Director Week: Stanley Kubrick- 2001: A Space Odyssey

A hearty greetings for Day 4 of Director Week starring Stanley Kubrick. Well we have had some Film Noir, some satire and even a risque tale of tawdry. Clearly it is time for some science fiction and no greater in Kubrick's collection that the combined efforts of Kubrick's story telling and acclaimed Science Fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (Against the Fall of Night, The Sands of Mars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2010 and The Hammer of the God) writing styles. Working in junction with one another after being inspired by Clarke's "The Sentinel" short story, both men worked on the screenplay and Clarke later adapted it into his novel. This is 2001: A Space Odyssey.

TAKE UP THE WHOLE OF SPACE, WHY DON'T YA??!!!

The African desert, a gathering of early hominids (Australopithecus, an early primate) are roused and driven from their water hole by another tribe. The next morning a huge, black monolith appears before them. A man-ape discovers to use a bone as both a tool and weapon. Armed with this knowledge (and several bones) they proceed back to the water hole and bump off the leader of the other tribe, thus reclaiming it for themselves. That doesn't sound very Sci-fi, Jake. Hold on, it get better.

Millions of years later a Pan Am (hey, this film was made in 1968) space plane carrying Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester of Gorgo, Devil Doll. Devils of Darkness and Quincy M.E.) who explains to the US lunar outpost that Floyd and a team of scientists have discovered an artifact dating back as far as four million years ago. Floyd and company jet over in a Moonbus to the artifact to discover it is a monolith based on the previous one in Africa. 18 months later the spacecraft Discovery One is off to Jupiter. Aboard this massive ship is Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea of Madame X, The Fox, Devil in the Brain, The Starlost. Black Christmas and 2010) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood of Splendor in the Grass, They Came to Rob Las Vegas, Star Trek, Barnaby Jones and Night of the Scarecrow). Both men are scientists as well as pilots navigating to the regions of space with three colleagues in cryogenic sleep chambers. The better portion of operations is handled by the ship's computer the HAL 9000.

Hey Walt, this candy bar's got knowledge!

HAL reports a failure of an antenna control device and the guys head outside to check it out when they cannot find anything wrong with it, HAL insists it be re-attached so he can assess what is the error. Contacting Mission control, HAL's twin computer finds nothing wrong with the component either but HAL continually believes human error has occurred. HAL's behavior is steadily more erratic, Bowman and Poole need to hatch a plan on what to do. How can they disable an AI that runs the better functions of the ship? Would a machine using cold logic simply do away with them to save the mission?

And now some fun facts on the flick. The original idea for the alien monolith was to be a huge device with a translucent screen showing the apes how to use tools and weapons but Arthur C. Clarke dismissed the idea thinking it too naive' and better it seem as the ideas were transmitted electronically to the lobes. Also HAL was slated to be a mobile robot but Clarke thought it would look primitive in decades to come so better the massive computer with the all seeing red eye.

US Air Force Mission Controller Frank Miller was hired to give the most authentic depiction the producers could find. Unfortunately he was nervous to read his part and ended up tapping his foot through recording sessions and the tapping was recorded as well. Kubrick finally ended up folding a large towel and placing it under Miller's feet and said tap to your heart's content now.

Hurry up with docking procedures... I gotta pee.

Director Week: Stanley Kubrick- Dr. Strangelove

How do all and welcome back for Day 3 of Director Week via Stanley Kubrick. Well our boy has tackled some taboo, some terror and adventure. So how about a dark comedy? Yes a satire depicting our planetary leaders in the midst of a Cold War nuclear crisis, in which Peter Sellers is brilliant in. This is Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Mein Fuhrer, I can smirk!

With heightened paranoia as the order of the day, U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden of The Asphalt Jungle,The Killing, Hard Contact, The Godfather, The Long Goodbye and 1900) commanding SAC (Strategic Air Command) has recently discovered there is fluoride in the water which in his addled mind must mean... a Communist plot to deplete the American's precious bodily fluids. If you were expecting a hyperbole or punchline, no that is an actual line in this movie.

Ripper gets on the horn with his XO (Executive Officer) RAF Group Captain Lionel Mandrake (Peter Sellers of Only Two Can Play, Lolita, The Wrong Arm of the Law, The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark and Casino Royale) who puts the base on full alert, has the B-52 bomber loaded with 40 megatons of radioactive fun for all the Soviet boys and girls but realizes that Bomber Plan R can only be implemented if the higher command has been obliterated. Meanwhile in the War Room, President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) is reviewing how our bombers could have been sent out and demand an immediate recall back to base.

But enough about nuclear arms, look at those gams.

Confabbing with General Buck Turgidson (George C. Scott of The Hustler, Patton, Rage, Bank Shot, The Changeling, Firestarter, A Christmas Carol and The Exorcist III) who flim flams about how the American Military's diligence to duty is what makes the country so great that they cannot radio the bomber to simply stand down as it can only utter a new code from the CRM-114 of 3 letters and only the Brigadier has that code. Trying to get the Premier on the phone shows to be difficult as they must correct this oversight.

Well the Army spring into action to overrun the Air Force base, The President consults with his scientific advisor, the former Nazi, Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers) starts calculating the potential fallout of the impeding nuclear holocaust that awaits them if they go underground, stockpile nuclear energy, gather several hundred thousand people and prep a breeding program to save the human race. Naturally the ratio of female to male would be 10 to 1 but that is just good math. Will the bomb drop? Can we avoid this horrible future? Will the word "Commie" be stuck in my head all day?

Some interesting tidbits about the film.   George C. Scott was annoyed with Stanley Kubrick getting him to overact his role. While vowing to never work with Kubrick, even Scott had to see that was an amazing performance. It has been a rumor confirmed fact that Peter Sellers improved most of his lines and Kubrick encouraged him to do so. Major Kong's line about the survival kit was originally "A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff". It was decided that Dallas would be overdubbed with Vegas due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The film was set to be released on 1963 but that same assassination would be foremost in American minds so they waited the next year. As research for the film, Kubrick read nearly 50 books on nuclear war.

Extreme close-ups are never that extreme!!!

    

Director Week: Stanley Kubrick- The Killing

Good day and welcome to Day 1 of Director Week: Stanley Kubrick. I wanted to tap into some of his earliest works and this little film noir came my way. Our Director Stanley Kubrick (Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey) helmed our movie as it was his third full-length feature film about a robbery gone wrong. So let’s hold out in the flop house, clean and prep the Roscoes and try to keep a cool head. This is The Killing.

GIN!!   Dammit, we are playing Poker!!

Our movie’s leading role ain’t one of the good guys but a career criminal that is planning one last score before he and the missus settle down for the house with the white picket fence. Tough guy Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden of Flaming Feather, Hellgate, The Golden Hawk, The Star, So Big, Dr. Strangelove and 1900) is as vicious as they come but with a heart of gold. His doll baby Fay (Coleen Gray of Kiss of Death, Red River, Kansas City Confidential and Cry from the Mountain) is a gal with great stems and a can do attitude and Johnny would move the heavens just to give her a better view.

With a few choice teammates he assembled Johnny plans to rob a little over two million dollars from a racetrack during a high stakes race. With using a betting teller George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr. of The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, House on Haunted Hill, Blacula and Salem’s Lot: The Movie) giving the access to the back room, a crackshot sniper who is cold as they come, Nikki Arcane (Timothy Carey of Rio Conchos, Beach Blanket Bingo, Gunsmoke, A Time for Killing, Head and What’s the Matter with Helen?) a corrupt cop Randy (Ted de Corsia of The Lady from Shanghai, The Naked City, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Delta Factor), a wrestler Maurice (Pro Wrestler Kola Kwariani of The Killing) for crowd distraction. The deck is stacked and ready for game time.

Pour you a boob er um a glass??

One slight hitch is George blabs the plan to his annoyed wife Sherry (Marie Windsor of Force of Evil, The Narrow Margin, Swamp Diamonds, The Day Mars Invaded Earth, Bedtime Story and Salem’s Lot: The Movie) who schemes to get her gunsel boy toy Val Cannon (Vince Edwards of Ben Casey, The Victors, The Devil’s Brigade, The Return of Ben Casey and Son of Darkness: To Die For II) to rob the lot of them and do them in if they get out of line. The heist is set and everyone knows their part but George tells Johnny his wife knows everything and Johnny takes care of business with Sherry telling her to know her place and she and George are getting a big piece of the action as it is. Will the scheme go off without complications or will it blow up in their faces?

A handful of facts now. Our lead Sterling Hayden pocketed a cool 40 gees while Kubrick didn't get a dime. Jack Palance and Victor Mature were alsom considered for the part of Johnny Clay.

Kirk Douglas was so blown away by the film that he sought out Kubrick for Paths of Glory. Shot in 24 days, Kubrick was dissatisfied with the use of narrative in this fim because most of the information was either in error or just plain false. Day of Violence and and Bed of Fear were the working titles for this movie and frankly I think we can all agree that The Killing hits all the requirements for a title.

Mugsy the Clown goes on a shooting spree, slaying five!

Director Week: Stanley Kubrick

Howdy folks. Well I was going through my archives and believe me, combing through more than 1000 entries from my work at epinions.com to writing RottenReelz, there is quite a few write-ups to contend with. One thing that did surprise me that I have not done a Stanley Kubrick Week. One of the most bizarre and abstract films with fish eye lens, to dolly work and wide pan zooms to the scale model works. Our director's humble beginnings starts with leaving the Bronx (No Tolberone??) and moving to Pasadena California where his grades did not pick up or improved. Our young genius is bored until introduced to chess. A game he excels at and gives him a parable to life, film and actors later in his life.

THIS IS SPARTA!!!!  Oh wait, that's not right!

Becoming a staff photographer for Look Magazine at age 17, he discovers his true love, documentaries, the ability to capture life brings him to make the film Fear and Desire. With the mixed reviews, Kubrick is not detoured from film and moves to making The Killing that gives Hollywood a view at his work and decrees he will direct Paths of Glory. With his own sense of style, motif and reasoning the films he chose to do would always hit certain censorship and taboos that made the world uncomfortable with his vision.

Many people including Stephen King did not care for the take that Kubrick had for The Shining. Nearly all of his movies have a narration at some point but unlike some directors (UWE BOLL, I AM TALKING TO YOU!!!) the narrative does not dominate the film. Every one of his movies have all been made from a novel and always have some sort of dark side of humanity and in fact dehumanizes the characters with humor, violence or verbal comments. So grab your bowler hats and prepare yourselves for the Ultra, Ultra Violence!!!

Pleas begin docking procedures... the HAL 9000 awaits to probe you.