Aidan At The Movies: Happy Birthday, Stanley Kubrick!

7/26/15

Left, Stanley Kubrick in 1968. Right, Kubrick at 21 circa 1949

     Today is the birthday of one of Hollywood's famous directors, Stanley Kubrick. He would have been 87 if he was alive today.
     Kubrick was born in New York and was considered very smart, despite getting low grades in school. In 1940, Kubrick's father, Jack sent him to Pasadena, California, to stay with his Uncle Martin, because he was very angry at Stanley for his poor grades and he hoped it would help his academic performance. He returned to New York in 1941 for his final year in grammar school, where there seems to be a change in his attitude. Kubrick didn't had any interests at that time. So his father tried his best to help him. Jack introduced Stanley to chess, in which Stanley became a very skilled player.  For his thirteenth birthday, Stanley received a camera from his father. From that day on, Stanley became a professional photographer. He would make round trips to New York taking photographs and develop the photos in a friend's dark room. Later, after submitting a photograph to Look Magazine, he got a job at the age of 17, as an apprentice photographer. Then in 1950, with his friend, Alexander Singer, Kubrick moved on to the movie business, being a big movie-goer and all. His first film was Flying Padre, a documentary  released in 1951. Kubrick would later go on to make other great movies such as Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stopped Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), and of course, Full Metal Jacket for Warner Brothers in 1987. His final film was Eyes Wide Shut released in 1999. But, while putting the finishing touches on the movie, Kubrick died in his sleep from a fatal heart attack.
    This man was one of the most brilliant directors. I admire his style. Now that I think of it, Stanley Kubrick reminds me of myself. :)

                               DEDICATED TO STANLEY KUBRICK (1928-1999) and my mother who    introduced me to the art of photography.