Christopher Bray

‘I wonder about his humanity’: Malcolm McDowell on Stanley Kubrick

David Mikics is far too worshipful of the film director who notoriously reduced his actors to tears with his endless pointless retakes

Shelley Duvall was monstrously bullied by Kubrick while filming The Shining. Credit: Alamy 
issue 17 October 2020

Twenty-five years after making Spartacus, a parable of Roman decadence and rebellious slaves shot in California, Stanley Kubrick made Full Metal Jacket, a ’Nam flick shot in Beckton. Ever the perfectionist, Kubrick had imported palm trees from Africa, the better that the local gas works resemble downtown Hué.

Alas, he wasn’t happy.

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