Posted by sean at l37-167.datanet.nyu.edu on February 06, 2002 at 22:50:41:
In Reply to: I doubt it still exists... posted by Isis on February 06, 2002 at 16:05:37:
: Even if he hadn't specifically destroyed it, didn't he shoot like hours and hours of footage for that movie? I doubt the studio archived it all, and even if they did, their film preservation techniques were pretty poor at the time.
That much is true. I know that there are still photographs on line somewhere of the pie sequence, but I thought that they issued a statement at the time that the last Strangelove DVD and said that the lost footage had been destroyed and that's why it wasn't on there (not mentioning Kubrick's hatred for extras).
: Kubrick was always changing his stuff; didn't he even pull back and re-edit Dr. Strangelove after it had already been released?
No, but he did pull back and re-edit 2001 and THE SHINING after releasing them. He held the release of STRANGELOVE briefly because of Kennedy being killed, though.
: (I personally feel like Eyes Wide Shut wasn't finished when he died...and certainly we can all agree that his vision for A.I. either wasn't communicated perfectly to Spielberg, or was altered by Spielberg).
I think that Kubrick wanted Spielberg to make it under his watchful eye so that it could be a movie from both of their imaginations, with Kubrick's logic and Spielberg's heart. And I think that, after Kubrick died, Spielberg set out to make it the way Kubrick would have, forgetting that Kubrick didn't want to make it himself becaus it would have been too cold (based on Spielberg's story which, admittedly, is probably a little exaggerated to suit Spielberg, but I do believe that Kubrick had considered and commented on the possibility that Spielberg would be the person to make it). So I think we wound up with a movie with Steven Spielberg's logic and Stanley Kubrick's heart.
: I agree it's probably a great loss, but I'm sure that Kubrick had his reasons for destroying the footage. I'm sure there's probably stuff YOU'VE shot that you wouldn't prefer get out after your death.
*snip*
That's all true; I feel both ways on the subject. I mean, would it change my view of STRANGELOVE to actually see the pie fight? What about the denouement for THE SHINING? Did it work or was it lame? I can understand why he doesn't want to ruin the myth, but it seems like a filmlover like he would understand the fascination some people have with the process. But I can also understand that a lot of Kubrick scenes may not work as well out of context of the film, and certainly if he cut them, he wouldn't want them cut back in.
: Enough rambling. I like Kubrick.
amen
: : Certainly, when Kubrick made STRANGELOVE he didn't have the control that he had when he started making films with Warner Bros., so I'm not sure that he could have destroyed that footage if he wanted to.
It was probably just an Internet hoax.
: : (much as work in progress manuscripts of great literary works are studied by scholars today).
isn't there a script for NAPOLEAN floating around on-line somewhere?