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5 postsKubrick stops working on One-Eyed Jacks after putting in six months worth of work. He decides to step out in order to pursue production for the movie Lolita. Marlon Brando takes over as director.
Brando wanted to direct the movie…I respect him as one of the world’s foremost artists
Kubrick releases his first film, a war movie about four soldiers and their journey home from behind enemy lines. With the help of friends and family, the project raised $10,000 for production. The movie opens with:
There is war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, or one that will be, but any war. And the enemies who struggle here do not exist, unless we call them into being. This forest, then, and all that happens now is outside history. Only the unchanging shapes of fear—and doubt—and death—are from our world. These soldiers that you see keep our language and our time, but have no other country but the mind.
Paths of Glory, based on Humphrey Cobb’s novel, is released in the U.S. Set during World War One, the film follows a French army unit as they complete various missions. The movie features Kirk Douglas, who plays Colonel Dax, a tough commander. When the unit refuses to complete a mission, the Army court martials them for non-compliance. Dax, who was previously a lawyer, volunteers to defend them.
…we bought the rights to Paths of Glory. That was a book I had read when I was about fourteen, and one day I suddenly remembered it.
Kubrick directs his first full-length feature, The Killing, a story of a racetrack robbery gone wrong. Unlike his previous projects, he partners with producer James B. Harris and shoots with a professional cast and crew. It does not make much money, but it gets good reviews. Kubrick comments on his vision for the movie:
We are all used to seeing things in a certain way, with the light coming from some natural source…I try to duplicate this natural light in the filming. It makes for a feeling of greater reality.
Kubrick releases Killer’s Kiss as a film noir. The story is about a young boxer and his involvment with a woman whos boss is a criminal. The film features the song Once, written by Norman Gimbel and Arden Clar.
