Stanley Kubrick

The Killing poster

The Early Films

What transcends the Kubrick legend are a few tangible facts: A native of Brooklyn, New York, Stanley Kubrick began his career as a visual chronicler of his world as a high schooler when he joined the staff of Look Magazine as a photojournalist. After four years there, the ever-experimental and confident Kubrick took the logical leap to motion picture making. His self-financed first film, the 16-minute documentary Day Of The Fight (1953), was regarded as an immediate artistic triumph for the 23-year old writer, director, cinematographer, and editor. But Kubrick didn't wait for confirmation from others. He'd already moved on to fiction.

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Kubrick became a full-fledged feature film director at the age of 25, when he helmed Fear And Desire, an existential anti-war allegory (starring a young Paul Mazursky) that he'd later dismiss as "not a film I remember with any pride, except for the fact that it was finished". His next feature, the gritty New York noir Killer's Kiss (1955), won the interest and partnership of Hollywood-based James H. Harris.

1957's The Killing, an elliptical heist drama co-written with Jim Thompson and anticipating Reservoir Dogs by 35 years, was so minimally-budgeted, Kubrick worked for deferred salary. While the young filmmaker's third feature was far from a box office and critical hit, it caught the eye of the Hollywood in-crowd and announced the arrival of an original, exploitable, talent.

Kubrick attracted box office heavy Kirk Douglas as the lead for his moving adaptation of Humphrey Cobb's novel Paths Of Glory (1957). Douglas would next insist that Kubrick take over from Anthony Mann to direct Universal's epic Spartacus (1960), the one film on which Kubrick felt he had no control and tackled in an aloof manner, derailing a planned adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

[Kubrick's Later Films]

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