Let me start of by saying that I am sorry. This is not the piece that I wanted to write tonight. However, I underestimated Kubrick's visual genius, and was overwhelmed with the task that I had set out to accomplish.
I wanted to try to get across in this post the power that Kubrick has over the audience emotion simply by shooting a scene a certain way and having certain music playing over it. But then I started going through these movies to try to pick out scenes and shots that explain this phenomenon, and realized very quickly that there are way to many of them, and it is impossible to explain it with words. You just need to see it.
How can I describe the Clockwork Orange scene where Alex has a threesome? The mixture of the stationary shot, with the frenzied movements and the Beethoven piece played at double time create a emotion that is equal parts worried about your faithful narrator and Looney Tunes style humor.
What about the shot of Jack following poor Danny through the hedge maze at the end of the Shining. A simple backwards tracking shot, of which Kubrick has many. But the terror and anger in Jack's eyes and his staggered limp keep a strange sort of time throughout the shot that gives the impression that Danny is running from a train of sorts.
What about Barry walking through the forest? What about R. Lee. Ermey pacing around the barracks insulting people? Or holding his crotch? Or yelling at Pvt. Pile? What about the shot of the David running around the spaceship to work out?
There are too many to name here, but the point should be clear. Everyone reading this needs to rewatch these movies. Tomorrow I will post a series of pictures that I have taken from Kubrick's movies that take my breath away. Hopefully, they will get everyone to find copies of these movies and watch them over and over again.
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