PAWNS OF GLORY:

the inability of Old and New Hollywood film artists

to escape merciless fate

and the major studios

in the allegorical film art

of Stanley Kubrick

 

by Gary W. Wright

 

        Like most film artists creating film art in the early Eighties, art and chess luvin’ film artist Stanley Kubrick was no doubt disheartened and disturbed by the deaths of actor/director/writer Vic Morrow and illegally hired and employed child extras Renee Chen and Myca Le in a helicopter crash around 2:20 am in the early morning of July 23, 1982 on the George Folsey jr. produced John Landis set of the twilit, allegorical, Kathleen Kennedy associate produced, Frank Marshall produced and Landis and Steven Spielberg executive produced Landis, Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller docufeature film TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE [1983].  However, unlike most film artists, Kubrick would not have been too surprised by the shocking and outraging deaths of Chen, Le and Morrow or by the fact that Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg suffered little or no consequences for the deaths of the twilit trio.  For a pessimistic conviction that people in general and film artists in particular were powerless pawns of those in positions of wealth and power was as prominent a characteristic of the brilliant, courageous, imaginative and innovative docufeature film art of Kubrick as were an ominously twilit prescience in his early films, a commitment to a documentary evoking “docufeature” realism and a fondness for being inspired by equally allegorical docufiction novels.

        In addition, and also unlike most prominent film artists of the dread allegorical Zone War era with the exceptions of James Cameron, Sir Peter Jackson, Richard Rush and Quentin Tarantino, Kubrick was a self taught film artist.  Indeed, he was a childhood photography enthusiast turned teenaged and young adult LOOK magazine photojournalist who learned the tricks of the film art trade by creating three short indie documentary films and one equally short indie docufeature film as a young man, an indie film art path that began when Kubrick donned the writer/director/director of photography [DOP] hats on the allegorical black and white indie documentary short film FLYING PADRE [1951], a film released on March 23, 1951.

 

“There’s no brass band here,

no cheering crowds,

no newspapermen clamoring for a headline.”

 

        Curiously, the Bob Hite voiceover [VO] narrated film revolved around two days in the indomitable and selfless life of the mild mannered and canary luvin’ and raising but sharp shooting and big game hunting Catholic priest Reverend Fred Stadtmueller, two days in which the indomitable padre flew up up and away in his trusty prop plane The Spirit Of St. Joseph to aid his far flung flock spread over 4000 square miles of the stark but beautiful desertscape of Harding County in north eastern New Mexico, anticipating Kubrick’s own implicit link to Superman in an eerily twilit film to come.  Intriguingly, the desertscapes of Harding County evoked those seen in the Western themed film art of John Ford, an American born and raised film artist of first generation Irish Catholic descent, giving a Ford Western spirit to the indie short documentary film and a possible implicit link of the Catholic Rev. Stadtmueller to Ford.  Curiously, a sweet and innocent Latina girl parishioner who resembled a young Sofia Carmina [SCC] Coppola and a young mother who resembled an adult SCC also anticipated the arrival of SCC as an equally indomitable and indie docufeature film artist.

        Significantly, an indomitable Catholic spirit returned when Kubrick donned the writer/director/DOP/producer hats for the twilit and allegorical black and white indie documentary short film DAY OF THE FIGHT [1951], a film released on March 30, 1951 that was based on a photo essay he had created for LOOK magazine.

 

“This is a fighter…

It’s a hard life but to him

it’s worth all the hardships and the risk.

To him, it’s worth everything.”

 

For, after an opening title proudly proclaimed “…A STANLEY KUBRICK PRODUCTION” for the first time, the Douglas Edwards VO narrated film revolved around one day in the battling life of the handsome, talented, bowtie and dog luvin’ young Catholic WWII navy vet and indie loner New York boxer Walter “Wally” Cartier, a day that saw him use his “…exploding punch” with ambidextrous fists to defeat his opponent Robert “Bobby” James and triumph in the ring for his 36^th TKO in a way that implied the hope of the equally talented, young and New York born and raised indie loner film artist Kubrick that he would also succeed in defeating his opponents and triumph in the Temple Theatre with his explosive and spirited indie docufeature film art.  A smoking restaurant owner named Dan Stampler who resembled Walt Disney and who was Cartier’s most exuberant supporter was also the first sign in Kubrick’s film art of his implicit interest in Disney.

Alas for Kubrick, a “Landes” was hidden in the names of Stampler, making it all too fitting that a young male spectator seen at one point in the crowd watching the fight also resembled a young and clean shaven Landis, ominously and eerily anticipating the arrival of Landis in the Temple Theatre, the TZ disaster, and Kubrick’s own implicit cinematic bouts with Landis.  Thus, right from the beginning, an ominous twilight overshadowed Kubrick and his battle for docufeature glory, a battle that began when the budding young film artist donned the director/DOP/producer/editor hats and teamed up with his wife Toba Kubrick and again with DAY OF THE FIGHT composer Gerald Fried and implicitly did his best to join the Brotherhood of the Screen with the eerily twilit and allegorical black and white indie docufeature short film FEAR AND DESIRE [1953], released on March 31, 1953.

 

“…There is war in this forest.

Not a war that has been fought,

or one that will be,

but any war.

And the enemies that struggle here do not exist

unless we call them into being.

This forest, then, and all that happens now,

is outside history.

Only the unchanging shapes

of fear and doubt and death are from our world.

These soldiers that you see

keep our language and our time,

but have no other country but the mind.”

 

Significantly, after the camera panned slowly left across a dense forest of the complex and haunted mind accompanied by another opening VO-this time by David Allen-that set the openly allegorical, embattled and timeless scene, one of the first shots in the film was of a small prop plane flying high in the sky, a lone prop plane that evoked the lone plane flown by the intrepid Rev. Stadtmueller in FLYING PADRE.  However, far from being another triumph of faith and technology as in FLYING PADRE, FEAR AND DESIRE then came across as an ominously twilit memory of the future.  For after the opening VO set the embattled allegorical scene and the timeless theme of the piece and set the audience up for an one hour black and white implicit exploration of the battles that an indie film artist had to fight both within and without in order to create indie film art, the film followed four soldiers battling for survival in a nameless forest located in a Hollywood Hills evoking setting, anticipating and coming across as the real first pilot episode of the original and equally allegorical, black and white, and often embattled TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series, complete with music composed by Fried that anticipated the famous Marius Constant composed theme for the TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series.  Thus, it was grimly and ominously fitting that two of the film’s actors, Paul Mazursky and Frank Silvera, went on to play four roles in the TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series.

Curiously, Sidney and Mac, the two soldiers played by Mazursky and Silvera, respectively, gave in to their Dark Sides and went mad, with Sidney even losing it so much that he first tried to rape and then he shot and killed the fleeing silent and beautiful young brunette woman-played by Virginia Leith-captured at one point in the forest of the mind, a fitting choice of actress that implicitly affirmed that the film art of Kubrick would indeed travel its own indie path away from the natural and peroxide blonde obsessed film art of Hollywood.  Just as curiously, while he resembled Harvey Kurtzman, the artist/writer of MAD Magazine fame, the name of Sidney was an anagram of Disney, implying that Kubrick was also roasting Disney and his film art in FEAR AND DESIRE.  Meanwhile, the other two soldiers, Lieutenant Corby and Fletcher-played by Kenneth Harp and Stephen Coit, respectively-hunted down and killed their Dark Sides in the forms of the enemy general and his captain-literal Dark Sides, as the two men were also played by Harp and Coit, respectively, dualities that evoked Cartier’s twin brother Vincent “Vince” Cartier in DAY OF THE FIGHT-implying that Kubrick believed that man’s battle with himself was as important, if not more so, than man’s battle with man or with the environment.  An inner battle that Kubrick implicitly acknowledged within himself, given that Fletcher resembled and was implicitly linked to Kubrick. 

Significantly, an ominous and eerily twilit ambience was also seen and heard that year when Kubrick donned the director/DOP hats for the twilit and allegorical colour indie documentary short film THE SEAFARERS [1953], a film released on October 15, 1953 that evoked and alluded to the allegorical black and white Jules Dessin indie docufeature film THE NAKED CITY [1948], a film that saw the implicitly President Harry S Truman linked New York Police Detective [NYPD] Dan Muldoon-played by Barry Fitzgerald-triumph over the implicitly Adolf Hitler linked ex-wrestling star William “Billy” Garzah-played by Ted De Corsia-in a not too subtle reminder to audiences and voters in the pivotal U.S. election year of 1948 that President Truman and his Democrats presided over the victory of Hitler and his Nazi Germany in May of 1945.

 

“It’s a true spirit of independence…

[but] nobody knows better than a seafaring man

that any man, however independent he is,

isn’t entirely independent…

He’s a member of something larger…

He’s a member of a crew,

a crew of men like himself

bonded together for one essential common purpose.”

 

Indeed, the opening and closing remarks by Don Hollenbeck that preceded and summarized this half hour ode to the many benefits of being a member of the CanAm Seafarers International Union of North America [SIU] not only evoked the opening, ongoing and closing VO narration of THE NAKED CITY by its producer Mark Hellinger, but eerily anticipated the opening and closing remarks of each episode of the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series by Rod Serling, complete with the same constraining suit, smoking cigarette in one hand and strained and uncomfortable way of earnestly addressing the camera and the presumed audience.  In fact, a bespectacled and smoking union official who resembled the cigarette luvin’ Serling was seen towards the end of the film, affirming the eerily prescient nature of THE SEAFARERS.  The sight of one Warner Haynie amongst the names of seafarer brothers who had given their lives for the United States in World War II was also eerily prescient, for his name evoked Warner Brothers, the Hollywood studio that oversaw and released TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE and the studio with which Kubrick would create his last five films.

In addition, the sight of James and Lloyd Henderson on the list of immortal dead evoked the pseudonym Philip Henderson used by the prostitute frequenting Doctor Lawrence Stoneman-played by House Jameson-in THE NAKED CITY, affirming that film’s implicit influence on THE SEAFARERS.  Indeed, the sight of a young seaman who resembled Dassin, and another who resembled Hitler, complete with a young wife who resembled Eva Braun and a daughter dressed in the black, red and white of the swastika flag of the Third Reich, implicitly affirmed that Kubrick was playfully responding to THE NAKED CITY and perhaps even expressing support for the Republican Party in THE SEAFARERS.

Curiously, this ominously prescient link to allegorical film art was fitting.  For the CanAm “Brotherhood Of The Sea” seafarers union evoked a CanAm “Brotherhood Of The Screen” film artists union so strongly that it was actually a dangerous contract assignment for young Kubrick to accept in his eagerness for more film art experience, given that the Commie hating and union bashing spirit of the era was embraced with spinelessly strident obedience by the Hollywood studios in general, and by the indie upstart Disney, in particular.  In addition, given that Kubrick would go on to base most of his Hollywood docufeature films on novels, the SIU and its Atlantic and Gulf Coast District [AGCD] headquarters in New York featured prominently in such early albeit posthumously published allegorical Jack Kerouac indie docufiction novels as And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks [2008]-written with William S. Burroughs-and The Sea Is My Brother [2011].  Thus, it was fitting that a printer who resembled Kerouac was seen in the print shoppe of the AGCD HQ, and that one of the sailor brothers looking hopefully for work in the hiring hall resembled Kubrick.

Significantly, the following year Alfred Hitchcock implicitly became the first film artist to address Kubrick, implying in the triumph of the implicitly Kubrick linked photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries-played by James Stewart-over the insidious wife killer and costume jewelry salesman Lars Thorwald-played by then prominent television actor Raymond Burr-his hope that Kubrick would triumph over television and bring audiences back to the Temple Theatre with his film art in the allegorical docufeature film REAR WINDOW [1954], a film released on August 4, 1954 that was inspired by the allegorical Cornell Woolrich indie docufiction short story “It Had To Be Murder” [1942].  Indeed, the fact that the triumph of Jeffries also led to his triumph with the beautiful blonde Lisa Fremont-played by Grace Kelly-affirmed the implicit intent of the film, for the blonde beauty of Fremont evoked Hollywood film art, an implicit interest in California affirmed by her surname Fremont and by the fact that her first name began with an “L” and ended with an “a”, evoking L.A.  The sight of the beautiful and ominously nicknamed buxom blonde ballet dancer Miss Torso-played by Georgine Darcy-embracing her Stanley-played by Al Smithee-in the end, reaffirmed the implicit Kubrick addressing intent of REAR WINDOW.  An implicit interest in Kubrick that was not missed, for he implicitly replied to Hitchcock and revealed that he had been thinking hard about how to merge his documentary film art experience with feature film art when he donned the co-writer/director/DOP/editor/co-producer hats and collaborated again with Fried, Silvera and DAY OF THE FIGHT cameraman Alexander Singer on the allegorical, black and white, and DAY OF THE FIGHT and THE NAKED CITY evoking indie docufeature film with the Hollywood cadenced name KILLER’S KISS [1955], released on September 21, 1955. 

 

“Gordon’s long career…

has been one long promise without fulfillment,

at least thus far.”

 

Significantly, after the opening titles played over a stationary shot inside New York’s Union Station to fuse documentary and feature film and immediately affirm Kubrick’s new and lifelong commitment to docufeature film art, the film began one lonely evening with the Cartier resembling, down on his luck, weak jawed, Seattle born and raised but New York based and implicitly Hitchcock linked veteran indie boxer David “Davy” Gordon-who supplied the film long VO, and was played by Jamie Smith-longingly pondering the beautiful, sweet and Kelly evoking blonde Gloria Price-played by Irene Kane and voiced by Pegg Lobbin, respectively-through the rear window of his apartment one lonely early evening, evoking the sight and sound of the symbolically impotent due to being laid up with a broken leg Jeffries pondering the lives of other residents of his apartment complex through the rear window of his apartment in REAR WINDOW.  Curiously, however, and unbeknownst to Gordon, Price also wistfully pondered him through her rear window, as well, in a change from REAR WINDOW.  Then Gordon and Price left their apartments at the same time and met in the inner courtyard as they left the building, he to a boxing match that evening and she to be picked up by her money obsessed, domineering, brutish, boorish and cigar smoking boss, the Jack Warner resembling and implicitly linked Vincent “Vinnie” Rapallo-played by Silvera-and driven to dance with single men at a lonely hearts club on Broadway with the Hollywood cadenced name of Pleasureland that was owned by Rapallo.

Just as significantly, and unlike Cartier in DAY OF THE FIGHT, Gordon lost his bout to “Kid” Rodriguez-presumably played by himself.  Curiously, as Gordon sat alone back in his dark apartment brooding angrily over his loss and talking on the phone to his sympathetic and Kelly evoking Aunt Grace and Uncle George-played by Alana and Albert Smithee, respectively-calling from Seattle, his reflection and a disrobing Price in the window of her apartment were reflected in the bedroom mirror behind him, implying that a new direction which included Price might possibly begin for the discouraged pugilist.  Thus, it was no surprise that later that night, the sound of Price screaming woke up Gordon and led to him rushing over to her apartment, scaring off Rapallo as he assaulted her and bringing Gordon and Price together.  As Price slept peacefully and trustingly in her bed after the rescue with Gordon watching over her, her reflection was seen in her bedroom mirror, implicitly reaffirming that an harmonious life with Gordon or a disharmonious life with Rapallo lay before the beautiful blonde. 

Curiously, the next morning at breakfast brought revelations that Price was haunted by both the death of her mother giving birth to her and the suicide of her ballet luving and dancing older sister Iris-played by Ruth Sobotka.  Soon Price decided to abandon Rapallo’s brutish and controlling attentions and to flee with Gordon to Seattle, a city as famous for its fog and rain as London to reaffirm the implicit link of Gordon to Hitchcock, a decision that led Rapallo to kidnap Price to prevent her from leaving him after a scene that saw only Rapallo’s angry and dangerous reflection in a mirror at his club to implicitly affirm that he had completely turned into his Dark Side.  A kidnapping that led to Gordon hunting down Rapallo, forcing him at gunpoint to take him to Price, and eventually killing the axe wielding Rapallo with a hooked pole in the climatic struggle in a horrorshow loft where mannequins were created, filling the loft with dismembered mannequin arms, legs and torsos that evoked Miss Torso in REAR WINDOW, making the loft a perfect location for a creepy and implicitly Hitchcock addressing climax.

As the victorious indie Gordon then led the ironically surnamed Price to married freedom in Seattle far away from the brutal, blockbuster loot lusting and televised boxing rings and the crassly commercial Broadway location of Pleasureland with its oh so beguiling and garishly lit cinemas, in the end, Kubrick implied both his hope that Hitch would ditch Hollywood and retire to a better and higher minded life, and his own commitment to docufeature film art for film art’s sake rather than crass and commercial blockbuster loot’s sake with KILLER’S KISS.  Indeed, the fact that a handbill for Gordon’s final bout was seen in a window of the Hollywood Barber Shop at the beginning of the film affirmed his implicit link to a film artist like Hitchcock.  And a newfound film artist like Kubrick who, soon after the release of KILLER’S KISS, reaffirmed his implicit commitment to docufeature film art for film art’s sake when he donned the writer/director hats and collaborated again with Fried, Singer, Sobotka and KILLER’S KISS distributor United Artists to implicitly roast Ford in his first Hollywood backed and allegorical black and white docufeature film THE KILLING [1956], released on May 19, 1956 and inspired by the allegorical Lionel White indie docufiction novel Clean Break [1955].

 

“Hey!

How about some service

you stupid looking Irish pig?”

 

Indeed, after the first opening title tersely proclaimed “…HARRIS-KUBRICK PRESENTS” over the sight and sound of real documentary footage of horses and their riders readying themselves for their race at a racetrack to immediately reaffirm the commitment of Kubrick and new producer James B. Harris to docufeature film art, an equally terse and documentary evoking opening VO-narrated by Art Gilmore-that evoked the narration of Kubrick’s indie docufeature short films set the scene and continued for the rest of the film, Kubrick implicitly likened the quest of Ford and his most famous collaborator, John Wayne, to inspire casts and crews to box office success to the tragicomic quest of ex-con Johnny Clay-played by Sterling Hayden-and the Wayne resembling and implicitly linked crooked Los Angeles Police Department [LAPD] Officer Randy Kennan-played by de Corsia-to inspire a bunch of blockbuster loot obsessed robbers to successfully rob the Lansdowne racetrack in the Greater Los Angeles Area [GLAA]. 

Curiously, Clay was aided in his successful one man robbery of the racetrack by a bald and burly bear of a man named Maurice Oboukhoff-played by real life wrestler Kola Kwariani-who caused a disturbance that distracted and led to a fight filled with pro wrestling moves with security guards during the robbery.  Significantly, Kwariani resembled another bald and burly real life wrestler turned film “star” at the time named Tor Johnson, who played the implicitly Hitchcock linked Lobo in the allegorical Edward Davis “Ed” Wood jr. indie docufeature film BRIDE OF THE MONSTER [1955], particularly when Oboukhoff’s shirt was torn off during the wrestling evoking brawl to reveal a hairy and burly beast of a man.  A fitting resemblance, for Clay and his madcap gang were almost relieved of their loot by the conniving and Wood jr. and Dolores Fuller resembling and implicitly linked Val and his duplicitous luver Sherry Peatty-played by Vince Edwards and Marie Windsor, respectively-implying that Kubrick was also roasting the even more madcap Wood jr. and Fuller, who on top of teaming up with Johnson on BRIDE OF THE MONSTER had also worked together on the allegorical Wood jr. indie docufeature film GLEN OR GLENDA [1953], a film whose film long VO narration, courtesy of Timothy Farrell in his role as the experienced and knowing Doctor Alton, evoked that of Hollenbeck in THE SEAFARERS and of Gilmore in THE KILLING.  Indeed, the Wood jr. look to the sets and the wacky, jarring and equally Wood jr. evoking editing during the scenes with Val, Sherry and her hapless co-robber husband George-played by Elisha Cook-reaffirmed the film’s implicit interest in Wood jr.

Significantly, as everyone died in their attempt to make a blockbuster killing except Oboukhoff, who was hauled away by the furious security guards and police at the racetrack after causing his wrestling disturbance, and a glum Clay and his sweet and devoted wife Fay-played by Coleen Gray-who were picked up at the airport trying to flee with the loot by two airport plain clothes officers, one of whom fittingly resembled Ford-played by Charles Cane and Robert B. Williams, respectively-Kubrick implied that he was reminding Ford and Wood jr. that a commitment to film art for blockbuster loot’s sake inevitably led to dusty death.  An eccentric and Hitchcock resembling and implicitly linked lady with a dog-played by Cecil Elliot-at the airport also implied that Kubrick was gently roasting Hitchcock in THE KILLING.

And so an implicitly pessimistic belief that film artists were pawns of glory who were doomed to be destroyed by their own blockbuster lusts was made for the first time in a Kubrick docufeature film.  And so Wood jr. giddily donned the writer/director/producer/editor hats and teamed up again with Johnson, Bela Lugosi-who played the mysterious, all powerful, science luving and string pulling Man In The Chair in GLEN OR GLENDA and the nefarious Doctor Eric Vornoff in BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, respectively-and William C. Thompson-DOP on BRIDE OF THE MONSTER and GLEN OR GLENDA, respectively-to implicitly reply to Kubrick in the allegorical indie docufeature film PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE [1957], a film released on March 15, 1957.

 

“Stupid!  Stupid!”

 

Indeed, the implicit allegorical intent of the film was affirmed by the fact that Johnson returned as the undead and implicitly Hitchcock linked police Inspector Daniel Clay, whose name evoked Johnny Clay in THE KILLING.  The fact that stalwart passenger plane pilot Captain Jeff Trent-played by Gregory Walcott-resembled and was implicitly linked to Hayden, that Capt. Trent’s wife Paula-played by Mona McKinnon-resembled and was implicitly linked to Gray, that the relentless and eerie Vampire Girl-played by Maila Nurmi-resembled Ruth Kubrick nee Sobotka, the ballet luvin’ second wife of Kubrick at the time, and that LAPD  Officers Kelton and Jamie-played by Paul Marco and Conrad Brooks, respectively-resembled and were implicitly linked to Kubrick and THE KILLING producer Harris also affirmed the Kubrick and THE KILLING roasting intent of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.  Thus, the fact that Captain and Mrs. Trent and Officers Jamie and Kelton triumphed over the transformed by Vampire Girl into undead Insp. Clay and his twisted trio of alien puppet masters Ruler, Eros and Taana-played by John Breckinridge, Dudley Manlove and Joanna Lee, respectively-in the end, implied the hope of Wood jr. that Kubrick and his film art would triumph over that of Hitchcock.

At any rate, an implicit dislike of Disney linked to embattled soldiers as in FEAR AND DESIRE and more ominously twilit memories of the future and a reaffirmation of Kubrick’s implicit pessimistic conviction that people and film artists were pawns of glory all returned when Kubrick donned the co-writer/director hats and teamed up again with Fried, Harris, United Artists, and Timothy Carey and Joseph “Joe” Turkel-who played the greedy and doomed criminals Nikki Arcane and Tiny, respectively, in THE KILLING-on the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical black and white docufeature film PATHS OF GLORY [1957], a film released on October 25, 1957 that was inspired by the allegorical Humphrey Cobb indie docufiction novel Paths Of Glory [1935].

 

“The men died wonderfully.”

 

Indeed, in many ways PATHS OF GLORY was the implicitly and tragicomically leading exemplar of the pessimistic implicit belief of Kubrick that people and film artists were the pawns of glory, of their Dark Sides and of powerful figures in Hollywood.  For after another opening VO-narrated by Peter Cappel-set the Great War scene in 1916 France, the film saw the reputation of the Richard Fleischer resembling and implicitly linked French General Paul Mireau-played by George Macready-destroyed after he allowed himself to be persuaded by the Disney resembling and implicitly linked General George Broulard-played by Adolphe Menjou-to use his 701^st Regiment in a doomed and failed attack on a heavily fortified and garrisoned German hilltop position called the Ant Hill.  Alas, the destruction of Gen. Mireau’s reputation was helped by the fact that he tried to order his artillery to fire on his own soldiers in order to get them to leave their trenches when they were pinned down by heavy German artillery and machine-gun fire, implying that Kubrick believed that Fleischer destroyed his reputation working with Disney on the allegorical docufeature film 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA [1954].  Indeed, in their conversation in the trenches shortly before the attack on the German maze of trenches fittingly named the Ant Hill, Gen. Mireau and the commander of the doomed attack, Colonel Dax-played by Kirk Douglas, who openly linked the film to 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA via his role as the irrepressible harpooner Ned Land in that film-discussed mice and Mausers, openly affirming the film’s implicit interest in the Mouse House.  The French palace that Gen. Mireau commandeered for his headquarters also evoked the castle that was the centrepiece of the then newly opened Disneyland, reaffirming the film’s implicit interest in Disney.

Significantly, the failure of the attack on the Ant Hill led Gen. Mireau to try to save his reputation by laying the blame on the cowardice of his men rather than on their inability to advance very far out of their trenches due to the heavy German artillery and withering machine-gun fire.  Gen. Mireau also insisted that an ominously twilit trio of innocent conscripted soldiers of the 701^st Regiment-Private Maurice Ferol, Private Pierre Arnaud and Corporal Phillip Paris, played by Carey, Turkel, and Ralph Meeker, respectively-be randomly picked for execution by regimental firing squad to atone for the failure of the attack.  Alas, the additional failure of Col. Dax, a successful lawyer before the war, to prevent the eerily twilit trio from being sentenced to death at their court martial implied that Kubrick felt that underlings such as assistant directors would also be blamed for the failure of films.  Given that Pte. Arnaud resembled and was implicitly linked to Kubrick, Kubrick also implied his pessimistic belief that he was all too well aware that he was not immune to being casually and callously cast aside if the heads of film studios decided that he was not useful to them.

Fittingly, the seven black moustached and Disney resembling fellow soldiers ordered to guard the three condemned soldiers prior to their execution evoked the seven famous dwarfs of the allegorical Disney and David Hand animated film SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS [1937], reaffirming the implicit Disney addressing intent of the film.  And then the three men were callously shot and killed and the show went on, literally, as the film ended with a captured and curvaceous young brunette German lass-played by Christiane Harlan, who went on to be the third and final wife of Kubrick-forced to sing on stage at a club for the enjoyment of raucous soldiers of the 701^st Regiment, a beautiful and shapely young brunette openly linked to live dramatic arts who implicitly reaffirmed Kubrick’s commitment to beautiful brunettes rather than blondes in his docufeature film art.  Last but not least, the sight and sound of a shellshocked and implicitly Hitchcock linked 701^st soldier-played by Fred Bell-being slapped in the face and accused of cowardice by Gen. Mireau during a tour of the trenches implicitly reaffirmed Kubrick’s fondness for roasting Hitch.

As for Lewis Milestone, in the sight and sound of the implicitly Kubrick linked Lieutenant Joe Clemons-played by Gregory Peck-commanding soldiers in one of the final battles fought in 1953 by the U.S. Army in the “police action” in South Korea, he implicitly and grimly reminded Kubrick that brutal and suicidal battles sometimes had to be fought if a war was to be won and victory achieved in the allegorical and black and white indie docufeature film PORK CHOP HILL [1959], a film released on May 29, 1957 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to PATHS OF GLORY.  Two years later, Wood jr. also donned the writer/director/producer/editor hats and teamed up again with Brooks, Johnson, Marco, Thompson and Tom Mason-who teamed up with Lugosi to play the Dracula evoking Ghoul Man in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE-to implicitly address Kubrick again in the form of Officer Kelton-played again by Marco-who triumphed, in the end, over the implicitly Disney linked and blockbuster loot obsessed con artist Dr. Acula-played by Kenne Duncan-in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film NIGHT OF THE GHOULS [1959].  Then Kubrick donned the director’s hat and teamed up again with Douglas-who traded Dax for a legendary descendant of Thrax, son of Ares, Greek god of war, and founder of Thrace-Harris and Bryna Productions Inc. to continue his pessimistic musings on implicitly film artist linked pawns of glory in the allegorical and full colour docufeature film SPARTACUS [1960], released on October 6, 1960, filmed in Super Technirama-70 and inspired by the allegorical Howard Fast indie docufiction novel Spartacus [1951].

 

“No man can withstand Rome.”

 

Indeed, after another opening and anti-slavery VO-narrated by Al Smithee-set the ancient Roman scene, the sight and sound of the pugnacious and implicitly David Lean linked Thracian slave Spartacus-played by Douglas-chained and starving to death in the blistering Libyan sun as an example for his fellow slaves after attacking his Roman guards at the beginning of the film evoked the three French soldiers executed for cowardice as an example for their fellow soldiers at the end of PATHS OF GLORY, linking the two films together and immediately affirming that Kubrick continued his pessimistic musings in SPARTACUS.  However, unlike the three French soldiers, Spartacus was freed by the discerning and exuberantly wily, duplicitous and greedy gladiator school owner Lentulus Batiatus-played by Peter Ustinov-and sent to his school in Capua, southern Italy, to be trained as a gladiator.  Here the brutal treatment of the gladiators and the luv that swelled between Spartacus and Varinia, the beautiful, shapely and educated brunette slave from Britannia-a luv for a slave from Britannia that affirmed the implicit link of Spartacus to an English film artist, and played by Jean Simmons-a luv as fierce and strong as that of the gladiator pugilist Davy for the equally beautiful Gloria in KILLER’S KISS, inspired Spartacus to lead his fellow gladiators and all of the slaves they could liberate in a determined, hopeful and free spirited rebellion against the wealth and power of Old Rome, an indie rebellion that implicitly equated with Lean being inspired by a luv of indie film art to lead a rebellion of indie world film artists against the wealth and power of Old Hollywood, making it fitting that there was an “art” hidden within the name of Spartacus.

Indeed, shortly before the uprising, Batiatus affirmed the implicit link of the gladiators to film artists.  For his comment that one of the gladiators, Dionysus-played by Nicholas Dennis-looked bigger in the arena due to “optics” reminded us that film stars often surprised and disappointed fans by being shorter and smaller in person than they were on the big screen, due to the size of the silver screen and to the fondness of film artists for filming their actor and actresses from below to make them appear taller.  In addition, the fact that the Roman Senate leader Gracchus-played by Charles Laughton-resembled and was implicitly linked to Hitchcock, and fellow Senators Julius Caesar, Marcus Licinius Crassus and Marcus Publius Glabrus-played by John Gavin, Laurence Olivier, and John Dall, respectively-resembled and were implicitly linked to Marlon Brando-or was that Rock Hudson?-Richard Burton and Eddie Fisher, respectively, reaffirmed the implication that the powerful Roman establishment symbolized the powerful Old Hollywood establishment at that point in time.  The wives of Crassus and Glabrus, Lady Helena and Lady Claudia Maria-played by Nina Foch and Joanna Barnes, respectively-reaffirmed that implication, as they resembled and were implicitly linked to Sybil Williams and Elizabeth Taylor, respectively.

Alas, the Spartacus led indie slave rebellion, a brotherhood of gladiators and slaves that evoked the CanAm Brotherhood of the Sea in THE SEAFARERS, was as unsuccessful as the Col. Dax led battle for Ant Hill in PATHS OF GLORY as it was crushed by the Crassus led legions of Rome, leading to the death of Spartacus and all of his loyal indie followers in battle or crucified along the Appian Way, the one major road that led to Rome, in the end, implying that Kubrick believed that Lean would be just as unsuccessful in his quest to succeed as an indie film artist who would inspire the creation of a more humane New Hollywood.  In fact, the triumph of Old Rome over the rebellious and indie slave army anticipated the triumph of Old Hollywood over the indie Rebels of New Hollywood, in time.  However, the sight and sound of Batiatus driving Varinia and the child sired by Spartacus out of Rome by horse drawn cart down the Appian Way to safety at the end of the film did imply the hope of Kubrick that a film artist would be born who would grow up and liberate film art forever from the tyrannical and blockbuster loot lusting grip of the Old Hollywood studios.  A film art liberator who was implicitly not Kubrick, given that he implicitly linked himself to Antonius-played by Tony Curtis-an indie rebel slave who was killed by a heartbroken Spartacus in a sword duel that the crass Crassus forced the two men to fight before the crucifixion of Spartacus and his surviving men, implying that Kubrick also saw himself as an outsider like Lean who was doomed to be killed one day by the wealth and power of Old Hollywood.  Significantly, shortly after the death of Antonius and the crucifixion of Spartacus, Gracchus committed suicide to avoid the wrath of Crassus after liberating Varinia from him and giving her to Batiatus, implying that Kubrick felt that Hitchcock was just as doomed as him.

And so SPARTACUS was a huge hit and Kubrick and talented company won four Oscars for Best Art Direction-Color, Best Cinematography-Color, Best Costume Design-Color, and Best Supporting Actor for Ustinov.  And so Pietro Germi implicitly warned Kubrick that he would kill his film art by creating a film inspired by the allegorical and implicitly Hitchcock roasting Vladimir Nabokov indie docufiction novel Lolita [1955] as surely as Baron Ferdinando Cefalu-played by Marcello Mastroianni-killed his luving black haired young wife Rosalia-played by Daniela Rocca-in order to marry the beautiful and bewitching blonde teen Angela-played by Stefania Sandrelli-daughter of the Nabokov resembling and implicitly linked Don Calogero-played by Ugo Torrente-at the end of the allegorical indie docufeature film DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE [1961], a film released on December 20, 1961 whose implicit interest in Kubrick was affirmed by allusions to KILLER’S KISS and SPARTACUS.

And so Ford implicitly roasted Stanley Kubrick in the form of Ransom Stoddard-played by Stewart-an Eastern lawyer who struggled to adapt to life in a rough and implicitly Hollywood linked town out West, and also implicitly roasted Christiane Kubrick in the form of the beautiful and sympathetic waitress Hallie Ericson-played by Vera Miles-in the allegorical feature film THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE [1962], a film released on April 13, 1962 whose implicit interest in Kubrick was affirmed by allusions to FLYING PADRE, KILLER’S KISS, SPARTACUS and THE KILLING and by the appearance of Woody Strode as Pompey, for Strode played the doomed gladiator Draba in SPARTACUS and Private Franklin in PORK CHOP HILL.  And so gloomy predictions of doom for Hitchcock continued despite the success of SPARTACUS and despite breaking free from resigned studio hack work and going on to take complete and fearless artistic control of his film art when Kubrick donned the co-writer/director hats, reunited with Harris and exchanged ancient Roman “nymphets” for a modern American “nymphet” in the allegorical, black and white, Ozian themed and implicitly Hitchcock roasting indie docufeature film LOLITA [1962], released on June 13, 1962 and indeed inspired by Lolita, making it fitting that Nabokov wrote the first draft of the screenplay for LOLITA.

 

“Have you ever seen any of those,

you know those, uhm, foreign films?

…I don’t like ‘em.”

 

Tragicomically, the film started with the opening titles-including a third title reading “…James B. Harris and Stanley Kubrick’s” before a fourth title read “LOLITA”, as if Kubrick was trying to spread the blame for the film to Harris in case it was rejected by shocked audiences-playing over what turned out to be the sinister left foot of the rebellious and coquettish blonde teen “nymphet” Dolores “Lolita” Haze aka “Lola” or just plain “Lo”-played by Suellyn “Sue” Lyon-on the right of the screen lovingly and gently held by what turned out to be the equally sinister left hand of the luvsick, implicitly Hitchcock and Tin Man linked and Edgar A. Poe and French poetry luving English literature Professor Humbert Humbert-played by James Mason, who linked another Kubrick film to 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA via his role as the mysterious and furiously anti-imperialist submariner Captain Nemo in that film-while his right hand luvingly and gently applied cotton batting to separate the toes and apply toenail polish to each toe, all to the sound of soft, tender and string filled symphonic music. 

Significantly, this tableau cheekily recalled the sight of Adam on Earth below and on the left reaching out his left hand to the right hand of God on a cloud with his angels above and to the right in the famous image of the two painted by Michelangelo on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, immediately and implicitly not only linking both Humbert and Lolita to art, but also placing Prof. Humbert with the mortals and Lolita with the angels, and, hence, Los Angeles, the city of the angels and of film art.  Indeed, the implicit link of Lolita to L.A. was affirmed by the fact that her nickname began with an “L” and ended with an “a”, and by the fact that her surname Haze evoked the famous L.A. haze.  Curiously, but fittingly, this opening tableau also evoked the end of DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE, which, after being released from prison for killing the adulterous Rosalia and marrying Angela, saw Ferdinando passionately kissing a bikini clad Angela on the sunswept deck of the yacht they were honeymooning on, while unbeknownst to him Angela used her right foot to caress the right foot of the handsome young sailor-played by A.I. Smitherelli-steering the yacht, ominously setting Ferdinando up to kill Angela like he did Rosalia for betraying the honour of his family and himself if she were caught in an adulterous relationship with the sailor, consigning the Baron to another arrest and trial, and prison once again.

This cheeky image then faded, to be replaced by the sight of a white car driving away from the camera down a foggy highway like Batiatus drove Varinia in a horse drawn cart away from the camera down the Appian Way at the end of SPARTACUS, linking the beginning of LOLITA to the end of SPARTACUS.

The white car then drove up a driveway to a mansion as palatial and pricey as the Roman villas of Crassus and Gracchus, and Prof. Humbert got out and broke into the huge mansion and searched in the cluttered and well appointed but untidy interior for its owner, who turned out to be the mischievous and Wood jr. resembling teleplay writer Clare Quilty-played by Peter Sellers.  Significantly, Humbert confronted Quilty, accused him of making his life miserable, and then shot him dead, evoking the three soldiers executed by firing squad at the end of PATHS OF GLORY, and the sad sight of Spartacus killing Antonius with a sword at the end of SPARTACUS.  Indeed, before he was killed, Quilty wrapped himself in a white bedsheet to create a makeshift toga and initially called himself Spartacus when Prof. Humbert asked him who he was, reminding us that Spartacus refused to confirm his identity to Crassus at the end of SPARTACUS and ironically reaffirming the link of the beginning of LOLITA to the end of SPARTACUS.  Fittingly, the last bullets to kill Quilty slammed through the canvas of an Eighteenth Century European painting of a beautiful young blonde woman that Quilty took cover behind, setting us up again for the arrival of the equally beautiful, young, blonde and implicitly art linked Lolita. 

Then the film went back in time four years to the arrival in the fittingly Woodholly cadenced resort town of Ramsdale, New Hampshire in the new quasi-imperial post-WWII Rome of the United States of the creepy, eccentric, fussy and stuffy Prof. Humbert, an arrival narrated in VO by Prof. Humbert which recounted his success at ingratiating himself into the house and life of his landlord, the blonde, Marilyn Monroe resembling and implicitly Old Hollywood linked Charlotte Haze-also implicitly linked to the Wicked Witch of the East by the music that preceded her appearance, and played by Shelley Winters-and his failure at wooing her equally blonde and Dorothy and New Hollywood linked daughter Lolita, whose left foot and carefully painted toes we had already come to know.  Indeed, the presence of Haze family friend Jean Farlow-played by Diana Decker-affirmed the film’s implicit interest in Old Hollywood, as her name evoked that of Jean Harlow. 

Curiously, Prof. Humbert’s tragicomic efforts to woo Lolita evoked not only Rapallo’s tragicomic efforts to woo Gloria in KILLER’S KISS but the tragicomic efforts by the equally eccentric, fussy, stuffy and tinny Hitchcock to ingratiate himself with the Good War generation of Americans and then their indie rockin’ Rebel Boomer children with his film art after moving to the United States in 1939, and his equally creepy and tragicomic obsessions with short and curvaceous Hollywood blondes like Kelly.  Indeed, the fact that the film was shot in the Hitchcock style, complete with rear projection for close up driving scenes, and the choice of Mason as obsessed, tragicomic and film long VO narration providing Humbert affirmed the implicit Hitchcock roasting intent of LOLITA, as Mason played sinister Phillip Vandamm in the allegorical Hitchcock docufeature film NORTH BY NORTHWEST [1959]. 

In addition, when first met sunbathing in the backyard of the Haze house, Lolita in her skimpy two piece bikini, white angelfeather sunhat-which reaffirmed her implicit link to the Hollywood film art of the city of the Angels-and sunglasses looked like the twin sister of Frances Stevens-played by Kelly-who was also first met sunbathing in sunglasses, sunhat and two piece bikini in the allegorical and implicitly Ida Lupino addressing Hitchcock docufeature film TO CATCH A THIEF [1955], linking Lolita to Stevens and reaffirming the implication that Kubrick was roasting Hitchcock in LOLITA.  The black and white LOLITA also evoked the equally black and white and allegorical Hitchcock docufeature film PSYCHO [1960], also affirming the implicit Hitchcock roasting intent of LOLITA.  Last but not least, the tragicomic sight and sound of Humbert, Lo and Charlotte quaking in the Haze car as they watched the allegorical Terence Fisher docufeature film THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN [1957] at a drive-in also affirmed that an English film artist with a fondness for horror was being roasted in LOLITA and openly linked Hum, Charlotte and Lo to English feature film art.

Significantly, soon after watching that clip of THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, Charlotte, Humbert and Lo met Quilty and his female companion Vivian Darkbloom-as silent as the nameless and beautiful young brunette woman in FEAR AND DESIRE, and played by Marianne Stone-for the first time at a dance at Ramsdale High School.  Curiously, Darkbloom looked and dressed like Nurmi, who played the undead Vampire Girl in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, implicitly linking Quilty to Wood jr., an implicit link affirmed by the film’s allusions to GLEN OR GLENDA, NIGHT OF THE GHOULS and PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.  Just as curiously, after the death of Charlotte, which facilitated the openly amorous relationship of Prof. Humbert and Lolita which was noticed by a concerned Quilty when they met again, the film moved inexorably and tragicomically full circle to the arrival of the despondent and vengeful Prof. Humbert at the mansion of the mischievous Quilty, determined to gun him down for helping Lo escape his besotted clutches and run off with and marry the affable young Boomer Richard P. Schuler-played by Gary Cockrell-like Kelly fled Hitch and Hollywood for Monaco and its Prince.  A sight and sound that reminded us of the sight and sound of the implicitly Hitchcock linked Insp. Clay frozen with fear in a graveyard and desperately trying to gun down the relentlessly and remorselessly approaching Vampire Girl and the Ghoul Man before they transformed him into an undead monster midway through PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, reaffirming the implicit links of Humbert and Quilty to Hitchcock and Wood jr. 

Thus, given that both Humbert and Quilty failed to win over young and gleefully irreverent Lolita to each of their causes, Kubrick implied that not only Wood jr. but also Hitchcock would fail to win over the equally gleefully irreverent and anti-establishment young audiences and film artists of New Hollywood to their respective causes.  Doomed attempts that were, nonetheless, implicitly acknowledged and sympathized with by Francis Coppola in the LOLITA evoking and implicitly Hitchcock and Kubrick toasting indie docufeature film DEMENTIA 13 [1963], a film released on August 7, 1963 that was arguably the first feature film of New Hollywood.  Last but not least, the resemblances of Schuler and a hospital receptionist named Miss Fromkiss-played by Maxine Holden-to Alfred E. Neuman, the perennially grinning and gaptoothed face of MAD Magazine, reminded us that the mischievous Boomers luved MAD Magazine-indeed, a paperback collection of MAD was seen on a kitchen bookshelf in the Haze house-and prepared us for even more merciless roasts of Old Hollywood film artists to the Mutually Assured Delight [MAD] of audiences when Kubrick put on the MAD cap for his next feature film. 1

Curiously, the resemblance and implicit link to Kubrick of the first male customer-played by Alain Smithee-of newfound prostitute Nana-played by Anna Karina-implied that Jean-Luc Godard thought that Kubrick was abandoning indie film art for film art’s sake in favour of Hollywood film art for beastly blockbuster loot’s sake with films like SPARTACUS in the allegorical indie docufeature film VIVRE SA VIE [1962], a film released on August 28, 1962.  Indeed, a poster for SPARTACUS seen on a cinema wall shortly before the arrival of that first customer affirmed his implicit link to Kubrick.  As for Hitchcock, he implicitly warned the cocky and confident young Kubrick to be careful, lest a film that was too controversial caused the usually placid audiences of the world to rise up en masse against him like the usually placid birds of the northern California town of Bodega Bay rose up en masse to attack the Douglas resembling and implicitly Kubrick linked Mitchell “Mitch” Brenner-played by Rod Taylor-his mother, the implicitly Old Hollywood linked and Charlotte Haze evoking Lydia Brenner-fittingly played by Old Hollywood veteran Jessica Tandy-the implicitly New Hollywood linked and Lolita evoking beautiful young blonde Melanie Daniels-fittingly played by brash newcomer Tippi Hedren-and the rest of the shocked and confused townspeople of the picturesque coastal town not far from San Francisco in the allegorical docufeature film THE BIRDS [1963], a film released on March 28, 1963 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to KILLER’S KISS, LOLITA and SPARTACUS.

For his part, with its allusions to LOLITA and SPARTACUS-complete with the return of composer Alex North from the latter-Joseph L. Mankiewicz implicitly roasted Kubrick and his docufeature film art in the symbolic form of Marc Antony and Queen Cleopatra-played by Burton and Taylor, respectively-in the allegorical docufeature film CLEOPATRA [1963], a ridiculously long and turgid four hour schlockbuster released on June 12, 1963 that almost singlehandedly destroyed Old Hollywood.  Stanley Kramer also implicitly roasted Stanley and Christiane Kubrick in the implicit forms of Melville and Monica Crump-played by Sid Caesar and Edie Adams, respectively-in the madcap, allegorical and implicitly Old Hollywood roasting docufeature film IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD [1963], released on November 7, 1963.  A madcap film that affirmed that Kubrick was right to don the MAD cap and the co-writer/director/producer hats and implicitly and gleefully roast Mankiewicz and Old Hollywood when he teamed up again with Hayden, Sellers, and LOLITA editor Anthony Harvey to implicitly and gleefully subvert and mock the beastly loot lustin’ blockbuster, and the truly MAD military doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction [MAD] that then prevailed in genocidal American military “thinking”, when he kicked off the new film art year with the allegorical black and white indie docufeature film DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB [1964], released on January 29, 1964 and inspired by the allegorical Peter Bryant indie docufiction novel Red Alert aka Two Hours To Doom [1958].

 

“Gentlemen,

you can’t fight in here.

This is the War Room!”

 

Curiously, after a short and VO accompanied prologue shot from an airplane over fog shrouded mountains in northern Russia near the Zhokov Islands that revealed that the Soviets had created a mysterious “Doomsday Machine” in this remote and inaccessible location, the opening titles-including the first one, which proudly declared “…COLUMBIA PICTURES CORPORATION PRESENTS A STANLEY KUBRICK PRODUCTION”-played over an implicitly copulatory sequence also shot from an airplane that saw an United States Army Air Force [USAAF] refuelling plane filling up a B52 bomber to the sound of soft, tender and string filled symphonic music that evoked similar music that accompanied the opening titles sequence of LOLITA.  This evocation of LOLITA was reaffirmed when Sellers reappeared as the Disney and Wood jr. resembling Royal Air Force [RAF] Group Captain Lionel Mandrake.  Significantly, RAF Group Captain Mandrake’s possible link to Wood jr. was affirmed when he was soon ordered over the phone by the implicitly Samuel Fuller linked USAAF General Jack D. Ripper-played by Hayden-to transmit Wing Attack Plan R to all U.S. B52 bomber crews in the air, for Plan R evoked the legendary and alien Plan 9 to animate the dead on Earth seen and heard in PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

From this point, the MADcap film resembled a live action MAD movie roast that implicitly and satirically likened the frantic but doomed attempts of older film artists at the time like Disney, Ford, Fuller, Hitchcock, Mankiewicz, John Huston and Sam Peckinpah to create and release full colour Old Hollywood blockbuster beasts for the studios like CLEOPATRA and 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA that would appeal to young Rebel Boomer audiences and lure them away from their beloved television sets, rock and roll, junk food, popular beverages, comic books and MAD magazines and back to the struggling cinemas to the equally doomed and tragicomic attempts of RAF Group Captain Mandrake, the implicitly Ford linked B52 bomber pilot Major T.J. “King” Kong-his nickname and surname fittingly and openly linking the film to cinematic blockbuster beasts, and played by Slim Pickens-the Johnson evoking and implicitly Hitchcock linked Soviet ambassador Alexej de Sadesky-played by Peter Bull-the implicitly Huston linked Colonel “Bat” Guano-played by Keenan Wynn-and the implicitly Mankiewicz linked General Buck Turgidson-played by George C. Scott-to prevent the MADcap machinations of Gen. Ripper, his insane orders evoking Gen. Mireau’s attempt to order his artillery to fire on his own troops in PATHS OF GLORY, from setting off a world destroying nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. throughout the film.  The military men and politicians joining Gen. Turgidson, a frustrated, harried and implicitly Cecil B. DeMille linked Prasident Merkin Muffley-also played by Sellers-and a Stan “the Man” Lee resembling and possibly linked Doctor Strangelove-also played by Sellers-in the War Room reaffirmed that implication, as some resembled older film artists like D.W. Griffith, Fritz Lang and Louis B. Mayer.  This reminded us that some of the Senators in the Roman Senate in SPARTACUS also resembled and were implicitly linked to prominent members of the Hollywood film art community at the time like Brando, Burton, Fisher and Hitchcock.

Indeed, nothing summed up this desperate and doomed quest of Old Hollywood to excite the enthusiasm of young Rebel Boomer audiences with beastly blockbusters than the sight and sound of the whooping and hollering and cowboy hat wearing Major Kong riding a nuclear bomb down onto its Soviet target at the ironically boffo blockbuster climax of the film, a falling nuclear bomb and the apocalyptic chaos it unleashed that not only presciently presaged the end of the blockbuster obsessed Old Hollywood era but also ominously anticipated the falling helicopter of the TZ disaster and the apocalyptic chaos unleashed by the deadly crash.  A multi-nuclear orgasmic apocalyptic chaos that brought the fearless film full technosexual circle to the gently copulating planes at the beginning of the film.  However, while implicitly lampooning the desperate attempts of the more established Old Hollywood film artists to connect with young Rebel Boomer audiences so as to continue to enjoy beastly blockbuster hits, Kubrick clearly wondered if it was possible to actually pull off this feat with a new style of film art that would affirm that “…commercial success was perfectly compatible with thematically and/or formally challenging films” 2 in DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB.

And so Godard implicitly approved of LOLITA, for he allowed the implicitly Kubrick linked Franz-played by Sami Frey-to survive the botched robbery that killed his implicitly Harris linked partner Arthur-played by Claude Brasseur-and flee with beautiful Odile-played by Karina-at the end of the LOLITA cadenced allegorical indie docufeature film BANDE A PART aka BAND OF OUTSIDERS [1964], released on July 29, 1964.  And so Sergio Leone implicitly linked Kubrick to an unhappy but steadfast Union officer-played by Aldo Giuffre-in the allegorical indie docufeature film THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY [1966], a film released on December 23, 1966 whose implicit Kubrick addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to PATHS OF GLORY.  And so young Rebel Boomer and indie University of Southern California [USC] film school student George Lucas jr. implicitly linked Kubrick to rebellious underground world citizen THX 1138-played by Don Nachtsheim-whose successful escape from his depressing and suppressing underground world implicitly symbolized the hope of Lucas that Kubrick would escape from the Cold War gloom and doom that caused him to make the brilliant and MADcap but depressing and world destroying DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB at the end of the allegorical and indie docufeature short film ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH THX 1138 4EB [1967].  And so Arthur Penn and company implicitly roasted Kubrick and LOLITA in their allegorical indie docufeature film BONNIE AND CLYDE [1967], released on August 4, 1967.

 

“Bye, baby.”

 

Indeed, the homicidal, Humbert evoking and implicitly Kubrick linked outlaw robber Clyde Barrow-played by Warren Beatty-his equally murderous, Lolita evoking and implicitly Christiane Kubrick linked outlaw sidekick Bonnie Parker-played by Faye Dunaway-Clyde’s gun blasting and Nabokov evoking and implicitly linked brother Buck Barrow-played by Gene Hackman-Buck’s violence deploring and Charlotte evoking wife Blanche Barrow-played by Estelle Parsons-their dimwitted, equally violent and Neuman evoking accomplice C.W. Moss-played by Michael J. Pollard-and C.W.’s outraged, law abiding and Hitchcock evoking and implicitly linked father Ivan Moss-played by Dub Taylor-affirmed the film’s implicit interest in roasting Kubrick and LOLITA.  Thus, given that Ivan Moss helped Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer-played by Denver Pyle-and the rest of the pursuing police trap and gun down Bonnie and Clyde, in the end, Penn implicitly hoped that the next film of Hitchcock would triumph over Kubrick.  Indeed, the fact that the license plate on the final stolen car that Bonnie and Clyde drove to their doom had the license 3-6126 affirmed the film’s implicit interest in Kubrick, for the license plate reminded us that LOLITA was released in 1962.  The film’s allusions to DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB and THE BIRDS reaffirmed the film’s implicit interest in Hitchcock and Kubrick.

Luckily for Kubrick, the demise of his film art and himself did not happen, for he did succeed in creating a new style of film art when he donned the co-writer/director/producer hats and teamed up with Arthur C. Clarke and LOLITA distributor MGM to fuse the fearless and mischievous docufeature film art for docufeature film art’s sake philosophy of LOLITA and DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB with the blockbuster size and scope of SPARTACUS to create the allegorical and Ozian themed docufeature artbuster 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [1968], released on April 2, 1968 and inspired by the allegorical Clarke indie docufiction short story “The Sentinel” [1951].

 

“Eighteen months ago,

the first evidence

of intelligent life off the Earth

was discovered.”

 

Significantly, the film began with a short prologue that saw the moon, Earth and sun align in cosmic harmony to the swelling and stirring sound of the opening of the allegorical Richard Strauss “tone poem” “Also Sprach Zarathustra” [1896] while, fittingly, three opening titles flashed on the screen, the second proudly asserting that the film was “…A STANLEY KUBRICK PRODUCTION”.  Then, equally fittingly, given that a blockbuster hit that set off a nightmarishly exuberant and multi-orgasmic nuclear Armageddon that killed most of the people and audiences of Earth and forced the few survivors to begin anew ended DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY began with a Dawn Of Man segment filled initially with multiple staccato shots of a nuclear explosion evoking sun rising in the eastern skies over barren and post-apocalyptic Earth evoking desertscapes that evoked those seen in FLYING PADRE and SPARTACUS.  Slowly, these establishing shots began focussing on tribes of primitive humans fighting amongst themselves in this desolate desertscape, fighting that fittingly evoked the fighting that had broken out between the film artists of Old and New Hollywood in the ruins of the Old Hollywood era with the release of BONNIE AND CLYDE.  Given that the side led by the implicitly Scarecrow linked Moonwatcher-played by Daniel Richter-were inspired by a towering and television evoking black rectangular monolith to create the bone weapons needed to kill and defeat the other tribe, Kubrick implied that he believed that the television inspired and luvin’ young indie Rebel Boomer film artists of New Hollywood would use all of the new tv, film and digital technology to defeat Old Hollywood and bring young audiences back to the Temple Theatre with innovative and hi-tech artbusters like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

Indeed, in the allegorical Clarke indie docufiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968], released in conjunction with the film and based on an early version of the film’s screenplay, there was a greater implicit link of the first monolith to television.  For the first monolith was not black and opaque but crystal, and hypnotizing colour shapes and images swirled over its surface, probing and teaching Moonwatcher’s tribe of early humans, affirming their implicit link to young tv luving Rebel Boomers and their indie film artists [Clarke pp. 10-22].  Thus, the sight and sound of Moonwatcher being inspired by the monolith to create and use a bone weapon to attack and kill the leader of the opposing tribe and then throwing this bone Warhammer into the air after defeating the other tribe, and the shot of the falling weapon cutting to a shot of a nuclear weapon armed satellite orbiting Earth in a future where space exploration was correctly anticipated to be driven by private corporations rather than public governments affirmed the implication that Kubrick presciently anticipated that New Hollywood would use all of the new technology at its disposal to defeat Old Hollywood.

In addition, the scary appearance and the intimidating bone Warhammer used by Moonwatcher and the Earth bound home of his early human tribe evoked the implicitly Earth linked Scarecrow-played by Ray Bolger-in the allegorical and implicitly Prime Minister William King and Wicked Adolf Hitler roasting Victor Fleming film THE WIZARD OF OZ [1939], affirming the implicit Ozian theme of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  The rise and fall of the Warhammer also evoked the rise and fall of the Kansas farmhouse of lonely orphan waif Dorothy Gale-played by Judy Garland-that carried her and her Cairn terrier companion Toto-played by Terry-to the magical land of Oz at the beginning of THE WIZARD OF OZ to reaffirm the implicit Ozian theme of the film.  In addition, the metal machines that the rising bone Warhammer led to, including a half completed orbiting space station whose two wheels spun in space like two film projection reels, and the dry and frozen moon and the silver spacesuits of the implicitly Old Hollywood linked Doctor Heywood Floyd-his name fittingly looking and sounding like Hollywood Old, and played by William Sylvester-and his lunar companions linked the second half of the Dawn Of Man segment to the equally dry, frozen, metal, silver and implicitly Water linked Tin Man-played by Jack Haley-in THE WIZARD OF OZ. 

The discovery and unmooning of Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-1 [TMA-1], a second monolith on the moon, and the message it sent after being hit with sunlight that led to the USSC Discovery I spaceship being sent on a mission to Jupiter to investigate another monolith known as TMA-2 and to the orange spacesuit of the implicitly Lucas linked mission commander Doctor David Bowman-played by Keir Dullea-and his courageous and David versus Goliath evoking battle with the all seeing and all knowing onboard computer Heuristic Algorithmic 9000 aka HAL 9000-voiced by Douglas Rain-who started off implicitly linked to Glinda the Good before slowly but surely transforming into HEL 9000, the implicit Wicked Witch of the West, implicitly linked Dr. Bowman and the Mission To Jupiter segment of the film to the implicitly Fire linked Cowardly Lion-played by Bert Lahr-to continue the implicit Ozian theme of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  Last but not least, the sight and sound of Commander Bowman floating away from the USSC Discovery I in a pod before blasting off into hyperspace on an intergalactic voyage that led to mysteriously palatial and Emerald City evoking digs in the closing Jupiter And Beyond segment of the film evoked the implicitly Air linked and Emerald City ruling Great Oz-played by Frank Morgan-drifting away in his hot air balloon at the end of THE WIZARD OF OZ.

Significantly, the Great Bowman returned to Earth from his alien digs transformed into a Starchild at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY like a transformed Dorothy returned to Kansas at the end of THE WIZARD OF OZ in an unusually “happy” and triumphant end to the first Kubrick artbuster.  Or was the Starchild simply another pawn, this time of unseen extraterrestrials, thus implying that Kubrick believed that even in the vast reaches of space mankind would simply be pawns of more powerful forces?  At any rate, the segments of the film and the transformation of Bowman into Starchild, a transformation that was again linked to television in 2001: A Space Odyssey, for the Emerald City hotel suite that the Great Bowman found himself living in after his intergalactic journey was created from tv programmes from Earth [Clarke, 287], affirmed the implicit hope of Kubrick that film artists would embrace a new artbuster era that combined the best of film art and blockbuster dreams.  For the mostly silent and speechless first half of the Dawn Of Man segment evoked the mostly silent except for music era of film art; the eagerly talkative and music enhanced second half of the Dawn Of Man segment evoked the talkie era of film art; the artsy and cerebral Mission To Jupiter segment evoked the artsy and cerebral post-WWII film era; while the psychedelic Jupiter And Beyond final segment of the film embraced the psychedelic late Sixties era of film art, implying that Kubrick was meditating on the history of film art as well as trying to kick off a new and transformed Starchild film artist era of artbuster film art free from the disturbing and television evoking presence of Sentinel monoliths in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

Alas, the august Academy was so impressed with the first allegorical docufeature artbuster offering of Kubrick that they awarded 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY one whole Oscar for Best Visual Effects, which Kubrick shared as he had helped create and work on the film’s visual effects.  However, J. Lee Thompson implicitly liked 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, for he had the indie, indomitable and implicitly Kubrick linked Marshall Mackenna-played by Peck-team up with his implicitly Christiane Kubrick linked sweetie Inga Bergerman-played by Camilla Sparv-to triumph over the implicitly Coppola linked indie outlaw John Colorado-played by Omar Shariff-at the end of the allegorical docufeature film MACKENNA’S GOLD [1969], a film released on March 18, 1969 whose implicit Coppola and Kubrick addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to DEMENTIA 13 and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and by the return of Wynn as Sanchez, a member of the Colorado gang.

Curiously, a jealous Philip K. Dick implicitly roasted Clarke and Kubrick in the forms of world renowned scientist and writer Eric Cordon and returning interstellar traveller Thors Provoni in the allegorical indie docufiction novel Our Friends From Frolix 8 [June 1970].  For their part, Coppola and Lucas teamed up to implicitly roast the cult of Kubrick that had begun due to the success of his film art in the form of a roast of the implicitly Kubrick linked cult of OMM in the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film THX 1138 [1971], a film released on March 11, 1971 whose implicit Kubrick roasting intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to ELECTRONIC LABYRINTH THX 1138 4EB, SPARTACUS, and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  As for Kubrick, he implicitly replied to Penn and BONNIE AND CLYDE when he donned the writer/director/producer hats and rejoined 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY cinematographer John Alcott and Warner Brothers on the eerily twilit and allegorical docufeature artbuster A CLOCKWORK ORANGE [1971], a film released on December 19, 1971 that was inspired by the allegorical and implicitly Burroughs roasting Anthony Burgess indie docufiction novel A Clockwork Orange [1962].

 

“Cheers.

Happy days.”

 

Indeed, after three quick opening titles, the second of which proudly proclaimed the film “…A STANLEY KUBRICK PRODUCTION” in white letters on an azure background to implicitly reaffirm how passionately committed Kubrick was to his new artbuster path, the camera slowly pulled back from the wayward, exuberantly over the top, film long VO narration providing and implicitly Penn linked young futuristic hooligan Alexander “Alex” DeLarge-played by Malcolm McDowell-and his equally wayward and implicitly Blanche, Buck and C.W. linked “droogs” Dim, George and Pete-played by Warren Clarke, James Marcus and Michael Tarn, respectively-as they enjoyed an early evening drink at the Molokova Milkbar before heading out for another ultraviolent mayhem and rape filled night, immediately implicitly affirming that Kubrick was addressing Penn and BONNIE AND CLYDE throughout A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.  The furiously scowling portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven on the wall of the apartment bedroom of Alex reaffirmed that implication, for it evoked C.W.’s equally scowling father Mr. Moss in BONNIE AND CLYDE.  The Dirty Thirties headgear, including a black beret worn by Pete that evoked the black beret worn by Bonnie, and the footage from the allegorical Leni Riefenstahl documentary film TRIUMPH OF THE WILL [1935] also affirmed the implicit interest in BONNIE AND CLYDE in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

However, Kubrick also implied that he had mixed feelings about Penn and BONNIE AND CLYDE.  For Alex ended up being betrayed and attacked by his droogs one fateful night after killing the implicitly Pauline Kael linked Miss Weathers aka the Cat Woman-played by Miriam Karlin-in her house whose walls were filled with exuberantly and perhaps satirically or even ironically sexually explicit paintings by Christiane Kubrick, perhaps in retaliation for Kael’s equally exuberant review of BONNIE AND CLYDE.  The young hooligan was then arrested by the police, brought to trial, found guilty and sent to prison, but it was noticeable that he shrugged off the violent film aided Ludovico Treatment that was supposed to cure him of violent tendencies in order to secure an early release from prison and ended the film just as violent and rapacious as he started A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.  Thus, Kubrick implied that while he was irritated that BONNIE AND CLYDE implicitly roasted LOLITA, Nabokov and himself and was gleefully returning the favour in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, he also implied that he was pleased that he had been roasted by an excellent film created by a talented film artist and hoped that Penn would withstand the criticism he received from society and Hollywood and go on to create more excellent and thought provoking indie film art.  Or was he trying to gently remind Penn and talented company that violence should not be casually embraced in life or film art, and fearing and anticipating that Penn would continue to be just as unconcerned about continuing to embrace violence in his film art as Alex was unconcerned about returning to a life of ultraviolent mayhem and rape at the end of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE?

At any rate, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE was another eerily and presciently twilit film, given that the number 655231 that was assigned to Alex during his sojourn in prison also anticipated the even more embattled and dread allegorical Zone Wars that broke out amongst audiences and between film artists world wide after the July 23, 1982 TZ disaster.  Indeed, a 236 hidden within the number almost eerily and presciently anticipated the 23782 date of the TZ disaster.  Curiously, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE also often evoked early allegorical David Cronenberg indie docufeature films like STEREO [1969] and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE [1970].  The cinematic Ludovico Treatment affirmed the implicit interest in young Cronenberg, for the treatment evoked the treatment used to develop the latent extrasensory powers [ESP] of select young subjects in STEREO.  The letters on the license plate of the stolen Durango 95 sports car that DeLarge and his droogs used to drive off in search of more ultraviolence at the beginning of the film also affirmed the possible Cronenberg addressing intent of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, for the letters “DAV” almost spelled Dave or David.  The resemblance of the ironically surnamed writer Mr. Frank Alexander-played by Patrick Magee-to Marshall McLuhan also reaffirmed Kubrick’s possible interest in a Canadian film artist linked to Toronto.  In addition, the resemblance to Rene Levesque of the police inspector-played by Lindsay Campbell-who oversaw the arrest of DeLarge; the resemblances to Leonard Cohen and Irving Layton of the two prisoners-played by Allan and Allen Smithee, respectively-who admired DeLarge at the prison Sunday church service; and the resemblance to then Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of the political advisor-played by A.L. Smithee-who trailed Freddie, the Ludovico Treatment embracing Minister of the Interior-played by Anthony Sharp-also affirmed Kubrick’s possibly implicit interest in and approval of the first allegorical indie docufeature film art of Cronenberg.

For his part, Sidney Lumet implicitly sternly replied to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and reminded Kubrick that violence in reality and in film art should not be taken lightly in a moving look at Sergeant “Johnny” Johnson-played by Sean Connery-a British police detective so haunted and traumatized by violence experienced during his decades with the police that he finally snapped and beat girl sexual assault suspect Kenneth Baxter-played by Ian Bannen-to death during an interrogation in the allegorical docufeature film THE OFFENCE [1973], a film released on January 11, 1973 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE and the presences of the Kubrick resembling and implicitly linked Chief Inspector Lawson-played by Ronald Radd-and of the Burroughs resembling and implicitly linked Detective Superintendent Cartwright-played by Trevor Howard.  Alas, that same year, Landis implicitly likened Kubrick’s cinematic attack on New Hollywood in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE to the tragicomic and film long homicidal rampages of a revived and implicitly Kubrick linked early human named Schlockthropus-played by Landis-straight out of the first part of the Dawn Of Man segment of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in the fittingly dismal and eerily twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film SCHLOCK [1973], a film released on April 11, 1973 that was as exuberantly awful as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, making Landis the new Wood jr., though clearly with a fondness for dressing up as an apeman rather than as a woman.

As for Coppola and Lucas, they again implicitly roasted Kubrick in the implicit form of a fast talking used car salesman-played by John Brent-in the allegorical, Ozian themed and implicitly Disney toasting and Ralph Bakshi roasting indie docufeature film AMERICAN GRAFFITI [1973], a surprisingly successful film released on August 1, 1973 that established Lucas as the new reigning box office King.  As for Kubrick, he took off his MADcap and embraced a more restrained and thoughtful outlook again when he donned the writer/director/producer hats and rejoined Alcott, Magee, Sharp, Milena Canonero and Jan Harlan-costume designer and assistant producer, respectively, on A CLOCKWORK ORANGE-Pat Roach and Philip Stone-who played a bouncer in the Korova Milkbar and Alex’s P, Mr. DeLarge, respectively, in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE-and Warner Brothers-distributor of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE-to implicitly roast Landis in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature artbuster BARRY LYNDON [1975], released on December 11, 1975 and inspired by the allegorical William M. Thackeray indie docufiction novel The Memoirs Of Barry Lyndon [1844].

 

“The fact is,

the young monkey’s fallen in love

with Nora…”

 

Curiously, after kicking off with an orange and white Warner Brothers logo that evoked the orange and white opening and closing titles of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, a fitting link, given that this latest Kubrick indie docufeature artbuster was about another rebellious and wayward young feller, there followed four opening titles, the first of which proudly proclaimed “…a film by STANLEY KUBRICK”.  Then began a familiar film long narrative VO-this time performed by Michael Hordern-so common to the documentary and docufeature film art of Kubrick, starting with a duel with pistols in an ironically peaceful rural field in Ireland that led to the death of an Irishman known only by his surname Barry-played by A.I. Smithee.  Significantly, this unexpected death of Barry led to his son, the naive and foolish Eighteenth Century “Enlightenment” country boy known initially as Redmond Barry of the Hollywood cadenced village of Barryville-played by Ryan O’Neal-being raised by his mother-played by Marie Kean-reminding us that Landis was also raised by his mother after losing his father early in life to affirm the implicit link of young Barry to young Landis.  Thus, Kubrick implied that young Barry’s naïve and tragicomic film long quest for fortune and glory after the death of his father symbolized the equally naïve and tragicomic quest of young Landis for cinematic fortune and glory throughout BARRY LYNDON.

Indeed, the fact that young Barry’s wealthy and Hitchcock resembling and implicitly linked Uncle Brady-played by the fittingly surnamed Liam Redmond-watched over Redmond and his mother after the death of his father reaffirmed the implicit link of Barry to Landis, implicitly linking Barry to film art and reminding us that a wealthy uncle of Landis persuaded his mother to move the two from Chicago to Los Angeles so he could watch over them after the death of the father of Landis.  In addition, a luv scene early in the film between Redmond and his ambitious and beautiful young Irish cousin Nora Brady-played by Gay Hamilton-evoked a similar luv scene between a luvstruck Schlock and his heart’s luv, the blind teen girl Mindy-played by Eliza Garrett-in SCLOCK, reaffirming the implicit link of Barry and Landis.  Last but not least, the sight and sound of a seasoned military veteran named Captain Grogan-played by Godfrey Quigley-taking Barry under his wing as his second in a duel that almost killed Nora’s Wood jr. resembling and possibly linked English fiancée Captain John Quin-a tragicomically fitting link that implied that Kubrick felt that Landis was taking over the title of Worst Director Ever from Wood jr., and played by Leonard Rossiter-also affirmed the implicit link of Barry and Landis, reminding us that seasoned Hollywood veteran George Folsey jr. also took Landis under his wing and produced SCHLOCK and went on to produce his other first films and the fateful and fatal Landis segment of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE.

Curiously, soon after fleeing his mother and Barryville on horseback to escape arrest after the illegal duel with Capt. Quin, Barry was relieved of his money by the notorious and implicitly Ford linked highwayman Capt. Feeney-played by Arthur O’Sullivan-and his implicitly Lucas linked son Seamus-played by Billy Boyle.  At this point, Barry’s tragicomic misadventures truly began, with the penniless young heller joining an Irish regiment in the British Army.  For he soon fought and won a boxing match that evoked those seen in DAY OF THE FIGHT and KILLER’S KISS with the much bigger and fittingly named Officer Toole-played by Roach-a bloody battle that also evoked Moonwatcher’s fight with the rival leader of another group of apemen in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  Barry also soon met and was taken under his wing again by Capt. Grogan.  However, after Capt. Grogan was killed in a Seven Year’s War battle with the French army, Barry was on his own again, a period in which he fell in and out of the Prussian Army and spent some time learning the tricks of the trade with the notorious and ambiguously linked card cheat Chevalier de Balibari-played by Magee.

However, Barry left behind the Chevalier and the card cheat life when he managed to ingratiate himself with and marry the wealthy, titled, Varinia and Charlotte Haze evoking and Deborah Nadoolman resembling and implicitly linked Lady Lyndon-another beautiful brunette in the docufeature film art of Kubrick, and played by Marisa Berenson-whose resemblance and implicit link to Nadoolman affirmed the implicit link of Barry to Landis, as Nadoolman was the wife of Landis.  Taking on the title of Barry Lyndon, a tragicomic new stage of Redmond’s journey, a stage in which he developed a fondness for the allegorical Ludovico Cordi painting “The Adoration Of The Magi” [1605] which implicitly linked him to the New Hollywood linked Alex via the Ludovico Treatment in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE to affirm the implicit link of Redmond to a young American film artist.  The sight and sound of Barry Lyndon being gunned down and grievously wounded in the end by Lady Lyndon’s outraged son Lord Bullingdon-played by Dominic Savage as a boy and by Leon Vitali as a young adult, respectively-reaffirmed the implicit link of Landis to Lyndon, reminding us that Schlock was also gunned down at the end of SCHLOCK.  The final duel also evoked the duel fought between Antonius and Spartacus at the end of SPARTACUS and brought BARRY LYNDON full circle, reminding us that the film began with Redmond’s father being shot dead in a duel.

Thus, in the quick rise, fall and disappearance of the ambitious but naïve, foolish, immature, lazy, lusty, untalented and unstable Barry Lyndis, a fall aided by the establishment of the era which crushed him like the Roman establishment crushed Spartacus, Kubrick implied his belief that the equally ambitious but naïve, foolish, immature, lazy, lusty, untalented and unstable Landis would also destroy himself and rise, fall and disappear if he persisted in his dubious delusion that he was a film artist, a destruction that would also be aided by the Hollywood establishment, in the end, a rise, fall and disappearance of another pawn of glory helped along by Kubrick, as BARRY LYNDON was another fine and memorable artbuster whose every naturally lit frame was a painting that easily obliterated SCHLOCK.  Alas for Kubrick, Landis somehow managed to stick around despite the fact that SCHLOCK was a flop, and lead audiences, film art, film artists and the Temple Theatre pell mell into the Twilight Zone.  In addition, Kubrick also implicitly and more gently roasted Lean, Spielberg and Volker Schlondorff in the implicit forms of the unswerving Reverend Samuel Runt, the homosexual Lieutenant Jonathan Fakenham and Prussian Captain Potzdorf-played by Murray Melvin, Jonathan Cecil and Hardy Kruger, respectively-in BARRY LYNDON.

Fittingly, BARRY LYNDON won four Oscars for Best Adapted Musical Score, Best Art/Set Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design, implying that the august Academy was impressed with the artbuster approach to film art.  Indie English newcomer Ridley Scott was also implicitly impressed with the film, for he also exuberantly embraced the artbuster cause in his first fine feature film, the allegorical and implicitly Cronenberg toasting and Lucas roasting indie docufeature artbuster THE DUELLISTS [1977], a film that saw Hamiloton reappear as an unnamed soldier groupie and alluded often to BARRY LYNDON to implicitly affirm Scott’s commitment to the artbuster.  Perhaps impressed by how Alcott and Kubrick made every frame of BARRY LYNDON look like a moving painting, New Hollywood abruptly left behind its art for art’s sake and low budget beginnings and also embraced the big budget allegorical artbuster as in the eerily and presciently twilit, allegorical and implicitly Huston roasting Coppola indie docufeature film APOCALYPSE NOW [1979].  Significantly, this mass embrace of the artbuster ended the war between Old and New Hollywood as it united the high artistic, intellectual, philosophical and sociocultural ideals of New Hollywood with the populist and commercial goals of Old Hollywood, creating one united artbustin’ Hollywood led by dedicated and unswerving adherents like Scott and international devotees like Cameron, Coppola, Sir Jackson, Luc Besson, Kathryn Bigelow and Tim Burton to this day, no doubt to the satisfaction of Kubrick. 

Curiously, Richard Donner implicitly linked Kubrick to the high flyin’, indomitable albeit mousey, mild mannered and bespectacled DAILY PLANET reporter Clark “Kal-El” Kent aka “Superman”-played by Lee Quigley as a baby, Aaron Smolinksi as a boy, Jeff East as a troubled teen, and Christopher Reeve as an adult, respectively-and had him battle and defeat the implicitly Prime Minister Trudeau linked criminal mastermind Alexander “Lex” Luthor-played by Hackman-in the eerily twilit and allegorical super satirical docufeature film SUPERMAN [1978], a film released on December 15, 1978 and inspired by a character created by Genial Jerry Siegel and Joltin’ Joe Shuster for Detective Comics [DC] that singlehandedly created the super satirical film craze that defiles the Temple Theatre to this day.  For his part, Cronenberg implicitly and sympathetically hoped that Kubrick would continue to succeed and defeat all other film artists with his indie artbuster dreams like the implicitly Kubrick linked indie drag racer Lonnie Johnson aka “Lucky Man”-played by William Smith-succeeded as both the head of an indie drag race team and its top driver and defeated the blockbuster loot obsessed and implicitly Lucas linked Phil Adamson-played by John Saxon-and his FastCo drag race team in the eerily twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film FAST COMPANY [1979], a film released on March 18, 1979 whose implicit Kubrick addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, BARRY LYNDON, LOLITA, SPARTACUS and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  As for Spielberg, he implicitly linked Kubrick to the tragicomically indie P-40 Tomahawk fighter pilot “Wild” Bill Kelso-played by John Belushi-and fittingly had him first TKO the implicitly Screamin’ Stephen King linked Winowski-played by Ronnie McMillan-and then punch up and steal the motorcycle of the U.S. Army dispatch driver Mizerany-his surname all too fittingly evoking misery, as he was played by Landis-in the exuberantly madcap, frenetic and eerily twilit, allegorical and implicitly New and Old Hollywood roasting docufeature film 1941 [1979], released on December 13, 1979.

Significantly, the following year saw the higher minded, Kubrick resembling and implicitly linked Lord Shingen Takeda-played by Tatsuya Nakadai-killed by an enemy army sniper-played by Akihiko Sugizaki-and permanently replaced by his lower minded and lookalike security double-also played by Nakadai-in the allegorical Akira Kurosawa docufeature artbuster KAGEMUSHA aka THE SHADOW WARRIOR [1980], a film released on April 23, 1980 which implied that the higher minded Kubrick who made films like SPARTACUS had been permanently replaced by 1980 by the lower minded Kubrick who made films like LOLITA, an implication affirmed by the film’s allusions to BARRY LYNDON, SPARTACUS and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  As for Kubrick, he also returned to the Temple Theatre that year when he donned the co-writer/director/producer hats and collaborated again with Alcott, Canonero, Harlan, Stone, Turkel, Vitali and Warner Brothers on the eerily twilit and allegorical indie docufeature artbuster THE SHINING [1980], a “horrorshow” released on May 23, 1980 and inspired by the allegorical and implicitly Kubrick roasting King indie docufiction novel The Shining [1977], an ironically implicit interest in roasting Kubrick affirmed by the novel’s allusions to BARRY LYNDON, LOLITA, SPARTACUS and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

 

“Hey.

Wasn’t it around here

that the Donner party

got snowbound?”

 

Significantly, the film began with an eerily twilit helicopter shot of a tiny yellow Volkswagen bug driving along a spectacular but menacing and maze evoking mountain highway to the Overlook Hotel, a drive filled with light blue and digital-like opening titles that drifted up the screen and disappeared, starting with the first title, which stated succinctly “…A STANLEY KUBRICK FILM.”  This sequence immediately implied an implicit Cronenberg addressing intent to THE SHINING, for this spectacular beginning evoked the equally spectacular but less ominous sight of Fast Company race team trucks rolling along an Albertan highway overshadowed by the Rockies at the beginning and throughout FAST COMPANY.  One of the two eerie and menacing electronic pieces composed for the film by Wendy Carlos that accompanied this visually stunning opening titles sequence also immediately affirmed the film’s implicit interest in Cronenberg, for this eerie and ominous electronic composition evoked the equally eerie and moody electronic score composed by Cronenberg for CRIMES OF THE FUTURE and STEREO, and also sounded like the equally eerie electronic score composed by Howard Shore and heard that year in the ominously twilit and allegorical Cronenberg indie docufeature film SCANNERS [1980].

However, this implicit interest in Cronenberg disappeared at the isolated Overlook Hotel, a hotel as huge, lavishly furnished and filled with art as the Lyndon family’s Castle Hackton in BARRY LYNDON.  For the VW’s driver turned out to be the troubled and Donner resembling and implicitly linked English teacher/writer John Daniel “Jack” Torrance-played by Jack Nicholson-implying that Kubrick was roasting Donner and SUPERMAN in THE SHINING.  Indeed, the resemblance and implicit link of Torrance’s wife Wendy-played by Shelley Duvall-to intrepid and assertive DAILY PLANET reporter Lois Lane-played by Margot Kidder-in SUPERMAN affirmed the implicit interest in replying to Donner in THE SHINING.  In addition, the fondness of Torrance’s psychic and trance plagued son Danny Torrance-played by the curiously but fittingly named Danny Lloyd-for red and blue shirts and sweaters also affirmed the film’s implicit Donner addressing intent, for they reminded us of the red and blue super suit of Clark “Kal-El” Kent aka “Superman”-played by Christopher Reeve-in SUPERMAN.

Even the red and white package of Marlboros that Torrance liked to smoke affirmed the film’s implicit interest in SUPERMAN, evoking the red, white and true national colours and Maple Leaf flag of Canada to remind us that SUPERMAN was filmed partly in Canada and was a character co-created by Canadian artist Joltin’ Joe Shuster with American writer Genial Jerry Siegel.  A tiny maple leaf seen pinned to the red sweater of Danny late in the film as he experienced the start of the final showdown between his parents reaffirmed the film’s implicit interest in the maple leaf linked country of Canada.  Last but not least, the presence of paintings by Alex Colville and Norval Morrisseau in the maze of hallways and rooms of the Overlook Hotel, a huge, haunted, sentient, and watchful labyrinth that evoked the equally watchful HAL in the equally isolated and labyrinthine corridors and rooms of the USSC Discovery I spacecraft in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and the bitterly cold, lonely and snowswept winter that the events of the film took place in not only evoked Canada again, but reminded us that Superman’s Fortress of Solitude was located in the equally bitterly cold and snowswept North Pole in Canada.  Thus, the sight and sound of Torrance being slowly transformed over the course of a brutally cold winter by the Dark Force of the Overlook Hotel into an inarticulately snarling and snorting “manotaur”-rather than Juhani Pallasmaa’s minotaur 3-over the course of the film and freezing to death in a truly labyrinthine hedge maze in front of the hotel-as trapped in the maze as his yellow VW was in the drive along the maze-like highway to the Overlook at the beginning of the film-after trying to kill Danny and Wendy at the end of the film, Kubrick implied that Donner was not just freezing his creativity but destroying himself by choosing to create the exuberantly beastly and blockbuster loot obsessed SUPERMAN, which unleashed one of the biggest, if not the biggest, movie tie-in merchandise campaigns in film history on the world.

Indeed, Kubrick used a mirror reflection of Torrance to implicitly signal that Torrance was parting ways with grounded and harmonious reality and heading off on a disharmonious and unstable path to implicitly affirm that he believed that Donner was following the wrong horrorshow path in the first major use of dangerous mirror reflections in a Kubrick film since KILLER’S KISS.  Significantly, the first major use of this subtle signal in THE SHINING was effectively combined with a zoom shot.  For as Wendy brought a still sleeping Jack his breakfast in bed one morning about halfway through the film, a zoom away from Torrance slowly revealed that the audience had been actually watching a dangerous mirror reflection of this unexpected and luving breakfast service.  Making the Torrance that was seen waking up to this breakfast in bed already the Dark Side “Johnny” we encountered later trying to kill Wendy and Danny with an axe.  Indeed, the backwards letters on Jack’s t-shirt implicitly affirmed that he was no longer a rational human being and was now on a Dark path that led inexorably to equally irrational redrum.

Unusually, though, even Torrance noticed this subtle mirror signal that he was parting ways with balanced and sane reality while investigating spooky Room 237 and passionately embracing and kissing the initially beautiful, brunette and naked young ghost-who resembled Valerine Perrine, who played Eve Teschmacher in SUPERMAN, and was played by Lia Beldam-of the female guest who committed suicide in the room, a beautiful young ghost who evoked the topless actress-played by Virginia Weatherell-who tormented Alex after his Ludovico Treatment in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.  For at one point, Torrance looked up from the beautiful ghost woman and over her shoulder and saw to his horror in the mirror behind them both that his irrational Dark Side was kissing a rotting old woman-played by Billie Gibson-whose name curiously anticipated the arrival of “cyberpunk” literary artist William Gibson. 

Just as eerily, Room 237, which evoked the less fateful and fatal Sandman Inn room 237 in FAST COMPANY, ominously and presciently pointed the way to the 23/07/1982 date of the TZ disaster in yet another ominous memory of the twilit future in the film art of Kubrick.  A Room 237 made more eerie by the fact that the haunted room was originally Room 217 in The Shining, but was changed to the nonexistent Room 237 by Kubrick as the owners of the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Mount Hood Territory in northwest Oregon which was used for exteriors of the Overlook Hotel were worried that guests would never want to stay in Room 217 again after experiencing THE SHINING. 4  How also eerily prescient that the Timberline Lodge was located on Mount Hood, for Mt. Hood was approximately 3429 metres high, linking the film again to the fateful number 23.  The sight of a young tuxedoed man wearing glasses who resembled a young Landis standing behind Torrance in the photo of the Fourth of July 1921 ball at the Overlook Hotel in the last image of the film also eerily pointed the way to the TZ disaster.  Thus, with these eerie and prescient memories of the twilit and disastrous future, the shock of the TZ disaster and the dread allegorical Zone Wars that erupted after the disaster were fittingly and implicitly addressed by Kubrick when he returned to the Temple Theatre.  Last but not least, the resemblance of the ghost of the Overlook’s ex-caretaker Delbert Grady-played by Stone-to Hitchcock not only reaffirmed Kubrick’s fondness for roasting Hitch but was eerily fitting, given that Hitch died on April 29, 1980 shortly before the release of THE SHINING.

Curiously, soon after the release of the THE SHINING horrorshow, Landis returned to the Temple Theatre to implicitly roast Kubrick and Harlan in the implicit forms of Jacob “Jake” and Elwood Blues-played by Belushi and Dan Akroyd, respectively- in the twilit and allegorical docufeature film THE BLUES BROTHERS [1980], a film released on June 20, 1980 whose implicit allegorical intent was affirmed by allusions to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, KILLER’S KISS, SPARTACUS and THE KILLING.  Then the film year implicitly ended with first Kubrick being implicitly linked again to bespectacled and mild mannered DAILY PLANET reporter Clark “Kal El” Kent aka “Superman”-played again by Reeve-who battled and eventually defeated the Evil and implicitly Coppola, Lucas and Marcia Lucas linked Kryptonian trio Non, General Zod and Ursa-played by Jack O’Halloran, Terence Stamp and Sarah Douglas, respectively-in the eerily twilit and allegorical Donner and Richard Lester super satirical docufeature film SUPERMAN II [1980], released on December 4, 1980.

Soon after the release of SUPERMAN II, the battle between Kubrick and Landis was implicitly and gleefully linked to the battle between burly and bearded Bluto and spinach powered Popeye-played by Paul L. Smith and Robin Williams, respectively-in the allegorical Robert Altman docufeature film POPEYE [1980], which was released on December 6, 1980 and which saw Duvall reappear as Popeye’s favourite goyle, the sweet and implicitly Deborah Nadoolman linked Olive Oyl.  A fitting implication, for the following year Landis implicitly roasted Kubrick again by implicitly likening his tendency to change from serious film artist to over the top film artist to being akin to the sight and sound of young American tourist David Kessler-played by David Naughton-transforming into a werewolf while on a walking tour of England in the eerily and presciently twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON [1981], a film released on August 21, 1981 that affirmed its implicit Kubrick roasting intent with allusions to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.  An eerily and presciently twilit film, indeed, given that the TZ disaster occurred less than a year later and ended the New Hollywood era, outraged audiences and film artists, changed film art and the Temple Theatre forever, and kicked off the dread allegorical Zone Wars.

As for Michael Moorcock, he implicitly linked Kubrick to the elderly and ailing Count Rickhardt “Ricky” Von Bek, lying alone in a bed like Bowman at the end of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, reminiscing wistfully about his youthful days with Alexandra, Clara and Diana before, during and after the siege of the art luving, mythical, prosperous, storied and Hollywood cadenced and possibly linked city of Mirenburg, implying that Moorcock thought that the best years of Kubrick and Hollywood were in the past in the twilit and allegorical docufiction novel The Brothel In Rosenstrasse [1982], an implicit allegorical intent affirmed by the novel’s allusions to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, BARRY LYNDON, LOLITA, PATHS OF GLORY, THE SHINING and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  The following year, Lester implicitly linked Kubrick again to mild mannered but indomitable DAILY PLANET reporter Clark “Kal El” Kent aka “Superman”-played again by Reeve-in the twilit, allegorical and computer generated image [CGI] enhanced super satirical docufeature film SUPERMAN III [1983], released on June 17, 1983.  For his part, Peter Hyams implicitly affirmed that the world of film art was trapped in a twilit new era when he teamed up with Clarke, Dullea and Rain on the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature artbuster 2010 [1984], released on December 7, 1984 and inspired by the twilit and allegorical Clarke indie docufiction novel 2010: Odyssey Two [December 1982].

 

“The first part of the journey

is about to end.”

 

Curiously, the still photographs from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY that accompanied the prologue that recapped the events of that wholly remarkable film for audiences evoked Kubrick’s LOOK magazine phots and the still photograph of the 1921 Fourth of July party crowd at the Overlook Hotel with a spiffy and happily smirking Torrance front and center that ended THE SHINING.  This fitting evocation of the last film of Kubrick continued when 2010 began with a meeting between the implicitly Lucas linked Doctor Heywood Floyd-played by Roy Scheider-and the Hitchcock resembling and implicitly linked Soviet scientist Dr. Dimitri Moisevitch-played by Dana Elcar-at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of radio telescopes in Socorro, New Mexico.  For this secret meeting evoked the fateful conversation between Torrance and the equally Hitchcock resembling and implicitly linked ghost of Grady the Overlook caretaker in the bathroom of the Gold Room in THE SHINING, linking 2010 to the last film of Kubrick in Kubrick fashion.  A creepily ghostly evocation, indeed, for it anticipated Dr. Floyd’s meeting with the equally ghostly and multiple manifestations of Cdr. David Bowman-played again by Dullea-onboard the USSC Discovery I in orbit around Jupiter after Dr. Moisevitch helped Dr. Floyd be picked to be a part of the Soviet expedition to the gas giant to find out what happened to the American spaceship, its astronauts and HAL.  Curiously, the scenes at the Floyd house before Dr. Floyd headed off to Jupiter and back on the Soviet spaceship, the Alexei Leonov, also evoked THE SHINING.  For Dr. Floyd’s wife and young son Caroline and Christopher Floyd-played by Madolyn Smith and Taliesin Jaffe, respectively-evoked Wendy and Danny Torrance.

Just as curiously, Dr. Moisevitch also evoked de Sadesky of DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, which fit well with the MADcap and Cuban missile-style tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. over Honduras over the course of the film that led to tensions between the American and Soviet crew members onboard the Alexei Leonov during the second mission to Jupiter.  Implicitly twilit tensions, for Dr. Floyd’s two American colleagues, computer expert Dr. S. Chandra and USSC Discovery II spaceship engineer Walter Curnow-played by Bob Balaban and John Lithgow, respectively-evoked CGI creator Edwin Catmull and eager pupil John Lasseter, while Soviet Commander Tanya Kirbuk, her co-pilot, Yuri Svetlanov, and their cosmonaut colleague Maxim Brajlovsky-played by Helen Mirren, Vladimir Skomarovsky and Elya Baskin, respectively-evoked Kennedy, Landis and Spielberg, respectively.  Thus, the sight and sound of the implicitly CGI linked and hi-tech Americans helping the TZ disaster linked Soviets successfully pull off the second mission to Jupiter implied the hope of Hyams that the CGI championed by Catmull, Lasseter and Lucas would save film art and free it and Folsey jr., Kennedy, Landis, Marshall and Spielberg from any further TZ disaster-style film set disasters.  Indeed, the presence of Lithgow as Curnow openly linked the film to the TZ disaster, as Lithgow played the bugged out, gremlin plagued and implicitly Gibson linked airplane passenger John Valentine in the twilit and allegorical Miller episode “Nightmare At 20,000 Feet”, the last episode of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE.

The sight and sound of the mysterious and again unseen extraterrestrials using TMA-2, the monolith orbiting Jupiter, to collapse the gas giant into a new and smaller sun called Lucifer in an explosive and CGI enhanced rebirth that ended the conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and turned the night on Earth into an uneasy twilight except for those months when the new sun was passing behind the old sun in its orbit also implicitly affirmed that Hyams was aware that a twilit and CGI enhanced new era of film art had been created by the equally explosive TZ disaster.  Hyams also implied that he believed that this twilit new era of CGI enhanced film art would no longer by dominated by Lucas despite his support for CGI.  For the explosive destruction of Jupiter evoked the explosive destruction of the Death Moon at the end of the allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Spielberg roasting Lucas indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE [1977] and at the end of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed, Lucas executive produced and implicitly Spielberg roasting Richard Marquand indie docufeature film STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI [1983], signalling the end of the Skyrocking Lucas era and affirming the implicit interest in Lucas in 2010.  And the implicit end of the film art of Spielberg, given that Brailovsky was sucked into the stargate and taken off onto a trip beyond the beyond when his EVA pod got too close to the second and larger monolith orbiting Jupiter.

However, with the film ending not with the safe arrival of the Alexei Leonov back in Earth orbit but on the daylit, primeval, and monolith guarded brave new world of Europa, Hyams implied his hope that CGI enhancement would indeed one day free film art from the twilight and kick off a brave neo world of daylit and CGI enhanced film art.  Curiously, one of the Soviet cosmonauts cheekily resembled and was implicitly linked to Kubrick, implying the conviction of Hyams that Kubrick would eagerly embrace and advance CGI enhanced film art perhaps so as to free film art from the Twilight Zone, given the memorable special and visual effects seen in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  As for Lynch, he implicitly liked Smith’s implicit link to Kubrick in POPEYE, for he also used Smith to play the implicitly Kubrick linked Beast Rabban in the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Cronenberg toasting indie moving painting DUNE [1984], released on December 14, 1984.

Curiously, while Kubrick implicitly understood the importance of the TZ disaster, he showed no interest in CGI when he donned the co-writer/director/producer hats and teamed up again with Harlan, Vitali and Warner Brothers on the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature artbuster FULL METAL JACKET [1987], released on June 17, 1987 and inspired by the allegorical Gustav Hasford indie docufiction novel The Short-Timers [1979].

 

“Private Joker is silly

and he’s ignorant,

but he’s got guts,

and guts is enough!”

 

Curiously, after the Warner Brothers logo, the film began with an opening title proclaiming that the film was “…A STANLEY KUBRICK FILM” to the sound of the all too fittingly named Johnny Wright crooning “…goodbye my darling, hello Vietnam” from the allegorical and Tom T. Hall written tune “Hello Vietnam” [1965] as U.S. Marine barbers used razors to quickly shear off the hair of a group of new recruits heading into basic training before being sent to Vietnam like lambs to the slaughter, immediately and implicitly affirming that Kubrick understood that the TZ disaster, which had taken place during a recreated Vietnam War sequence in the Landis segment of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, was a seminal event that had ended a sunlit era of Skyrocking New Hollywood film art and created a troubled, haunted and twilit new world of film art.  Not surprisingly, these new recruits resembled and were implicitly linked to film artists like Cameron, Kubrick, Landis, Scott, and Woody Allen also immediately and implicitly affirming that Kubrick was aware that the fact that the TZ disaster had occurred on a simulated Vietnam War village set linked all of the film artists of the era to Landis, the TZ disaster, the Vietnam War and films about the Vietnam War and trapped them all in the Twilight Zone.

Ominously, shearing their fleece and kitting them out in the same drab green uniforms robbed the new recruits of their individual humanity, reminding us that Torrance lost his humanity by the end of THE SHINING.  This prepared us for the recruits also being transformed into their murderous Dark Sides by their ironically surnamed senior supervising drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman-played by R. Lee Emery-during basic training, an indomitable, intimidating, unhesitating and verbally abusive man who evoked the military martinet Chief Guard-played by Michael Bates-in the prison scenes in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.  Indeed, to implicitly affirm that they were being transformed into their irrational murderous Dark Sides like Torrance, the recruits were soon given new nicknames by Gunnery Sgt. Hartman, reminding us that Jack called himself Johnny not long before he descended into full incoherent and snarling Dark Side manotaur fury at the end of THE SHINING.  These nicknames also affirmed the film’s implicit interest in Landis, for they evoked the nicknames given by Bluto to new fraternity members of Delta House in ANIMAL HOUSE, an implicit interest in Landis reaffirmed by the film’s allusions to AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and BARRY LYNDON.  This implicit interest in Landis was also affirmed by the fact that the film’s VO narrator was the implicitly Landis linked Private J.T. Davies-played by Matthew Modine-who was dubbed “Joker” by Gunnery Sgt. Hartman after daring to mock the senior drill instructor with a John Wayne voice while standing at attention in the barracks on the first day of training, a bit of foolish insolence that openly linked Joker to American film art and an American film artist who influenced New Hollywood film artists.

Significantly, Kubrick cut from implicitly film artist linked recruit to recruit before the barbers had shaved off all of their heads.  This left each recruit with the tops of their heads shaved but the sides of their heads unshaved, evoking the samurai with the tops of their heads shaved and the sides left long in the samurai films of Kurosawa.  Indeed, the final Marine barber looked like Kurosawa, affirming the film’s implicit interest in Kurosawa and reminding us that he had implicitly roasted Kubrick in KAGEMUSHA.  Just as significantly, of all of the new Marines, it was noticeable that only Pte. Leonard Lawrence aka “Gomer Pyle”-played by Vincent D’Onofrio-had a surname with eight letters like Kurosawa and looked like a heavy set sumo wrestler, implicitly linking him to Kurosawa.  Indeed, Pte. Lawrence’s unexpected facility with long range rifle sniping affirmed his implicit link to Kurosawa, reminding us that a bullet from an army sniper killed the virtuous and implicitly Kubrick linked Lord Shingen, his name an anagram of Shineng, evoking THE SHINING, a film being created as Kurosawa created KAGEMUSHA.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given this implicit link to Kurosawa, Pte. Lawrence was constantly verbally abused by Gunnery Sgt. Hartman over the course of the harsh basic training that transpired over most of the first half of the film, a harsh basic training that evoked the equally harsh training the gladiators received from the equally abusive ex-gladiator Marcellus-played by Charles McGraw-at the gladiator school of Batiatus before the gladiators rose up under the inspiration of Spartacus and achieved their freedom at the beginning of SPARTACUS.  As a choke hold Hartman put on Lawrence soon after meeting him evoked the infamous Force chokes of Darth Vader-played by David Prowse, who also played the bodyguard Julian in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and voiced by James E. Jones, who also played the wayward B-52’s bombardier Lieutenant Lothar Zogg in DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, respectively-in the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy, the implication was Hartman symbolized Lucas, who co-produced the international version of KAGEMUSHA with Coppola.  Thus, with Lawrence shooting Hartman dead before killing himself at the end of FULL METAL JACKET, Kubrick symbolically killed Kurosawa and Lucas with one rifle, a link to Kurosawa ironically affirmed by the single musical note heard on the soundtrack during the killings, which evoked the trademark lone wooden percussion note heard at times on Kurosawa soundtracks.

Those implicit murders carried out, Kubrick then implicitly focussed on Landis in the form of Pte. “Joker” Davis, his implicitly Terry Gilliam linked photojournalist pal Pte. Rafterman-played by Kevyn M. Howard-their implicitly Disney linked friend Payback-played by Kirk Taylor-and their tragicomic misadventures in country covering the war in Vietnam for STARS AND STRIPES during the second half of FULL METAL JACKET.  Here the implicit link of Joker to Landis was affirmed by the line “…I’m gonna tear you a new asshole” that Animal Mother-played by Adam Baldwin-spat at him on their first meeting in the war ravaged ruins of the city of Hue, for the threat evoked a similar line heard in the first post-TZ disaster twilit and allegorical Landis docufeature film TRADING PLACES [1983].

Surprisingly, given the treatment Landis implicitly received in BARRY LYNDON, Joker survived his tour of duty in the TZ disaster haunted Vietnam War.  Significantly, the film climaxed in Hue with a Duvall resembling Viet Cong sniper-played by Le Ngoc-killing the implicitly Allen linked Cowboy-played by Arliss Howard-and plaguing the rest of the manotaur soldiers with her deadly and accurate shots, causing the soldiers to roar in inarticulate and despondent minotaur fury like Johnny at the end of THE SHINING when they were shot by her, a deadly sniper who was the third in a twilit trio of Vietnamese women met in part two after the two hookers-played by Papillon Soo Soo and Leanne Hong, respectively-the second hooker openly linked to film art as she solicited Joker and his band of manotaurs outside the ruins of a cinema in Hue and took them inside to help them release their sexual frustrations and tensions.  Just as significantly, after she was tracked down to her secretive lair and wounded by the soldiers, it was Joker who killed the sniper, in the end, a killing that grimly allowed Joker to fulfill the “BORN TO KILL” slogan written in black marker on the front of his helmet, implying that Kubrick believed that the TZ disaster had revealed Landis to indeed be a killer, or that Kubrick was symbolically allowing Landis to exorcise the disaster and move on, or maybe both.

At any rate, Joker’s killing of the sniper also evoked the killing of a fleeing young female prisoner by the possibly Disney linked Sidney in FEAR AND DESIRE.  A grimly fitting possible evocation of Disney, for Kubrick then allowed Joker to march off into the night with his head held high with the rest of his implicitly TZ disaster scarred but now equally liberated band of film artist brothers like they once marched on the parade square in basic training, all ironically singing the allegorical and Jimmie Dodd written Mickey Mouse Club theme in the ruins of Hue, a city whose named was pronounced “Way” but looked like Huey of Huey, Dewey and Louie fame, the grand-nephews of Uncle Scrooge McDuck, all Disney characters.  A tragicomic sight and sound that implied, in the end, the sarcastic and caustic conviction of Kubrick that once the TZ trial was over in 1987, a trial which in fact had already ended by the time of the release of FULL METAL JACKET with Landis and his four co-defendants found not guilty of manslaughter, the “shattered” Brotherhood of the Screen film artists of New Hollywood would head off to create Disney-style, CGI enhanced and product placement filled blockbuster filmmercials for movie tie-in merchandise for their Hollywood studio puppet masters like good obedient pawns of glory as unquestioningly and uncomplainingly as the Brotherhood of the Marines in the film fought and died in Vietnam for their military and political puppet masters in Washington.  Thus, FULL METAL JACKET ended on a familiar implicitly outraged note in the film art of Kubrick, for the grimly ironic ending evoked the equally unquestioning French Great War soldiers going over the top and launching their futile attack on the Ant Hill in PATHS OF GLORY, the unquestioning ranks of legionnaires under the command of Crassus arranging themselves for battle against Spartacus and his army of rebellious gladiators and slaves at the end of SPARTACUS, the nightmarishly unquestioning obedience of Major Kong and the rest of the doomed crew of the lone unrecalled B-52 bomber of DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB and the equally unquestioning ranks of Irish raised British redcoats marching into volleys of French rifle fire in a skirmish in the Seven Years War in BARRY LYNDON.  And the ants went marching one by one, indeed.

Fittingly, a month after the release of FULL METAL JACKET, Sidney J. Furie implicitly linked Kubrick again to mild mannered and bespectacled DAILY PLANET reporter Clark “Kal El” Kent aka “Superman”-played by Reeve-and had him take on and take out the implicitly Cameron linked Nuclear Man-played by Mark Pillow-in the twilit and allegorical super satirical docufeature film SUPERMAN IV [1987], released on July 23, 1987, the fateful fifth anniversary of the TZ disaster.  Then Clarke wrapped up the year by openly alluding to the Twilight Zone in the twilit and allegorical indie docufiction novel 2016: Odyssey Three [December 1987].  As for Richard J. Lewis, the sight and sound of the Kubrick resembling and implicitly linked hermetic pop musician Desmond Howl-played by Maury Chaykin-being inspired in part to complete his last opus after meeting a beautiful, young and Lolita evoking blonde woman named Claire-played by Cyndy Preston-implied the hope that Kubrick would also find the inspiration to complete and release his final opus in the twilit and allegorical indie docufeature film WHALE MUSIC [1994], a film released on September 8, 1994 whose implicit Kubrick addressing intent was affirmed by the film’s allusions to LOLITA and THE SHINING, complete with another Danny-played by Paul Gross-who haunted the film like a ghost in the Overlook Hotel, and a record manager named Kenneth Sexstone-played by Kenneth Welsh-who resembled and was implicitly linked to McDowell.

For his part, Robert Longo implicitly linked Kubrick to the digitally enhanced and also implicitly Scarecrow linked data carrier Johnny Mnemonic-played by Keanu Reeves-and had him decapitate the gleefully violent and implicitly Landis linked yakuza assassin Shinji-played by Denis Akiyama-at the end of the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and Gibson written indie docufeature film JOHNNY MNEMONIC [1995], a film released on April 15, 1995 whose implicit Kubrick addressing intent was affirmed by allusions to KILLER’S KISS, THE SHINING, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and 2010.  Kathryn Bigelow also implicitly roasted Kubrick in the form of the teenage girl experience luvin’ Superconducting Quantum Interference Device [SQUID] customer Keith-played by Joe Urla-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Lucas roasting and toasting indie docufeature artbuster STRANGE DAYS [1995], released on September 3, 1995.

As for Quentin Tarantino, he had some macabre fun teaming up again with Harvey Keitel and kicking off the new film year by implicitly mocking the implicit cinematic rivalry between Landis and Kubrick in the implicit form of the tragicomic rivalry between the implicitly Landis and Kubrick linked and psychotically violent brothers Richard “Richie” and Seth Gecko-played by Tarantino and George Clooney, respectively-and also implicitly roasting Francis and Sofia Carmina [SCC] Coppola in the implicit forms of the Christian faith questioning Jacob Fuller and his less doubtful daughter Kate-played by Keitel and Juliette Lewis, respectively-as all four battled hordes of undead vampires one fateful night at the Titty Twister strip club just south of the El Paso border in sunny Mexico in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced and Tarantino written and co-executive produced Robert Rodriguez indie docufeature film FROM DUSK TILL DAWN [1996], an exuberant schlockfest released on January 1, 1996 that would have made Wood jr. green with envy.  And may have inspired Kubrick, for he soon donned the co-writer/director/producer hats and teamed up again with Harlan, Warner Brothers, Brian W. Cook-assistant director of THE SHINING-Les Tomkins-art director on THE SHINING and FULL METAL JACKET-and Roy Walker-production designer of THE SHINING-and returned to the Temple Theatre after his longest absence yet with his last twilit, allegorical and Ozian themed indie docufeature artbuster EYES WIDE SHUT [1999], released on July 13, 1999 and inspired by the allegorical Arthur Schnitzler indie docufiction novel Traumnovelle [Rhapsody-A Dream Novel] [1926].

 

“Perfect.”

 

Significantly, after five opening titles, the fourth title proclaiming that the film was “…A film by STANLEY KUBRICK”, the film began with a brief and well lit glimpse from behind of a red haired young woman who turned out to be the implicitly Lucas linked Alice Harford-an implicit link to Lucas affirmed by the film’s allusions to AMERICAN GRAFFITI and THX 1138, and played by Nicole Kidman-as she took off a Wicked black dress and revealed a beautiful young body while standing in what looked like a bedroom change room in front of four faux Grecian columns, with a sliding and mirrored closet door to her sinister left that did not reflect her beautiful body as if she were another Vampire Girl, and a cinema and theatre evoking red draped window with the blinds closed in front of her.  Significantly, this surprising sight evoked the sight and sound of the legendary, orange haired and implicitly Dorothy linked extraterrestrial warrioress Leeloo-played by Milla Jovovich-doffing her duds and changing into other clothes in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Lucas toasting Luc Besson indie docufeature film THE FIFTH ELEMENT [1997], implicitly linking Alice to Jovovich or Leeloo. 

This cheeky sight also evoked a Kubrick photograph of an anonymous and equally naked and beautiful young female model also shot from behind being pondered by an older and implicitly salacious cartoonist named Peter Arno standing in front of her seen in the September 27, 1949 issue of LOOK magazine. 5  Indeed, the magazine lying open on the floor beneath Alice evoked the drawings scattered on the floor in the photograph.  This linked Alice to visual art models, Graeco-Roman sculpture and to film, photographic and theatrical art, and implied that Kubrick was musing over his entire photographic and film artist life in EYES WIDE SHUT.  Kubrick implicitly reaffirmed that he was dwelling on his entire oeuvre soon after Alice and her husband, his dangerous reflection briefly seen in the same mirrored closet door in the now dark changeroom and in another mirror in the still lit bedroom, who turned out to be the implicitly Scarecrow linked Doctor William “Bill” Harford-also linked to Besson given the allusion to THE FIFTH ELEMENT, and played by Tom Cruise-finished dressing into a Wicked and sexy black dress and a black tuxedo, respectively, left their painting filled New York apartment, most of the paintings created by Christiane and daughter Katharine, and taxied off to a Christmas party at the larger and even more well appointed apartment of the implicitly Great Oz linked Victor Ziegler-his name evoking Vic Morrow but resembling and implicitly linked to Allen, and played by Sydney Pollack-and his wife Illona-played by Leslie Lowe. 

For this creepy Christmas party and in particular its festively lit ballroom and Munchkinland and Emerald City evoking dancers evoked the Roaring Twenties New Year’s Eve party in the Gold Room at the Overlook Hotel complete with formal bartenders in THE SHINING.  Curiously, this Christmas party also implied that the film was interested in Lynch on another level.  For the pianist in the ballroom jazz orchestra was the implicitly Lynch and Tin Man linked Nick Nightingale-played by Todd Field.  Indeed, the fact that the surname of Nightingale evoked the allegorical and Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti written/composed Julee Cruise tune “The Nightingale” [1990] in the twilit and allegorical Lynch indie telemoving painting series TWIN PEAKS [1990-91], which saw Kubrick implicitly linked to Blackie O’Reilly-played by Victoria Catlin-madam of the notorious Canadian brothel One-Eyed Jacks, a name that reminded us that Kubrick almost directed the allegorical Marlon Brando docufeature film ONE-EYED JACKS [1961], and setting us up for a brothel evoking encounter to come.

Curiously, sexual encounters also almost occurred at the Ziegler gathering.  For Alice was hit on and almost led away for a quickie by the handsome, persistent, suave, Lugosi evoking but Martin Scorsese resembling and implicitly linked partygoer Sandor Szavost-played by Sky Dumont-while Bill was also hit on and almost led away for a more raucous romp with two beautiful, young, equally persistent and Elizabeth Hurley and Julianne Moore resembling models, Nuala and Louise-played by Stewart Thorndike and Taylor Gayle, respectively.  However, while tempted, both Alice and Bill remained faithful to each other, and turned down the offers.  Not so Ziegler, for he was soon discovered to have been fooling around upstairs in the equally spacious, well appointed and Emerald City green and gold Ziegler bathroom filled with more Christiane and Katharine paintings with a beautiful, young, Kennedy resembling and showgirl evoking woman named Amanda “Mandy” Curran-played by Julienne Davis-who almost died of a drug overdose from drugs perhaps supplied by Nightingale, a close call that Dr. Harford discovered when he was called away from the arms of the disappointed two ladies to attend to Curran.

Significantly, after helping Curran and preventing her from becoming the dead Wicked Witch of the East figure whose death kicked off the healing Ozian dream in all good Ozian themed films, Bill and Alice left the Ziegler party.  Surprisingly, and despite their fidelity to each other at the party, a sexual encounter in front of a bedroom mirror soon after they returned to their place that saw the camera slowly zoom towards the mirror so that their real bodies were left behind and Bill and Alice became one with their dangerous Dark Side reflections like Rapallo did before he kidnapped Price in KILLER’S KISS, to the sound of the twilit, allegorical and Chris Isaak written Isaak tune “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing” [1995], unexpectedly implied that all was not well with the Harfords, despite their good looking and squeaky clean appearances, spiffy clothes and expensive and well furnished and painting filled apartment.  Indeed, an argument between Bill and Alice the night after the Ziegler Christmas party led both of them to question their fidelity to each other, helped along by an intense sexual fantasy revolving around a young, handsome and Willem Dafoe resembling U.S. naval officer-played by Gary Goba-that Alice revealed to a surprised Bill. 

This argument ended when the earnest young doctor was called away and off into the night to attend the death of a fittingly Bolger resembling friend named Lou Nathanson-played by Kevin Connealy-setting off a memorable and transformative Ozian themed night that evoked the one that took place over the course of AMERICAN GRAFFITI to affirm the film’s implicit interest in Lucas on one level.  Curiously, Dr Harford made this stop by taxi, evoking the flying taxis of the future New York and one of the flying taxi drivers, the implicitly Lucas and Cowardly Lion linked ex-Space Fighter ace Korben Dallas-played by Bruce Willis-in THE FIFTH ELEMENT, affirming the implicit link of Harford to Besson.  After this professional visit, and after fending off the distraught attentions of Nathanson’s black clad daughter, the wistful and implicitly Wicked Witch of the West linked Marion Nathanson-played by Marie Richardson-Dr. Harford walked the streets of New York brooding over Alice’s fidelity. 

Soon he met a Diana Krall resembling and perhaps linked young prostitute who called herself Domino-played by Vinessa Shaw-whose name fittingly prepared us for a masked encounter to come.  Then Dr. Harford met up again with Nightingale at the Sonata Café, which evoked the Coral Lounge where Keith was met in STRANGE DAYS and was where the pianist played late night piano with his small jazz band.  During their talk, which saw Stanley and Christiane Kubrick seated behind Harford and Nightingale at their own table, Nightingale affirmed his implicit link to Lynch by revealing that he lived in Seattle, reminding us that TWIN PEAKS was set and filmed in Washington state, and also evoking Gordon’s return to Seattle with Price at the end of KILLER’S KISS to reaffirm that Kubrick was indeed meditating pensively on his entire oeuvre in EYES WIDE SHUT.  Nightingale also told Dr. Harford about a mysterious and implicitly salacious gathering at which he was going to be playing piano blindfolded that night.  This revelation led the good doctor to wheedle the address out of Nightingale, and then to go off and get the mask and costume needed for attendance. 

Significantly, Kubrick implicitly reaffirmed the personal nature of the film with the presence of the Kubrick and Cowardly Lion resembling and implicitly linked Ozian Rainbow costume store owner Milich-played by Rade Serbedzija-a cynical and cranky old character with a wayward, Lolita evoking and implicitly Dorothy linked teenaged daughter-played by the fittingly named Leelee Sobieski-who rented Harford his mask, cloak and tux for the partay, allowing Kubrick to implicitly roast himself in his last film.  Then it was off by taxi on a long road trip deep into the dark countryside to a strange orgiastic gathering in a castillian mansion that was as isolated as the Skywalker Ranch film facility of Lucas and that evoked the Black Castle of the Wicked Witch of the West, the palace commandeered by Gen. Mireau in PATHS OF GLORY and the Lyndon castle in BARRY LYNDON, a mansion with gateposts with the round heads of chess pawns and the Hollywood cadenced and Sunset Boulevard evoking name of Somerset.  Indeed, the implicit link of Somerset to Hollywood was affirmed by the red carpet in the foyer and the gold masks worn by the inner doormen of the castle, for the red carpet evoked the red carpet at film premiers and the annual Academy Awards ceremony and the gold masks evoked the gold face of the Oscar statuette and of the Oscar statuette resembling and implicitly linked protocol “droid” C3P0-played by Anthony Daniels-in the STAR WARS Classic Trilogy, as well as the masked flying monkeys of THE WIZARD OF OZ.  Curiously, the password “Fidelio” that Dr. Harford used to gain admittance to the orgiastic gathering reminded us that he was still brooding over the fidelity of Alice and that the password “Calais” was used by French soldiers to return safely to the French lines after a night patrol that led to the death of Private Lejeune-played by Jen Dibbs-the night before the attack on the Ant Hill in PATHS OF GLORY, affirming yet again that Kubrick was indeed coming full embittered and resigned circle in EYES WIDE SHUT.

The gathering, which started with a sinister man wearing one of the gold Oscar Threepio masks and a Cardinal evoking red robe-implicitly linked to Nikko the flying monkey king [played by Pat Walshe] in THE WIZARD OF OZ, and played by Vitali-standing on a ruby red carpet amidst a circle of twelve robed and masked figures who doffed their black robes to reveal that they were beautiful and topless young women, saw anonymous masked men making luv to equally anonymous and masked young women who evoked showgirls like Curran and the disrobed twelve also came across as the Dark Side “Devilmass” opposite of the Light Side Christmas gathering at the Ziegler apartment that began the film.  For the dark, spooky, labyrinthine and Temple Theatre evoking interior of the Black Castle-like mansion had the same large, spacious, high ceilinged, well lit and expensively appointed rooms as the Ziegler apartment.  Indeed, the sight and sound of a blindfolded Nightingale with eyes wide shut indeed and wearing the same white tux he wore at the Ziegler party playing an electric piano or organ at the gathering like an obedient pawn of glory openly linked the orgiastic gathering to the Ziegler Christmas party, implicitly affirming that it was the Dark Side of the opening Light Side party.  The sight and sound of Dr. Harford being briefly led away by one tall, beautiful and implicitly Bigelow and Glinda the Good linked young woman in a large blue showgirl headdress-her implicit link to Bigs affirmed by the film’s allusions to STRANGE DAYS, and played by the fittingly surnamed Abigail Good and voiced by Cate Blanchett, respectively-reaffirmed that implication, reminding us that Dr. Harford had also been briefly led away by Louise and Nuala at the Ziegler party.

Significantly, the strange masks worn by the anonymous male and female attendees evoked not only the masks of the flying monkeys in THE WIZARD OF OZ, the mask that Clay wore while robbing the cash room of the Lansdowne racetrack in THE KILLING, and the masks worn by Alex and his droogs when they were engaged in some serious and rapacious ultraviolence in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, but also affirmed the film’s implicit interest in the Twilight Zone.  For the weird masks of the male and female attendees, grotesque masks that implied that the orgy participants had become so at one with their minotaur and wominotaur Dark Sides that they had lost their humanity as well as their human faces, evoked the four equally grotesque and weird masks that the Hitchcock resembling and implicitly linked Wilfred Harper-played by Milton Selzer-and his wife, daughter and son Emily, Paula and Wilfred jr.-played by Virginia Gregg, Brooke Hayward and Alan Sues, respectively-were forced to don by the Good and art luving but dying family patriarch Jason Foster-played by Robert Keith-to reveal their true Dark Side natures…forever…in the allegorical Lupino telefilm “The Masks” [1964] from the fifth season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series.

In fact, “The Masks” was alluded to on a number of occasions in EYES WIDE SHUT, including on the film’s soundtrack, for one of the piano pieces evoked a similar piece heard in “The Masks”.  The name of Dr. Bill Harford also evoked that of Wilfred Harper, while his medical profession evoked the housecall made on Foster by Doctor Samuel Thorne-played by Willis Bouchey-affirming the implicit interest in that twilit telefilm in EYES WIDE SHUT.  Significantly, the masks of Dr. Harford and that of the possibly Curran linked woman were the only ones at the gathering that were not grotesque and implicitly linked to the Dark Side of the wearer as in “The Masks”.  For the masks of Glinda and of Harford were of regular female and male faces with what appeared to be whirling floral patterns covering the top halves and nothing obscuring the bottom halves, implying that they were the only attendees at the gathering who had not lost all their humanity.

In addition, one of the masked attendees wore a Lynch resembling red mask and another attendee wore a mask with a face that resembled Dennis Hopper, who played the Wicked Frank Booth in the twilit and allegorical Lynch indie moving painting BLUE VELVET [1986], reaffirming the implicit interest in addressing Lynch on one level in EYES WIDE SHUT.  The huge blue showgirl evoking headdress on top of the blue mask, the top half of which was Oscar gold, of the tall Glinda also evoked the moving paintings of Lynch, for the blue colour evoked the obsession with blue velvet in BLUE VELVET and the mysterious Blue Rose FBI investigations in the twilit and allegorical Lynch indie moving painting TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME [1992].  Intriguingly, Kubrick did not just implicitly evoke the moving paintings of Lynch in this orgiastic gathering, for the brief and sinister trial overseen by the Oscar Threepio masked and red robed “Cardinal” that Harford endured after being exposed as a stranger who did not belong at the Devilmass gathering also evoked the callous court martial that found the three innocent French soldiers guilty of cowardice at the end of PATHS OF GLORY.

Luckily for Dr. Harford, he was spared the wrath of the “Cardinal” and the rest of the masked participants at the gathering by the intervention of the tall, commanding and fearless Glinda, and allowed to leave and return to Alice.  Alas for Curran, she soon died after the orgiastic gathering, like the mute girl in FEAR AND DESIRE, and the Vietnamese sniper at the end of FULL METAL JACKET in a twilit trio of dead women implicitly linked to film art in the film art of Kubrick.  Significantly, when Dr. Harford pondered her Wicked corpse on a morgue drawer, it was uncertain as to whether the corpse was that of Glinda Curran or not-in fact, it vaguely resembled that of Domino-but it was also noticeable that the corpse evoked that of Leeloo in THE FIFTH ELEMENT.  This affirmed the implicit link of Harford to Besson, an implicit interest in Besson reaffirmed by the the fact that late in the film Dr. Harford was seen driving back to the isolated Skywalker Castle in a Range Rover with the license plate 9987, reminding us that THE FIFTH ELEMENT was released in 1997, and by the film’s allusions to the twilit, allegorical and implicitly Lynch and Spielberg roasting indie docufeature film LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL [1994]. 

Thus, given that the film ended with the Great Ziegler revealing that he had been at the Devilmass, and then persuading the well meaning but naïve and out of his depth Harford, in a conversation that evoked a conversation Col. Dax had with Gen. Broulard at the end of PATHS OF GLORY, to give up on his quest to solve the mystery of the death of Curran and bring someone in the wealthy and powerful establishment to justice for fear of becoming another dead pawn of glory, and Bill returning to the understandingly luving arms of Alice, Kubrick implied that he thought that Besson and Lucas were also well meaning but naïve and out of their depth in a Hollywood establishment that was too strong to be held accountable for the deaths of Chen, Le and Morrow in the TZ disaster, and that they should both give up on creating film art lest they be destroyed by Hollywood.  Kubrick also implied that Bigelow, his indie docufeature artbuster disciple, saved film art in 1995 with STRANGE DAYS not Besson in 1997 with THE FIFTH ELEMENT, given that the implicitly Bigelow linked Glinda saved Bill at the masked gathering.  The presence of Pollack reaffirmed the implicit twilit ambience of the scene, for he openly linked the film to the Twilight Zone via his role as the young Southern theatre director Arthur “Art” Willis in the allegorical Buzz Kulik telefilm “The Trouble With Templeton” [1960] from the second season of the original TWILIGHT ZONE telefilm series.  Pollack also linked the film to the twilit and disastrous year of 1982 via his appearance as George Fields in his own allegorical docufeature film TOOTSIE [1982].

Significantly, Kubrick died shortly before the release of EYES WIDE SHUT, and so was not around the following year when Lynch implicitly replied to EYES WIDE SHUT on one level in the twilit and allegorical indie moving painting MULHOLLAND DRIVE [2001], a film released on May 16, 2001 whose implicit interest in Kubrick on one level was affirmed by allusions to BARRY LYNDON, EYES WIDE SHUT, KILLER’S KISS, and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  Making it fitting that soon after the release of MULHOLLAND DRIVE, Spielberg also released his version of Kubrick’s unfinished twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE [2001], which implicitly roasted Lynch in the form of odd Mecha boy David-played by Joel H. Osment.

A decade later, Disney, Marvel and Kenneth Branagh teamed up to implicitly link Stanley and Christiane Kubrick to King Odin and Queen Frigga of Asgard-played by Sir Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo, respectively-intimidating and commanding parents of the implicitly Spielberg linked Loki, god of mischief-played by Ted Allpress as a boy, and by Tom Hiddleston as an adult, respectively-and the implicitly James Cameron linked Thor, god of thunder-played by Dakota Goyo as a boy, and by Chris Hemsworth as an adult, respectively-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Cameron, Kubrick and Spielberg roasting and toasting super satirical animaction film THOR [2011], released on April l17, 2011, inspired by characters created by Smilin’ Stan Lee and Jolly Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics and a fitting implicit allegory, given that Kubrick was an inspiration for Cameron.  Two years later, Disney and Marvel teamed up again to implicitly roast and toast Stanley and Christiane Kubrick in the forms of Odin and Frigga-played again by Sir Hopkins and Russo, respectively-and Cameron and Spielberg in the forms of Thor and Loki-played again by Hemsworth and Hiddleston, respectively-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, and Ozian themed Alan Taylor super satirical animaction film THOR: THE DARK WORLD [2013], released on October 22, 2013.

Tragicomically, the intimidating and unstoppable Force of cinematic nature that was Kubrick was then implicitly and ironically linked by Gareth Edwards to the equally intimidating, huge, all CGI, and unstoppable Force of nature called Godzilla who, with the help of the implicitly David and Brandon Cronenberg linked Doctor Joseph “Joe” Brody and Ford Brody-played by Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, respectively-implicitly triumphed over Lucas and Spielberg by triumphing over two equally huge, all CGI and Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms [MUTOs], with the larger, multi-legged and Earth bound female implicitly linked to Spielberg and the smaller, winged and Skyrocking male implicitly linked to Lucas, respectively, implying the wistful wish of Edwards that Kubrick would return from the dead and triumph over the CGI enhanced blockbuster beasts of Lucas and Spielberg like the then recently released twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed, and Kennedy and Lucas executive produced and Marshall produced Spielberg indie docufeature film INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL [2008] with another great, memorable and perhaps CGI enhanced indie docufeature artbuster at the San Francisco thrashing end of the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced docufeature film GODZILLA [2014], a film released on May 8, 2014 whose implicit interest in Kubrick was affirmed by allusions to DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB, FULL METAL JACKET, THE BIRDS, THE KILLING, THE SHINING and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and whose implicit allegorical intent was ironic indeed given that Kubrick had spent his film art life steadfastly battling and blasting brainless blockbuster beasts like GODZILLA. 

Two years after being implicitly linked to the towering and all CGI Godzilla, the towering Kubrick was also implicitly linked by Marvel and 21^st Century Fox to the equally towering and all CGI Piotr Rasputin aka “Colossus”-played by Stefan Kapicic-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, ultraviolent and implicitly Quentin Tarantino roasting and toasting Tim Miller super satirical animaction film DEADPOOL [2016], released on January 21, 2016 and inspired by a character created by Dapper Dave Cockrum and Lanky Len Wein for Marvel Comics.  The following year, Dis and Marv teamed up with Taika Waititi to again implicitly link Cameron, Kubrick and Spielberg to Thor, Odin and Loki-played again by Hemsworth, Sir Hopkins and Hiddleston, respectively-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, and Ozian themed super satirical animaction film THOR: RAGNORAK [2017], released on October 10, 2017.  Not long after, Marv and 21^st Century Fox again implicitly linked Kubrick to the towering and all CGI Piotr Rasputin aka “Colossus”-played again by Kapicic-in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, ultraviolent and implicitly Tarantino roasting and toasting Miller super satirical animaction film DEADPOOL 2 [2018], released on May 1, 2018.

Then Kubrick was again implicitly and ironically linked to the huge and all CGI Godzilla who, with the help of the equally huge and CGI and implicitly Christiane linked Mothra, again implicitly triumphed over Disney in the form of the even more huge, all CGI and three headed Ghidorah aka Monster Zero-its three heads perhaps implicitly symbolizing Disney, Marvel and Pixar, respectively-in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Michael Dougherty animaction film GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS [2019], a film released on May 29, 2019 whose implicit interest in Kubrick was affirmed by the film’s allusions to FULL METAL JACKET, THE SHINING and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  Curiously, Godzilla and Kubrick also implicitly triumphed in the film over Cameron in the implicit form of the huge, fiery, all CGI and leonopteryx evoking Rodan, an implicit interest in Cameron affirmed by the presence of the Cameron resembling and implicitly linked rogue British Colonel Alan Jonah-played by Charles Dance-the presence of Joe Morton as Doctor Houston Brooks, as Morton played Dr. Miles Dyson in the twilit, allegorical, CGI enhanced, Ozian themed and implicitly Lucas toasting Cameron indie docufeature Zonebuster TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY [1991], and the film’s allusions to such other twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Cameron indie docufeature Zonebusters as ALIENS [1986], THE ABYSS [1989], and TITANIC [1997], and to the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Cameron indie animaction Zonebuster AVATAR [2009]. 

Two years later, Kubrick was also implicitly and ironically linked to the huge and all CGI Godzilla and took on the equally huge, all CGI, and implicitly Sir Jackson linked King Kong in the twilit, allegorical and CGI enhanced Adam Wingard animaction film GODZILLA VS. KING KONG [2021], released on March 24, 2021.  Another ironically exuberant and rampaging implicit nod to Kubrick that was far removed from the final and implicitly sad and cynical thoughts on film art that a worn out and world weary Kubrick expressed in EYES WIDE SHUT and that implicitly summed up his belief that too small, powerless, helpless and hapless to rise up against and defeat the blockbuster loot lusting Hollywood establishment were people in general and film artists in particular even if they did master docufeature film art and docufeature artbuster film art, and thus doomed always were we all to be…pawns of glory.

 

 

 

Notes

 

1. Nathan Abrams wrote about the implicit influence of MAD   magazine on Kubrick in “An Alternative New York Jewish Intellectual: Stanley Kubrick’s cultural critique” [pp. 62-79], the third essay of the Richard Daniels, Peter Kramer and Tatjana Ljujic edited essay collection Stanley Kubrick: new perspectives [2015].
2. Peter Kramer heralded the arrival of Kubrick’s new artbuster direction on page 61 at the end of the second essay ““Complete Total Final Annihilating Artistic Control”: Stanley Kubrick and post-war Hollywood” [pp. 48-61] in Stanley Kubrick: new perspectives.
3. The fittingly surnamed Juhani Pallasmaa wrote about Torrance transforming into a minotaur in “Monster In The Maze: the architecture of THE SHINING” [pp. 198-207] in the fifteenth essay on the film art of Kubrick to be found in the Maja Keppler and Hans-Peter Reichmann edited Stanley Kubrick-catalogue accompanying the Stanley Kubrick exhibition.
4. According to Ursula Von Keitz, in note 22 on p. 197 of “The Shining-Frozen Material: Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel” [pp. 184-197], the sixteenth essasy in Stanley Kubrick-catalogue accompanying the Stanley Kubrick exhibition.
5. This cheeky photograph on p. 18 kicked off “Kubrick’s Kaleidoscope: early photographs 1945-1950” by Alexandra Von Stosch and Rainer Crone [pp. 18-27] in Stanley Kubrick-catalogue accompanying the Stanley Kubrick exhibition.

 

 

 

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Daniels, Richard, et al, ed.  Stanley Kubrick: new perspectives.

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Keppler, Maja and Hans-Peter Reichmann, ed.  Stanley Kubrick-

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King, Stephen.  The Shining.  New York: Anchor Books, 2012.

Moorcock, Michael.  The Brothel In Rosenstrasse.  London:

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Phillips, Gene D., ed.  Stanley Kubrick: interviews.

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Vaz, Mark Cotta.  GODZILLA: the art of destruction.

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