How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 26 January 2013
This article is a review of FEAR AND DESIRE.
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Many surely have wondered whether they’d ever get to see director Stanley Kubrick’s debut. And gratitude must go to The Library of Congress for restoring, and The Masters of Cinema series for releasing. Allegedly disowned by Kubrick for being amateurish, he is far too critical. Compared to his multiple masterpieces, which continually stand up to the test of time, yes, FEAR AND DESIRE lacks the bravura of the maestro in full pelt, but that doesn’t mean this is an unworthy work.
On the Blu-ray, we are treated to three of Kubrick’s documentary shorts. All rely on voice over, and bar one scene, there is a total absence of diegetic sound.
- DAY OF THE FIGHT (1951)
Photographed, produced and directed by the big man, is all about the build up, and eventual bout, for middleweight boxer Walter Cartier, as he takes on Bobby James.
- FLYING PADRE (1951)
Directed by Stanley, we follow an usual clergyman, Father Fred Stadmueller. The subject pilots a small plane to visit his flock over two days. His remit covers 4,000 square miles.
- THE SEAFARERS (1953)
Directed and photographed by Kubrick, and feels like a corporate video, we look at the Seafarers International Union. Seems like an interesting organisation.
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On to FEAR AND DESIRE…
“You know there is nothing so refreshing as an afternoon out of doors in enemy territory,” Lieutenant Corby
Directed, produced, photographed and edited by Stanley Kubrick. At only 62 minutes, we get the snapshot of a war apparently in an alternate reality. The initial voice over says we are outside of history; only emotions are from our world. My pretentious-ometer suddenly snaps on, and crackles across the dial every so often, as conversations and internal monologues are presented in such a way as to even make Terrence Malick’s oeuvre appear totally unselfconscious.
Four soldiers from an unknown nation fighting an unnamed hostile party have crash-landed six miles behind enemy lines. Their initial mission is not clear, but the new one is to get back alive. Leader Lt. Corby decides a makeshift raft travelling along the river at night would be their best bet. So begins a mini-odyssey, as the ragtag group battle doubt, panic and paranoia in an attempt to reach safety.
There is effort at character delineation, and intriguingly two of the same actors play people on both side of the conflict. However, the whole piece is too oblique and at times insubstantial. Its greatest claim is to be a fascinating first note in a career opus. The audience isn’t given exciting camera-work, but the cinematography is strikingly vibrant – the portraiture of faces, especially eyes, is remarkable.
More an experimental work then, but Kubrick completists, and cinephiles, need it in their lives.
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