Stanley Kubrick: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best
From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Eyes Wide Shut, which of Kubrick's epics is the best?
It is hard to find an American director as revered as Stanley Kubrick. Born in 1928, he started his cinematic journey as a noir city photographer in Manhattan and ended it as one of the industry’s most influential artists. In his life, Kubrick made many films, each more complex and thought provoking than the last.
The man was a thoughtful filmmaker, but often frustrating to work with. He would frequently choose to do multiple shots, torture his actors and insist on complete artistic control, the likes of which are rarely seen in the industry today. With many modern directors, such as David Lynch and Guillermo Del Toro stating Kubrick as an influence, you cannot understate his influence on the artform. Indeed, you wonder where the industry would be without him.
If you were to sit down and watch each of his films, one by one, you would experience a true range of genre masterpieces in comedy, horror, period romance and historical epics. And so, we're are given the impossible task of ranking all his films from worst to best. Let's begin.
13. Fear And Desire (1953)
Well, everybody has to start somewhere! This is Stanley Kubrick’s directorial debut and it follows four soldiers trying desperately to survive after crash-landing behind enemy lines in an unspecified conflict. The film was incredibly low budget for the time and was shot on a shoestring crew, but was released to reasonable success.
Kubrick however, was ashamed by its amateurish production and removed the movie from rotation. When watching today, it really isn’t bad. It can be seen more as a starter for the great director and should be sought out by fans interested in the filmmaker's origins.