In his films, Dr Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, what branches of existentialism does Stanley Kubrick explore?
The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928, New York City) had already made a name for himself as a professional photographer for Look magazine before he ventured as a filmmaker. After finding moderate success in his debuts as a documentary filmmaker, he eventually got to a point where he would write and produce his own films so as to exert an unprecedented level of control over content and distribution. An avid chess player, and notorious for playing chess on his film sets with members of the cast and crew, Stanley approached his films as if it were a battle – carefully considering and weighing the impact of each move, and yet bold.
A Kubrick picture is instantly recognizable owing to a highly idiosyncratic “style” or approach, and yet not one of his films repeat themselves. He has widely been regarded as the greatest modern filmmaker because of the tack sharp focus he had on how to approach his films and the confidence with which he commanded the set. Many directors who were his peers and followed in his wake, and certainly most of today’s leading filmmakers consider Stanley Kubrick to be a powerful figure of influence. He has been hailed as a master of the tracking shot, single-point perspectives, and long, near-perfect takes with exquisite mises-en-scènes.
Stanley Kubrick’s films involve showcases of inner struggles through different perspectives. He takes care not to present his personal views and opinions about the meaning of his films, and implores the audience to interpret it how they please.
Existentialism: An Introduction
Putting one’s finger on the exact definition of ‘existentialism’ proves to be difficult. It is not a philosophical system or a doctrine, but is more a philosophical movement. The movement as such started in the middle of the 19th century, with Søren Kierkegaard (1813 – 1955), Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 – 1881) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) at its forefront. Although it finds its roots in the 19th century, existentialism did not rise to prominence until the middle of the 20th century and more specifically after the Second World War. This period saw the rise of more prominent name such as Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, et al. The term “existentialism” – L’existentialisme in French – itself was coined by a French philosopher Gabriel Marcel in the mid-1940s, and was subsequently adopted by Jean-Paul Sartre (albeit after initial rejections). While Kierkegaard is widely considered to be the source of modern existentialist thinking, Jean-Paul Sartre used the term more prominently. Defining existentialism, according to the philosopher Steven Crowell, whose works have been referenced in the writing of this paper, is a difficult task, and it is better to see it as an approach to reject certain philosophies or philosophical systems (religious or scientific), rather than considering it a systematic philosophy.
This branch of philosophy found advocates in the aforementioned philosophers, most particularly in Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre, among many other noteworthy figures. But what is it that these philosophers rooted their beliefs in, despite vastly different and profound differences in their thinking? Indeed, these doctrinal differences between the philosophers makes defining existentialism that much more difficult.
Camus, Nietzsche & Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre was against this notion as he was an atheist and so, believed that humans come into this world without a predetermined function, unlike objects such as watches or telephones – which are designed and constructed with a predetermined function in mind. Our ability to make unique choices shaped our lives as we coursed through our lifetime. He speaks about a concept called “facticity” in Being and Nothingness (1943), which speaks about everything that is out of an individual’s control or influence, and yet influences his/her existence. This includes factors such as societal, familial, and economic environment during their upbringing. Going ahead with this argument, Sartre posits that “existence precedes essence” and it free will and choice that determine the kind of individual one grows to become, and that this is authentic to the self.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In his most popular book, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Nietzsche speaks of the Übermensch or “overman”: a goal which humans could set for themselves if they were so inclined. The book goes from prehistoric man-apes into the future of mankind, and then to something beyond, the overman.
Albert Camus
Absurdism, explained by Albert Camus in his Myth of Sisyphus (1955), goes ahead from Nietzsche’s nihilism and Kierkegaard’s despair and highlights just how absurd or bizarre human existence is, and that we inhabit a world which is ungoverned in a universe without a God – where the meaning, subjective as it is, is only as impactful and cathartic as one allows it.
It is the themes and ideas listed above, that have been synthesized from various sources, that will be sought and analyzed in some of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s select works, specifically: Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and A Clockwork Orange (1971).
Analysis and interpretation of Albert Camus’ absurd in Dr Strangelove
The film is set during the peak of the Cold War, which itself is not technically a war with active belligerents fighting with bombs and guns. It is more of a tension among nations and citizens of an impending active war, growing more and more intense. In the film, the war is between collective minds, with those at the top of the power structure quarreling between each other. It is here that Kubrick brings to light his unique absurdness, as he paints us a picture of how we face an absurd war and with it – death and meaninglessness.
Dr Strangelove is study into fear, but of a collective kind rather than pertaining to the fears of individuals. It shows how institutions – the collective – face fear and the threat of impending nuclear annihilation through public and ridiculous – and indeed absurd – dialogue, made by participants just as absurd or insane, instead of showing us monologues made in privacy. Each conversation ends in failure, as do any attempts at communication (the hilarious exchange between the American and Soviet President come to mind) and diplomatic agreements. The dialogues carry the film into the absurdity of the fateful situation, ultimately unable to prevent the onset of World War III.
What Albert Camus sought to explain in his opus The Myth of Sisyphus is that upon recognizing the absurd, it becomes a passion which will remain in the thinker for the remainder of his/her life. It is how one deals with this passion that is his central concern. The individual may choose one of three possibilities: one, to commit suicide; two, to consider the existence of a God thereby rendering an absurd world meaningful; or three, to continue living in the absurd, struggling against the meaningless to form one’s own meaning of existence.
Kubrick seeks to express this view in many of his films, but more evidently in Fear and Desire (1953) and Dr. Strangelove. In both, he presents us with varying perspectives on experiencing the absurd, with individuals constantly – and in case of Dr Strangelove, hilariously – failing to face the absurd lucidly, and in the process lying to themselves and living dishonest lives. In this film, “fear of the absurd or, more specifically, fear of the self in the face of the absurd” is the primary issue. It is a combined fear of what we have become, what we will become and a fear of the absence of an identity: fears which are shared by us all.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s Übermensch in 2001: A Space Odyssey
There is little doubt that this film makes references to Friedrich Nietzsche’s magnum opus Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra). The scene leading up to the famous transition between man-ape and space-age human is accompanied by Also Sprach Zarathustra which composer Richard Strauss intended as a tribute to Friedrich Nietzsche and his oeuvre.
Nietzsche tracks the movement of life as a worm, then to an ape, and now human — ultimately claiming that it is not yet finished, and that mankind has one final stage left, the Übermensch or overman, a being who will look upon humanity not unlike the way humanity now looks upon its simian ancestors. Nietzsche tells us very little as to the what the overman will look like, except that he or she will emerge as a new kind of “child.” In Zarathustra, Kubrick saw in technology’s future the climax of this vision.
2001: A Space Odyssey finds its way through similar unknowable stages, through the past and into the future, as told by Nietzsche, beginning with early hominids and through humanity. This entire sequence of events seems to have been planned ahead by an unknown being, showing itself through a monolith of an unknown material. As Dave kills HAL, so mankind “defeats” technology, and finally ends up as a “newborn,” über human – the “Star Child” – an intelligent fetus larger than the planet it looks down upon.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Friedrich Nietzsche and free will in A Clockwork Orange
In A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick painted a lasting portrait of the character of Alex and his affinity for ultraviolence, that it is still sparks controversy today. Indeed, nearly every Kubrick, upon initial release, sparked controversy across factions. But the discomfort of the public with this film was perhaps exacerbated by several instances of copycat crimes being committed across the country. In a bold move, which would not even be an option for any of his peers at the time, Kubrick withdrew the film from distribution in the UK. He was condemned by many for his morals, many who seemed to think that he was glorifying such ultraviolent delinquency.
Stanley Kubrick forces us to see, through Alex’s repeated escapades of ultraviolence, the resilience of the human will. The choice of the music Ode to Joy – Beethoven’s Ninth – reaffirms this meaning, that for a society to forcefully deprive an individual of his capacity for violence and delinquency would prove to be disastrous. To incarcerate the criminal, and force him to deal with the consequences of his choice to be violent, would be a better alternative. If read through a Freudian perspective, A Clockwork Orange gives one a sort of vicarious gratification of one’s latent sexual and violent behaviour. The author of the novel, Anthony Burgess himself says,
It seems priggish or pollyannaish to deny that my intention in writing the work was to titillate the nastier propensities of my readers.
We see in the final moments of the film that Alex reverts to his original ultraviolent state of mind, and this return of a man to his former sadistic self is hardly something to celebrate.
If reduced to a cog in a larger machine without free will or choice reduces existence to a nihilistic enterprise. This concept has been theorized by, and is crucial to many works of, philosophers. Works such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, and Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea reach similar conclusions, that human existence is grounded in freedom.
If he [Alex] can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange—meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with color and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Absolute State.
— Anthony Burgess, author
Conclusion
What Nietzsche tells us is that an individual can make the choice not only to renounce faith in a God and reject morality, but he/she can also choose what values they would live by. Jean-Paul Sartre affirms that “existence precedes essence” and therefore only the individual has a say and control over their thought and actions, and claim responsibility for it. Albert Camus sees the world as miserable and pointless, and deems existence absurd in his Myth of Sisyphus. To these philosophers, there is neither escape nor excuse from this human condition. They all find common ground in the overthrowing or blatant rejection of God or any transcendent entity, something as close to answer as Stanley Kubrick could get to.
Every Stanley Kubrick film is so vastly different from the one preceding it or following it, that they may all be viewed and understood in myriad ways. Through a philosophical – more specifically, existentialist – lens, we can see allusions to the words of Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre, in just three of his 13 films: Dr Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange.
Through the perspective of Sartre, A Clockwork Orange seems to be a celebration and expression of a human’s free will and ability to make choices. In so many of his films – Paths of Glory, Dr Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, and Full Metal Jacket to name a few
– Kubrick shows layers of the human condition of existence by dehumanizing his characters, which leads to a complete lack of control over their lives, denying them the choice between actual alternatives.
Kubrick asks us – or rather gets us to ask – questions like, “Can someone like Alex be made to forcefully redeem himself in spite of his ultraviolent nature?”, “Can human bodies undergo endless evolution and infinite upgrades?”, “Can the world really end with one deranged man’s insatiable libido?” He does not answer these questions, but he does pose questions in the hopes that they may be answered by the generations that would follow after his time.
Anirudh Harshavardhan 
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