The Kubrick Series #1: The Early Years & First Films

THE KUBRICK SERIES #1:

THE EARLY YEARS & FIRST FILMS

To start this series off, I've decided to start at the very beginning, and briefly take a look at Kubrick's early work as a photographer and his documentary films he made in the 1950s, and perhaps, or at least try, to see how this would come to influence Kubrick's future filmmaking.

So let's go way, way, way back to Kubrick's childhood. He was born on July 26, 1928 in The Bronx, New York City to Jacob and Gertrude Kubrick. Despite Stanley showed signs of great intelligence from a very early age, he performed poorly in school, and by the time he left Taft High School in 1945 the idea of ever going to college seemed out of this world for him at the time. But none of that seemed to bother him, since he was delving into his major interests around this time: chess, literature, photography and movies.

Kubrick at a very early age with his younger sister Barbara.

Rather than going to school, Kubrick would go to the many movie theatres of New York and try to see as many films as he possibly could. But it wasn't until when he started going to the Museum of Modern Art when he began to discover the films that would greatly influence his later work. He was awestruck by the fluid camera moves of Max Ophüls, the editing techniques of Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin and the acting in the films of Elia Kazan.

Like mentioned previously, as well as developing an interest in movies, Kubrick had also developed a knack for photography and started taking his own pictures, using his own personal Graflex. Eventually Kubrick took a picture of an older man in a newspaper stand looking somber, taken on the day of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death. Kubrick took the picture to many of the big magazines in New York at the time, and the highest bidder for the picture was Look magazine. He subsequently became a full-time photographer for Look, and would take many, many, many pictures for them.

Above: the picture that landed Kubrick his job at Look magazine.

Did Kubrick invent the selfie??? (cue The X-Files theme)

One of the most fascinating aspects of these photographs is that each picture tells a story. Even though it's hard to figure out which one of these pictures are taken on the spot or staged, you can still subconsciously figure out what the scenario and the circumstances are in all of these photos. Also the framing and composition in each image is extraordinary, and could serve as a precursor to the incredible framing in Kubrick's later films.

But just like the George Harrison song, all things must pass and Kubrick decided to quit his job at Look magazine in 1951 in order to pursue a career in filmmaking, and between 1951 and 1953 he made three documentary short films; Day of the Fight, Flying Padre and The Seafarers.

I will be discussing Flying Padre and The Seafarers first because frankly I don't have that much to say about either. Flying Padre tells the story of a Catholic priest named Fred Stadtmueller as he's flying a small Piper Cub aircraft to his various different duties in New Mexico. The Seafarers is essentially a 30-minute long commercial for the Seafarers International Union and documents how the Union takes care of their employers and why they should sign up. Both the films, especially The Seafarers, feel like they're very much of their time and it's very hard to find traces of Kubrick in them, although it's certainly not impossible.

Flying Padre (above) and The Seafarers (below).

By far the most interesting out of this quasi-trilogy of films for me at least is the first one: Day of the Fight. The film follows a day in the life of boxer Walter Cartier, culminating in a boxing match. One of the things I think makes Day of the Fight more interesting than the other two films is that there is actually a sort-of story in the film, very much like you would find in Kubrick's photographs. Kubrick spends the entire film building up to the climactic fight by showing us Cartier eating breakfast and dinner, saying his prayers and preparing to go out in the ring. The narration also feels Kubrickian at times, and actually reminds me of the narration we would see in his subsequent films. You can also detect several Kubrickian angles and camera moves in various spots in the film, such as the use of a dolly early on and a few low-angle shots during the boxing match itself.

One memorable shot from Day of the Fight.

When looking at these films and photographs (but mostly the movies) in and of themselves, they may seem quite workmanlike and of the period, but when viewed in the larger context of Kubrick's career, you can see a young artist improving and stretching his legs for the major leaps he would take in the years to come. And all of this will culminate in Kubrick's first feature-length directorial effort, and a bumpy start to one of the greatest cinematic careers of all time. Stay tuned!

To be continued with: Fear and Desire (1953)