Stanley Kubrick: The Warner Home Video Directors Series

by Steve Rogers

Much of the controversy surrounding the less than stellar representation of acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick on DVD will be put to rest with the release of the new Stanley Kubrick box set, the first in Warner Home Video's Director's Series. The set contains five of the renowned director's most well known films including 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut. All have been remastered and bundled with a wealth of special features, and all are available individually, with the exception of Full Metal Jacket. The set also includes the previously released documentary "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures".

This is the third incarnation of Kubrick films in a box set and the good news for DVD fans is that all of the films are now available in widescreen anamorphic transfers. Previous sets had featured only 2001 in an anamorphic transfer. Of course there has been quite a bit of discussion as to just how Kubrick desired his films to appear on home video since most were not shot in a widescreen format. But these latest editions represent the original theatrical presentations, and widescreen TV owners and Kubrick fanatics alike can rejoice as the set features pristine transfers and a host of special features for each film, with enough depth and substance to satisfy the most cerebral of Kubrick fanatics.

Unfortunately every silver lining has its cloud, and the films Barry Lyndon and Lolita, which were to apparently have been included in this new set, did not make it. Warner Brothers has reissued both films in non-anamorphic versions essentially identical to their previous versions, a strange marketing decision to be sure. But it's a pretty safe bet that both films and hopefully Dr. Strangelove will get the same royal treatment in '08 and, after viewing some of this new box set, the wait should be well worth it.

Kubrick of course was a cinematic genius, an American film master whose influence ranges wide and deep. The numerous luminaries of the film world who offer commentary and tribute to the late director on these discs are a tribute to this influence, and those wishing to search out the seminal influences on filmmakers like George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Sydney Pollack, to name but a few, will find heavy doses of this in the special features of the box set. Lucas and Spielberg in particular owe a major debt to Kubrick with the Star Wars franchise and Close Encounters respectively and they are the first to acknowledge it. The aborted collaboration between Spielberg and Kubrick on A.I. (due to Kubrick's untimely death) is a prime example of the respect these Hollywood giants possess for the caliber of the legendary director's work. In many ways that visionary work in the vanguard of American filmmaking for five decades is still unsurpassed and likely to remain that way.