Rating: 
Summary: The morals of a writer
Review: This book has been baned by Stanley Kubrick's family and by friends and colleagues at Warner Brothers.(Look for "Christiane Kubrick's Website") This means that the author acted in a deceitful and ungrateful maner towars those who trusted him. Now, how much can you trust in a book by a man who acts like that? Read the book if you have nothing better to do, but be very careful in not taking everything you learn from it as a fact.
Rating: 
Summary: Liked it a lot more than I had anticipated
Review: This book is a quick read but a surprisingly insightful one. I liked the screenplay formatting of certain parts, and on the whole I thought that it delved further into the perplexing elements of Kubrick's work and process than most other books have. Structurally it is similar to a Kubrick film, in fact. A lot is missing, easy explanations are hard to find, but it leaves one in a questioning frame of mind. A lot better than the Baxter of LaBrutto (sic?) books of last year.
Rating:
Summary: Chess with a myth...
Review: This book is framed early on as a "vaguely sadistic" chess match, between the awed, reluctantly supplicant Raphael and Kubrick the Mythic Director. Raphael, as often as he tries to crack the Kubrick code, carps about the uneven(although ideally symbiotic) relationship between director and writer. Raphael resents the fact that his own contributions to the Kubrick canon are at the mercy of the director's whim, and may not even be acknowledged, when the final credits roll. Raphael treats his collaboration with Kubrick as an amicable battle of will -- he aspires to be Kubrick's artistic equal, but Kubrick never quite shows up for the duel the author imagines between them. His attempts to form an overall picture of Kubrick's Jewishness, artistic vision, and human weaknesses are ultimately futile, but still make up an interesting glimpse into an acknowledged genius and his fascinations. Raphael is self-aggrandizing and too preciously clever for his own good, which spoils the book as a true portrait. It is as much a portrait of himself as long-suffering hired hand as it is a revelation of Kubrick. Even so, Raphael is an acutely intelligent writer, and flaws aside, I found it an interesting read. I will give him the benefit of the doubt on the issue of bald exploitation -- Kubrick can't possibly care, now.
Rating:
Summary: Chess with a myth...
Review: This book is framed early on as a "vaguely sadistic" chess match, between the awed, reluctantly supplicant Raphael and Kubrick the Mythic Director. Raphael, as often as he tries to crack the Kubrick code, carps about the uneven(although ideally symbiotic) relationship between director and writer. Raphael resents the fact that his own contributions to the Kubrick canon are at the mercy of the director's whim, and may not even be acknowledged, when the final credits roll. Raphael treats his collaboration with Kubrick as an amicable battle of will -- he aspires to be Kubrick's artistic equal, but Kubrick never quite shows up for the duel the author imagines between them. His attempts to form an overall picture of Kubrick's Jewishness, artistic vision, and human weaknesses are ultimately futile, but still make up an interesting glimpse into an acknowledged genius and his fascinations. Raphael is self-aggrandizing and too preciously clever for his own good, which spoils the book as a true portrait. It is as much a portrait of himself as long-suffering hired hand as it is a revelation of Kubrick. Even so, Raphael is an acutely intelligent writer, and flaws aside, I found it an interesting read. I will give him the benefit of the doubt on the issue of bald exploitation -- Kubrick can't possibly care, now.
Rating: 
Summary: Not great but worth reading
Review: This book isn't bad or shameless as a bunch of Kubrick groupies before me have posted. This book doesn't bash the director or praise him either. It just gives a working account between the screenwriter and the director. If you are interested in how the screenplay came to be then this book is for you. If you are looking for something that reveals all facets of the directors life and worships him like a god then this is not your cup of tea.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting collaboration
Review: This book was an interesting account of a collaboration between two talents. In order to fully enjoy the nuances here, one had better know going in that this is not a memoir of Kubrick as the cover suggests but moreso a description of how Raphael hashed out the script to the phenomenal movie with and without Kubrick's help. Still though, there are insightful tidbits here about Kubrick, gleaned from Raphael's interaction with him. Of course everything Raphael states must be taken with a grain of salt since he obviously wants his piece of the spotlight. Is this a negative aspect of Raphael's personality, or just normal for Hollywood types who demand equal credit? Either way, an entertaining and quick read that will give readers a better understanding of Kubrick as well as an insightful look into the lesser known world of screenwriting.
Rating:
Summary: Unique Look at Two Creative Masters
Review: This is a must for film buffs because it offers a unique look at both Kubrick and Raphael (whose brilliant screenplays of Two for the Road, Darling, Madding Crowd put him in that elite pantheon of screenwriters). Albeit (too) brief about both men, it does give us another look at the collaborative creative screenwriting process. And, yes, we may learn more about Raphael. But what an interesting, brilliant mind DESPITE the fact that he's VERY full of himself and an inveterate name dropper. But that's what makes the book so much fun. There are some charming, very funny lines in here too. I picked it up on a weekend getaway, while in the middle of two other books, and couldn't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: Good, not great
Review: This is a slight book -- just 190 pages and clearly thrown together quickly. A lot of it is verbatim discussions between Kubrick and Raphael and reprints of faxes. In the end, it's a good book for delating the myth of Kubrick -- that he was some blessed genius of film. In fact, he was a cold strange man with a unique eye for filming other people's creative thoughts. The book is more fascinating for its portrayal of how a movie is written.
Rating:
Summary: Embarrassed
Review: This is a very funny book. Raphael's ostentatious name-dropping and displays of his learning are so hilarious, it's hard to believe he wrote them in earnest (such as the self-parodying passage in which an exchange with Kubrick reminds Raphael of the time he made a grammatical error while conversing in Italian with Marcello Mastroianni). However, the volume is so sloppily written and edited, that it appears to be direct, undiluted, and unironic Fred. What does Raphael's claim to write about the late director rest on? He and Kubrick met and spoke a few times, and Raphael completed a draft of Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick then rewrote it and made the movie--it really wasn't much of a collaboration, since Kubrick sculpted the piece he wanted out of the block he had Raphael provide. The book tells us nothing new or interesting about Kubrick, and very little about the adaptation that cannot be gleaned from the omnibus screenplay/novella volume. [For an insightful and affectionate view of Kubrick by one of his collaborators, dig out the New York Review of Books from this spring with Diane Johnson's reminiscence.] Eyes Wide Open does, in its condescending and self-regarding way, inadvertently tell us something about the jealousy of a second-rate artistic mind toward a truly unique talent. I'm a little embarrassed at having bought the book and encouraged Raphael in his gross exploitation of his brief association with Kubrick. I'll probably never open Eyes Wide Open again.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting insight into making a movie with Kubrick
Review: This is an interesting book for Kubrick fans. It offers a good idea as to what it's like to work with a master like Kubrick. Not easy! The only downside is that Raphael offers too much personal information. Thankfully, Kubrick didn't allow Raphael's ego to get in the way of the script for the movie. Otherwise, Eyes Wide Shut wouldn't be as good a movie as it is.
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