| Revision as of 02:21, 24 September 2008 edit76.214.216.228 (talk) Undid revision 198102523 by Dutzi (talk)← Previous edit | Revision as of 23:25, 22 October 2008 edit undoEcoleetage (talk | contribs)15,020 edits Massive rewrite of the article, expanding plot, offering full history with referencesNext edit → | ||
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| | runtime = 68 minutes | | runtime = 68 minutes | ||
| | language = English | | language = English | ||
| | budget = $ |
| budget = $50,000 (estimated) | ||
| | music = | | music = | ||
| | awards = | | awards = | ||
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| | imdb_id = 0045758 | | imdb_id = 0045758 | ||
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| '''''Fear and Desire''''' (]) |
'''''Fear and Desire''''' (]) military action/adventure film directed by ]. It is noteworthy as Kubrick’s first feature film, and it also one of Kubrick's least-seen productions. | ||
| ⚫ | ==Plot== | ||
| ''Fear and Desire'' opens with a off-screen narrator (actor David Allen) who tells the audience: “There is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor one that will be, but any war. And the enemies that struggle here do not exist unless we call them into being. For all of them, 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.”<ref name=FC></ref> | |||
| The story is set during a war between two unidentified countries. An airplane carrying four soldiers from one country has crashed six miles behind enemy lines. The soldiers come upon a river and build a raft, hoping they can use the waterway to reach their battalion. As they are building their raft, they approached by a young peasant girl who does not speak. The soldiers apprehend the girl and bind her to a tree with their belts. One of the soldiers goes insane and, while shouting about the ] play '']'', fatally shoots the girl. A second soldier also goes insane and takes the raft for a solo voyage. The remaining two soldiers unexpectedly locate the headquarters of the enemy army and successfully infiltrate the base. They locate and kill the top ranking general and one of his aides – only to discover the dead men looked exactly like them.<ref name=FT></ref> | |||
| Despite the limited budget<ref></ref>, and lack of experience from the cast and crew, the film garnered some respectable reviews as it went through the ] circuit in ], many acknowledging the young director's potential. As well as being Kubrick's first feature, the film is also notable for being the film debut of ], eventually better known as a director. | |||
| ==Production== | |||
| Highly sought after by Kubrick fans and movie aficionados, the director dismissed the film as an ] project, later buying up as many prints as possible. His attempts to suppress the work were not entirely successful, with reportedly two remaining prints currently being held at the ] in ], ]. Also, many bootleg versions have sprung up, and distribution is increasing with the rise of ]s. | |||
| Prior to shooting ''Fear and Desire'', Stanley Kramer was a ] photographer who had directed two short documentaries in 1951, '']'' and '']''. Both films were acquired for theatrical release by ]. Based on his experiences in creating short films, Kubrick felt he was ready to make a narrative feature film.<ref name=PD>Duncan, Paul. “Stanley Kubrick: The Complete Films.” Taschen, 2008. ISBN: 9783822831151</ref> Kubrick quit his full-time job with Look and set forth to create Fear and Desire.<ref></ref> | |||
| The screenplay for ''Fear and Desire'' was written by ], who was a classmate of Kubrick’s at William Howard Taft High School in the ]; Sackler would later win the ] for his 1968 drama '']''. ], who would later receive recognition as the director of popular films including '']'' and '']'', was cast as the soldier who kills the captive peasant.<ref name=PD /> | |||
| Funds for ''Fear and Desire'' was raised from Kubrick's family and friends, with most of it coming from Marvin Peveller, Kubrick’s uncle and the owner of a profitable pharmacy.<ref name=SFC></ref> The film’s original budget has been estimated at $10,000.<ref name=PD /> | |||
| Although there is a limited amount that has been written on the film, some authors have given the film more attention than usual. ] has written an excellent essay for ''Image'', the official journal of the ]. | |||
| The production team consisted of 15 people: five actors (Paul Mazursky, Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Steve Coit and Virginia Leith), five crew members (including Kubrick’s first wife, Tobia Metz) and four Mexican laborers who transported the film equipment around ]'s ], where the film was shot. Kubrick served as the film's director, producer, cinematography and editor.<ref name=PD /> | |||
| ⚫ | == |
||
| Due to budget limitations, Kubrick improvised in the use of his equipment. To create fog, Kubrick used a crop sprayer – but the cast and crew was nearly asphyxiated because the machinery still contained the insecticide used for its agricultural work.<ref></ref> For tracking shots, Paul Mazursky recalled how Kubrick came up with a novel substitute: "There was no dolly track, just a baby carriage to move the camera," he told an interviewer.<ref name=SFC /> | |||
| Kubrick ran into several problems during the post-production process. He shot the film without sound, with plans to add the dialogue track later, along with the music score and sound effects. However, this raised the cost of finishing the film. Kubrick took a second unit assignment to shoot footage for a television film on the life of Abraham Lincoln in order to secure funds to finish the Fear and Desire soundtrack.<ref name=PD /> | |||
| Kubrick also ran into difficulty in editing a key scene where one of the soldiers throws a plate of beans to the floor and enters the frame from the wrong side. Kubrick's blocking of the crucial scene was faulty and his actors accidentally crossed the so-called "director’s line," which required the negative to be flipped in the printing process to preserve continuity; this was another expense.<ref>Buchanan, Larry. “It Came From Hunger!”McFarland & Co., 1996. ISBN:078640194X</ref> | |||
| ==Distribution and disappearance== | |||
| ''Fear and Desire'' was picked up for U.S. theatrical release by Joseph Burstyn, a distributor who specialized in the presentation of European art house titles.<ref>Allen, Thomas. “Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist’s Maze.” Indiana University Press, 2000. ISBN:0253253908</ref> For its New York premiere, the byline-free ] movie review noted: "If Fear and Desire is uneven and sometimes reveals an experimental rather than a polished exterior, its over-all effect is entirely worthy of the sincere effort put into it."<ref></ref> | |||
| Kubrick received praise for Fear and Desire from film critic and screenwriter ], who reportedly took Kubrick out for a drink and told him "there are too many good things...to call arty."<ref name=FC/> ] professor ] sent Kubrick a letter that stated: “The incident of the girl bound to the tree will make movie history once it is seen...Stanley Kubrick is worth watching for those who want to discover high talent at the moment it appears.”<ref name=PD /> | |||
| ''Fear and Desire'' was not a box office success and Kubrick had to take a for-hire job directing the promotional short '']'' on behalf of the ] in order to raise funds for his next planned feature, '']'' (1954), which would be co-written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler and star ], one of the ''Fear and Desire'' actors.<ref name=PD /> | |||
| In the years following its release, ''Fear and Desire'' seemed to have disappeared. Joseph Burstyn went out of business and there were stories that Kubrick had spent years acquiring all known prints of the film, with the plan of preventing it from ever being seen again. However, some prints of the film remained in private collections.<ref></ref> | |||
| ''Fear and Desire'' had its first retrospective screened at the 1993 ]. <ref></ref> In January 1994, the ], a ] theater based in ], announced plans to show ''Fear and Desire'' on a double bill with ''Killer's Kiss.'' Although the film’s copyright lapsed and the property was in the ], thus allowing it to be shown without fear of legal actions, Kubrick tried to discourage it from gaining an audience. Through ], Kubrick issued a statement that severely downplayed the film’s value, and he called ''Fear and Desire'' "a bumbling amateur film exercise."<ref></ref> | |||
| To date, there have been very few public screenings of ''Fear and Desire''; the only commercially available print belongs to the ] in ]. Among the rare presentations were a 1993 screening at the ] in ], a 2003 one-time screening at the Two Boots Den of Cin in New York City and an August 2008 presentation at the ] in ].<ref></ref><ref name=FT /><ref></ref> | |||
| ''Fear and Desire'' has yet to see a commercial home entertainment release.<ref name=FT /> However, bootleg copies proliferate on DVD and on several online video sites. | |||
| ==References== | |||
| {{reflist}} | {{reflist}} | ||
| Line 33: | Line 62: | ||
| * {{cite book | first=James | last=Naremore | coauthors= | title=On Kubrick | publisher=British Film Institute | origyear=2007 | id=ISBN 1844571424}} | * {{cite book | first=James | last=Naremore | coauthors= | title=On Kubrick | publisher=British Film Institute | origyear=2007 | id=ISBN 1844571424}} | ||
| * {{cite book | first=Jason | last=Sperb | coauthors= | title=The Kubrick Facade: Faces and Voices in the Films of Stanley Kubrick | publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc. | origyear=2006 | id=ISBN 081085855X}} | * {{cite book | first=Jason | last=Sperb | coauthors= | title=The Kubrick Facade: Faces and Voices in the Films of Stanley Kubrick | publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc. | origyear=2006 | id=ISBN 081085855X}} | ||
| ==External links== | |||
| *{{cite web | |||
| | last = Maslin | |||
| | first = Janet | |||
| | title = "'Fear and Desire,' Tale of War Fashioned by Young Film Newcomers, at Guild" | |||
| | publisher = '']'' | |||
| | date = 1953-04-01 | |||
| | url = http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/040153kubrick-fear.html | |||
| | accessdate = 2008-03-14 }} | |||
| {{Stanley Kubrick's films}} | {{Stanley Kubrick's films}} | ||
Revision as of 23:25, 22 October 2008
1953 film| Fear and Desire | |
|---|---|
 Portion of theatrical film poster | |
| Directed by | Stanley Kubrick |
| Written by | Howard Sackler |
| Produced by | Stanley Kubrick |
| Starring | Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky |
| Distributed by | Joseph Burstyn |
| Release dates | 31 March, 1953 |
| Running time | 68 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50,000 (estimated) |
Fear and Desire (1953) military action/adventure film directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is noteworthy as Kubrick’s first feature film, and it also one of Kubrick's least-seen productions.
Plot
Fear and Desire opens with a off-screen narrator (actor David Allen) who tells the audience: “There is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor one that will be, but any war. And the enemies that struggle here do not exist unless we call them into being. For all of them, 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.”
The story is set during a war between two unidentified countries. An airplane carrying four soldiers from one country has crashed six miles behind enemy lines. The soldiers come upon a river and build a raft, hoping they can use the waterway to reach their battalion. As they are building their raft, they approached by a young peasant girl who does not speak. The soldiers apprehend the girl and bind her to a tree with their belts. One of the soldiers goes insane and, while shouting about the William Shakespeare play The Tempest, fatally shoots the girl. A second soldier also goes insane and takes the raft for a solo voyage. The remaining two soldiers unexpectedly locate the headquarters of the enemy army and successfully infiltrate the base. They locate and kill the top ranking general and one of his aides – only to discover the dead men looked exactly like them.
Production
Prior to shooting Fear and Desire, Stanley Kramer was a Look Magazine photographer who had directed two short documentaries in 1951, Day of the Fight and Flying Padre. Both films were acquired for theatrical release by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on his experiences in creating short films, Kubrick felt he was ready to make a narrative feature film. Kubrick quit his full-time job with Look and set forth to create Fear and Desire.
The screenplay for Fear and Desire was written by Howard Sackler, who was a classmate of Kubrick’s at William Howard Taft High School in the Bronx, New York; Sackler would later win the Pulitzer Prize for his 1968 drama The Great White Hope. Paul Mazursky, who would later receive recognition as the director of popular films including Harry and Tonto and An Unmarried Woman, was cast as the soldier who kills the captive peasant.
Funds for Fear and Desire was raised from Kubrick's family and friends, with most of it coming from Marvin Peveller, Kubrick’s uncle and the owner of a profitable pharmacy. The film’s original budget has been estimated at $10,000.
The production team consisted of 15 people: five actors (Paul Mazursky, Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Steve Coit and Virginia Leith), five crew members (including Kubrick’s first wife, Tobia Metz) and four Mexican laborers who transported the film equipment around California's San Gabriel Mountains, where the film was shot. Kubrick served as the film's director, producer, cinematography and editor.
Due to budget limitations, Kubrick improvised in the use of his equipment. To create fog, Kubrick used a crop sprayer – but the cast and crew was nearly asphyxiated because the machinery still contained the insecticide used for its agricultural work. For tracking shots, Paul Mazursky recalled how Kubrick came up with a novel substitute: "There was no dolly track, just a baby carriage to move the camera," he told an interviewer.
Kubrick ran into several problems during the post-production process. He shot the film without sound, with plans to add the dialogue track later, along with the music score and sound effects. However, this raised the cost of finishing the film. Kubrick took a second unit assignment to shoot footage for a television film on the life of Abraham Lincoln in order to secure funds to finish the Fear and Desire soundtrack.
Kubrick also ran into difficulty in editing a key scene where one of the soldiers throws a plate of beans to the floor and enters the frame from the wrong side. Kubrick's blocking of the crucial scene was faulty and his actors accidentally crossed the so-called "director’s line," which required the negative to be flipped in the printing process to preserve continuity; this was another expense.
Distribution and disappearance
Fear and Desire was picked up for U.S. theatrical release by Joseph Burstyn, a distributor who specialized in the presentation of European art house titles. For its New York premiere, the byline-free New York Times movie review noted: "If Fear and Desire is uneven and sometimes reveals an experimental rather than a polished exterior, its over-all effect is entirely worthy of the sincere effort put into it."
Kubrick received praise for Fear and Desire from film critic and screenwriter James Agee, who reportedly took Kubrick out for a drink and told him "there are too many good things...to call arty." Columbia University professor Mark Van Doren sent Kubrick a letter that stated: “The incident of the girl bound to the tree will make movie history once it is seen...Stanley Kubrick is worth watching for those who want to discover high talent at the moment it appears.”
Fear and Desire was not a box office success and Kubrick had to take a for-hire job directing the promotional short The Seafarers on behalf of the Seafarers International Union in order to raise funds for his next planned feature, Killer's Kiss (1954), which would be co-written by Kubrick and Howard Sackler and star Frank Silvera, one of the Fear and Desire actors.
In the years following its release, Fear and Desire seemed to have disappeared. Joseph Burstyn went out of business and there were stories that Kubrick had spent years acquiring all known prints of the film, with the plan of preventing it from ever being seen again. However, some prints of the film remained in private collections.
Fear and Desire had its first retrospective screened at the 1993 Telluride Film Festival. In January 1994, the Film Forum, a nonprofit theater based in New York City, announced plans to show Fear and Desire on a double bill with Killer's Kiss. Although the film’s copyright lapsed and the property was in the public domain, thus allowing it to be shown without fear of legal actions, Kubrick tried to discourage it from gaining an audience. Through Warner Brothers, Kubrick issued a statement that severely downplayed the film’s value, and he called Fear and Desire "a bumbling amateur film exercise."
To date, there have been very few public screenings of Fear and Desire; the only commercially available print belongs to the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Among the rare presentations were a 1993 screening at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., a 2003 one-time screening at the Two Boots Den of Cin in New York City and an August 2008 presentation at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio.
Fear and Desire has yet to see a commercial home entertainment release. However, bootleg copies proliferate on DVD and on several online video sites.
References
- ^ “The country of the mind in Kubrick's Fear and Desire.(Movie Review),” Film Criticism Magazine, September 22, 2004 (library card access required)
- ^ “Fear and Desire,” Film Threat, May 7, 2003
- ^ Duncan, Paul. “Stanley Kubrick: The Complete Films.” Taschen, 2008. ISBN: 9783822831151
- “Stanley Kubrick--an appreciation,” World Socialist Web site, March 27, 1999
- ^ “The Ones That (Almost) Got Away,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1999
- “The New Pictures,” Time Magazine, June 4, 1956
- Buchanan, Larry. “It Came From Hunger!”McFarland & Co., 1996. ISBN:078640194X
- Allen, Thomas. “Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist’s Maze.” Indiana University Press, 2000. ISBN:0253253908
- New York Times, April 1, 1953
- “Here's wishing these DVDs would soon hit the shelves,” Observer-Reporter, November 14, 2003 (fee access required)
- “1.Dark subjects can't blight artists' light at Telluride,” Variety, September 10, 1993
- “Fear & Desire Plays New York,” National Public Radio, January 19, 1994 (transcript)
- “PROFILE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS TO SHOW RARELY SEEN STANLEY KUBRICK FILMS ON JULY 26TH, WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HIS 71ST BIRTHDAY,” NPR, July 15, 1999, (fee-based access)
- “Restrospective: Stanley Kubrick,” Wexner Center for the Arts, August 14, 2008
Further reading
- Kagan, Norman. The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0826412432.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Naremore, James. On Kubrick. British Film Institute. ISBN 1844571424.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Sperb, Jason. The Kubrick Facade: Faces and Voices in the Films of Stanley Kubrick. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 081085855X.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)
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