Creating the Uebermensch. Kubrick’s Uncertain Foreboding of Humanity.

Paper by Michaela Pluskovich. Viewed on DVD.

Whoever has watched one of Stanley Kubrick’s films before will have noticed some of the themes that are hard to be overlooked throughout the director’s body of work; the ghastly violence in A Clockwork Orange (1971), or Full Metal Jacket (1987), the unreserved images of nudity and sexual behavior in Eyes Wide Shut (1999) or Lolita (1962), and also the dystopian view of the near future – by now it would be our present – in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), in which technology and machines have changed our society completely. For some viewers this might just be evidence for a perverse and pessimistic director, who lives out his morbid ideas in his films, many of which, such as A Clockwork Orange, were rated X at their release and most of them are still rated R today (Naremore 154). But what is really behind these violent and shocking images that show us a brutal and cold society of the modern world? Is it really just a wild fantasy of a middle-aged man? Those, who see Kubrick as an auteur, and therefore, can detect a reoccurring meaning throughout his films will negate this question. And indeed, at closer inspection it is these prevalent themes which can be examined in Kubrick’s films to define the director’s worldview. When examining Kubrick’s body of work with paying special attention to his style and details in scenes it can be concluded that the director is alluding to the development of civilization to a more and more mechanical one, which however will always stand in the shadow of million years of primitive drives, no matter how much modern society is trying to control these. The spectator experiences a society which is torn between primitive instincts and the outcomes of modern technology, raising the question of the moral ambiguity between good and evil. Considering the recurring themes in Stanley Kubrick’s films we can detect a sense of dehumanization due to societal constructs, conveyed with the moral ambiguity of expressing primitive instincts.

The violence in A Clockwork Orange has been shocking audiences ever since its first release in 1971, which is mainly due to the ambiguity in which the evil main protagonist is portrayed. Based on the book of the same name by Anthony Burgess, the film follows Alex DeLarge’s (Malcom McDowell) journey through “ultraviolent” longings and exertions, ending in a governmental experiment that is supposed to heal the young Brit from his abnormal behaviors. The violence that is portrayed is not especially brutal, however, the fact that there is no other character besides the witty and wicked Alex with which the viewer can identify causes the audience to simultaneously be drawn to and repulsed by the events on-screen (Fischer 324). To put the spectator in the criminal’s position is Kubrick’s effective tool to show the ambiguity of his evil actions. By the time that Alex’s opponent’s take revenge for their own sufferings, the viewer begins to wonder about the righteousness of their violence. In making Alex’s character both a violent criminal and the victim of violence, Kubrick in turn blurs the boarder between good and evil. Kubrick goes even further to support this ambivalence by pointing out that violence must be one of humanity’s primal instincts, evident from the beginnings of human evolution, and something that will always be part of society. This is evident in the scene in prison in which Alex announces that he had been very interested in the “big book,” following sequences from the bible in which Alex is shown as one of the Legionaries whipping Jesus and fighting in the war (Fischer 314). This scene emphasizes the ubiquity of violence throughout history, and brings into question the natural benevolence of humanity.

In this scene we also encounter the theme of sexuality, when Alex daydreams to be fed by beautiful naked Roman women, which makes the previous argument applicable also to the primal human instinct of sex. Eyes Wide Shut, with its exploration of male-female sexuality, explores the morally ambivalent conflict of the human primal instinct of sex in conflict with modern society. In fact, Kubrick tells us directly that he is going to examine this topic through the main female protagonist Alice (Nicole Kidman) as she confronts her husband’s preconceived notions of human primal sexuality, directly referencing evolutionary expectations for men to have the desire to seek out multiple female sexual partners, and for women to have the need for stability and security from a single man. Alice’s confession that women also have an instinctive sexual desire is the first turning point in the film, and sets Bill (Tom Cruise) on a journey to seek out and discover his primal instincts in modern society, in this case late 90’s New York City. The opening scene of the film, a Christmas party in which both Bill and Alice have the opportunity to cheat, Alice with a dashing older European and Bill with two models, sets the groundwork for confrontation, but also for the moral ambiguity of the film. In later trying to justify why he did not want to sleep with the models, Bills has no better explanation other than that he essentially did not do so because of the societal constraints of marriage. This tension between sexual liberty and sexual monogamy is perhaps best represented by the password to the secret sex orgy, Beethoven’s love opera “Fidelio,” which sounds both like “fellatio” and “fidelity,” and which can be seen as metaphor for the theme of moral ambiguity, and certainly also displays Kubrick’s omnipresent sense for irony and humour. And although there is a somewhat “not unhappy ending” with the characters in the same position as in the beginning of the film. Alice ends the film with the last word spoken being “fuck,” which implies that the couple’s chosen fidelity does not eliminate the desire for sex, and that their somewhat faithful and candid lifestyle still stands in the shadow of primitive instincts. Alice and Bill’s relationship demonstrates how humans must compromise in the face of modern society, resulting in the ambivalence of moral codes.

This notion of the suppression of human instincts, and its dehumanizing effects, is addressed in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Set almost entirely in outer space, the film explores a future in which technology takes over almost all parts of human life, replacing historic human tasks and relationships to the point that individuals are barely human anymore; individuals are devoid of nearly all emotion, which Kubrick achieves by giving us only 40 minutes of dialogue in the entire film, with conversations being constantly interrupted by embarrassing silence (Naremore 147). Kubrick further emphasizes this point by giving the main non-human character, the spaceships central computer named HAL, more feeling than any of the human characters. HAL has genuine emotion, with the astronauts calling him the “6th member of the crew” or “as [just] another person” who “sensed a certain pride about his accuracy.” The importance of HAL as a character is strengthened by Kubrick’s decision of using subjective POV-shots from the computers perspective (Naremore 146). With extreme wide-angle shots the viewer sees faceless individuals, the crew members of the spaceship, through HAL’s eyes. As in A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick also here places the audience in the position of a character which will change the perception and the emotional response to the content. We rather identify with a machine than with the human protagonists, which displays Kubrick’s conception the human pursuit of perfection leads to isolation and ends in dehumanization.

Whether or not Kubrick’s gaze into the future holds true – and he was definitely wrong with his speculation of the year for 2001: A Space Odyssey – his films continue to be relevant with regard to the philosophical issues surrounding modern humanity. We may not be on a spaceship headed for Jupiter, but there is a dehumanization in process which evolves from necessary societal rules and advances in technology. Humans increasingly spend more and more of their time in isolation with computers, and personal relationship are starting to increasingly merge and move into the virtual world. Indeed scenes from 2001, such as the astronauts eating and watching the news on what looks exactly like an iPad, could be taken directly out of contemporary life. But Kubrick’s work convey more than just a fantastic prediction of the future, it is more a philosophical question on the ambiguity of what is right and wrong, and the pressures for us to be a perfect individual with the help of technology. This message has never been more relevant, nor has his warning on dehumanization and alienation. Only time will tell if humanity is headed down a path that will ultimately lead to our complete isolation and alienation, or if Kubrick’s view of humanity is a relic of the past.

Works Cited

Fischer, Ralph Michael. Raum und Zeit in filmischen Œuvre von Stanley Kubrick. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 2009. Print.

Naremore, James. On Kubrick. London: British Film Institute, 2007. Print.