Directed by Stanley Kubrick • 1953 • United States
Starring Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky
Virtually unseen for decades after its theatrical premiere in 1953, FEAR AND DESIRE was the ambitious first feature by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. An existential war film often compared with the director’s later masterpieces PATHS OF GLORY and FULL METAL JACKET, FEAR AND DESIRE follows a squad of soldiers who have crash-landed behind enemy lines and must work their way downriver to rejoin their unit. Before making their escape, the soldiers determine the location of an enemy base and formulate a plot to assassinate its commanding officer. Though Kubrick expressed dissatisfaction with the film and attempted to destroy all copies of it, FEAR AND DESIRE thankfully survives as a fascinating first glimpse of a master in the making.
Up Next in ’50s Kubrick
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Killer’s Kiss
Directed by Stanley Kubrick • 1955 • United States
Starring Frank Silvera, Jamie Smith, Irene KaneThis early feature by Stanley Kubrick finds the precocious young director seizing the noir genre as an opportunity for visual experimentation and moody atmosphere, laying the groundwork for the fol...
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The Killing
Directed by Stanley Kubrick • 1956 • United States
Starring Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince EdwardsStanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp noveli...
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Paths of Glory
Directed by Stanley Kubrick • 1957 • United States
Starring Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolph MenjouStanley Kubrick’s PATHS OF GLORY is among the most powerful antiwar films ever made. A fiery Kirk Douglas stars as a World War I French colonel who goes head-to-head with the army’s ruthless ...
