We Don't Need Two Metaphors

Throughout 2013, I shall be watching all of Stanley Kubrick's 13 feature films in chronological order. I'll discuss each film on here along with a handful of documentaries and short films. To read all the posts so far, click on the "Stanley Kubrick" tag at the end of this post. Prior to his death, Stanley Kubrick had attempted to keep Fear And Desire film out of circulation. He described it as the work of an amateur and reportedly acquired as many copies of the film as he could. In many ways, he was right to distance himself from this film; it demonstrates his inexperience and often descends in a pretentious mess. However, there are a handful of interesting things about it and it is arguably one of his most important films. A fighter plane has crashed behind enemy lines and the four surviving soldiers must make their way  out of the hostile territory. Their plans are sidetracked when a young girl stumbles upon the group.

I have quite a few notable gaps in my film viewing. Fight Club, Schindler's List, Goodfellas, Apocalypse Now; just a handful of films that any self-respecting film fan should have seen. I've also yet to see any film of many notable directors; Kurosawa, Hawks, Altman, Fellini, Bergman. I'm constantly trying to fill in the gaps, but there are only so many hours in the day. One of the most prominent omissions in my opinion is that I have seen so few of Stanley Kubrick's films. Widely regarded as one of the most gifted and talented directors, Kubrick could not be pigeonholed and left behind an incredibly varied filmography. Yet despite this status, I have only seen one of his sixteen films: The Shining . I also watched a lot of Spartacus  during Latin lessons at school (one of the the benefits of a classical education). This was not due to any specific reason; the right opportunity had never presented itself (as a film fan, it's no easy feat to keep up with modern rel...