Special Coverage Pop Culture Classics (The EW 1000)Sound BitesSummer TVBox Office Game
By Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Ty Burr is a writer at large for EW and is no relation to Raymond or Aaron

Warner's 10-disc Director's Series: Stanley Kubrick set offers five of the maverick genius' films in their original wide-screen glory, the feature-length doc A Life in Pictures, and enough extras to last you until 3001.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
The film that launched a million stoned dorm-room debates is as trippy as ever, spanning eons of evolution from caveman to spaceman to HAL 9000. Choice Extra A 1966 Look magazine-made short speculating about life in far-off 2001. A

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
Kubrick's future-shock parable was a pop culture time bomb in 1971; today, the gang-scarred landscape looks more relevant than ever. Best Trivia The director tossed the script and shot the film straight from Anthony Burgess' book. B+

THE SHINING (1980)
The eerie grip of this haunted-hotel spectacular sprang from Kubrick's discovery of the Steadicam, which gave a godlike control to those endless tracking shots. Cheap Thrill A young Jack Nicholson flirting with Kubrick's 17-year-old daughter in an on-set doc. A-

FULL METAL JACKET (1987)
Arriving near the end of a long Vietnam-movie cycle, Kubrick's entry was underrated by some. Look again. It's fierce, uncompromising, and painfully germane to our current adventures abroad. Typical Commentary Vincent D'Onofrio: ''This is where I blew out my knee.'' B+

EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
The hermit of St. Albans reemerged with this flawed exploration of human sexuality. Yet in Nicole Kidman, it has a Kubrick rarity: a richly complex female role. Best Tribute Sydney Pollack on Kubrick: ''He was sort of incapable of working without pushing at the edges.'' C+


Posted Oct 18, 2007 | Published in issue #961 Oct 26, 2007 | Order Article Reprints
 

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