15 years ago, Stanley Kubrick's death left a hole in the film world the size of a crater. No other filmmaker has been able to fill the void, and the chances of anyone ever doing so are slim to none. Kubrick was a singular genius who kept raising the bar with each and every film he made, examining the human psyche with surgical precision. Credited for mastering every major genre, the truth of the matter is that almost every one of Kubrick's 13 films contains aspects of war, horror, comedy, and crime - all connected by a single thread, which just happens to be one of the director's greatest themes: dehumanization. In its simplest terms, dehumanization is the loss of that which makes us human. It's the dark side of human nature, and the harsh environment, conquering reason and manipulating mans psychological makeup to the point of crushing creativity, compassion, and individualism. Kubrick was obsessed with this concept, and there's evidence of it all over his filmography. Of course, because Kubrick was an artist above all else, his brand of dehumanization was often more symbolic than scientific, in certain moments implying it alone was enough to make us lose faith in humanity. So join us as we revisit one of cinema's greatest minds and count down the 15 most dehumanizing moments in Stanley Kubrick films, one for each year he's been dearly missed...
Nik's passions reside in writing, discussing and watching movies of all sorts. He also loves dogs, tennis, comics and stuff. He lives irresponsibly in Montreal and tweets random movie things @NikGrape.
