"Live Free or Die"

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2016)

A Film Directed by a young Stanley Kubrick that is Unlike the Kubrick We Know and Love. He Surrenders (ouch) to the Conventions of the Time and seems to be more than Competent but Artistically Anemic.
But Fulfilling His Contract Obligations Professionally He Delivered a Mammoth Movie that is Compelling and Timeless. That of Humans wanting to be "Free" from Bondage, Servitude, and Inhuman Evil Entrenched in Unenlightened Power and Corruption.
The Movie is Corny and a Product of its Era, but is One of the more Intellectual "Epics" and Tries Mightily to be Progressive. It mostly Succeeds and when Viewed Today is full of Fun and Despite its Length is, along with Demille's "The Ten Commandments" (1956), a Glorious Entertainment, if Confined by a Hollywood System of Conventional Conservatism, Blacklists, and Demagoguery
The Cast is Stellar, the Cinematography Beautiful, and the Aching Caste System is its central Theme. Emotional to Extremes, it can't help but be, the Film has its Clunks and some Miscasting, but Never Fails to be Compelling, even as it Demonstrates its Obvious and Manipulative way it is Smarmy in the Love Scenes and Heavy Handed with its Staged Shots of the "Family Bonding" that Depicts Campfire Coziness among the newly Freed People.
It was Defiant for its Time with an Unusual and Audacious, against the grain Rebellion from the Studio System. Kirk Douglas was Not to be Denied and this "Labor of Love" Movie Manages to Deliver its Message as much Pomp and Circumstance to be Audience Friendly and as much Anti-Establishment that was Allowed at the Time for a Film of this Magnitude.