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By the time of THE SHINING, I had moved down the block and across Third Avenue, where I was one of the managers at the Penthouse East, then showing CALIGULA. Kubrick’s film was around the corner at the Sutton. Our ticket holders’ lines were constantly being entwined, so that hundreds of people daily would walk out in the middle of CALIGULA’s orgy scene wondering when Jack Nicholson was going to appear.
Kubrick was in residence at the Sutton’s projection booth, and finally cut the last scene, between Shelley Duvall and a rather non-committal doctor. It was supposed to be disturbing, even scary, but there were howls of laughter whenever that scene played. The transition from night to day is now a little abrupt, which is noticeable in the film’s final minutes.
Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) an ex-high school teacher and aspiring writer, takes the job of winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, an isolated resort high in the Rocky mountains. Staying with him through a brutal snowstorm is his wife Wendy (Shelley Duval) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd). Having been built on a Native American burial ground, the hotel is rumored to be haunted.
You could say THE SHINING is the first horror film about writer’s block. It’s also one of the first to use the steadicam, a hand held camera brace with a gyroscope invented by Garnett Brown. Kubrick’s camera is in almost constant movement, zipping down empty corridors, often only a few feet from the floor. This is not only amazing to watch in its kinetic trajectory, but also inscribes the lingering presence of ghosts in this haunted hotel that Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall have come to stay in. (Mr. Brown contributes an excellent commentary, and can also be seen as a hyperactive presence, usually running behind one of the actors in Vivian Kubrick’s documentary included as an extra.) Ultimately, THE SHINING is much closer to Val Lewton (the producer of such classics of psychological horror as THE CAT PEOPLE) than Stephen King in the way it traces the connections between family discord and something inherently evil, seeping into the bones of the characters just as Kubrick’s camera weaves its way through unending hotel corridors. At the time of the film’s release, Nicholson seemed over the top, but now it looks like a performance for the ages, full of tenderness and subtle precision, limning Jack Torrence’s descent into madness. (It’s interesting to compare the finished film with the documentary, as Kubrick seems to have chosen only the most extreme takes of Nicholson to print.) THE SHINING is a movie that becomes deeper every time I see it, and also keeps getting scarier.
FULL METAL JACKET begins with raw recruits having their heads shaved for service in Vietnam. It’s an almost ritualistic activity, at once straight forward yet fetishistic. Kubrick focuses on what seems like pounds of hair being swept across a tile floor. We are then introduced to a barracks-full of potential Marines at Parris Island, especially Pvt. Joker (Matthew Modine) and Pvt. Leonard Lawrence (Vincent D’Onofrio), who have come under the not so gentle attention of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey). This ultimately leads to a lethal battle of wills between Sgt. Hartman and Pvt. Lawrence, in which Pvt. Joker is unable to change what is taking place before him, no matter how hard he tries.
The Parris Island sequences, which take up the first forty-five minutes of FULL METAL JACKET, are among the most compelling Kubrick has ever put on film, combining as it does his sense of gallows humor with a kind of microscopic vision, especially concerning men under stress. There’s this dialectic (I can’t think of a better word) between regimentation and existential dread, through the individualization of the actors’ gestures, even while they’re turning into one big machine. Kubrick accentuates this by using a 16mm lens in the barracks scenes, so you can see every actor at once. The depth of field and sense of perfection amongst this inner chaos is overwhelming. These scenes remind me of a Living Theatre production I saw on public television as a child called THE BRIG. (The rest of the film is set in Vietnam, and although very well made, is more conventional, ending with a battle scene that was actually shot in a series of abandoned warehouses outside of London.)
This view of basic training is probably the most detailed that has ever been seen in a mainstream film. Unfortunately, it’s not enough, as there has been severe cutting and compression of time that inadvertently misrepresents the process, and also the inner psychological states among the recruits. There’s also a major inaccuracy that is retained in order to make the climax more shocking. One can come up with an explanation after the fact, but it reads like a mistake, and places the rest of the sequence in jeopardy. In spite of these flaws, FULL METAL JACKET remains an extraordinary film, especially for the performances of Vincent D’Onofrio and R. Lee Ermey. (They are equally compelling to listen to on the audio commentary.)
In spite of the hoopla about digitalized genitalia, EYES WIDE SHUT can be seen as Stanley Kubrick’s Xmas film. Not only is there a Xmas tree in every scene, illuminating the walls with a smeary aura of pink and pale blue, but Kubrick’s usual jaundiced eye seems to have taken on a warm and fuzzy tone, so that even a naked orgy, with its red robes and Venetian masks, seems to belong in Emerald City rather than the 120 days of Sodom.
Dr. Bill Hartford (Tom Cruise), happily married to Alice (Nicole Kidman) meets an old college friend Nick (Todd Field) who tells him about a secret sex orgy where everyone is masked, taking place Xmas Eve on an isolated Long Island estate. Impulsively, Bill insists on knowing the password, and joins the conclave, putting his marriage as well as possibly his own life at stake.
This is the unrated version, so one gets to see people having sex and generally being naked (although I didn’t notice any male genitalia on display) It’s unfortunate Kubrick died before completing the film, as it’s still a bit rough around the edges. It’s well worth looking at though, not the least for Nicole Kidman’s amazing performance as Alice, which lends a warm feminine center to what otherwise might be a coldly labyrinthine mystery. I don’t know if EYES WIDE SHUT will ever replace IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE in the hearts of holiday viewers, but I certainly prefer Kubrick’s slightly acerbic yet ultimately positive view of a marriage.
Speaking of marriage, the accompanying BBC documentary spends most of its time on Kubrick’s domicile conjugal. We get to see every detail of his country manor in St. Alban’s, with its sweeping vistas and palatial lawns. Not bad for a kid from the Bronx who hustled chess for a living in Washington Square Park.

The set includes:
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
MGM 1968 148 minutes color 2:35 aspect ratio enhanced for widescreen English 5.1 stereo French 5.1 stereo 2 discs.
Extras: Commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood; 2001: The making of a myth; Standing on the shoulders of Kubrick: The legacy of 2001; Vision of a future passed: The Prophecy of 2001; 2001: A space odyssey – A look behind the future; What is out there?; 2001: FX and early conceptual artwork; Look: Stanley Kubrick!; 11/27/66 Interview with Stanley Kubrick by Jeremy Bernstein; Theatrical trailer.

THE SHINING
Warners 1980 144 minutes color 1:85 aspect ratio enhanced English 5.1 stereo French 5.1 stereo 2 discs.
Extras: Commentary by Steadicam inventor/operator Garrett Brown and historian John Baxter; View from the Overlook: Crafting THE SHINING; The visions of Stanley Kubrick; The making of THE SHINING by Vivian Kubrick; Wendy Carlos, Composer.

FULL METAL JACKET
Warners 1987 117 minutes color 1:85 aspect ratio enhanced English 5.1 stereo French 5.1 stereo Spanish 5.1 stereo 1 disc.
Extras: Commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Ermey and Jay Cocks; FULL METAL JACKET: Between Good and Evil; Theatrical Trailer.

EYES WIDE SHUT
Warners 1999 159 minutes color 1:85 aspect ratio enhanced English 5.1 stereo French 5.1 stereo 2 discs.
Extras: The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and EYES WIDE SHUT; Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished films of Stanley Kubrick; DGA D.W. Griffith Award Acceptance Speech, 1998; Interviews with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Steven Spielberg; Theatrical Trailer and TV Spots.

STANLEY KUBRICK: A LIFE IN PICTURES
Produced & Directed by Jan Harlan.
Warners. 2001 142 minutes. color and B&W. 1:85 aspect ratio, matted. English mono. 1 disc.

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