King Kubrick: Ranking Stanley's Best Films

[CleverNickName]

A solid ranking.
No notes, Snarf. You and I are in complete agreement.

 

[soviet]

Good article, I agree mostly although I rate FMJ a lot higher (mainly based on the second half, which I think is stronger). Still haven't seen Barry Lyndon, which is unforgivable.

2001 is absolutely my favourite film of all time, so I'm with you there. Even my second favourite film of all time (Magnolia) has a direct allusion to 2001 and my favourite TV programme of all time (Babylon 5) re-used the space suits in its best episode.

This was more about me than your post I guess, for which i can only beg forgiveness, and offer as small recompense that true art inspires a reaction in others. Also, I have had a lot of wine.

 

[Parmandur]

Solid ranking. Though ranking Kubrick films is a little bit like ranking Beethoven Symphonies: clearly there is an obvious best one, but you can't exactly go wrong with any work in the list

2001 is, simply, one if the very best films ever made.

I really love Dr. Strangelove and Barry Lyndon, and they are pretty monumental achievements as well.

 

[Richards]

2. A Clockwork Orange (1974). A moment of truth- this is my personal number one film. I've written about it (actual, um, scholarly stuff). But I am trying to use some objective criteria as well, and I recognize that it's ... let's say a difficult watch for some people, and that there are good reasons for ranking the next film number one. Still ... this is a movie of both startling brutality and beauty, and it uses that to force the viewer to confront a profound ethical question that is as fresh today as when it was first made.

Well, this just shows you're all right in the gulliver, droog. It's a horrorshow, choodesny sinny, and don't ever give any appy polly loggies for your messels on the subject. And if anyone's bezoomny enough to govoreet you're spouting chepooka, give the bratchny a tolchock in the yarbles, you sloosh?

Johnathan

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I'd not heard of Barry Lyndon, so I googled it.

Turns out it's playing at a local cinema tomorrow night. I have to go, don't I?

 

[Parmandur]

I'd not heard of Barry Lyndon, so I googled it.

Turns out it's playing at a local cinema tomorrow night. I have to go, don't I?

Do it, it is superb.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'd move a few things around.

- FMJ needs to be much higher.

For me, FMJ is a brilliant film that would be the best film most directors ever did. But it has three flaws (IMO). The first is that it is two excellent halves that don't work together- I understand what Kubrick was trying to do, but IMO, it doesn't work. The second is the emotional climax in the first half, which diminishes (IMO) the second half of the film.

For me, the fact that the two halves fit together so oddly is why it's perfect. IMNSHO, FMJ manages to capture the awkward transition between two connected but dissonant parts of life more perfectly than any other film. In a way, it does what so many other "coming of age" movies try to do, but does it so much better. I would love to see someone make a high school graduation or college transition movie the same way that Kubrick did FMJ. It would be a blatant rip off and wouldn't work as well, but it would be good.

- Dr. Strangelove needs to be much lower.

Okay, I like this movie a lot. It's a great movie. And it's hard to judge comedy amidst a bunch of dramas. But Strangelove, more than any other Kubrick film, has diminishing returns for me where I enjoy rewatches less and less.

One big reason for this is probably that I've done a double feature of Strangelove and its stoic partner film: Failsafe. And I'll say that not only is Failsafe is a better film, it makes Strangelove look worse.

- The Shining should be ahead of Clockwork Orange. Snarf said it straight up: "I'd argue that this film is perfect." As I lack Snarf's ineffable emotional connection to Clockwork Orange and haven't seen Barry Lyndon, the Shining is the only choice for the #2 slot.

- 2001 is #1. That's all there is to it. Snarf nailed this one.

- Anybody wanna poke AI: Artificial Intelligence with a 10' pole? I liked it a lot, but think it would have been better as a long-form 50s sci-fi radio show. Which feels like much more of a dig than intended against a movie that put so much money into the visual effects.

 

[Ibrandul]

It's a great movie. And it's hard to judge comedy amidst a bunch of dramas. But Strangelove, more than any other Kubrick film, has diminishing returns for me where I enjoy rewatches less and less.

I find a few short bits of it very funny, but much more than half the ostensibly comedic material doesn't land a muted chuckle. In its essence, I feel, Strangelove isn't even a comedy—it's a satire, and while there's a big Venn overlap between those categories, they are essentially unrelated. They just happen to go together really well, and so, often, both are characterstics of the same work.

I learned to stop worrying about the comedy and love Strangelove when I read the contemporary review from New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, who called the movie a "sick joke," "malefic and sick" and "dangerous" (before "dangerous" was complimentary), and who proclaimed himself "troubled" by the film's feeling of "discredit and even contempt for our whole defense establishment."

I realized then that you really can—in fact, you really have to—divide the world of cinema into before and after Strangelove, just like you have to divide it into before and after 2001. And it kind of doesn't matter how either movie plays in 2025, because (I presume) we've all lived our whole lives firmly entrenched on one side of those divides and even the historically minded of us will never fully succeed in understanding what it was like to live through them.

"A Modest Proposal" isn't funny either.

 

[dragoner]

2001, Shining, and Clockwork Orange are all superb, they hit differently, though all must see.

 

[Deset Gled]

I realized then that you really can—in fact, you really have to—divide the world of cinema into before and after Strangelove, just like you have to divide it into before and after 2001. And it kind of doesn't matter how either movie plays in 2025, because (I presume) we've all lived our whole lives firmly entrenched on one side of those divides and even the historically minded of us will never fully succeed in understanding what it was like to live through them.

"A Modest Proposal" isn't funny either.

This is just way overselling it, IMNSHO. Satire existed before Strangelove; it continues to exist after without Kurick's help. I'd put Strangelove in the top 10 satire of all time. But Network, Brazil, and Duck Soup would all place above it, and that's just off the top of my head (and hoping I'm keeping my Marx bros straight).

And I'll double down that Failsafe is better. Frankly, my understanding is that Kubrick should probably be knocked down a peg or two for the inter-office politics he pulled to damage its release. I wonder how differently the world would remember things if Failsafe made it to theaters first.