Adam Daroff is an old friend of mine who currently works and lives in LA as an editor of film and TV. We are both finishing off the American Film Institute's Top 100 and writing joint reviews and thoughts as we go. This is my response to his review, check out the original at his blog, I Am A Blog
Spartacus
I share Adam’s love-hate relationship with epics, but I’m generally more positive on Stanley Kubrick. The “drag” effect is very real in his movies, but I think the root cause – and his real sin - is in stylizing moments that don’t need to be stylized. It doesn’t ruin his movies for me, but it does make them difficult to re-watch. The first few times I watched A Clockwork Orange I was captivated from beginning to end; I didn’t want to miss a thing because I wanted to understand this unique vision of the world. On subsequent viewings, however, I find myself getting a bit bored when I know that a scene isn’t all that important but still takes its time. A Clockwork Orange has some of my favorite film moments of all time, but the lack of differentiation between what is important and what is filler makes repeat viewings more of a chore than a pleasure. And only about a half hour of Eyes Wide Shut is any fun to watch once you know what is actually happening.
There are many one trick pony directors out there who manage to squeeze out one or two good movies before it gets old (M Night Shyamalan, Richard Kelly). While Kubrick certainly has his own style that rubs some people the wrong way, what prevents me from calling it a trick is a movie like Spartacus. Adam has already described most of what I like about it, but I actually enjoy Kubrick’s later work even more because Spartacus shows that he is fully aware of his style. His movies aren’t the way they are because that’s all he knows how to do, and we know this because he’s made a fantastic Hollywood epic that doesn’t look like his later movies. Occasionally his style has steered him wrong, but it’s comforting to know that there’s a motivation for it. Gus Van Sant does this same thing – he makes an infinitely watchable movie like Good Will Hunting, makes three experimental films out of which only one is any good, then makes Milk to show us he still remembers how to do it. It makes you appreciate his skills even more.
There are many one trick pony directors out there who manage to squeeze out one or two good movies before it gets old (M Night Shyamalan, Richard Kelly). While Kubrick certainly has his own style that rubs some people the wrong way, what prevents me from calling it a trick is a movie like Spartacus. Adam has already described most of what I like about it, but I actually enjoy Kubrick’s later work even more because Spartacus shows that he is fully aware of his style. His movies aren’t the way they are because that’s all he knows how to do, and we know this because he’s made a fantastic Hollywood epic that doesn’t look like his later movies. Occasionally his style has steered him wrong, but it’s comforting to know that there’s a motivation for it. Gus Van Sant does this same thing – he makes an infinitely watchable movie like Good Will Hunting, makes three experimental films out of which only one is any good, then makes Milk to show us he still remembers how to do it. It makes you appreciate his skills even more.
