Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze (A Midland Book) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Though he hadn't made a film that was worth a damn in the 30 years leading up to his death, Kubrick continues to be the artsy darling of the film world, revered by students and critics alike. Nelson here updates his 1982 original to include Full Metal Jacket and the director's final work, Eyes Wide Shut, which flopped. In the advent of his subject's unfortunate demise, Allen also reconsiders the Kubrick canon. At the time of its debut, this title was dubbed "the best book written to date about Kubrick's films" by LJ's reviewer (LJ 4/15/82) and that no doubt remains true.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

Stanley Kubrick ranks among the most important American film makers of his generation, but his work is often misunderstood because it is widely diverse in subject matter and seems to lack thematic and tonal consistency. Thomas Nelson's perceptive and comprehensive study of Kubrick rescues him from the hostility of auteurist critics and discovers the roots of a Kubrickian aesthetic, which Nelson defines as the "aesthetics of contingency."

After analyzing how this aesthetic develops and manifests itself in the early works, Nelson devotes individual chapters to Lolita, Dr. Stangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining.

For this expanded edition, Nelson has added chapters on Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, and, in the wake of the director's death, reconsidered his body of work as a whole. By placing Kubrick in a historical and theoretical context, this study is a reliable guide into -- and out of -- Stanley Kubrick's cinematic maze.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press; Later Printing edition (May 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253202833
• ISBN-13: 978-0253202833
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,812,842 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Film Study on Kubrick that I've seen so far, honestly, November 6, 1999

By	Michael LaRosa ([e-mail]) (Potsdam, NY) - See all my reviews

Probably the best study on Kubrick that is out right now. (And, yes, I have talked to Nelson. He is expanding the book to include FMJ and EWS. And I simply cannot wait until it comes out! Probably some time next spring). I've read the Walker book. And that comes close. But this book is certainly the most exhaustive and insightful piece of work you'll read on Kubrick. It will literally change the way you see movies period. You'll never look upon 'The Shining' the same way. Indeed, upon any of his films in the same way. I must say, it's like I felt my jaw dropping to the floor when I was reading this. This book will tell you EXACTLY why Kubrick is the film genius eveyone says he is. Only after reading Nelson's book will you find just how much can be said in a film. I was absolutely enthralled by every analysis. A must-read for any aspiring Kubrick fans. Or for any film buff anywhere.... who wants to learn something....

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful view, November 25, 2000

By	Philip Challinor (London England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kubrick, New and Expanded Edition: Inside a Film Artist's Maze (Paperback)

There can be no greater praise for a book about Kubrick than to say that it is worthy of its subject. This one is. The opening chapter gives the bare biographical facts, and attempts to dispel a few of the myths about Kubrick's personality - not least the idea that, for example, a man's real or journalistically endowed flying phobia should have the least relevance for a viewer or a critic of his films. The next chapter analyses the early films up to the first masterpiece, Paths of Glory; and each subsequent film (except for the compromised Spartacus) has a chapter to itself. Nelson's critiques are detailed, comprehensive, thoroughly readable and constructive - which is to say, favourable. He appreciates the films and wishes others to appreciate them too. This revised and expanded edition contains, in the first chapter, a charming tribute to the director and, in two new chapters, analyses of Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut which show that, in the intervening years between The Shining and the present, Nelson's abilities have diminished as little as Kubrick's. All the essays in the book can be read and enjoyed for their own sake - I was especially fond of the one on A Clockwork Orange, long before I was able to see the film itself - but they will also make you long to be back there in the dark, sharing the artist's vision with the eyes Nelson has widened for you.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For Kubrick Fanatics Only, March 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Kubrick, New and Expanded Edition: Inside a Film Artist's Maze (Paperback)

Did you ever wonder why the carpeting in Room 237 in "The Shining" was green and purple? Or why the camera moves on the dolly from left to right in "The Killing"? Or who that artist Ryan O'Neal was referring to during the art-room scene in "Barry Lyndon"? I never did, and I imagine most people don't either. Which is what makes this book so problematic. Stanley Kubrick was a legendary perfectionist, and his work seems to have inspired a similar level of meticulousness in authors who write about him. This book analyzes Kubrick's 10 feature films down to the minutest detail (his first two brief features and "Spartacus," in which he was a director for hire, have been wisely glossed over), and the effect can be a bit stultifying. To be sure, the author comes up with some interesting tid bits about the great filmmaker's work, but just how accurate is all this? Kubrick has been known to pooh-pooh this sort of treatment of his work, and it's easy to see why: In writing about "Full Metal Jacket," Nelson refers to a scene where the character named Cowboy is dying and there's a burning building in the background that looks like the monolith in "2001." The author says that is Kubrick's way of signalling an evolutionary moment. In fact, Kubrick said in a 1987 Rolling Stone interview that the structure's resemblance to the "2001" monolith is just a coincidence. Even more bizarre is the book's near-total absense of any criticism. It is almost entirely descriptive. He mentions in the postscript that "Eyes Wide Shut" is one of Kubrick's "finest achievements" and he criticizes parts of "The Shining" but otherwise fails to note what works and what doesn't in these films. There are some fun parts in this book, but it is weighed down by its leaden prose and heavy-handed academic style.