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Lolita
 
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Lolita (1962)

Starring: James Mason, Shelley Winters Director: Stanley Kubrick Rating: NR (Not Rated) Format: DVD
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (121 customer reviews)


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Product Details

  • Actors: James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Gary Cockrell, Jerry Stovin
  • Directors: Stanley Kubrick
  • Writers: Stanley Kubrick, Vladimir Nabokov
  • Producers: Eliot Hyman, James B. Harris
  • Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rating: NR (Not Rated)
  • Studio: Warner Home Video
  • DVD Release Date: June 12, 2001
  • Run Time: 152 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005ATQH
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #61,867 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #51 in  Movies & TV > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Peter Sellers
  • For more information about "Lolita" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video
When director Stanley Kubrick released his film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel about a hopelessly pathetic middle-aged professor's sexual obsession with his 12-year-old stepdaughter, the ads read, "How did they ever make a film of Lolita?" The answer is "they" didn't. As he did with his "adaptations" of Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange, and, especially, The Shining, Kubrick used the source material and, simply put, made another Stanley Kubrick movie--even though Nabokov himself wrote the screenplay. The chilly director nullifies Humbert Humbert's (James Mason's) overwhelming passion and desire, and instead transforms the story, like many of his films, into that of a man trapped and ruined by social codes and by his own obsessions. Kubrick doesn't play this as tragedy, however, but rather as both a black-as-coffee screwball comedy and a meandering, episodic road movie. The early scenes between Humbert, Lolita (a too-old but suitably teasing Lyons) and her loud, garish mother (Shelley Winters in one of her funniest performances) play like a wonderful farce. When Humbert finally fulfills his desires and captures Lolita, the pair hit the road and Kubrick drags in Peter Sellers. As the pedophilic writer Clare Quilty--Humbert's playful doppelgänger and biggest threat--Sellers dons a series of disguises with plans of stealing Lolita away from her captor. It's here more than anywhere that Kubrick comes closest to the novel. He extends Nabokov's idea of the games and puzzles played between reader and writer, Quilty and Humbert, Lolita and Humbert, etc., to those between filmmaker and audience: the road eventually goes nowhere and Humbert's reality is exposed as mad delusion. Perhaps not a Kubrick masterpiece, or the provocative film many wanted, Lolita still remains playfully fascinating and one of Kubrick's strongest, funniest character studies. --Dave McCoy

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Customer Reviews

121 Reviews
5 star:
 (46)
4 star:
 (38)
3 star:
 (18)
2 star:
 (8)
1 star:
 (11)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (121 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Shame on Warner for this fiasco DVD!, October 25, 2007
This review is from: Lolita (DVD)
This is the third DVD release of Kubrick's masterpiece, and it is still not given an anamorphic transfer. How can this happen in 2007, considering Warner's reputation as a studio that cares and the classic status of the film? Incredible. And not a trace of any new extras or bonuses except the trailer we've seen before. A huge boo to Warner! Words fail.
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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars NOT ENHANCED FOR 16X9 TELEVISIONS, October 23, 2007
This review is from: Lolita (DVD)
As much as I appreciate a new release of this classic film, I am at a loss to understand why they would give it a widescreen treatment and not enhance it for widescreen televisions. All of the two-disc special editions in the new Kubrick boxed set are enhanced, and yet this one (not part of the set, but released at the same time) is not. If you're a Lolita fan you should stick with the original 1:33 version. This one will only frustrate you.
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63 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Kubrick's "Lolita" is its own thing..., July 20, 2001
By Wing J. Flanagan (Orlando, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Devoted as I am to Vladimir Nabokov's novel of Lolita, and as much good as there was in Adrian Lyne's more accurate interpretation of it, I must confess that Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film version functions better than either as social commentary. Nabokov's novel was radically subjective - not a thing happened unfiltered by its hero's own vision. Transliterated as it was by Adrien Lyne, the result was claustrophobic. Kubrick's film, by contrast, invited us to stand outside and look in at the strange behavior of mid-20th century America's "progressive" middle-class. That was the right approach. By not asking us to relate to an obvious pedophile, or any of the other characters, Kubrick allowed us to fully absorb the ethical and emotional consequences of their interactions.

The oddly named Humbert Humbert (James Mason in, perhaps, his finest performance), comes to America from some unspecified European country. Looking for lodging, he crosses paths with Dolores "Lolita" Haze (Sue Lyon), and her mother Charlotte (brilliantly played by Shelley Winters). What follows is a black comedy swirling giddily around a host of sexual taboos - pedophilia chief among them, as Humbert finds himself sexually obsessed with the teen-aged Lolita. Had this been a TV-movie of the week, Lolita would have been the saintly victim of the villainous Humbert. Instead, Kubrick and Nabokov's Lolita is a precocious manipulator - awakening to her sexual identity and the strange power she can exert over members of the opposite sex. The difference, of course, is that she is a child and doesn't know any better; Humbert is an adult and damn well should.

So, for that matter, should Clare Quilty, Humbert's rival for the attentions of the young nymphet. Quilty, though sicker than Humbert, is a farcical character, played brilliantly by Peter Sellers - the Robin Williams of his day. The edgy, blackly comedic tone is no better exemplified than in the scenes he and Humbert have together. It becomes obvious as the film progresses that, in some twisted way, Humbert actually loves Lolita, while Quilty sees her more as the object of a fetish.

By the end, Humbert is reduced to a broken shell of a man, and it does not really matter if we approve of his behavior or not: he is still sympathetic, as much a victim of his own demons as Lolita herself, or her hapless mother. Without lifting a finger to "redeem" him, Kubrick forces us to come to terms with Humbert's humanity, as well as his perversion.

Compare that to sanctimonious pap like American Beauty, a film that nearly demands that we "understand" its main character, even daring suggest that disapproving of his infatuation with a teenaged girl is akin to the homophobic excesses of his sadistic, one-dimensional ex-Marine neighbor (apparently ugly stereotypes are perfectly OK when applied to conservatives). Add to this a few patently absurd, over-the-top plot developments and Kubrick's Lolita begins looking better and better.

Many have suggested that, had Kubrick made Lolita in a more permissive atmosphere, a different (therefore "better") film would have resulted. I doubt it. At the end of the day, Kubrick's Lolita is more about foolish, pathetic, self-destructive behavior, than pushing the limits of what salacious content we are allowed to see on-screen. It is about how obsession and hypocrisy can crush a person. It is about how very funny we are as a species, with our propensity destroy each other and ourselves for the pettiest, most absurd of reasons.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Not the Novel, but a Good Film
Maybe I'm more favorably disposed toward this film because I have no loyalty at all toward the novel. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Chuck

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:

As long as you don't go into Lolita expecting to see Nabakov's novel put literally on screen, you'll probably be impressed by this fine (if a tad... Read more
Published 5 months ago by One-Line Film Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars "Don't Stand So Close to Me"
Although this movie does not really accurately portray Nabokov's story, it is a work of art in itself. Sue Lyon is perfect as the object of sexual obsession. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Phoebe Stogstill

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie
This movie is funny, intense, and pure greatness. Almost as good as the book. A lot less sexual than the book Lolita. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Samantha Howard

3.0 out of 5 stars Very disjointed...
It goes without saying that the book is better than the movie, but I just had to say it anyway because it's so true. Read more
Published 11 months ago by N. Mcdevitt

4.0 out of 5 stars Does the novel justice
I think Nabokov's Lolita is one of the greatest novels of all time, and Kubrick's film version does the book ample justice. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Sirin

5.0 out of 5 stars 1961 Black & White
Brilliant 2 1/2 hours of character portrayal by Mason, Sellers, Winters and the lovely Lolita.
Kubrick's depiction of Freudian sexuality,murder,possesiveness,insecurity, a... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Original Mixed Up-Kid

1.0 out of 5 stars Travesty: Portrait of the Rapist as a Gentleman
What is wrong with this movie? Almost everything. It turns Nabokov's text about the memoirs of a pedophile into a melancholy comedy about a sad middle aged man, Mason, who gets... Read more
Published 12 months ago by H. Schneider

5.0 out of 5 stars A humorous look at a very human obsession...
The opening scene of `Lolita' is flawless, utterly flawless. In fact, it may be one of my favorite movie sequences of all time, flaunting one of my favorite supporting... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Andrew Ellington

3.0 out of 5 stars An unbiased review of the worst Kubrick film I've seen
Considering how brilliant 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barry Lyndon were, it's kind of hard to imagine Stanley Kubrick making a bad film. Read more
Published 13 months ago by T. Sharp

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