Stanley Kubrickwasa filmmaker known forbeing something of a perfectionist, so it stands to reason that some of his films did indeed end up being perfect (or close to it). He worked steadily on projects throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, but slowed down his output for the final several years of his directing career, being unafraid to take multiple years crafting each and every film he made.
So, even though Kubrick’s first film came out in 1952 (Fear and Desire), and he worked until he passed away in 1999, his filmography stands at just 13 feature films. Still, most of those are classics, and only a handful are – while interesting – a little way off perfect, including Fear and Desire,Killer’s Kiss(1955), andLolita(1962). They’re still worth watching, of course, but the closest to perfect Kubrick films are ranked below, starting with the great and ending with the flat-out masterworks.
10’The Killing' (1956)
Starring: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards
The Killingmight not come close to the masterpieces Stanley Kubrick made post-1956, but it is arguably his first undeniably great movie, and stands as something of aclassic of the 1950s as a whole. It’s a tight, well-paced, and oftentimes suspenseful heist film, having various criminals take part in a job that goes wrong in various ways, often because of various betrayals, double-crosses, and instances of plain bad luck.
It hits the beats you’d expect a crime movie of its time to hit, butThe Killingis so confident, well-made, and brisk (at just 85 minutes) that you probably won’t ever register the familiar parts in the moment. It’sa movie that’s easy to get swept up in, and a sign that Kubrick was a director that could spin cinematic gold with a simple premise and a rather modest budget.
The Killing
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9’Spartacus' (1960)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons
When it comes to discussing Stanley Kubrick movies, there’s often an asterisk that needs to be placed besidesSpartacus, given it doesn’t entirely feel like a Kubrick movie and thedirector himself largely disowned it as a result. To cut a long story short, Spartacus had atroubled production, particularly early on, with Kubrick being brought in a little while after shooting had begun.
That lack of creative control by Kubrick’s standards might not makeSpartacusa great Kubrick movie, but it is a great epic generally speaking. It’s an undoubtedly huge production with a moving and exciting story at its core, focused on the titular slave and the uprising he led against the Roman Republic. It’s worth watching as a piece of great, near-timeless entertainment, but not necessarily for the same reasons one might appreciate a normal Kubrick film. Hence that pesky asterisk.
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8’Barry Lyndon' (1975)
Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee
To see what Stanley Kubrick could do within the epic genre when given more control, one doesn’t need to look any further thanBarry Lyndon. It’s more psychologically dramatic than Spartacus, and perhaps a little slower-paced, too, though it does still feature some impressive set pieces and has the kind of immense scope that proves satisfying injust about every great epic movie out there.
The titular character ofBarry Lyndonaspires to be someone he both physically and socially cannot truly be, and he reckons with this internal and societal conflict throughout the entire film. Beyond being a great character study,Barry Lyndonis also up there as one of the best-looking Kubrick films, andoffers so much visually that one could probably watch the entire thing on mute and it would still prove quite absorbing.
Barry Lyndon
7’Paths of Glory' (1957)
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, Adolphe Menjou
Paths of Gloryisfilmed in black-and-white, sure, but that in no way means it showcases war as a black-and-white issue. It tackles World War I and tells a morally complex and uneasy story within the context of that conflict, being about three soldiers who are court-martialed and made to be scapegoats, effectively, after an offensive goes horribly wrong.
The impressive parts ofPaths of Glory’s first act largely come about fromthe still harrowing portrayal of trench warfare, with the film laterbecoming more of a courtroom drama(and staying compelling nonetheless). It’s similarly brief and focused likeThe Killing, but also shows a huge step-up in quality and ambition, particularly from a technical standpoint. If that 1956 film was Kubrick’s first great movie, thenPaths of Glorywas his first impossible-to-fault one.
Paths of Glory
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6’Full Metal Jacket' (1987)
Starring: Matthew Modine, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey
30 years on fromPaths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick made another movie about 20th-century warfare that was arguably just as great:Full Metal Jacket. The former is about as good as World War I movies get, and the latter is aboutas great as Vietnam War movies get, withFull Metal Jacketmemorably being a film of two halves: pre-combat training, and then deployment/combat itself.
It’s jarring to go straight from boot camp to Vietnam the first time around, but watchingFull Metal Jacketagain proves eye-opening, given the whole film is intended to be about how war – as well as the lead-up to participating in it – is inherently dehumanizing.There is cruelty, psychological distress, and violence on both fronts. It’s horrifying to see across both halves of the film, but they add up and work to makeFull Metal Jacketa harrowing and expertly crafted critique of war and all it entails.
Full Metal Jacket
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5’Eyes Wide Shut' (1999)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack
Agreat (albeit non-traditional) Christmas movieon top of being one of themost widely-discussed and haunting films of 1999,Eyes Wide ShutjoinsFull Metal Jacketas a Kubrick film that benefits immensely from rewatches. It can be more than a little overwhelming and vague upon a first watch, but seeing it again can bring clarity to some aspects of the film, all the while confirming which parts are perhaps meant to stay mysterious/unexplained.
Eyes Wide Shutrevolves around a man having a surreal and psychological odyssey following a revelation about his wife that unsettles him to a great extent. There’s more to it than that, or maybe there’s less to it than that;Eyes Wide Shutleaves a ton up to the viewer. But the journey it offers is fascinating and intensely dreamlike in a way few other directors (besides maybeDavid Lynch) are capable of conjuring.It was Kubrick’s final movie, and ends his filmography with a bang.
Eyes Wide Shut
4’Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' (1964)
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden
Compared toPaths of GloryandFull Metal Jacket, there’s a ton of comedy to be found inDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which is Kubrick’s cinematic take on the Cold War.It’s all dark humor and satirical, sure, but the world-ending stakes pair well with the generally farcical situations at hand, making this arguably the filmmaker’s funniest work.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bombis also the final Kubrick film to be shot in black-and-white while feeling relatively lean, given his releases after 1964 had longer runtimes or more epic scopes (or both). It’s a relentless and timelessly funny film, and will – perhaps unfortunately – also remain timeless on a thematic front, forever being an uneasy reminder of the dangers posed by the mere existence of nuclear weapons.
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
3’The Shining' (1980)
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
The Shiningis widely regarded as one of thegreatest supernatural horror/thriller movies ever made, and so formally introducing it can feel a little funny. It’s an essential film, andworks as both a ghost story and a – debatably more horrifying – psychological drama, being set in the creepiest hotel in the history of fiction, following a father who unravels and lashes out in increasingly aggressive ways against his family.
There’s a quality toThe Shiningthat’s undeniably scary, with the big shocking moments landing just as hard as the more subdued instances of horror. That it can be both approachable and subtle while havinga very much unsubtleJack Nicholsonperformanceat its center is a testament to how greatThe Shiningis, also helping to explain why it endures so much as the decades go on.
The Shining
2’A Clockwork Orange' (1971)
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Carl Duering
A film that manages to bevisually striking and harrowing/disturbingin equal measure,A Clockwork Orangeis arguably Stanley Kubrick’s boldest film, as well as his most challenging. It’s a film with a grimy dystopian setting that looks at an extreme punishment enacted on an extreme criminal, one that dehumanizes him and makes him a victim when he’s cast back into the society he once terrorized.
Beyond the content being challenging to witness,A Clockwork Orangeoffers very few easy answers through its exploration of crime, state-sanctioned punishments, and justice (or lack thereof). It’s undeniably one ofthe greatest movies of the 1970s, and one that deserves to be watched and analyzed, ultimately standing as a moviethat’s as great technically as it is greatly confronting and unsettling.
A Clockwork Orange
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1'2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968)
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
Most directors would be more than happy with making ascience fiction film that was near-perfect, but Stanley Kubrick’s most direct contribution to the genre is, simply put, perfect. That film is the legendary2001: A Space Odyssey, which needs no introduction. Even if you haven’t seen it before, you’re probably aware of what it’s about or even what it contains visually,thanks to how often it gets parodied.
2001: A Space Odysseyexplores humanity’s past, near-future, and then distant future,all while being technically detailed and absorbing, thanks to it giving viewers a great deal to chew on thematically. Though it’s slow sometimes, it’s rewarding and gripping in its own strange way, building a portrait of humanity and imagining its future in a way that’s still enthralling, even if the titular year is now set in the past.
