Stanely Kubrick Essay Research Paper The American

Stanely Kubrick Essay, Research Paper

The American cinema is rich with powerful and insightful filmmakers whose bodies of work add to the legacy of American filmmaking. But a few filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch, two of the most enlightening and illuminating directors to ever grace the silver screen, not only add to but create entirely new possibilities for the American and global cinema. These auteurs are separated from other filmmakers because of their profound sense of creativity and individuality. There is no mistaking a film by Kubrick or Lynch because everything from the editing to the scoring to the cinematography is unmistakably theirs. Their unique visions become a part of film’s history, and their trailblazing efforts help to create new possibilities for the institution of cinema.

While Kubrick and Lynch share the distinction of being trailblazing auteurs who broaden the scope of cinema, their bodies of work, style, and world views are vastly different. Kubrick, whose body of work centers around the dehumanization of man, is separated from Lynch whose body of work centers around a character’s discovery of self in an amoral world. Thus, it is often found that Kubrick focuses on exterior themes such as man as a symbolic figure, while Lynch focuses on intensely private themes such as a character’s discovery of self. Using their films as evidence, let us take a closer look at how these two great directors use their unique sense of style, characters, and auteurship to espouse their world view.

One of the greatest contrasts between Lynch and Kubrick is found in their treatment of mankind. For Kubrick, men are often treated as ‘machines’ who serve a purpose. For Instance, in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Full Metal Jacket the dialogue of the characters becomes so entrenched in a technical jargon that the audience starts to see the characters not as humans, but rather as extensions of a machine (be it the computer machines of 2001 or the military machine of Full Metal Jacket). Thus, when Sergeant Hartman asks Gomer Pyle “What is your major malfunction.” he is treating Pyle as a machine, as a malfunctioning unit devoid of emotion and humanity. “What is your major malfunction” becomes the ironic mantra of the film as it shifts from its “marine camp” stage to its Vietnam stage. When characters like the helicopter gunman who shoots men, women, and children are introduced the audience finds that the “malfunction” is in the characters transformation from humans into machines by the military. They have lost their humanity and have become dehumanized-void of any saving graces such as benevolence, mercy, or forgiveness.

This dehumanization is also very present in 2001 where all of the limited dialogue goes into a whirlpool of unintelligible jargon. There is no meaningful dialogue between characters, no representations of inner thoughts and feelings; there is only the empty dialogue of technology which Kubrick couples with the cold emptiness of space. Thus characters like Dave speak, but the words they speak are not inherently human-they carry with them no sense of the emotion, passion, and vitality which are all fundamentally human. Ironically the most ‘human’ character, in terms of showing any type of depth and range is the HAL 9000 computer. When Dave “unplugs” HAL from his mainframe, HAL displays this depth and range pleading: “Dave. Stop Stop Dave I’m afraid I’m afraid Dave.” Thus HAL becomes the only character in the film to display any type of in-depth human emotion, and of course this irony is furthered when the audience sees that the position of the HAL 9000 super-computer is as omnipotent and the human characters as subservient followers. Kubrick creates a world in which humans are not only parts of a mechanism (i.e. Dave’s responsibilities are to HAL) but are also subservient to it. Humans become dehumanized and are utilized only for their ability to further the cause of the machine.

Kubrick’s world view of humans as tools to further the cause of the machine (political, military, or other) is not found in the films of David Lynch. Lynch approaches his world view from a much more intensely personal and human approach. For Lynch, it is the discovery of the self in an amoral world that often drives the narrative of his films. Take for example one of Lynch’s finest films The Elephant Man. Lynch begins with a character who in a sense is dehumanized, the horribly disfigured John Merrick, and centers a very beautiful and profound human story around him. In a sense, Lynch is working in the opposite direction of Kubrick who often begins his films with a human character (i.e. Barry Lyndon, Jack Torrance) but by films end has dehumanized them. In opposition to this, John Merrick is a character who throughout the film is trying to locate his self, his humanity, in a world that is disgusted and frightened by him. Take for example how Lynch details the episode when Merrick is abducted by a travelling freak show and introduced to the absolute lowest forms of human life. Even though Merrick sees the underbelly and amorality of humanity he still believes in its potential for good. This is the most profoundly humanitarian moment in the film, because even though Merrick become conscious of the horrors of humanity, he still wants to belong. In one of the films triumphant moments, Merrick pronounces his claim to humanity saying: “I am not an animal I a