Customer Reviews

Stanley Kubrick: A Biography

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Apologetic to Stanley Kubrick, STANLEY KUBRICK: A BIOGRAPHY (c. 1997) by Vincent LoBrutto is a first order inquiry which sets the Plutarchian biographical tone of Stanley Kubrick as a benevolent director pursuing his childhood infatuation with the photographic image. Vincent LoBrutto concentrates on the interesting behind-the-scenes business dealings Mr. Kubrick contends with in Hollywood. He also describes Stanley Kubrick's initial inspiration to photography in high school; the exertion and drive Kubrick demonstrated to complete a film; his relationships with some of Hollywood's biggest stars; Kubrick's impartial business decision to make movies in England; his experiences with contracts, lawyers, and lawsuits; the polite opinions of cohorts and co-workers regarding Mr. Kubrick himself; a few of Mr. Kubrick's own views regarding his life pursuing cinema; and his hobbies, marriages, and habits.

The biography falls short in one regard that it paints too good a portrait of a director who allegedly never lost his temper; it glosses over any motivation for his two divorces; it emphasized some personal information (such as he liked hot dogs) and de-emphasized others (was Kubrick right-handed or left-handed? or was Kubrick a rated chess player?). The book further does not explore the differences between brilliance and genius: would Stanley Kubrick have been able to pass the test to join Mensa?

Using secondary and tertiary sources typical of biographies, Vincent LoBrutto fails to capture the historic Stanley Kubrick with this work steeped in the mechanical aspects of his subject's life. Sparing the reader a lot of technical jargon regarding Stanley Kubrick's cinematographic technique, Vincent LoBrutto does delve in the personal view and values which contributed to Stanley Kubrick's initial motivation to make movies.

Yet this is just one single biography, and as more information regarding Stanley Kubrick comes to light, more biographies about this auteur director should be writtened and read (there are 400 biographies on Ghandi) to fully capture all the facets, good and bad of a brilliant director. A contrasting biographical technique, to be read in conjunction with this work, would be: STANLEY KUBRICK: A BIOGRAPHY (c1997) by John Baxter, which adds some additional information not covered by Vincent LoBrutto.

Published in 1999, prior to the release of "Eyes Wide Shut" and the death of his subject, Stanley Kubrick, Vincent LoBrutto's biography arrived, however unfairly, at the wrong time. Since Kubrick did not grant LoBrutto the kind of access a strong biography needs, he had to do the nasty gruntwork that makes biographical writing, particularly of the deceased, such a demanding, but ultimately rewarding adventure. We can only speculate, but now that Kubrick has been dead for nearly eight years, that perhaps Christiane Kubrick and their daughters would grant access into the secretive, obsessive world that made Kubrick such a mythic filmmaking figure.

Instead, we have a text that owes to LoBrutto's extensive knowledge of cinema more than it does to the insight of Stanley Kubrick. The book starts off poorly, reading like a catalog of events and dates, lacking any real musical sensibility for his use of the English language. LoBrutto hits his stride when describing the making of Kubrick's breakthrough film "The Killing." From there, LoBrutto's research into the depths of Kubrick's approach to filmmaking is rewarding. We learn about Kubrick's use of specific movie cameras, lenses, his approach to scoring films, "needle-dropping," his approach to lighting and his encyclopedic absorption of the subject matter pertaining to the films he made.

However, as a "biography," a study in human character, LoBrutto's book is thin. We learn little about Kubrick's attitudes towards his Jewish heritage. His first two marriages are passed over without any real depth. His obsessive nature and the creation of his own closed-off world, akin a filmmaker's Xanadu, are provided little to no psychological depth or inquiry. Kubrick comes across in LoBrutto's text as a reserved, calm guy who really didn't antagonize anybody. This overly consistent portrayal of his subject leads me to believe that, since Kubrick was still living at the time the author was writing this book, that LoBrutto was fearful of getting sued or blacklisted if he wrote anything too critical of the director. For these reasons, the book does not receive my overwhelming recommendation. But for aspiring directors, this books is a marvel, providing wonderful glimpses into the habits, approaches and skillsets of America's greatest film director.

Despite my great interest in Stanley Kubrick's work and personality, I couldn't finish this biography by Vincent LoBrutto. Disappointment sets in very quickly as one realizes that LoBrutto's writing style is very tedious, amateurish and repetitive. The irony is that the author is clearly an admirer of Kubrick and has done extremely meticulous research -- what a shame that the editing was not nearly as careful, quite unlike a Kubrick film.

I switched to John Baxter's recently published biography and, though that book certainly has its own weaknesses, it is much more concise and has a livelier style. After finishing it, I picked up the LoBrutto book again in an attempt to at least skim it for additional detail, especially since it offers more technical information. I have again given up. The poor style is too much to endure and the extra detail is not interesting. One wonders whether the Baxter biography is merely a more professional rewrite of the LoBrutto book.

This was the first full biography of Stanley Kubrick I read, buying it in hardback as soon as it was published. There had been very little biographical info on the director until his death in 1999 and I think I read most of the books about his films up to that point.
I was disappointed with this bio. It got to the point where the last sentence in every third paragraph read, "And there was only one man for that job, and that man was Stanley Kubrick."

I found John Baxter's bio, also called STANLEY KUBRICK, much more entertaining and enlightening.
If you've seen Kubrick's daughter's short film, "The Making of THE SHINING," on THE SHINING DVD, you get a glimpse of the rewriting frenzies that went on--a genuine shock to me since Kubrick's films appeared so tight and controlled ("We make it up as we go," Jack Nicholson jokes as a Kubrick assistant literally cringes), a look at the director's temper when a scene doesn't go right, and the scenes featuring his disregard for Shelley Duvall border on cruelty.
All of this is more than you'll find in LoBrutto's biography.

I got this book in 1998 to read a bit about the man before he was to pass away a few years later. For this reason the book is probably a bit dated now and does not cover his Eyes Wide Shut production. However in terms of insight I remember this is a great guide for introducing us into the life and times of the man. It covers his youth and upbringing and how he got into the film making scene. There are many references to Kirk Douglas and film financing, including Kubrick's interaction with Hollywood. In terms of a historical reference, this book was very interesting and I would recommend it in terms of being able to give us an account of the ins and outs of this man's life. The photograph section is quite well detailed with lots of early stuff. However the one downside to the book is that it never touches on Kubrick's motives. Anyway Kubrick was an illusive character. I have seen maybe two very small 1 minute interviews with the man in my life. If you are looking for insider information then you may want to read something like, Eyes Wide Open : A Memoir of Stanley Kubrick (Paperback)
by Frederic Raphael, although this book was denounced by Kubrick's family, and to be taken with a pinch of salt, it is still interesting none the less.

It's difficult how to presume if any biography can be what we expect. But this a serious piece of work. It brings the real quality of what a biographies have to do.
It has the intention to bring Stanley Kubrick as he was, even in his older experiences as a child, perhaps, the most important part to comprehend the man inside many years later.
The book writes about the making of his movies, the conception, his profile and difficult personnality. It talks about Carl Sagan, Isaac Assimov, IBM, and others most important colaborators in Kubrick 'career.
The only 'but' of this book it's that I read the edition before he died, so I plan to buy the last one (april 1999), just printed two months after the director's death.
In that way, I expect to comunicate with the last Stanley Kubrick: the man who shot 'Eyes wide shut' and wanted to shoot 'A.I.'.- Most of all, I want to know what happened between Spielberg and him, when they were talking about this last one he couldn't make it.
Because if you A.I., you don't miss Kubrick in any moment, and however, you have Spielberg all the time.
I have to keep the door closed with Stanley.
I'm still have opened with him.

This book does not fit the description of "biography." It is more of a "filmography" with some personal tidbits thrown in occasionally. In effect, this book merely became a scattered 600 page trivia offering. I admire the amount of research done on the book, but many times throughout the detail is a bit too excessive (eg- saying that Big Macs were often the food of choice during the making of the Shining-did we really need to know that?) This book has little to do with Kubrick the person (as a "biography" should) and has more to do with Kubrick the director. The chapters are utterly repetitive. Every chapter starts out with these words: "After his (such and such) last film Kubrick fell back into his pre-production mode." The chapter on the Shining was pathetic, after seeing "the making of the Shining" on DVD, its obvious that LoBrutto based that entire chapter on that documentary. I have admired and loved Kubrick's work most of my life, and waited a long time for this book only to be let down tremendously. My personal opinion is that LoBrutto rushed this book instead of fine tuning it and diggng deeper into Kubrick's life in order to be the first one to publish a Kubrick biography. I think more research of Kubrick the person needs to be done and then fused with these facts to make one hell of a book. Considering his reclusive lifestyle though, that may never happen. As it stands, this is probably the best Kubrick biography out there. But other reviewers have had the same reading experience I had...I just couldnt finish reading the darn thing. Its sad, considering the subject matter.

Upfront: I'm not an expert, but I've been a fan of Kubrick and his films for decades.

Stanley Kubrick is a remarkable subject but I hate the biographies that fawn over him as some perfect god-like wunderkind.

What's the truth about Stanley kubrick?

Lobrutto does a good job here relying on interviews from people who worked with or knew Kubrick personally, that are mined from a variety of sources, and overall provide the most detailed and best documented personal history I've read to date.
A clearer portrait emerges of who Stanley Kubrick was and how he accomplished some of his filmmaking art. I believe Lobrutto shoots strait most of the time - and even includes some of the dark side of Kubrick's obsessive work ethic, but his bias is more often: jaw dropping awe over Stanley Kubrick the superman.

In any event this is a must read for any serious student of Stanley Kubrick. It contains so much amazing stuff that I felt compelled to buy and own it - so I could use it as a reference work - and savor some of the more fascinating pieces of the Kubrick puzzle.
I wish there were several more good books on Kubrick but I can only recommend one: Kubrick by Michael Herr.
Maybe some day...

Even though, as others have correctly observed below, this biography was written some time before Stanley Kubrick's death, Lobrutto is about as well equipped to write definitively about this one-of-a-kind filmmaker as anyone would be.

Kubrick died just after completing "Eyes Wide Shut," and those who were critically unkind to that effort would conclude that he'd about run out of steam.

It's understandable. The more we learn about Kubrick's personal life here, the less we understand his art. He was and remained an extremely private and elusive man, and simply pursued his various compulsions as they occasioned. The results are what we see on the screen, of course.

Lobrutto's a good writer; you'll enjoy the effort a great deal.

Definitely helped my research project on Dr. Strangelove. Would reccomend to anyone studying or researching Kubrick's films