STANLEY KUBRICK SPECIAL EDITIONS
2001: A Space Odyssey *****
A Clockwork Orange ****
The Shining *****
Full Metal Jacket ****
Eyes Wide Shut **
It has taken the 80th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick's birth for Warner Home Video to finally get around to issuing the icy master's great films in versions worth owning. Forget those indifferently rendered vanilla editions in their horrible little boxes. Five Kubrick films are here issued in two-disc sets with copious documentaries and lively commentaries.
Malcolm McDowell has plenty to say on A Clockwork Orange. Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood are fascinating on 2001: A Space Odyssey. A boxed set adds one further documentary, Stanley Kubrick - A Life in Pictures, to the five films.
Confronted with such bounty, it seems almost churlish to wonder why the transcendent Barry Lyndon has not yet received a makeover when the ridiculous Eyes Wide Shut has been so vigorously buffed up. Still, it gives Kubrick fans something to look forward to. For now, these lovely sets offer one more chance to ponder the most clinical genius in the history of American cinema.
