Stanley Kubrick: A Biography

Rating:
Summary: Readable, enjoyable--not terribly deep
Review: I found Baxter's book an enjoyable read, lively and somewhat informative, though apparently not the work of awesome scholarship that Lubrutto's book is. I haven't read that tome yet, but will soon, fascinated as I am by all things Kubrick. I didn't have the reaction that others have had concerning Baxter's feelings toward Kubrick. As far as I could tell, he seemed to have an appropriate level of respect. Baxter is obviously not a film scholar or someone too well versed in the technical side of filmmaking, but he keeps the book moving along briskly. This certainly a good start-up for someone new to Kubrick's films.

Rating:
Summary: A clockworkmanlike orange
Review: John Baxter's biography of Stanley Kubrick rings essentially true and many facts and quotations are confirmed in Vincent LoBrutto's biography and elsewhere, but certain minor though obvious errors make one wonder how careful the author has been. Fans of Kubrick's films will cringe when they encounter mistakes that any repeat viewer would catch. Combined with a tendency towards the unflattering, it makes the reader wonder whether Baxter is merely cynically exploiting his subject rather than illuminating it, as others seem to have done, especially since Kubrick's death.

LoBrutto's biography, the only other one currently available, is so tediously written and poorly edited that this reader couldn't bear to finish it. Perhaps excellent biographers avoid so difficult a subject as Stanley Kubrick.

Rating:
Summary: Enigma
Review: Stanley Kubrick was an enigma of a man. Because of the secrecy that shrouded his life, there is much that fans of his work may never know. John Baxter's work is gives insight mostly into Kubrick's films and their creation.

Baxter's first two chapters seem irrelevant and tedious in the scope of the book. They only serve to allow Baxter to praise Kubrick's work. After these chapters, we are introduced to Stanley's growth and development in films. Kubrick's early films which he thought were bad in hindsight, show his growth and experimentation. Going through his other films, I found the chapters which discussed "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001" to be the best presented. This is adventageous because these are his best loved films.

I believe that it was merciful for "Eyes Wide Shut" to be given so little coverage since Kubrick never truly was able to put his final stamp on the film. He tinkered with work often up until days before its release. Aside from his horrid choice of actors, his death left this work unfinished.

Kubrick's idiosincrisies, including his fear of cars, flying, and distrust for machines, are discussed in the book. While they may seem irrevelant, these discussions help us to know who Kubrick was. The discussions are no more irrelevant than some sections of the book which talk about events regarding his movies that have little to do with the overall picture. Also, I felt it was unnecessary to go into discussion of every script he rejected. Some ideas he rejected to quickly to be important enough to mention.

I was grateful that Baxter mentioned "Artificial Intelligence", being developed by Kubrick. Fans are curious as to how his final script may have looked. I am certain that it would have been better than Speilberg's.

Rating:
Summary: A Suetonian Biography!
Review: Uncompromising to Stanley Kubrick, STANLEY KUBRICK: A BIOGRAPHY (c.1997) by John Baxter, is a first order inquiry which took the Suetonian view towards biography and depicted its subject as a gelid autuer director motivated by an obsessive/compulsive need to control his environment in order to materialize his artistic vision on film. John Baxter focused on the opinions, observations, and views of those who worked for Stanley Kubrick; and also those who claimed to have been alienated by him.

Apparently following the advice of former British prime minister Lloyd George when that prime minister stated: "All biographies should be written by an acute enemy", John Baxter picked up on every error, mistake, and indecision of Stanley Kubrick in the course of his career. This gave Stanley Kubrick a historical perspective which included a somewhat realistic account of the man behind some of America's most influential motion pictures ever produced.

Yet biography is not history and John Baxter's work contained some obvious logical and historic errors as when he included a photograph indicating actress Ms. Suzanne Christiane as Kubrick's future second wife; or in his bibliography giving Vincent LoBrutto's book of Kubrick a copyright of 1996 - yet in Lobrutto's work, the T.P. verso indicated 1997 as the copyright.

Kubrick's intelligence, or motive, was also brought into question by John Baxter as he included in his book an explanation of Kubrick's compulsive notetaking by erudite British actress Ms. Adrienne Corri that "All this notetaking is just a way of accumulating what other people know" and also, "He (Kubrick) was not an intelligent or a curious man". But one need only to have seen in 1968 the premeire of '2001: A Space Odyssey' in 'Cinerama' (with the wrap-around screen) to be convinced that there was a brilliance behind its direction. But Baxter alluded to brilliance only in the sense of a Bobby Fischer or of a Thomas Edison - that is, brilliant in a limited and focused capacity.

While John Baxter's bibliography on Stanley Kubrick included some obvious short-comings to the careful reader, it also contained some undeniable eyewitness observations of the subject's character.

A good book to read in accompany with John Baxter's view is: 'STANLEY KUBRICK: A Biography'(c.1997) by Vincent LoBrutto, which gives a kinder Plutarchian view of its subject. It would be advantageous to also read: 'STANLEY KUBRICK: A Life In Pictures' (c. 2002) by Mrs. Suzanne Kubrick, with her objective collection of mostly black & white Kubrick photographs, mostly shot in his studios.

With new information appearing all the time, the definitive biography on Stanley Kubrick has yet to be written (there are 400 biographies on Mahatma Ghandi) and both John Baxter and Vincent LoBrutto's account are good starting points on the life of Stanley Kubrick.