Spartacus

Spartacus came about because Kirk Douglas got a tad stroppy at the fact he lost the leading role in the 1959 epic Benhur to Charlton Heston. Spartacus was designed to be just as epic as the 1959 Best Picture winner, and thus when original director Antony Mann was sacked because he did not meet Douglas’ epic vision Douglas hired Stanley Kubrick to replace Mann in directorial duties. At this time it is clear that Douglas’ ego was as big and epic as the film itself.

Paths of Glory (1957)

Kirk Douglas was so impressed with Stanley Kubrick’s previous outing The Killing that he agreed to work with the director on his next project Paths of Glory which is often regarded as Kubrick’s first masterpiece and rightfully so as Paths of Glory is certainly a staggering film. The film tells the story of three French soldiers who are under trial for cowardice in the face of the enemy, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) is assigned to protect them in a court martial. The penalty for cowardice in the face of the enemy is death, yet the mission they were sent on, under orders by General Mireau (George Macready), is suicidal. At first Mireau wants to execute 100 men from each regiment but is eventually persuaded to reduce this down to ten and then eventually one. This single person will be selected by the regiment’s captain in a manner he sees fit.

Killer's Kiss and The Killing

Two years after the failure of Fear and Desire Kubrick moved onto his next project Killer’s Kiss. Similarly to his first feature film Killer’s Kiss had a very low budget; Kubrick was forced to borrow $40,000 from his uncle to finance the project. Despite having a similar budget to his previous film the step forward Kubrick had taken is more of a giant leap forward as Killer’s Kiss is superior to Fear and Desire in every possible way.

Fear and Desire - Kubrick's career part one.

While making Fear and Desire Stanley Kubrick was essentially a twenty-five year old man with a crazy dream, making his first feature film. Despite having made several short documentaries before 1953 Fear and Desire was his first shot at the big time. While showing some signs of skilful filmmaking it is rather surprising to see Kubrick rise from this low budget box office failure to creating a film that, to this very day, influences a whole genre and created, as Steven Spielberg put it, ‘the genre’s big bang’.