Customer Reviews

Stanley Kubrick (Pocket Essential series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you have never seen a Stanley Kubrick film or were unaware of his complete body of work then this book would be of some use. Unfortunately it is far too lightweight to satisfy any serious film enthusiast's needs. This is all the more regrettalble as Mr Duncan is clearly a fan of Kubrick's work. He makes many glaring mistakes and seems to have taken rumour as fact when writing his analysis. It is a shame that a book that seems to have been rushed out following the director's death could not have had more time spent on it and been more considered.

This is a good example of a terrible trend--the dumbing down of arts books by authors and publishers eager to hop on the pop culture bandwagon and not put much effort into it. The book has zero insights, some truly bad writing, and a modest amount of information. As to the previous reviewer who found it "refreshing" that the author didn't know what one of the films was about--well, this is holding an author to a pretty low standard (Kubrick only made about 13 movies in his life!) And as to the reviewer's statement that this "can and should be read at one sitting" I would suggest that it would be impossible to read this tiny and insubstantial book at More than one sitting.

I've seen some bad reviews of this book, and author Paul Duncan's book on Hitchcock, which I find surprising. These books also 'feel' different to other reference books. Normally you have the biography from the director's point of view, then the unauthorised biography with all the dirt, then a 'making of' book, and a book all about the subtext of the movies. Paul Duncan has fused all the types of book together to give both rounded and contradictory pictures of Kubrick and Hitchcock. He has also written it in an enthusiastic 'white heat' style which I find exciting to read. These books can, and should, be read in one sitting. In the case of the Kubrick book, Duncan obviously loves the films but still has the guts to point out that A Clockwork Orange is overrated whilst Barry Lyndon is underrated. Also, he admits to not understanding The Shining - in a world full of ego-centric experts and know-alls, it's refreshing to read something with this level of informality. 'Refreshing' - that's a good word for these books. I am going to look out for more of these Pocket Essentials.

It seems that some people who have reviewed this book do not understand what its purpose is. It's meant to be a quick reference guide. It's not meant to provide thought provoking insights or perspectives. You should be able to make those yourself. If not, there are plenty of others that do that for you.

As a film student, I find the Pocket Essential series helpful. If I need to know who was the production designer on The Shining, a few quick page turns and I can quickly find that it was Roy Walker. That's what the books in this series are meant for. They aren't always as good as they should be, but Duncan's Kubrick is one of the best. I would guess that the poster directly below me is just upset Duncan didn't only gave A Clockwork Orange a 3/5 ranking.