Editing Stanley Kubrick (section)

=== Later work and final years (1981–1999) ===
==== ''Full Metal Jacket'' ====
Kubrick met author [[Michael Herr]] through mutual friend David Cornwell (novelist [[John le Carré]]) in 1980, and became interested in his book [[Dispatches (book)|''Dispatches'']], about the [[Vietnam War]].{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=170}} Herr had recently written [[Martin Sheen]]'s narration for ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'' (1979). Kubrick was also intrigued by [[Gustav Hasford]]'s Vietnam War novel ''[[The Short-Timers]].'' With the vision in mind to shoot what would become ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]'' (1987), Kubrick began working with both Herr and Hasford separately on a script. He eventually found Hasford's novel to be "brutally honest" and decided to shoot a film which closely follows the novel.{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=170}} All of the film was shot at a cost of $17 million within a 30-mile radius of his house between August 1985 and September 1986, later than scheduled as Kubrick shut down production for five months following a near-fatal accident with a jeep involving [[Lee Ermey]].{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=175}} A derelict gasworks in [[Beckton]] in the [[London Docklands]] area posed as the ruined city of [[Huế]],{{sfn|Baxter|1997|p=341}} which makes the film visually very different from other Vietnam War films. Around 200 palm trees were imported via 40-foot trailers by road from North Africa, at a cost of £1000 a tree, and thousands of plastic plants were ordered from Hong Kong to provide foliage for the film.{{Sfn|LoBrutto|1999|p=471}} Kubrick explained he made the film look realistic by using natural light, and achieved a "newsreel effect" by making the Steadicam shots less steady,{{Sfn|Ciment|1980|p=246}} which reviewers and commentators thought contributed to the bleakness and seriousness of the film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0030.html |title=Regarding Full Metal Jacket |publisher=The Kubrick Site |accessdate=March 5, 2011 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603233024/http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0030.html |archivedate=June 3, 2011}}</ref>

According to critic [[Michel Ciment]], the film contained some of Kubrick's trademark characteristics, such as his selection of ironic music, portrayals of men being dehumanized, and attention to extreme detail to achieve realism. In a later scene, United States Marines patrol the ruins of an abandoned and destroyed city singing the theme song to the [[Mickey Mouse Club]] as a sardonic counterpoint.{{sfn|Webster|2010|p=135}} The film opened strongly in June 1987, taking over $30 million in the first 50 days alone,{{sfn|Baxter|1997|p=354}} but critically it was overshadowed by the success of [[Oliver Stone]]'s ''[[Platoon (film)|Platoon]]'', released a year earlier.{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=179}} Co-star [[Matthew Modine]] stated one of Kubrick's favorite reviews read: "The first half of ''FMJ'' is brilliant. Then the film degenerates into a masterpiece."<ref name="Modine1">{{cite web |url=http://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/full-metal-jackets-matthew-modine-on-working-with-kubrick-and-movie-conspiracy-theories-6485969 |title=''Full Metal Jacket''{{'}}s Matthew Modine on Working With Kubrick and Movie Conspiracy Theories |work=Miami New Times |last=Morgenstern |first=Hans |date=April 8, 2013 |accessdate=August 11, 2014 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402062140/http://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/full-metal-jackets-matthew-modine-on-working-with-kubrick-and-movie-conspiracy-theories-6485969 |archivedate=April 2, 2015}}</ref> Ebert was not particularly impressed with it, awarding it a mediocre 2.5 out of 4. He concluded: "Stanley Kubrick's ''Full Metal Jacket'' is more like a book of short stories than a novel", a "strangely shapeless film from the man whose work usually imposes a ferociously consistent vision on his material".<ref>{{cite web |author=Ebert, Roger |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/full-metal-jacket-1987 |title=Full Metal Jacket |publisher=Rogerebert.com |date=June 26, 1987 |accessdate=August 17, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150806071252/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/full-metal-jacket-1987 |archivedate=August 6, 2015}}</ref>

==== ''Eyes Wide Shut'' ====

Kubrick's final film was ''[[Eyes Wide Shut]]'' (1999), starring [[Tom Cruise]] and [[Nicole Kidman]] as a Manhattan couple on a sexual odyssey. Tom Cruise portrays a doctor who witnesses a bizarre masked quasireligious orgiastic ritual at a country mansion, a discovery which later threatens his life. The story is based on [[Arthur Schnitzler]]'s 1926 Freudian novella ''Traumnovelle'' (''[[Dream Story]]'' in English), which Kubrick relocated from turn-of-the-century Vienna to New York City in the 1990s. Kubrick said of the novel: "A difficult book to describe—what good book isn't. It explores the sexual ambivalence of a happy marriage and tries to equate the importance of sexual dreams and might-have-beens with reality. All of Schnitzler's work is psychologically brilliant".{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=181}} Kubrick was almost 70, but worked relentlessly for 15 months to get the film out by its planned release date of July 16, 1999. He commenced a script with [[Frederic Raphael]],{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=151}} and worked 18 hours a day, while maintaining complete confidentiality about the film.{{sfn|Baxter|1997|p=363}}

''Eyes Wide Shut'', like ''Lolita'' and ''A Clockwork Orange'' before it, faced censorship before release. Kubrick sent an unfinished preview copy to the stars and producers a few months before release, but his sudden death on March 7, 1999, came a few days after he finished editing. He never saw the final version released to the public,{{Sfn|Ciment|1980|p=311}} but he did see the preview of the film with Warner Bros., Cruise, and Kidman, and had reportedly told Warner executive Julian Senior that it was his "best film ever".{{sfn|Duncan|2003|p=184}} At the time, critical opinion of the film was mixed, and it was viewed less favorably than most of Kubrick's films. Ebert awarded it 3.5 out of 4 stars, comparing the structure to a thriller and writing that it is "like an erotic daydream about chances missed and opportunities avoided", and thought that Kubrick's use of lighting at Christmas made the film "all a little garish, like an urban sideshow".<ref>{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eyes-wide-shut-1999 |title=Eyes Wide Shut |publisher=RogerEbert.com |date=July 16, 1999 |accessdate=August 17, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150802051007/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/eyes-wide-shut-1999 |archivedate=August 2, 2015}}</ref> [[Stephen Hunter]] of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' disliked the film, writing that it "is actually sad, rather than bad. It feels creaky, ancient, hopelessly out of touch, infatuated with the hot taboos of his youth and unable to connect with that twisty thing contemporary sexuality has become."<ref>{{cite web |author=Hunter, Stephen |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/eyeswideshuthunter.htm |title=Kubrick's Sleepy 'Eyes Wide Shut' |work=The Washington Post |date=July 16, 1999 |accessdate=August 17, 2015 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927160725/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/eyeswideshuthunter.htm |archivedate=September 27, 2015}}</ref>