The Best Movies Directed By Stanley Kubrick

Was there a more legendary filmmaker to ever do it than Stanley Kubrick? He’s one extraordinary master of cinema, bringing some of the most iconic movies to life on screen that also went on to influence a vast majority of new filmmakers. Kubrick is so popular that he even has the term ‘Kubrickian’ coined after him, for any film that is influenced by his unique style.

Kubrick’s body of work is also diverse in that he dabbles in science-fiction, crime thrillers, horror, and even satire, but there are also lots of anti-war sentiments and strong messages about the government and military in the majority of the films he sets out to make. Each Kubrick movie is in a league of its own as far as masterpieces go, so here are some of the best.

10

Spartacus

1960’s Spartacus wasn’t Kubrick’s most notable film, especially since you now have Ridley Scott’s masterful Gladiator films and the gory Starz TV series that have largely outshone this older historical epic. Spartacus tells the story of a slave-turned-gladiator in the Roman Empire who starts a revolt. Kirk Douglas re-teamed with Kubrick after Paths of Glory to play the titular role.

Kubrick made the character Spartacus iconic and there are plenty of memorable moments from this film ingrained in cinema history, particularly the powerful “I’m Spartacus” scene where fellow slaves are trying to help protect the real Spartacus’s identity from the Romans. The themes in Spartacus also align with Kubrick’s other films.

9

The Killing (1956)

Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing is a classic heist movie that would eventually inspire Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. It has a clever double meaning in its title, with certain characters being killed but also standing to make a killing with their heist plan to rob a horse racetrack. Some parts of it are also nonlinear.

It may be black-and-white, made in 1956, and sometimes relies on unnecessary narration, but The Killing still measures up with many of the heist film greats that would come after it, like Heat and Point Break. All the characters are well-developed, the plot is woven with great attention to detail and offers the usual twists and turns, and the ending has a good message.

8

Paths Of Glory

Paths of Glory continues highlighting Stanley Kubrick’s anti-military and anti-war messaging in his body of work. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb, the film takes place during World War I and touches upon the historical Souain corporals affair. It’s about French soldiers being sent on a suicide mission to take the fictional Ant Hill, and later being charged for cowardice.

It’s a very grim look at military power and creates one of Kubrick’s most vile villains, General Paul Mireau, who’s the complete antithesis to the more sympathetic and reasonable Colonel Dax, played by Kirk Douglas. For a movie filmed in the ’50s, Paths of Glory immerses and entrenches you in the battlefield of WWI. It’s also simultaneously a gripping and tragic legal drama.

7

Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon was another historical epic for Stanley Kubrick. This one is adapted from the 19th-century novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, but also functions as a morality tale as well, about how far one man would go to become a rich and powerful member of the British aristocracy. It’s set against the backdrop of the Seven Years’ War and the decades following it.

Ryan O’Neal plays the titular character, who you grow to despise as the film progresses, given his actions and behavior, but that’s really the portrait of this figure the movie aims to paint. And speaking of painting, the set design and cinematography make every frame look like a period portrait from the century the film is set in. Barry Lyndon is a gorgeously filmed period piece that deservedly won Oscars in those respective categories.

6

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is Kubrick’s harrowing dystopian masterpiece. It adapts the material from Anthony Burgess’s novel of the same name that envisions a near-future Britain with heavy influences of Russian in its society: criminal deviants go through government re-programming via disturbing aversion therapy.

The main character is Alex DeLarge, a psychopath, rapist, and murderer who hangs out with his delinquent buddies he refers to as his “droogs” (Russian for friends). When they leave him out to dry with the law, he is convicted and decides to participate in the aversion therapy program to rehabilitate himself back into society. The sets, costumes, and worldbuilding are memorably Kubrickian and Malcolm McDowell is very chilling as Alex.

Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket will always be the holy grail of war films because it shows the psychological ramifications of soldiers not only fighting in a war, but also the training they go through before deployment. This film is set in the backdrop of the Vietnam War, specifically during the Tet Offensive, and follows a team of recruits from their time in boot camp to their experiences on the battlefield.

The whole film is devastating to watch, but the first part is where the brilliance lies. R. Lee Ermey’s performance as Gunnery Sargeant Hartman (a role he also filled in real life) and all the expletive-laced commands and insults he drills into the recruits was one of the film’s best moments. And then Vincent D’Onofrio’s Private Pyle falling victim to the verbal attacks and suffering a mental health decline was just heartbreaking.

4

Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut is the last film Kubrick would direct before his untimely death, and it even led to some conspiracy theories. If you’re into secret elite societies, the occult, and believe in the boogeyman of Scientology, this Kubrick film captures it all and captures it masterfully. It also has one of his most sinister film endings if you catch the hidden meanings riddled throughout the environments.

The film stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were married at the time, and the movie presents their fictional on-screen marriage filled with paranoia, infidelities, twisted Illumanti-type cults, and shocking orgies. The most jaw-dropping and haunting scene in the movie is the secret society ritual ceremony performed by a large group of masked men and their leader, cloaked in red like the devil.

3

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb

Dr. Strangelove is a hilarious wartime satire without any of the conflict, and it is still one of the most entertaining movies you’ll ever watch. The entire film takes place in the War Room of the Pentagon, where the President and his assembly of generals are in a doomsday scenario in which Russia is about to activate a ‘doomsday device’ that will end the world due to America’s plan to nuke them.

Released during the Cold War and its core themes still relevant today given all the geopolitical tensions, Dr. Strangelove satirizes the US executive and military leadership during a crisis of Mutual Assured Destruction. Comedic icon Peter Sellers portrays the eponymous former Nazi scientist in the War Room, who draws up a plan to escape the destruction until it all seems completely inevitable.

2

The Shining

Despite Stephen King’s objections to Kubrick’s version of his story, The Shining is an undefeated horror movie and one of the best of all time. Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd are the best casting you could ask for in the roles of the tragic Torrance family. The camerawork, set design, atmospheric setting, score, and creative direction elevated the original King novel in groundbreaking ways.

Then, you have iconic moments like “Here’s Johnny,” the hedge maze, the twin girls, and the elevator of blood sequence, and you even see how the Overlook’s carpet has gone on to influence video games and pop culture. Many horror projects pay homage to The Shining, like Terrifier 3, The Substance, and Alan Wake to name a few. It’s an all-time classic that deserves all the praise.

1

2001: A Space Odyssey

Even more groundbreaking than The Shining was 2001: A Space Odyssey for the science fiction genre. This film came out 11 years before Alien and was a remarkable feat of visual effects and cinematography. For moviegoers in 1968, it was probably just as exciting and wondrous as a modern-day audience seeing Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar unfold before their very eyes for the first time.

2001 is the definitive Kubrick film from its themes to the complex and thought-provoking sci-fi plot, as well as the brilliant portrayal of a rogue AI. The intro has become one of the most famous sequences in cinema history, and the set design of the space station, the HAL 9000 AI system, the mystery surrounding the Monoliths, and the ending are all superbly executed.