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Kubrick: Nihilistic or Hopeful?

Stanley Kubrick has designed some of the world's best nightmares through Nihilistic tendencies.

By Kristen BarenthalerPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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In this article, I will argue that director Stanley Kubrick added nihilistic tendencies to many of his movies, whether purposefully or not. Nihilism is a vast subject, but the main premise is having “life without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value; total rejection of established laws and institutions.” This is seen in A Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and The Shining, along with some other movies. I will begin by explaining how A Clockwork Orange contains nihilistic ideas. Then, how Dr. Strangelove shows worldwide nihilism. Next, The Shining’s family and self-nihilistic destruction patterns. Finally, I will include a small paragraph on some of Kubrick’s other films containing nihilistic ideas. This article will show that many of Kubrick’s movies contain nihilism in its different forms.

A Clockwork Orange is Kubrick’s 1971 film about a world where there is no control, so people are constantly turning against each other and the government is trying to find a way to control the people's bad tendencies. This movie has the nihilistic ideas of human destruction. Another aspect of nihilism is “total and absolute destructiveness, especially toward the world at large and including oneself.” The main character Alex helps to destroy the world through his horrible actions against others, such as beatings and rapes. The government then tries their techniques of recovery on him and viewers see the destruction of himself. Even though he was a cruel person, the viewer feels sympathy for him when the government destroys his personality by changing him into their ideal person. In the end,

"Kubrick celebrates Alex’s recovered freedom of choice. No matter how monstrous Alex is, even more monstrous is a state apparatus that can rob the individual of his free will. Along with free will, as Christianity preached since Paul, comes the capacity to do evil. It is the price that even God has to pay for granting humans the dignity of moral responsibility."—Jerold J. Abrams

The nihilistic destruction of Alex’s world and personality are never really changed, meaning Kubrick left the audiences to determine the best outcome for the world themselves. The possibility of such a world scares people, but conforming completely to the government is even scarier. This double-edged sword is the reason Alex is so angered by what the government had done to him. Nihilism is abundant in A Clockwork Orange because the whole premise of the movie is the destruction of a world and the humans within it.

Again, worldwide destruction is shown in Dr. Strangelove. The whole movie revolves around an impending war. The “anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity” that defines nihilism is the main premise. In order to show the negativity of this nihilism, Kubrick makes the movie so ridiculous that it, in fact, makes war seem insane instead of revolutionary.

"One of the myriad reasons it is difficult to characterize Kubrick’s vision is that so many of his films are intentionally ambivalent. On the one hand, Dr. Strangelove seems to be saying that nuclear Armageddon is inevitable. On the other hand, it is one of the most effective antiwar films ever made. Satirizing the madness helped us step back from the brink."—Jerold J. Abrams

Instead of nihilism’s destructive power being strengthened, Kubrick delays it by showing just how far destruction can go and how unpleasant it would be for humankind. The idea of a war based on reasons from this movie seems completely crazy in everyday life, but the possibility exists and that is why Kubrick showed the negativity inflicted at the beginning instead of the typical war movie showing the aftermath. The destruction of the world in Dr. Strangelove is a major example of Kubrick’s inclination to direct movies with a nihilistic premise.

Also, there is Kubrick’s interpretation of self-destruction in The Shining. In the movie, Jack slowly descends into madness and eventually tries to murder his own wife and son. Much like in Dr. Strangelove, the anarchy that ensues is a form of nihilism. “He [Kubrick] is a director concerned with displaying and depicting the fragility of the world in the absence of authority, culture, and civilization,” according to John Marmysz. Locked away for the winter in the Overlook Hotel, the Torrance family has no one watching out for them, when Jack finally cracks and attacks them. He is, in fact, destroying his world because for the last few months the three characters were the only ones who surrounded each other. Again, the whole premise of the movie is based around a form of nihilism and the self-destruction of one man as he destroys his world, too.

Finally, some of Kubrick’s other films contain more subtle nihilistic ideas. For example, Lolita shows Humbert as having no control over his feelings for Lolita, so when she leaves him, he has lost his world. Also, Barry Lyndon loses himself and many other things throughout his many transformations in the movie. These are not as prominent in the movies as the first three were, but they still play a significant role, leading people to wonder if Kubrick himself was nihilistic or was just hopeful that in making these movies, viewers would be able to change because of the lessons they learned. Since the main definition of nihilism is that people don’t have a choice in life it makes sense that “dehumanization is a central theme in many of Kubrick’s works, and in Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining, what dehumanization amounts to is the loss of control over our lives and the absence of choice between real alternatives” (Abrams). Throughout his career, Kubrick picked movies that gave him a chance to depict humans at their weakest, when they cannot help but destroy. Even when that wasn’t the main point of the movie, Kubrick often found a way to put it into the movie.

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About the Creator

Kristen Barenthaler

Curious adventurer. Crazed reader. Archery fanatic. Amateur author. Librarian.

Instagram: @kristenbarenthaler

Facebook: @kbarenthaler

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15101108.Kristen_Barenthaler

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