Essay First Draft

In a 1969 interview, Stanley Kubrick said that ‘‘where each viewer brings his own emotions and perceptions to bear on the subject matter, a certain degree of ambiguity is valuable because it allows the audience to ‘fill in’ the visual experience themselves.’’ In regards to this, how does the spectator theory influence Stanley Kubrick as an auteur?

In a interview with Joe Gelmis about his film ‘’2001: A Space Odyssey’’, he states that ‘ambiguity is valuable because it allows the audience to ‘fill in’ the visual experience themselves.’ [1] This quote reveals Kubrick’s interest in giving his audience agency into his films. In a review of ‘A Clockwork Orange, Tim Brayton said ‘’His mode here is primarily diagnostic: we observe without taking part, either by rejoicing in the nastiness of it all or recoiling at the obscenity.’’ [2] Brayton is reinforcing Kubrick’s aim to make the audience part of the viewing experience, by his own position as the spectator. By considering these two quotes, this essay will answer my question of how the spectator theory influenced Stanley Kubrick as a director and to what extent it was prominent in all his films, if his status as a ‘’auteur’’ of film is justified.

The six films I will be looking at are Kubrick’s films from 1968 onwards,

2001: A Space Odyssey- an epic sci-fi film about space, technology and humanity

A Clockwork Orange-  Kubrick’s most controversial film, Alex, a young sociopath obsessed with classical music is arrested for murder and is reconditioned by the government so he can no longer commit violence.

Barry Lyndon- a period film chronicling the rise and fall of Redmond Barry, an Irish peasant in the 18^th century who slowly ascends to wealth and royalty.

The Shining- modern day horror film about a family who spend the winter looking after the haunted Overlook hotel. However the ghosts drive the father insane and he attempts to kill his wife and child.

Full Metal Jacket- Vietnam War film. It follows the protagonist Joker, a pacifist and war photographer through basic training and the Tet offensive.

Eyes Wide Shut- a man finds his marriage, his family and his own life in danger after attending a secretive masked ball orgy.

Reviewers critically acclaim nearly all these films with the exception of Eyes Wide Shut. [3] Kubrick’s rarely stuck to one genre with his films, with Barry Lyndon being a period film set in the 18^th century, The Shining a modern day horror film and Full Metal Jacket, a war film about Vietnam. His versatility and effectiveness in filmmaking meant he could execute each genre of film seamlessly.  My secondary texts will consist of reviews of his films, spectatorship theorists like Baudry, Metz and Mulvey and audience perceptions of his films through websites like IMDB.

In order to answer my question of whether the spectator theory is prominent in Stanley Kubrick’s works, I will have three research questions to help me discover it.

My first research question is ‘’Can Stanley Kubrick’s title as an auteur be justified?’’ An auteur is defined as a director who has complete creative control over a film so that the end product is his ‘vision.’ This could be certainly said about Kubrick’s later films where he had very little interuptance from Hollywood producers during the production of his films. His eye for perfectionism meant that the studios allowed him as much time as he wanted to make a film, Eyes Wide Shut took 2 years of filming to make.

My second research question is ‘’Is the theory of spectatorship influential in all of Stanley Kubrick’s films or is it specific to certain films?’’ The theme of spectatorship in Kubrick films is apparent. In A Clockwork Orange, we are forced into watching horrific acts of rape and violence during the film as the spectator, a direct parallel with Alex’s Ludovico technique, where he is forced to watch violent images in order to make him averse to violence. However can the theory of spectatorship be applied to less apparent films of Kubrick like Barry Lyndon and The Shining?

My final research question is  ‘’How has the audience reception and reaction changed to Stanley Kubrick’s films?’’

It is noticeable during Kubrick’s lifetime that his films when they initially came out were not well received, The Shining was given a Golden Razzy nomination for worst picture and criticised for being not scary enough. However, if we come to the present time now, numerous film critics and audience members have put The Shining on their top 10 horror movies lists or even their best films of all time lists. It is curious to see how reaction has changed over time and could it be due to the spectator theory of the audience building their own narrative construct and interpretation of the film?