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IMDbPro

Fear and Desire

  • 19531953
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 2m
IMDb RATING
5.4/10
12K
YOUR RATING
Stanley Kubrick in Fear and Desire (1953)
DramaThrillerWar
Four soldiers trapped behind enemy lines must confront their fears and desires.Four soldiers trapped behind enemy lines must confront their fears and desires.Four soldiers trapped behind enemy lines must confront their fears and desires.
IMDb RATING
5.4/10
12K
YOUR RATING
    • Stanley Kubrick
    • Howard Sackler
  • Stars
    • Frank Silvera
    • Kenneth Harp
    • Paul Mazursky
    • Stanley Kubrick
    • Howard Sackler
  • Stars
    • Frank Silvera
    • Kenneth Harp
    • Paul Mazursky
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 88User reviews
    • 69Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Photos64

    Stanley Kubrick in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Fear and Desire (1953)
    Stanley Kubrick in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Paul Mazursky and Frank Silvera in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Stephen Coit and Kenneth Harp in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Frank Silvera in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Stephen Coit and Kenneth Harp in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Fear and Desire (1953)
    Kenneth Harp in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Frank Silvera in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Stephen Coit in Fear and Desire (1953)
    Kenneth Harp in Fear and Desire (1953)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Frank Silvera
    Frank Silvera
    • Mac
    Kenneth Harp
    Kenneth Harp
    • Lt. Corby…
    Paul Mazursky
    Paul Mazursky
    • Sidney
    Stephen Coit
    Stephen Coit
    • Fletcher
    • (as Steve Coit)
    • …
    Virginia Leith
    Virginia Leith
    • The Girl
    David Allen
    • Narrator
    • (voice)
    Toba Kubrick
    • Woman Fishing in the River
    • (uncredited)
      • Stanley Kubrick
      • Howard Sackler
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Stanley Kubrick later denounced this film as amateurish, saying he considered it like a child's drawing on a fridge.
    • Goofs
      The shots of the dead girl show her either with her face three-quarter turned to the ground (close shot) or with her face looking straight out to the side (long shot). This may be deliberate due to the surreal nature of the scene, namely the mental state of her killer.
    • Quotes

      [first lines]

      Narrator: There is war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, or one that will be, but any war. And the enemies who struggle here do not exist, unless we call them into being. This forest, then, and all that happens now is outside history. Only the unchanging shapes of fear, and doubt, and death are from our world. These soldiers that you see keep our language and our time, but have no other country but the mind.

    • Crazy credits
      Preserved by the Library of Congress - Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation
    • Alternate versions
      Blu-ray Disc releases in America also include The Seafarers, a short film from Kubrick, as a bonus feature. The European Masters of Cinema release also includes two additional shorts, Day of the Fight and Flying Padre.
    • Connections
      Featured in Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)
    • Soundtracks
      Escape the Ordeal
      Conducted by Gerald Fried

      Fear and Desire OST

    User reviews88

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    4/10
    Not a complete artistic failure, but disappointing in one way I didn't expect
    Stanley Kubrick, a director who I hold in the highest of esteems for his masterpieces (Clockwork Orange, 2001, The Killing, the Shining, Dr. Strangelove, etc) took the film out of circulation, leaving it to be found by only the hardcore fans and completists. After seeing the film for myself, I could see why. At the age of 24, Kubrick had already honed his craft of still photography for LOOK magazine, and had done a few short documentaries. Like many first-time filmmakers that came in the decades after him, his ambition for Fear and Desire was, in short, to just go and make a film, cheaply, more than likely to see if he could do it. On that level, he was successful. However, the film itself definitely is not.

    I can't really say that the film is a failure because there was something I did like about it throughout. Even as the film's story went on the wayside, and the actors (whom Kubrick didn't have any idea how to direct, not being a man of the theater), his knack for producing and capturing some great images gets its seeds in this film. At times, there are some shots of close-ups and quick-shots in suspense/action scenes that are eye-catching. Unfortunately, this is all the good I can really say of the film. Although there are a couple of 'name' actors in the film (Frank Slivera, who also appeared in Killer's Kiss, and Paul Mazursky, a director in his own right), the performances overall are dull and very routine.

    In fact, that is the film's main demise for me; whenever I watch any Kubrick film, even his early film noirs Killer's Kiss and the Killing, I can tell who made it, as his style by then became distinct, which would continue as he evolved as an artist. It wasn't 'artsy' like I might have pictured (which is usually the case with first-time directors like Scorsese and Spielberg), but watching this film not only did it feel like it wasn't Kubrick, it felt like a lot of the time I was watching some B (or even C) grade movie by a director that time forgot- not quite 'Ed Wood' bad, but close. The music is as standard as can be, the fades are pedestrian, and the plot seems to not really hold that much attention.

    In short, as others have said and which I can agree, this is a "doodle pad" of a future ground-breaker, who shows some shots and a few edits that grab some attention (the best scene overall being when the soldiers take the dumb girl hostage), but not enough to really recommend except to those, like myself, who end up seeing everything by Kubrick (or, perhaps, have to see every ultra-low budget war film ever made), if only out of curiosity.
    helpful•24
    13
    • Quinoa1984
    • Jul 25, 2005

    FAQ1

    • Has this film been remade?

    Details

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    • Release date
      • April 1, 1953 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
      • Spanish
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • San Gabriel Mountains, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Kubrick Family
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 2 minutes
      • Black and White

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