Kubrick revisits the misapplication of money, status and class

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2005)

Having watched this film ( Barry Lyndon )amongst all his others at least once a year, it has become apparent to me that Stanley Kubrick was fascinated with the insidious marriage of ambition and money, however beautiful his films were;( and they ARE beautiful, despite the apparent contradiction between a world gone wrong and the beauty that is there despite this - what a visionary!). All the misguided or malevolent protagonists of his films are male: they kill, lie, cheat, abuse, brag, swagger, dismiss, inveigle, assume superiority by virtue of social standing, hate and blame others for their own predicament, feel better when they look upon a lesser person and relegate women to, at best, the role of a social Geisha;- at worst, the parasitic whore that Mommy and Daddy always warned us about, portrayed through the eyes of the 'rational' male with all of his virtues listed above. All of the influential characters are male. Witness the dreadfully violent social scramble of The Killing; the technocratic monetarist showdown of 2001; the rape, violence and feel good factor of the Droogs; the damning indictment of social climbing and the class system based on wealth in Barry Lyndon; the locked-in familial violence of The Shining with its blame apportioned to the woman, the child and the African - American,- everyone except Jack himself; the controlling male class in Eyes Wide Shut* with its assumption that ANYTHING can be bought (the bottomless wallet), the interchangeable women as objects of desire,(literally,as actors, and metaphorically - the two Mandys - one live and one a corpse), male irritation at a woman's ability to make him feel inadequate unless he can possess, buy, control, or dispose of them (ref: Zeigler and drugs OD, implied murder; corruption; procuring women for sex etc.); and, of course, the ultimate irritation and social embarrassment - death. What could be more inconvenient than your little woman having the gall to die on you? Note too the blithe acceptance of Imperialism manifested in the form of a compliant reporter and apologist for American Foreign Policy as displayed by Pvt. Joker, the grinning indifferent witness whose complicity and desire for male acceptance allows him to shoot an injured woman dead and secretly congratulate himself on his humanitarianism. Note too, the use of actors twice, as if to hammer the point home - Joe Turkel, Sterling Hayden, Philip Stone, Leonard Rossiter, Peter Sellers, James Mason, Pat Roach** et al: all insidiously wicked and manipulative, or just plain dumb, their thoughts, misapprehensions and lies communicated softly, violently or socially correctly, often wrapped in a banknote. Social acceptability can even be granted to a paedophile if he's 'acceptable' or rich enough. This remarkable director knew EXACTLY what to do with the greatest art form that the 20th century gave us - his legacy is a unique insight into the human condition and the state of male Western morality through the medium of cinema. I have barely scraped the surface of his art - for this, I cannot apologise enough. Edward de Bono says that, 'A powerful way of treating opposing ideas is to suppose that each one is correct under certain circumstances'...Alas, Stanley Kubrick could see straight through such fallacies and demonstrate the endemic social and political hypocrisy and corruption of the world we tolerate with consummate ease through the medium he loved and we continue to love. How do you thank somebody for such a legacy?
Incidentally, the great film writer and critic Michel Ciment compared 'Eyes Wide Shut' to a late Rembrandt. What a masterpiece of understatement, as I'm sure he'd agree. I certainly hope he does - I don't want to be pounded into hamburger in some ritual of film critic's machismo should we ever meet!!! But I flatter myself - I'm just an enthusiast in august company.
Mike Winston, Birmingham, U.K.
* See' Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy' by John le Carre for the possible origin of this unusual phrase.
** The late Pat Roach - A resident of Erdington, Birmingham, U.K. and a true gentleman, sadly missed by everyone who knew him. R.I.P.
P.S. Don't forget to push your Kodakchrome at least one stop for beautiful saturation - just a thought!