The Stanley Kubrick Collection

The Stanley Kubrick Collection
by Stanley Kubrick

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DVD Reviews of The Stanley Kubrick Collection

DVD Review: Best Director, Best Movies, Worst DVDs
Summary: 3 Stars

Kubrick is my favorite director and he made some of my alltime favorite movies including Strangelove, 2001, and Clockwork Orange. Definitely see these movies (several play almost yearly in some theaters), but I highly suggest viewing (renting) at least some of the DVDs before buying this box set.

These are among worst quality DVDs, I have purchased. Maybe it's becuase I work with digital video and notice these flaws more than others, but still the problems with the quality is significant and you must be warned. These could be great and they are not.

They are bad not because the older films are all mono and not widescreen. And it's not due to the lack of extras, although I personally would enjoy several commentaries for each. It's that there are quality issues which had these DVDs been done properly would not be there. These films were not digitally re-mastered or restored, rather they are 3rd generation copies digitized/encoded from the analog D-1 video masters (made from the films) and it shows. As a result the DVDs are filled with every example of bad MPEG encoding - color banding, moires, mesquito-ing, draping, etc. For example, in 2001, starfields jitter and jump, at times the blackness of space has ugly chunks and stripes of draping, jittering black mud, the smooth gradients of the sunrise were turned into an ugly sequence of color-by-numbers quality color banding, just to name a few.

None of this is in the original of course, and most of this wouldn't show up in viewing of the analog laser disc. Some of the bad MPEG artifacting could have been avoiding with just smarter encoding software that made better choices about palettes and keyframes. Nonetheless, they should fully restore/remaster these digitally for DVD to match the original intended theatrically experience as much as possible (relative to DVD format).

That's not to say all the mono should be remastered into an artificial 5.1, but at least do basic clean up and set the levels properly and if a stereo source was mastered to mono for theaters consider doing it in stereo. (I know it's minor, but how could someone let audio like that one the Clark speech extra on the 2001 DVD be that bad?). Digitally remove scratches, and repair damage to video, etc

We can only hope that the Estate of Kubrick decides to do these right. These are great films and they deserve better.

Description of The Stanley Kubrick Collection

Released on VHS and DVD just prior to the July 1999 theatrical release of Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, The Stanley Kubrick Collection includes all seven of Kubrick's films from Lolita to Full Metal Jacket--a quarter-century of brilliant, challenging cinema. Authorized by Kubrick prior to his sudden death in March of 1999, the boxed set represents a cooperative effort among the Warner, Columbia, and MGM labels (with Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory released simultaneously by MGM). All films retain the superior digital mastering of their earlier releases on laserdisc and DVD, and although purists have complained that The Shining and Full Metal Jacket have been released in full-screen format only, this was in compliance with Kubrick's wishes and both films do not suffer unduly from full-screen formatting.

The diversity of Kubrick's work is truly astonishing, even though the director's technical precision and steely perspective on humanity may strike uninitiated viewers as cold and even misanthropic. From the rich, black comedy of Lolita to the bleak heart of darkness explored in Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick's films almost always received mixed (and sometimes scathingly negative) reviews upon their release, only to benefit from glowing reassessment as they grew entrenched in the public consciousness. Here, in all their glory, are the collected films of a genuine master, ripe for study and appreciation for many years to come. --Jeff Shannon