Review of Fear and Desire (1953) by Ken S — 05 Mar 2012

"It's better to roll up your life into one night and one man and one gun." - Sgt. Mac (Frank Silvera) in Fear and Desire.

Stanley Kubrick ended his feature filmmaking career with the underappreciated Eyes Wide Shut and started it with the now nearly extinct Fear and Desire. Of course in between Kubrick became an undisputed master of cinema; commanding film classics like Paths of Glory, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and many more. His departure from being a Look Magazine photographer and exposition into his 'Odyssey' of narrative films was this story of four soldiers behind enemy lines.

Set in an unnamed forest and transpiring during an unknown war, the movie opens to four men in the woods. It is revealed that these men are soldiers who have crashed their plane behind enemy lines. The leader of the group Lt. Corby (Kenneth Harp) wants to lead his men to the river build a raft and escape during night fall. The situation is tense as the men's very own fears and sometimes their desires collide with one another. Sgt. Mac (Frank Silvera) has a slight pessimism, Fletcher (Steve Coit) actually isn't that well characterized and Sidney (Paul Mazursky) is swiftly descending into insanity.

The film was made for only $50,000, and it really shows in the way that there are few actors and even fewer settings. But there is very apparent bits of Kubrickian genius that poke through its rough exterior. For instance his name is all over the credits. Like many of his later films, Kubrick's perfectionism shines through with all the duties he took charge of being the film's director, cinematographer, producer and editor. There is also the earliest evidence of the trademark "Kubrick stare" shots like the ones with Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, Jack Nicholson in The Shining and Vincent D'Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket. The stares occur during a scene between a crazed Sidney and the young girl (Virginia Leith) he has kept hostage.

Fear and Desire is strictly for Kubrick fans, and devoted ones at that. Tracking down a copy of this flick is harder to find then a corn hater in Iowa. My experience in viewing the movie was reduced to a computer on my lap with a lucky-it-was-all-there, but horrible in quality YouTube video playing on my lap. Much like his other second short film Killer's Kiss, Fear and Desire is a buried treasure that Kubrickophiles will feel rewarded to have seen.

Grade: C+.

Reviewed by Ben Pieper on August 20th 2011.