A little like asking the same thing of Quentin Tarantino movies.

The guy in the video below who was shooting the machinegun was supposed to be the guy who was to play Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, but R. Lee Ermey convinced Kubrick to give the job to him.  So Kubrick gave the gunner job to this guy instead.

Hi,

Same here. 

Of all his films, this one was likely the most important when it came to zingers and commentaries. It made a lot of the other films seem weak by comparison, and this was supposed to be a satire ... it was way more than that!

But let's not forget some great lines ... in LOLITA, Shelly Winters tells James Mason that her daughter is going to the doctor to get a cavity filled in! ... You can take that any way you want on that story! It actually sounds best as a sound bite, and not watching the film. Just listening to the words! And Shelly Winters says it like she knows the in-joke.

 Three very different movies but all great.

2001 - A Space Odyssey would be my second one.

I wanted to mention/discuss "A Clockwork Orange", but I wonder if some younger folks got attached to the youth running a muck ... and later getting ganged up by "society" for his doings. It was/is a perfect example of what happened to the "flower children" and how the media destroyed the whole thing, and eventually tried to destroy all the arts ... that came with that era. Didn't quite succeed because the music survived and then some, but a lot of all the other artistic things, specially in America, are not remembered, or even appreciated as fully as they should.

I often look at some of the films at the time and how they were "anti-establishment" in many ways ... "The Wild Bunch", "A Clockwork Orange", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "Five Easy Pieces", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and other things.

Quite interesting, but I don't think that Stanley Kubrick was not quite aware of the time and place of things, and his films in the early days were more "on topic" than the later material ... so it seems for the most part. By the time he got to his last films, I think that most of us had tuned out.

Hi,

I think the "psychological profile" is something that Stanley Kubrick allowed a lot of his actors to do and even goes back to Peter Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove" where a lot of improvisation is used, and not likely to have been written, and allowing actors that have a good feel for things, and Peter definitely had tuned that very well with The Goons on radio for 12 years, a chance to fly ... they will always give you moments that are special, and I think that Jack Nicholson has a lot of that and it goes back to "some of his early material, and is very evident in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Moments like the "here's Johnny" line, are rarely written ... and are best shown when it happens ... specially when it was well known that Stanley Kubrick had a habit or re-shooting things ... Jack would probably have dropped an F-bomb and then just let it all hangout ... and ... voila ... there it was what SK was looking for but had no words for it!

LOLITA does not appear, at first sight, to have any improvisation, but all of a sudden you hear Shelly Winters say her line about the cavity to James Mason, and you know right away that the idea was to make a sex joke around it. It's really hard to write those, because they are so dependent on the moment itself, though it can be done, but the use and implementation, specially in film or theater, suffers, because interpretations break the mood and take out the fun in it, although today we would say how sexist and this and that it is!

There are a lot of other very well known implementations of improvisation in Stanley Kubrick's films, however, he is a good director and he tries to blend those parts with everything else, so it does not seem that far away from the character's completeness for the piece. A lot of films let go of that cohesion so that what you get later is not even close to the early part, but in SK's films it tends to last. 

And there are times when it is difficult to watch, since it is clear that the actors are not quite comfortable with it, and are struggling with it. And it makes the film seem uneven and not quite enjoyed by a lot of folks. And this is the hard part of improvisation ... some folks can do it, and some actors have to know the lines to be able to get close to it, but they are not very good at it. Dustin Hoffman is a good example, however, he is a "deep" student of his characters, and he knows how to FILL IN the space, so you can't tell the difference, and his ability is in this "blank" space, as it is called on the stage. A good actor, will hide all these moments and you will never know it. Of the great "Actor's Studios" folks, not many were really good at improvisation, although it is believed that Marlon Brando was the best of them, and most of the folks around him, were too self-conscious to be able to let go like Marlon did in at least one play ... the moment that was never quite repeated even in film ... it was that strong. The English, conversely, are specialists in this and both the RSC and NT worked a lot of improvised theater, and their 60's was almost all ... improvisation left and right until it freed a lot of actors into some incredible performances everywhere. This helped make GODOT possible, for example, and make us think of everything else but!

Paths of Glory is wonderful. I like Barry Lyndon, but had a hard time writing a review for it. I'll watch it again, but cinematography is something that is great in just about every one of his films. Soundtrack is a hit and miss for me, although what was done with 2001 was far out (and even more so at the CINERAMA DOME -- at 180 degree screen and sound at 360!), but after Strauss there is better stuff for my ears.

I have to take a look at some of the other soundtracks ... and see if there is something else I missed. I have always had the ear for the music in film, and even chase some of the composers left and right ... but Stanley Kubrick was not exactly known for the music in his films. The best at using music for me was Nicolas Roeg (likes to use rock songs, too!), and the best of them for film music as we know it? Probably Maurice Jarre, although Vangelis and Ryuichi Sakamoto are a very close 2nd.

Argo2112 wrote: I'm surprised, No love for Paths of Glory here.

Now it's got two votes, but anyway I don't think it's about lack of love. It's just that... who doesn't love more than one Kubrick movie? The only one I've seen that didn't work for me is Eyes Wide Shut.

Voted Shining (or Shinning). Kind of a lifechanging experience at a very young age for me.

For someone who allegedly understands film, I would suggest that the soundtrack of Barry Lyndon actually moves the film even without dialogue -- it is often used in place of dialogue. And considering The Chieftains play the compositions of Irish national treasure Seán Ó Riada, I wonder if perhaps you should better educate yourself in what the score contains and actually means. The music actually progresses along with the travels of Lyndon, from a Gaelic score as he leaves the farm in Ireland, to the pipes and drums of the British army, to the chamber music of  the salons and estates (Handel, Schubert, Vivaldi, Bach).  

Hi,

It's been darn near 45 years, and I can barely remember the music in it, which is why I stated that I was going to look it up again. We were, in Santa Barbara (thanks go Guy Guden's show),, already playing The Chieftains, and an incredible number of those folks from the northern area in England, Ireland and Wales. I still have it on my collection. I even remember when we played HORSLIPS and some folks went ... wtfisthat?

However, I do not know, individually, a lot of these songs, and their application ... well, I remember Matty Groves and Reynardine.

The Dark Elf wrote: ... The music actually progresses along with the travels of Lyndon, from a Gaelic score as he leaves the farm in Ireland, to the pipes and drums of the British army, to the chamber music of  the salons and estates (Handel, Schubert, Vivaldi, Bach).

That would be a very nice directing touch and choice. The music itself telling the story, so to speak.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the film again thanks to your comments.

I'm going to have to watch Barry Lyndon now, as a matter of "national interest" :)

Hi,

Even though a lot of movies "include" history, many folks don't like to see these movies used as a de facto idea of what history is, or was ... but sometimes, it is hard to not laugh and appreciate the old stooges using their canes to keep time in front of the king, and then agree with him when he says "too many notes", to a musical style (at the time) that was notoriously slow and strictly time kept! ... familiar? guess what daw'ists do? The same thing!

But in general, for example, theater and music, were originally together in Greek theater as part of their festivals, and some how they got separated, more than likely by the new "religion" that decreed Oedipus bad, since it did not approve something that probably had happened for many hundreds or thousands of years before! All that was left? Edith Hamilton's Walt Disney version of the Greek stories, and some horrible misogyny that is pathetic and sick! I get really sick hearing about Medea poisoning a robe, when all the lighting in those days was by candles and oils on a pedestal, and in rooms that had carpets in all walls and floor to keep the heat in ... and how easy it would be for a fire to spread if one of those fell! Glauce likely hit one of those and the place blew up a fire! But the messenger, tells a vile story of hatred for the "magic" and women that had strength as Medea did ... my thoughts still are that the "chorus" was an invention that was badly translated and used to usher a new ear of religious controls ... plain and simple. It had nothing to do with a public sentiment!

To see, and find, as you say, that the music in "Barry Lyndon" is important (I have a copy arriving this week for me!) is something that is far out, and I really look forward to seeing it. I don't specifically know the names of the pieces and what they are about, but will definitely look for it, and maybe even look for a soundtrack CD.

Saw the film and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The music in it is indeed excellent, and very well used, and in my review, I called this film a "symphony" since the music was so well used throughout its story. In many ways, even 2001 had parts that were like this style, although I would have to watch it again to see how the music in it was used beyond the well known piece. by Strauss.