Review of Fear and Desire (1953) by Justin M — 15 Dec 2011

In Fear and Desire," four soldiers are shot down behind enemy lines and crash land in an unnamed war. Lieutenant Corby(Kenneth Harp) proposes building a raft but fears they may have been spotted by enemy aircraft on the way to a cottage across the river where they spot an enemy general. In fact, they run into a native young woman(Virginia Leith) who Corby puts Sidney(Paul Mazursky) in charge of keeping an eye on while they reconnoiter.

Contrary to what he might have felt later, Stanley Kubrick has nothing to be ashamed with his first film, "Fear and Desire." Here, strangely enough he is influenced by "The Tempest" to take a psychological angle by using internal voices and dreamlike imagery in exploring the horrors of war on an intimate and haunting scale(again proving that sometimes it is best not to know what you are doing), foreshadowing his later work in "Full Metal Jacket.".