Stanley Kubricks Philosophical Vision - Essay Example

 Introduction During the 1900s and up to the 1940s, Hollywood studios focused on the production and reproduction of film types that were perceived as popular at the time. In this regard, Hollywood films were characterized as genre. For example in the aftermath of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War era, Hollywood films capitalized on the anti-Communist sentiment in America at the time. However, by the 1950s genre films lost their appeal and paved the way for diversity which took shape during the 1960s. New directors including Stanley Kubrick with unique artistic styles and vision entered the Hollywood film production industry giving birth to a New Hollywood (Kellner, 1998). Between 1951 and 1999 Kubrick directed 16 films covering a wide range of topics (Cocks, Diebrick, & Perusek, 2006). Kubrick’s films mastered the tracking shot, reverse zooming and “painting technique” (Abrams, 2007, p. 2). Virtually all factions of human life and nature were captured onscreen including culture, love, sex, history, war, crime, insanity, science fiction, technology and “social conditioning” (Abrams, 2007, p. 2). Despite its diversity, a common thread can be deduced: the different aspects of reality come together to reveal an existentialist philosophy (Abrams, 2007). This essay therefore demonstrates that despite the seemingly diverse characteristics of Kubrick’s films, coherency can be found in his philosophical vision. The philosophical vision identified in his film is existentialism. The first part of this essay therefore analyses and explains existentialism. The second part of this paper analyses selected films by Kubrick with a view to identifying the theme of existentialism. Existentialism Although there are several different definitions of existentialism, one common theme that binds the different definitions is the conceptualization of existentialism as a “statement about the nature of man’s existence” (Barnes, 1968, p. 2). In other words, existentialism emphasizes the individual’s existence and in doing so, examines the nature of mankind’s existence, the value and meaning of that existence. Since the emphasis is on existence, existentialists have very little interest in what happens after death. This is because existentialism is concerned with life and living. Since existentialism is concerned with what it means to be alive and to be living, there is no universal answer. This is a decision for the individual to make and this explains why there are so many different definitions of existentialism (Tanzer, 2008). Existentialism entered the literature and the philosophical writing of 20th Century Europe as a counter movement to the Enlightenment. It was a response to the mechanical structure of society and resisted the idea that man was simply a cog in the machine of life. Each man was responsible for his own existence and was free from the boundaries of institutional existence (Tanzer, 2008). More than any other philosophy, existentialism found some of its most formidable expression in literature. Some noted novelists and playwrights giving expression to existentialism were Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafta, Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett. Moreover, Jean-Paul Satre, a noted existentialist philosopher wrote a number of plays, short stories and novels heavily themed by existentialism (Tanzer, 2008). Although existentialism was popularized during the 20th century, it was the work of 19th century philosopher Soren Kierkegaard that introduced the idea of existentialism. According to Kierkgaard’s philosophy, the individual is for the most part and alone and as such is free “philosophical truth has meaning only if it is chosen by the individual” (Abrams, 2007, p. 1). Abrams (2007) argues that over the years, existentialism has found its way into the popular culture and has had an obvious impact on Kubrick as expressed in his films. In many of Kubrick’s films, there is always a character confronting a “hard and uncaring external world” (Abrams, 2007, p. 2). Demonstrations of the self as a central figure in Kubrick’s films, standing in opposition against the world and existentialists themes in general will now be analysed. Decker (2007) informs that: Through the cinema screen, Stanley Kubrick speaks to us not merely as a writer and director of films, but also as a person with a philosophical vision. His films serve more than the purposes of entertainment and edification. The also case a penetrating, sometimes disturbing light on the human condition (p. 85). Thus Kubrick is distinguished from other directors of today who merely aim to entertain or appeal to the emotions of the audience. Kubrick on the other hand does not mind taking both risks with the emotions and intellect of his audiences. Moreover, Kubrick doesn’t mind making his audience feel uncomfortable by presenting the human condition as it is on the big screen for collective scrutiny. Kubrick humanizes his characters by fusing together a collection of flawed persons with whom his audience can identify with (Decker, 2007). Existentialism Themes in the Films of Kubrick Fear and Desire (1953) Fear and Desire was Kubrick’s first film and was almost kept from the public. After initially promoting the film, Kubrick had second thoughts and withdrew the film claiming that it was an embarrassment to him. It would be decades before the film was finally circulated (Turner Classic Movies, n.d.). Fear and Desire is more appropriately described as a war film. The war in question is between states that are not identified in the film. The narrator informs the audience: ...here is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor 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 (Fear and Desire, 1953). In the film four soldiers being transported by aircraft crash behind enemy lines and are therefore trapped in a dangerous situation. The war in the mind is therefore revealed as each man confronts his own personal fears while they cooperate with one another in planning their escape without the benefit of food, weaponry or transportation. Each soldier’s own personal fear is revealed via voice over monologues. Each soldier faces his own fears and the issue of the meaning of life and death. As Cooke (2007) explains: Yes, as different as they are, ultimately there is only one message in the film: Each soldier must face his own internal enemy. He must face his own fear, his own mortality and the meaninglessness of his own life alone (Cooke, 2007, p. 10). Cooke (2007) compares the existentialism themes in Fear and Desire with Albert Camus’ concept of existentialism. Camus’s existentialism was essentially referred to as a theory of the absurd. Camus’ theory of absurdity informs that man cannot live with hope for a future or meaning that he cannot understand or observe. If man is honest with himself he lives his life resisting and defying the uncertain and inaccurate tales about a “meaningful world” (Cooke, 2007, p. 15). According to Cook (2007), Kubrick presents the absurd world in Fear and Desire in a way that demonstrates absurd existence. In the film, the soldiers are constantly “lying to themselves” and “living dishonestly” as opposed to resisting and defying lies about a meaningful world (Cooke, 2007, p. 15). The soldiers act in ways that create their own absurd worlds which is characterized by fear of the absurd. There is a strand of irrationality to the fears and perceptions expressed. For example, Sidney, is asked to keep watch over a captive woman while the other three soldiers build a raft. Sidney tries to entertain the woman by impersonating others and pretends to be the General from a remote location. He unties the woman which gives her the opportunity to escape. When Sidney realizes that she might tell the General that he was mocking him, he decides to kill her (Fear and Desire, 1953). Clearly Sidney has become entirely irrational and was guided by an absurd fear. Although it is obvious that Sidney is insane, Kubrick’s Sidney was also portraying Camus’ vision of the absurd and existentialism. Sidney was a stranger in the world and strange to the world. His irrational fear made it difficult for him to connect to the world around him and in his detachment, he was misguided. The lieutenant by contrast would have been Camus’ lucid absurd stranger as he made no assumptions about the future and merely existed for the moment. Sidney could not confront his own fears and invented an alternative reality. The lieutenant on the other hand was able to confront his fears. Sidney let his fear destroy him. Full Metal Jacket (1987) Full Metal Jacket (1987) is set in two parts. The first part of the film focuses on boot camp training and the obvious indoctrination that takes place. This part of the film portrays boot camp training in such a brutal fashion that it comes across as a parody of military training and indoctrination. The second part of the film takes the viewers to the Vietnam War. In the first part of the film, the drill sergeant is brutal and humiliates the recruits in ways that are utterly inhumane. The obvious intent is to form a collective cohesion in which the recruits are bereft of personal identities and will turned into cold-blooded killers. A particularly disturbing technique used by the drill sergeant was his treatment and punishment of Private Pyle, an overweight recruit with obvious mental challenges. Whenever Private Pyle committed an error, the other recruits were punished for his infractions which resulted in the recruits taking revenge on Pyle. After a particularly brutal beating by the recruits, Pyle loses his mind and on the final night of boot camp, he kills the drill sergeant that commits suicide (Full Metal Jacket, 1987). The second part of the film presents significant chaos in Vietnam. At one stage, the unit is attacked by a sniper who is tracked down and turns out to be a woman. She is injured when they discover and confront her and pleads with the soldiers to take her life so as to end her suffering. Although the soldiers do not want to help her in any way and would rather see her suffer, Private Joker who provided a voice over in the first part of the film relents and shoots the woman (Full Metal Jacket, 1987). Conard (2007) points out the existentialism themes in Full Metal Jacket by pointing to the contrasting settings in the two parts of the films. As Conard (2007) observes: One of the important themes of the film, which underlies the stark difference between the two halves, is that of chaos and order. For example, in the stripping the men of their differences and individuality, by dressing them the same and shaving their heads, the Marine Corps is attempting to impose order and authority on the recruits (pp. 33-34). The orderly nature of boot camp is depicted in the lines of recruits and the perfectly and tidily aligned bets and the spotless bathrooms. Private Pyle represents the stranger or the outsider who does not fit in with this world and is a stranger to this world. On another note, Sergeant Pyle’s killing of the drill sergeant and his own suicide also depict the fallacy and the lies that are connected with the meaning of the world. The chaos and brutality of the war depicted in the second part of the film further exemplify the meaningless structure of the ordered world in the boot camp. Paths of Glory (1957) Paths of Glory (1957) is described as an “anti-war film” (Holt, 2007, p. 49). The film is also a representation of the “necessary absurdity of the human condition” and the spoils of war (Holt, 2007, p. 49). Holt (2007) argues that Paths of Glory does not address a specific tenet of existentialism, but instead addresses existentialism generally. It broaches the subject of ethics and morality and the “the principles of right and wrong” (Holt, 2007, p. 49). The film is set in the First World War in which the French army unit under the command of Colonel Dax is commissioned by General Mireau to launch an assault on a German squad. When the assault is unsuccessful three men are tried in a court-martial on the grounds that they were cowards. Dax defends the men, but the court is obviously flawed and the men are convicted and subsequently put to death. Dax and the remainder of the troops are then required to return to combat (Paths of Glory, 1957). Holt (2007) points out, that just as the “themes of death” and the “pointlessness of life loom large” in existentialism, it also looms large in Paths to Glory (p. 50). The dialogue between two unnamed soldiers on the night before the failed assault on the Germans bear this out: Soldier One: Look, just like I’m trying to tell you: if you’re really afraid of dying, you’d be living in a funk all the rest of your life, because you know you’ve got to go someday, any day. And besides, if its death that you’re really afraid of, why should you care about what it is that kills you? Soldier Two: You’re too smart for me “Professor.” All I know is nobody wants to die (Paths to Glory, 1957). The existentialism theme in this dialogue appears in the preoccupation with death and mortality. This is what it means to be a human being. Being human is being mortal and the reality that we are “thrown into a the world” (Holt, 2007, p. 51). Humans find themselves in a world in which they find that they are “the products of external influences, past decisions, and so on” (Holt, 2007, p. 51). These conditions facilitate opportunities but at the same time limit them and limit our behaviour and our choices. However, humans are at liberty to select how they want to behave and what action they want to take. As Holt (2007) puts it: Nothing external to us – not nature, morality, social pressure, history, and so on – can determine what we choose, value, or do. Throwness means freedom constrained by situation (p. 51). For Jean-Paul Sartre, freedom is a burden because it creates a number of anxieties. This is certainly the case for the soldiers in Paths to Glory as they are thrown into a world replete with anxiety. While it might be argued that the soldiers were thrown into that world and were therefore did not freely choose to be a part of that world, they did choose to join the military and this is certainly what they contemplated when they joined the military. This is exactly what existentialism means when it speaks to being honest and authentic. First one has to recognize and accept that he/she has been thrown into a world. However, one mush also accept that the individual is free and that the individual has choices, values and actions that one can take. It is dishonest to take the position that one’s choices and conduct are dictated by external factors (Holt, 2007). In other words, one’s actions should be consistent with one’s values and not those dictated externally. For example, the general is not authentic in that he says he cares about the soldiers but his actions speak otherwise. First he sends them into a particularly impossible task: assault on an impenetrable German unit and then he prosecutes two of his men for cowardice. Colonel Dax however, is authentic in that his actions and choices are consistent with what he claims. He claims that he cares about the soldiers under his charge and his conduct confirms this. When Dax refuses the General commands he makes a choice that is consistent with his values. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Like Path to Glory (1957), Eye Wide Shut (1999) is a film about choice. The film Eyes Wide Shut (1999) broaches the subject of existentialism in terms of “human nature, sexuality, marital fidelity and the nature and significance of choice” (Hoffman, 2007, p. 59). The film starts with an a sexual image of Alice who has her back to the camera while she undresses. Once she is nude and about to face the camera, the frame fades to black and the introductory credits start. This opening scene is tone setting. As Hoffman (2007) the opening scene at once informs the audience that the film: ...will provide an intimate, erotic, and sometimes shocking glance into the private lives of its characters (p. 60). The scene quickly shifts to the public sphere as it scans the outside of the apartment which is located in New York City. The activity and sounds on the outside are markedly different from the quiet calm on the inside of the apartment. Nest the frame returns to the inside of the apartment and picks up Bill, Alice’s husband. Like Alice, he is introduced with the camera picking him up with a rear view against the backdrop of red curtains that will be viewed time and again in the film. Where Alice was introduced dressing, Bill is introduced as if he had just gotten dressed. When we see Alice again she is on the toilet and the message according to Holt (2007): Kubrick seems intent on letting his viewers know that Alice’s character will be unmasked long before Bill’s. Bill will try to keep much more hidden (p. 61). The couple attend Christmas party and soon after they arrive they go their separate ways. Both Bill and Alice are seen flirting with infidelity although neither take the ultimate step to commit adultery. However, we do not know if Bill would have committed adultery. When he was propositioned by a young woman at the party, before he could take the woman up on her offer, he was interrupted and called away by the host. Alice on the other hand, made the decision to end the flirtations. In her conversation with a male suitor, Alice extols the values of marriage and the need for fidelity while her suitor challenges the values of marriage, claiming that marriage is only good for producing the excitement of intimacy by deception. He questions why women would remain married when they really want someone else (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999). As Hoffman (2007) explains: Taken together with her refusal to pursue the possibility of an extramarital sexual encounter, Alice’s position seems to be that marriage requires fidelity to one’s spouse and that, despite occasional temptations that must be denied, the good marriage is clearly preferable to the alternative – so much so that marriage needs no justification (pp. 61-62). The sexuality associated with marriage is reinforced when the scene abruptly shifts from Alice going to look for Bill and Alice at home taking her earrings off. Again the audience is only seeing Alice from the rear and just as more of her personality has been revealed, more of her body is revealed. Since Alice is now standing in front of a mirror the audience can see her full body (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999). The film progresses with scenes of Bill and Alice in their respective roles as mother and physician. Alice has some conversations with Bill about sex and marriage. The couple have a conversation about fidelity and Alice wanted to know if Bill had been unfaithful with the women she saw him flirting with at the Christmas party. He denies that he had been unfaithful and observes that he saw Alice dancing with a man at the party and said that he could understand if the man wanted to have an affair with her because she is beautiful. Alice then tells Bill that if that is the way he thinks, then he could have an affair with the two women she saw him talking with at the party because they too were beautiful. Bill tells Alice that he loves her and it is his love for her that prevents him having an affair (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999). Bill informs Alice that he is not jealous when other men are attracted to her because women are not aroused the way that men are. Moreover, he has full confidence in her and knows that she will never cheat on him. Alice becomes upset with Bill’s admission and curls up in the fetal position on the floor as an expression of her feelings. She is also arguably upset because she did think about having an affair and realizes that her husband does not know much about women and even less about his wife (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999). While lying in the fetal position Alice reveals to Bill that the previous summer while in Cape Cod she found herself intensely attracted to a military officer and that she would have given anything to spend one night with that man. However, her attraction to the man was interrupted by the fact that she remembered her husband and that she loved him. Although this happened several months earlier, Alice confessed that she is still bothered by the fact that she felt such a powerful attraction for a man and that she is in love with her husband (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999). Hoffman (2007) points out that the film Eyes Wide Shut (1999) raises some important existentialists’ questions: How is sexual desire related to love and to marriage? Are erotic attractions always subject to our control? Might we experience a desire so overwhelming as to be irresistible? What are the implications for marriage if such desires exist? Can spouses realistically choose to remain faithful? To the extent that fidelity is possible, is it merely the accidental result of the failure to experience desire for other people? (p. 64). Alice opportunity to be unfaithful was interrupted in that the military officer was called away before she could act on her desire for him. Thus the fact that she was faithful was purely accidental. Since Bill confessed that he might be attracted to other women but would not act on that because he was married and loved his wife, Alice wondered if his fidelity was accidental. Bill on the other hand, was forced to rethink his world. He had a misinformed idea about women and about his wife and Alice’s revelation invoked in Bill suspicion and jealousy. The remainder of the film follows Bill as he seeks to discover the kind of desire that Alice confessed she had for the military officer. Instead he finds only imitations and physical attraction and the truth is Bill has no overwhelming sexual fantasies that he wants to experience. Bill attends a masked orgy and is no more than a bystander as he witnesses what appears to be nothing but impersonal and detached sexual acts. This is only contrasted by the images of erotic sex that he imagines his wife having with the military officer. Complicating matters for him, once he returns home his wife confesses that she dreamed of having sex with several different men and that she laughed at him. The dream raises the question of whether or not merely dreaming of cheating on your spouse is worse than thinking about doing so while fully awake. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) gives expression to existentialism in that it focuses on human nature and human existence. Human being have desires and impulses and there are institutions and laws that are designed to channel those desires and impulses and to prevent harm to others and harm to the self. In this regard, marriage is an institution and its primary function is to control and redirect sexual desire and impulses. However, whether or not marriage can control those impulses and desires is an individual choice. The Shining (1980) The Shining (1980) like Eyes Wide Shut (1999) reveals a startling existentialist theory: mankind remains in perpetual danger of losing the mask that hides his or her true selves. The film is the only horror film directed by Kubrick and although it retains a number of features consistent with the horror genre it raises a number of existentialist questions about human existence (Palmer, 2007). The usual horror genre motifs in The Shining (1980) include the appearance of ghosts, the axe wielding killer and unseen force that leaves bruises on the neck of the young boy at the Overlook Hotel with his parents who have been hired as caretakers during the off-season. What distinguishes The Shining (1980) from other horror genre is the fact that it is a slow-paced character study and rather than filled with horror and special effects, it is moody. Yet the film is horrifying and disturbing all the same. The appearance of ghosts in the film however, raises questions about whether or not they are subjective appearances or actual appearances. When the father, a recovering alcoholic is seen at the hotel’s bar drinking alcohol served by a ghost and is receiving advice from ghosts about how to deal with his wife and son, it is not altogether clear whether or not these are real ghosts or merely a figment of the father’s own imagination. After all, as the movie progresses it becomes clear that the father has been struggling with his wife and son and it appears that they have become impediments to him. Therefore, when ghosts are telling him that he needs to rid himself of his wife and son by murder, it is quite possible that the father is merely contemplating this solution and is ghosts were merely representations of the darker side of the father’s existence. Locked away from everyone and in a hotel that is eerily empty and gothic in nature, the father arguably became entirely detached from the world in which he was thrown in. The appearance of ghosts can also be viewed as an unmasking of the deeper impulses and desires that the father had. With nothing to occupy his time and his mind the father cannot harness his energies and his thoughts in a productive way. As a result, he becomes irrational and reckless with his inner thoughts and desires. In fact, in his attempts to write a novel, he types the words “all play and no work, makes Jack a dull boy” repeatedly on hundreds of pages. All indications are therefore that, the father whose name was Jack, has become consumed by nothingness and his existence is growing darker the longer he remains at the Overlook Hotel. At the end of the film, the audience is left wondering if Jack descended into madness or was he really possessed by the spirit of the former caretaker that killed his family at the same hotel. The existentialist questions raised is whether or not human existence can be so easily diminished by isolation. It also raises the question of whether or not the institution of family is so fragile that it loses its social value if locked away from society. Conclusion Kubrick’s films were thought provoking and at times disturbingly so. It brought to the big screen the reality of human existence and the human condition. Kubrick depicted human existence and human condition in all aspects of life. Kubrick’s films dealt with war, marriage, family, science fiction, horror and any scenario in which human beings are confronted with issues of the self. This more prominently displayed in circumstances in which his characters were confronted with death and fear in general. Kubrick’s films reached out to mankind by putting mankind on display with all the vulnerabilities and flaws of human existence and human conditions brought to life on the big screen for public and personal scrutiny. Kubrick’s films asked poignant questions about the meaning of life, death and human existence. In true existentialist style, Kubrick’s films did not pretend to have the answers to those questions, but merely demonstrated how human beings often live their lives in a world that typically defies meaning. Some of his characters realized this, others tragically, did not. Bibliography Abrams, J. J. The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Barnes, W. The Philosophy and Literature of Existentialism. Woodbury, New York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. 1968. Conard, M. T. “Chaos and Morality: Nietzsche’s Influence on Full Metal Jacket.” In Abrams, J. J. (Ed.) The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Cooke, E. F. “Understanding the Enemy: The Dialogue of Fear in Fear and Desire and Dr. Strangelove.” In Abrams, J. J. (Ed.), The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Cocks, G.; Diedrick, J. and Perusek, G. W. Depth of Field: Stanley Kubrick, Film, and the Uses of History. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2006. Decker, K. S. “Knockout! Killer’s Kiss, the Somatic, and Kubrick.” In Abrams, J. J. (Ed.), The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Hoffman, K. D. “Where the Rainbow Ends.” In Abrams, J. J. (Ed.), The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Holt, J. “Existential Ethics: Where the Paths of Glory Lead.” In Abrams, J. J. (Ed.), The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Kellner, D. “Hollywood Film and Society”. In Hill, J. and Gibson, P. c. (Eds.) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1998, 354-361. Palmer, R. P. “The Shining and Anti-Nostalgia: Postmodern Notions of History.” In Abrams, J. J. (Ed.), The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Tanzer, M. B. On Existentialism. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education, 2008. Turner Classic Movies. (n.d.). http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=453452|453531&name=Fear-and-Desire (Retrieved 30 November, 2012). Filmography Stanley Kubrick’s Films (Chronological Order). Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Fear and Desire (1953). Full Metal Jacket (1987). Paths of Glory (1957). The Shining (1980). Read More