Kubrick's Best Film

[Florya Naoki]

It's very good to see that more and more people think that Eyes Wide Shut was underrated. The more people think that, the sooner it will be rated as one of Kubrick's best films. At least that's what I hope.  I hope the underrated half-Kubrick-half-Spielberg film A.I. goes the same way....

After seeing all his generally available films (didn't see his shorts or Fear and Desire) I came to this conclusion:
1 2001: A space oddessey (It's hard for me to understand how anyone could disagree on that. One of the most comprehensive films I ever saw. And so beautiful that I could hang every still on my wall and look at it)
2 Eyes Wide Shut (His most sensitive film, I think)
3 A Clockwork Orange
4 The shining
5 Paths of Glory
6 Dr. strangelove
7 The Killing
8 Spartacus (Not very Kubrick-ish, but everyone who actually liked Gladiator should see this, way better)
9 Barry Lyndon (Shot beautiful, but too distant)
10 Full Metal Jacket
11 Lolita (Probably came too early, don't really like the light tone, had too darker)
12 Killer's Kiss (Only some hints of genius in the last scene, rest is very mediocre film-noir)

The first three rank among my personal favorite films of all time.
Well I think I'm still a listmaniac, for that matter.
And this is my first post here, so.... Hi!

[rustinglass]

welcome! lots of lists here.

[LostEraser]

Dr. Strangelove and 2001 are his best, imo. They are the only two films of his that I feel are "perfect".

[Big Owl]

Surely you cant count out Barry Lyndon if your criteria for bestness is perfection . Because that movie is absolutely perfect

[The Perineum Falcon]

Wasn't completly sure where to put this, but I guess this is good enough, right?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3537938.stm

The Shining named perfect scary movie
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, starring Jack Nicholson, has been named the perfect scary film, according to a new mathematical formula.

[ono]

I wish this was an article from The Onion.  It reminds me of the scene from Dead Poets Society where the students read from their textbook about a way to judge how good a poem is (by graphing its technical merits versus its "importance" or some such nonsense).  In other words?  The formula is just silly, though I don't deny how good The Shining is.  It's one of the few horror films I can even tolerate.

[meatball]

Lolita is fucking hilarious. I laugh out loud so many times watching this. I don't understand why others don't like it too much.

Though, I'd have to say that A Clockwork Orange is my favorite, if I really had to choose. And Barry Lyndon coming in second.

[NEON MERCURY]

...since i know that at least 3 people here who are dying to know what my favorite kubrick films that i have seen  are....so i ll let you know now:



my favorite one is 2001.then its the shining.then it would be eyes wide shut..then a clockwork orange then lastly full metal jacket.....

your welcome...

[adolfwolfli]

I find that Kubrick's films change over time, and take on new meaning and become new experiences depending on where you are in life.  This is maybe the main reason he's my favorite director - the rewatchability of his films is endless.  I've seen every one countless times and never get bored; always finding something new to look at, listen to, be engaged by.  

For the longest time Strangelove was my favorite, then it was 2001 during my early 20s.  Then Clockwork Orange.  

When I was a teenager, Full Metal Jacket was my favorite, with its endlessly quotable dialogue.  But it was a terrifying film and a depressing one - only within the last couple of years did I come to the realization that the film is a dark comedy, which is why it's unfair to compare it to Apocalypse Now, Platoon or the Deer Hunter - all very serious films.  Just think about how funny the film is - Lee Ermey's insults, "Me So Horny", etc.

Currently, I've come to the realization that The Shining is my new favorite, my new "best".  It seems to be the most "Kubrick" of all of Kubrick's works.  He seems to always have had an obsession with space, and how interior and exterior spaces mirror human psychology (the trenches in Paths of Glory; the apartments and race track of The Killing; the space ships and vastness of the universe in 2001; the Korova Milk Bar, Alex's apartment and the prison of Clockwork; the Overlook in the Shining; the barracks of Full Metal Jacket, etc.)

The Overlook Hotel set gave him the most "closed" and most perfectly realized idea of space in his career.  The labyrinthine hotel perfectly mirrors the hedge maze and Jack's troubled mind.  The endless tracking shots of the hotel, repeated over and over, eventually create a hypnotic state, and the strangeness and eeriness of this is unlike anything else in cinema.  Full Metal Jacket has this quality in the early scenes, but then becomes a bit unfocused later on.  The Shining is distilled down to its essence, with 3 characters, a hotel, and some apparitions.  It's amazing.

[cine]

I find that Kubrick's films change over time, and take on new meaning and become new experiences depending on where you are in life.

[Pubrick]

Currently, I've come to the realization that The Shining is my new favorite, my new "best".

smart man.

Full Metal Jacket has this quality in the early scenes, but then becomes a bit unfocused later on.

while i respect and admire the thought u seem to hav put into arriving at ur various conclusions, i would like to suggest that in this case perhaps you are not focussing on the correct things "later on".

at the very least, approaching it from a design perspective as u are, FMJ comes together in the last sniper scenes. the smoke, fog, and movement around/through/into the sniper's lair are consistent with the psychology of the characters at this point.

[adolfwolfli]

while i respect and admire the thought u seem to hav put into arriving at ur various conclusions, i would like to suggest that in this case perhaps you are not focussing on the correct things "later on".

at the very least, approaching it from a design perspective as u are, FMJ comes together in the last sniper scenes. the smoke, fog, and movement around/through/into the sniper's lair are consistent with the psychology of the characters at this point.

I agree.  I think the labyrinthine rubble of the city at the end of the film, and the marines navigating that space and coming up against the sniper in a strange way mirrors or paralells their experience at the boot camp.  The various obstacles.  Lee Ermey can be seen as a "verbal sniper", and in this the film has a beutiful symmetry.  It's actually the middle section of the film that's always bothered me - it seems scattershot and a bit episodic.  The boot camp and city at the end are brilliant, however.

[El Duderino]

from all the kubrick movies i've seen, here they are in order...

1. The Shining
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. Eyes Wide Shut
5. Full Metal Jacket

[SHAFTR]

Eyes Wide Shut is my favorite.

[cine]

I really hate Kubrick lists.