2001 a space odyssey
Kubrick's collaboration with Arthur C Clarke delivers a Sci-Fi epic that follows human evolution from Ape to space faring species and beyond, guided by a mysterious black monolith that appears to be acting on behalf of a mysterious alien intelligence. Traditional narrative is discarded to create a visual epic that combines with a classical soundtrack to deliver ideas on humanity. 2001 is a well crafted visually stunning piece of cinema, its a film that manages to tell the story of the discovery of tools to space travel in a single graceful edit.
Apparently the film found its audience among the counter culture of the 60's as a lot of audiences were mystified by the film. However its much more than a drugs film, watched today its still terrific and looks magnificent on blu-ray. Its influence on modern sci-fi is abundantly clear in every frame.
A Clockwork orange
Based on Anthony Burgess science fiction tale of teenage violence, Kubrick marries great visuals and music to create a genuine classic. Here the film deals with morality and mainly the question that if someone is forced to be good are they truley moral. The Film follows the adventures of Alex de Large an intelligent psychopath who along with his droogies goes out at night for a bit of the old 'ultra-violence' robbing and raping at will. This first act is one of total forward momentum as the film delivers scene after scene of mayhem leading up to a brutal home invasion on an Author. Deciding to rid themselves of Alex, his droogs set him up for arrest by the police, and when he 'accidentally' kills an elderly lady it seems Alex is done. However, alex discovers a new proceedure developed by the state that functions similarly to operant condtioning where subjects are conditioned to react with physical pain to violence. It seems the state is preparing to fill the prisons with dissidents so they need common crooks out of the way.
Out of prison, unable to do violence Alex becomes a victim, and one by one his past victims come back to haunt him. The final act from the book is missing as Kubrick was given the america edition where it was missing. Ultimately in the book Alex decides to be good on his own volition, which is the ultimate moral act. However I always thought this stretched plausibility as Alex is the kind of psycopath that its difficult to imagine changing. Ultimately Alex is a man of contradictions, hes a complete monster in some respects but he's also intelligent and cultured. The film came at an especially fertile point in Malcom Macdowells career, through his collaborations with Lyndsey Andserson. O'lucky man came out around the same time and Macdowell resented the film for eclipsing that however he gives on of his best performances in Orange and manages to make Alex somewhat sympathetic which helps the film work. Once again it's visually stunning and the pop art design and editing influenced a whole slew of future film-makers. The films legend was in part cemented by Kubricks supression of the film in the UK (it was never actually banned) as it seems the main unhealthy influence the film had was on the anti-violence campaigners who sent death threats to Kubricks Family. Seems they lack any sense of irony.
Barry Lyndon
Ryan O'neill plays Barry, an Irish farmer who as a teenager falls for his cousin. As she's getting married to an english colnel, Barry gets the hump and ends up in a duel that he wins. Thinking he's killed his opponent (a second collaboration with Leonard Rossiter) our hero goes on the run, joins the army and ends up through various adventures, mainly involving lying, cowardice and rakishness, ends up climbing to the top of social ladder. Like Icarus he flies to close to the sun and ends up getting burned.
Various things still astonish me about Barry Lyndon, the painstaking attention to period detail, the excellent use of Handel, the various battle scenes and the fact that almost every frame looks like an oil painting from the period. This is very apparant in the blu-ray which looks gorgeous and really brings the colour and detail to life. Lyndon might be off-putting to people who dislike bawdy epics but its a lot of fun. its very humerous and tragic and lingers in the memory long after its over.
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