Fear and Desire (1953)
Country: US
Technical: bw 62m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky
Synopsis:
In an imaginary conflict, four men are caught behind enemy lines when their plane crashes. Their efforts to get back to their own lines are frustrated by the arrival of a girl and the sitting target of a general in a nearby house.
Review:
Kubrick's first feature is a crude affair, with reasonable recorded sound but unattractively blurred and contrasty black and white cinematography. The screenplay is self-consciously portentous and over-talkative, full of reflections on courage, killing and what it is to be a human being; near-contemporary films such as Attack, The Bridge on the River Kwai and the director's own Paths of Glory did far better with this material in a non-fictional context, and he never did know what to do with female characters. Still, as a first effort it is not without points that impress, such as the performances of Silvera and Harp, and some evocatively edited violence and atmospheric shots of the general, a clear precursor to Mireau, Crassus and Ripper.
Country: US
Technical: bw 62m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky
Synopsis:
In an imaginary conflict, four men are caught behind enemy lines when their plane crashes. Their efforts to get back to their own lines are frustrated by the arrival of a girl and the sitting target of a general in a nearby house.
Review:
Kubrick's first feature is a crude affair, with reasonable recorded sound but unattractively blurred and contrasty black and white cinematography. The screenplay is self-consciously portentous and over-talkative, full of reflections on courage, killing and what it is to be a human being; near-contemporary films such as Attack, The Bridge on the River Kwai and the director's own Paths of Glory did far better with this material in a non-fictional context, and he never did know what to do with female characters. Still, as a first effort it is not without points that impress, such as the performances of Silvera and Harp, and some evocatively edited violence and atmospheric shots of the general, a clear precursor to Mireau, Crassus and Ripper.
Country: US
Technical: bw 62m
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky
Synopsis:
In an imaginary conflict, four men are caught behind enemy lines when their plane crashes. Their efforts to get back to their own lines are frustrated by the arrival of a girl and the sitting target of a general in a nearby house.
Review:
Kubrick's first feature is a crude affair, with reasonable recorded sound but unattractively blurred and contrasty black and white cinematography. The screenplay is self-consciously portentous and over-talkative, full of reflections on courage, killing and what it is to be a human being; near-contemporary films such as Attack, The Bridge on the River Kwai and the director's own Paths of Glory did far better with this material in a non-fictional context, and he never did know what to do with female characters. Still, as a first effort it is not without points that impress, such as the performances of Silvera and Harp, and some evocatively edited violence and atmospheric shots of the general, a clear precursor to Mireau, Crassus and Ripper.