"I saw Barry Lyndon at the Cinerama Dome on a screen so big I just went, 'Oh, my god!' " – Brian De Palma
The early 50s. Stanley Kubrick quits his job at "Look" magazine and, intent on becoming a film director, directs "Day of the Fight", a short documentary for RKO Radio Pictures.
The film, shot for almost four thousand dollars, all of which was gathered by Kubrick (borrowing from friends, relatives and his own funds), takes an innovative approach to the newsreel format, Kubrick functioning as director, producer, writer, sound-man and cinematographer.
Because he had total control, "Day of the Fight" remains the best of Kubrick's early shorts. Whatever its flaws, it's a gritty, interesting little flick, demonstrating the kind of naturalism and humanity that many of his early "Look" photographs exhibited. Like many Kubrick films, "Day of the Fight" also has a methodical quality, Kubrick's camera lingering on the daily routines and pre-fight rituals of a young boxer. The film captures the claustrophobia of 1950s New York, the impersonality of urban life and the violence of the boxing ring. Some kinetic sequences recall Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss" and the hand-held boxing sequences in "Barry Lyndon", but the quieter moments impress as well, each one imbued with a kind of pre-fight anxiety, every shot oozing dread, anticipation and nervous energy.
Unfortunately, RKO's "March of Time" newsreel went into liquidation and RKO was only able to buy "Day of the Fight" for a hundred dollars more than its production cost, though they liked the short enough to offer Kubrick fifteen hundred dollars to film a second documentary called "Flying Padre".
"Flying Padre", Kubrick's follow up short for RKO, is thus purely a work for hire. You can sense that Kubrick had zero interest in this story, an insignificant little tale about a Catholic priest in New Mexico who uses a small plane to tend to his 400 square mile parish. Kubrick wrote the short's narration and has his small cast re-enact several moments from the priest's past (he takes a sick child to his mother, flies to an isolated ranch, gives staged sermons etc), but with the form and content of the short controlled by the newsreel companies of the day, there's little room for anything interesting other than a couple neat camera angles and some good cinematography.
8/10 – "Day of the Fight"
5/10 – "Flying Padre"
Of interest to Kubrick completists only.
The early 50s. Stanley Kubrick quits his job at "Look" magazine and, intent on becoming a film director, directs "Day of the Fight", a short documentary for RKO Radio Pictures.
The film, shot for almost four thousand dollars, all of which was gathered by Kubrick (borrowing from friends, relatives and his own funds), takes an innovative approach to the newsreel format, Kubrick functioning as director, producer, writer, sound-man and cinematographer.
Because he had total control, "Day of the Fight" remains the best of Kubrick's early shorts. Whatever its flaws, it's a gritty, interesting little flick, demonstrating the kind of naturalism and humanity that many of his early "Look" photographs exhibited. Like many Kubrick films, "Day of the Fight" also has a methodical quality, Kubrick's camera lingering on the daily routines and pre-fight rituals of a young boxer. The film captures the claustrophobia of 1950s New York, the impersonality of urban life and the violence of the boxing ring. Some kinetic sequences recall Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss" and the hand-held boxing sequences in "Barry Lyndon", but the quieter moments impress as well, each one imbued with a kind of pre-fight anxiety, every shot oozing dread, anticipation and nervous energy.
Unfortunately, RKO's "March of Time" newsreel went into liquidation and RKO was only able to buy "Day of the Fight" for a hundred dollars more than its production cost, though they liked the short enough to offer Kubrick fifteen hundred dollars to film a second documentary called "Flying Padre".
"Flying Padre", Kubrick's follow up short for RKO, is thus purely a work for hire. You can sense that Kubrick had zero interest in this story, an insignificant little tale about a Catholic priest in New Mexico who uses a small plane to tend to his 400 square mile parish. Kubrick wrote the short's narration and has his small cast re-enact several moments from the priest's past (he takes a sick child to his mother, flies to an isolated ranch, gives staged sermons etc), but with the form and content of the short controlled by the newsreel companies of the day, there's little room for anything interesting other than a couple neat camera angles and some good cinematography.
8/10 – "Day of the Fight"
5/10 – "Flying Padre"
Of interest to Kubrick completists only.