a cold and detached rationalist, while the recurrence of strongly psychopathic characters from Alex DeLarge to Jack Torrance in his films have caused many to view Kubrick's outlook as deeply pessimistic. In his book ''Nihilism in Film and Television'', Kevin L. Stoehr writes "If there is one film director whose movies express consistently, in terms of both form and content, the pervasive dangers and creative opportunities of nihilism in contemporary culture, that filmmaker is the late Stanley Kubrick". A frequently recurring observation on the Kubrick film that Spielberg completed ''A.I'' is that it uneasily meshes Spielberg's rosy optimistic outlook with Kubrick's pessimistic one, although one reviewer wrote “Spielberg, has done a remarkable job in balancing Kubrick's pessimism with his optimism without having one overcrowd the other”

In spite of Kubrick's own denial that he is a pessimist, the charge is frequently repeated. Newspaper obituaries of Kubrick notably the one in ''The New York Times'' by Stephen Holden (as well as that in the ''San Jose Mercury''), the entry on Kubrick in the online edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', and Vincent LoBrutto's full-length biography of Kubrick (which was spoken of approvingly by Kubrick's wife) all characterize Kubrick broadly as pessimistic. (Holden wrote “if Mr. Kubrick's misanthropy prompted some critics to accuse him of coldness and inhumanity, others saw his pessimism as an uncompromisingly Swiftian vision of human absurdity.”) So also did Kubrick's most severe critic, Pauline Kael. The charge was repeated in reviews of the multi-film DVD boxed set of his films in 2007, a New Jersey film critic writing “And yet preserved too – like an ugly insect trapped in amber – are some of the artist's most problematic qualities, including a bitter pessimism, a cruel humor and an almost godlike superiority that often viewed other people – and particularly women – as little more than impediments." A pessimistic streak was found in essays collected in ''The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick'', one of which characterizes ''Eyes Wide Shut'' as “a kind of Sartrean pessimism about our inevitable dissatisfaction with romantic love.”

Not all critics agree with this assessment. Other essays in the same anthology find ''Eyes'' to be very optimistic. James Naremore in ''On Kubrick'' characterizes Kubrick as a modernist in the tradition of Joyce and Kafka with their distrust of mass society. As such, Naremore notes that Kubrick's detachment from his subjects does not make him a dour pessimist, although Kubrick does often dwell on “the failure of scientific reasoning, and the fascistic impulses in masculine sexuality”. Peter Kramer's study of ''2001'' argues it is meant to counterweight the pessimism of Kubrick's previous ''Doctor Strangelove''.

Some view Kubrick's pessimism as either at least overstated by others or even more apparent than real, an impression created by Kubrick's refusal of any bland or cheap optimism, refusal to make films that conform to conventional ideas of a spectacle, and a desire to employ films as a wake-up call to humanity to understand its capacity for evil. The editors of ''The Kubrick Site'' note that Kubrick avoids cinematically conventional ways of structuring stories. This does indeed create for many viewers a sense of emotionless detachment from the human subjects as noted above. For example, Kubrick often prefers lengthy dialogue scenes shot from one camera angle with no cutting. But the editors of TKS believe this is done in order to establish a life of characters beyond dialogue which "helps to reveal, in the spaces and silences, some of the emotional nature permeating the film's world" as well as a realistic sense of the characters' situatedness in time and society. Kubrick's focus is not just on individual characters but on the larger society around them and how it affects their motivation, often in negative ways. The authors also stress that however bleak Kubrick's outlook (intermittently) is, he is not a misanthrope.

A recent outspoken dissenter from pessimistic readings of Kubrick is author Julian Rice, a scholar of Native American literature. His book ''Kubrick's Hope'' argues that although there is a powerful vision of evil in Kubrick, there is vision of redemption and goodness in Kubrick's films stronger than often initially recognized, a vision focused both on family feeling and access to the sublime depths of the subconscious beyond superficial socialization. However, Rice has been alleged to misrepresent the work of prior Kubrick film scholars, particularly with reference to just how pessimistic or misanthropic they actually think Kubrick's films are.

Spielberg, himself a noted cinematic optimist and close personal friend of Kubrick, expressed a similar view of Kubrick. Going against the grain of the view that Kubrick's films are misanthropic and pessimistic, Spielberg in a tribute to Kubrick at the 71st Academy awards said that

He dared us to have the courage of his convictions, and when we take that dare, we're transported directly to his world, and we're inside his vision. And in the whole history of movies, there has been nothing like that vision ever. It was a vision of hope and wonder, of grace and of mystery. It was a gift to us, and now it's a legacy.

Perhaps the last word in this debate might be Kubrick's own from a 1968 interview in Playboy

The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent, but if we can come to terms with the indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

Filmography

Documentary short films

;As director, writer, cinematographer, and sound ''Day of the Fight'' (1951, RKO Radio Pictures)(also producer and uncredited editor) ''Flying Padre'' (1951, RKO Radio Pictures)(also writer) ''The Seafarers'' (1953, Seafarers International Pictures)(also editor)

''Day of the Fight'' was part of RKO-Pathé's "This Is America" series. ''The Flying Padre'' was an RKO-Pathe Screenliner. ''The Seafarers'' is Kubrick's only color film prior to ''2001: A Space Odyssey''.

Feature films

! Year	! Film	! Director	! Producer	! Writer	! Editor	! Cinematographer
1953	''Fear and Desire''
1955	''Killer's Kiss''
1956	''The Killing''
1957	''Paths of Glory''					1
1960
1962				1
1964	''Dr. Strangelove''
1968	''2001: A Space Odyssey''
1971
1975	''Barry Lyndon''
1980
1987	''Full Metal Jacket''
1999	''Eyes Wide Shut''					1

¹ Uncredited

Stanley Kubrick was responsible for the underlying concept of Steven Spielberg's ''A.I.: Artificial Intelligence'' which was produced after his death, by his brother-in-law, Jan Harlan. Kubrick is thanked in the credits, but is not credited as writer. A new screenplay was produced from scratch around Kubrick's storyline, in turn based on a short story by Brian Aldiss.

See also

Stanley Kubrick Archive

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures

List of famous amateur chess players

Notes

References

(Storyboard for ''The Shining'', Castle, Alison (editor) and Kubrick, Stanley (photographs)) Reprinted in: Philips 2001; extract in The ALT.MOVIES.KUBRICK FAQ

Further reading

Lyons, V and Fitzgerald, M. (2005) ‘’Asperger syndrome : a gift or a curse?’’ New York : Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59454-387-6

Deutsches Filmmuseum (Ed.): Stanley Kubrick ; Kinematograph Nr. 14, Frankfurt/Main, 2004. ISBN 978-3-88799-069-5 (English edition)

;Documentary

''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures''. Documentary film. Dir. Jan Harlan. Warner Home Video, 2001. 142 min.

External links

Video: ''Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'' Introduction, 2.5 minutes

Video: Compilation of film clips, 8 minutes

Detailed analysis about Stanley Kubrick (French language)

Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database

Stanley Kubrick Archive at the London College of Communication

The Authorized Stanley Kubrick Web Site by Warner Bros.

The Kubrick Site

Kubrick Multimedia Film Guide

Kubrick on Senses of Cinema (In Depth Biography)

Multi-media Kubrick archive

The Guardian: Citizen Kubrick

List of interviews and Look photographs

List of all the published Look photographs

The Hechinger Debacle

Stanley Kubrick Interviews, by Stanley Kubrick, Gene D. Phillips

Photo gallery: Kubrick on set

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