Kubrick the auteur(well almost!)

Rating: 10/10 (7 March 2010)

This is an excellent film.
It shows that Kubrick is really pushing the boundaries of film-making despite the limits of a modest budget and strongly established film conventions of time. His decision to film in Europe really helps this film with excellent b & w photography and the emergence of the Kubrick signature tracking shots shot with a wide angle and large depth of field. The directing is pretty much flawless and the visceral battle sequences are pretty startling for a film made in 1957 on a just a $1 million budget.
The story is fascinating, and providing you can get past the American accents, which is not to difficult, the politics of power is well observed. The machinations of specific characters, and their consequences for those at the sharp end, are also a comment of society in general, particularly how the powerful treat those lower down the social layers. Performances are very good, notably Ralph Meeker, Killing alumni Joe Turkel and Timothey Carey as three soldiers key to the story, supporting player George Macready as General Mireau and a thoughtful turn by Kirk Douglas as Col. Dax. Douglas plays understated extremely well, and the character's conflict and frustration with the situation he finds himself are well played. However, there is a determination to not give up his principles and humanity, which is the highlight and anchor of the movie.
Production design Ludwig Reiber, costume design by Ilse Dubois, and b & w cinematography by Georg Krause are superb, and Kubrick's trademark camera-work really shows in this film for the first time.
Interestingly I did notice a music track early on that sounds strikingly similar to the drum riff that introduces the preparation of the marines for heading down to LV426 in Aliens. It made me think whether a certain Mr Cameron is paying homage to some of Mr Kubrick's films in Aliens. After all Aliens opening is at the very least heavily inspired by Gayane's Ballet Suite from 2001.
In summary a outstanding film that sort of marks the end of Kubrick's breakout phase, before he moved on to direct is one and only populist blockbuster.