Kubrick and Carpenter: Learning to love the renegades

Stanley Kubrick and John Carpenter, these are names that, while uncommon in the modern sphere filmography, are in this bloggers opinion two cornerstones of cinema history on par with the likes of Tarantino and Spielberg.

Kubrick's' and Carpenter's films come from what I like to think of as the "Goldilocks Period" in cinematography. An era between the 1960's and 1980's, when films had just begun to start reaching wider audiences around the world but had yet to be carved down to the formulaic, money-making algorithm (I'm looking at you Marvel...). Many directors from this period, acclaimed or otherwise, drew inspiration from the outspoken atmosphere of the time to create timeless works of art equatable to the works of Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

The works of Stanley Kubrick and John Carpenter are a testament to this period and their films still have a major influence on modern Cult-Pop. Their combined works include legendary feature films such as; 2001: A Space Oddesy (1968), The Thing (1982) and Full Metal Jacket (1987)  as well as numerous cult classics such as Halloween (1978), They Live (1988), and A Clockwork Orange (1971). Elements of their films have been included in many modern movies, games and music as either educated nods, subtle cameos or full-on remakes. Some you may recognise are; Matt Groening's Futurama (1999-2013) *RIP*, Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge, Visceral Gaming's Dead Space (2008) and Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s remake of The Thing (2011).

Kubrick and Carpenters films also carry a legacy of iconic scenes and one-liners as well as shots and filmmaking techniques which are still employed in modern cinematographic tradition today. Here are two that you may have heard, but didn't the origin of;

Bubblegum Scene - They Live (1988)

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass...

and I'm all out of bubblegum"

- A heavily armed Roddy Piper describing his intention upon entering a bank in Los Angeles.

"Me love you long time" - Full Metal Jacket (1978)

Prostitute: "Hey Baby, you got girlfriend Vietnam?"

Pvt. Joker: "Not just this minute..."

Prostitute: "Well baby, me so horny, me so horny...Me love you long time."

- Pvt. Joker and Raptor Man encountering a purveyor of worldly delights on the streets of Saigon.

The tone of macabre, slightly off-key humour against a backdrop of unsettling cynicism that is encapsulated in these scenes is what I would define as the hallmark of a Kubrick/Carpenter film. This similarity in directive vision is also the reason I have chosen to speak about these two legendary directors in unison rather than as separate entities (even though they never worked together).

If this blog-post has piqued your interest in these two directors in any way and you are interested in watching their films or learning more I have provided an IMDB link below.