Kubrick

by Michael Herr

Kubrick is Michael Herr's memoir of his nearly twenty-year friendship and collaboration with Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time and the creator of such classics as Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange.

From their first meeting at an advance screening of The Shining in 1980, Kubrick and Herr began an intense intellectual exchange that grew into the artistic collaboration that ultimately produced the groundbreaking Vietnam film Full Metal Jacket. Filled with personal insights and previously untold anecdotes, Kubrick is a probing view into the inner life of a man whose creative passion and powerful intellect changed the art of filmmaking forever--and of the complicated, often misunderstood man behind the art.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Biography, Media Tie In, Biography Memoir, Memoir, American

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Michael David Herr was an American writer and war correspondent, known as the author of Dispatches (1977), a memoir of his time as a correspondent for Esquire (1967–1969) during the Vietnam War. The book was called "the best book to have been written about the Vietnam War" by fellow author C.D.B. Bryan in his review for The New York Times Book Review. Novelist John Le Carré called it "the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time."

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Herr (1940-2016) wrote Dispatches, one of my ten favorite books, and unfortunately not much else. I remember listening to a podcast a couple of years ago with Graydon Carter, former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, when he was asked if there were any writer he'd always wanted to get for the magazine, but had never been able to. "A writer I used to speak to", he began,

sometimes for almost three hours a day, for years and years, was Michael Herr. He'd written Dispatches, he was one of the great journalists of all time, and he...became a Buddhist after Vietnam. Michael was a wonderful, peaceful person...[but] in ten years of constant talking, I only got two pieces out of him. I would have liked more, but he said, "I'm done writing."

Herr didn't completely disappear down the river like Kurtz, though. He co-wrote the screenplay for Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and Kubrick got in touch with him about a year later, but not primarily because of that movie; Kubrick had loved Dispatches, and their first meeting (arranged by mutual friend David Cornwell, a.k.a. John le Carré) led to a future collaboration on the script for Full Metal Jacket (which also involved the writer Gustav Hasford, whose novel The Short-Timers inspired the movie- I'm convinced "the Jungian thing" came from Herr, though), as well as a friendship that lasted, at varying levels of intimacy, until Kubrick's death in '99.

He called me a couple of nights later to ask me if I’d read any Jung. I had. Was I familiar with the concept of the Shadow, our hidden dark side? I assured him that I was. We did half an hour on the Shadow, and how he really wanted to get it into his war picture. And oh, did I know of any good Vietnam books, “you know, Michael, something with a story?” I didn’t. I told him that after seven years working on a Vietnam book and nearly two more on the film Apocalypse Now, it was about the last thing in the world I was interested in.

...We talked this way, with occasional visits to his house, dinners and movies, until he found Gustav Hasford’s The Short-Timers, bought the rights, wrote a long treatment of it, and asked me to work on the script with him. Then we really started talking. By then I knew I’d been working for Stanley from the minute I met him.

Of course I'd always known that Kubrick made some great movies- Full Metal Jacket and 2001 are probably my favorites, and Dr. Strangelove and The Shining aren't far behind, though I'm not a huge Barry Lyndon or A Clockwork Orange fan, and Eyes Wide Shut didn't do much for me- but I found myself in the mood to read Herr's essay mostly because I decided the other day to watch a couple of Kubrick's older films, which I'd never seen. The Killing is...well, it's okay. No, it's better than okay. It's a very well-done exercise, and I particularly enjoyed the chess-playing Georgian wrestler (now I know what to say- "hey, you Irish pig, how about some service?"- if I ever need to start a fight with a bartender), and the story (written by Jim Thompson, "the toughest pulp novelist of them all, [who] made [Stanley] nervous when they were working together on The Killing, a big guy in a dirty old raincoat, a terrific writer but a little too hard-boiled for Stanley’s taste. He’d turn up for work carrying a bottle in a brown paper bag, but saying nothing about it—it was just there on the desk with no apology or comment...") is maybe not all that profound. But then I watched Paths of Glory. Paths of effing Glory...and man it's a fantastic film, and the last scene almost made me cry.

So yes, it was Paths of Glory, and the fact that my friend Billy added a book of Kubrick interviews to Goodreads at just the same time, that reminded me of Herr's essay, written for Vanity Fair after Kubrick's death, which can be found here. It's a moving portrait of a friend, more convincing for its absence of sentimentality and unwillingness to abet the myth of Kubrick, as well as the erudite, painterly style and existential vision- you know what I mean by that, the Jungian thing- that Herr brought to everything he wrote. Certainly worth reading if you're a Kubrick fan...or a Herr fan, for that matter.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been surprised at the size of this book when it arrived, I was first and foremost impressed by its concision - even though I'd read much of it excerpted or rehashed in parts of Taschen's more weighty Kubrick Archives, this was like barreling through those pages in a tenth of the time, missing none of the feeling of "solving" the mystery of the man.

But it's in the "postscript" (which is actually about a quarter of the short page length) about Eyes Wide Shut, art phobia/masterpiece fatigue, and our present culture, where Herr transcends mere biography for me. Don't let the shortness of this one blind you to its vitality and importance - remember Killer's Kiss was only 67 minutes long.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't mind being Stanley Kubrick's friend and taking his long phone calls. He would undoubtedly be able to convince me to work with him without my agent knowing about it. But he is not my friend, nor did he asked me to work with him. Still, I can imagine such a life just by reading Michael Herr's wonderful little homage to Kubrick.

[Bakunin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a puff piece but recommended reading for those interested in knowing more about Kubrick as a person.

[Tom McInnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most remarkable things about Dispatches is the way in which Herr makes the great abstract horror of war clear and present through his incredible ability to conjure real people through speech and small action.

What he did there for the marines and green berets and generals of Vietnam, he does here for Stanley Kubrick. There are no great revelations or scoops, just an intimate portrait of the man and myth, made flesh without diminishing any of the mystery and majesty of his legend.

[Gianfranco Gentile · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are tons of books out there discussing the film director and his work. But a very few that are imbued with sincere love and admiration for the man, from an intimate angle. This book, alongside his widow's photo biography and the more recent memoirs of his personal assistant, belongs to the latter category. Which is why I absolutely adore every word of it. What a wonderful treasure.

[Mihir Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading about a filmmaker I hardly understand and am barely familiar with, with this much intimacy and care, was a fun way to peel back the layers. It’s not a biography so much as a vignette.

Reminds me to cherish my friendships with everyone in my life, no matter what shape they actually take. The moments that seem fleeting now may be what I look back on one day with a lot of affection.

[Matthew Blais]

Books Kubrick recommends to people, comments on, or is reported to have read, by Herr within the first few pages:

The Destruction of the European Jews
The entirety of The Golden Bough
Absalom! Absalom!

And of course Traumnovelle, The Short-Timers, Dispatches, as well as comments on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. There’s more but I only noted these.

The goat. Clockwork was the first movie I watched where I turned the DVD case around to note who directed it (other than Spielberg of course). I probably have him to thank for everything, for my overall lifelong commitment to art. Over the last decade or so, I’ve run the gambit on cinema, from the furthest reaches of the avant-garde, like Bruce Elder, Jorge Honik, and Rose Lowder, to the forgotten masters of silent cinema, like Urban Gad. I’ve tried to be a smart ass and name names most people won’t know, to bring home my point: throughout thousands of films, Kubrick remains on top. Some come close (Brakhage is on equal footing I’d say), but no matter how far I tunnel, it just further solidifies Kubricks genius for me, while the other formative filmmakers drift away, become far less interesting and basic. Even revisiting his early work has been illuminating in newfound ways, and is not at all the student film embarrassment its reputation suggests.

But while I’ve always known Kubrick was a genius, his comment on his average IQ and lack of any sort of college degree (plus generally being a terrible student) I think makes people think of him solely as a “movie genius”, with amazing intuition for images. If you’ve read his interviews, you know just how book smart he really is, but Herr’s account really puts his amazing auto-didacticism into perspective; he is unbelievably well read. All his autobiographical accounts mention his hunger for info, his long phone calls and philosophical plumbing, his constant movie watching and reading, his hunt for the perfect story - but never have I seen the real scope of the net he cast. A bonafide inspiration, a realist who never lost his optimism and lust for life, a man who never slept. I’ve read (and own) Eyes Wide Open and Stanley & Me, but this is definitely the superior Kubrick relationship memoir, by far the best written, and the most clear-eyed & psychologically honest. The comment about his voice never aging - too good.

[Filippo Ulivieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

"They say Kubrick had no personal life, but that's ridiculous. It would be more correct to say that he had no professional life, since everything he did was personally done." Lo scrittore di Dispacci e collaboratore, assieme ad Hasford, alla sceneggiatura di Full Metal Jacket, racconta la sua amicizia decennale con Kubrick in un libro sincero e, contrariamente all'operazione di Frederic Raphael, senza autocompiacimenti. Nel capitolo dedicato a Eyes Wide Shut, acutamente recensito, Herr svela la proposta fattagli da Kubrick per migliorare i dialoghi del film e per scrivere un articolo ufficiale sul backstage del film per la rivista Vanity Fair, in modo da sfatare i pettegolezzi sorti su Internet e sui quotidiani. Completano lo scritto alcune foto in bianco e nero di Kubrick, di cui una inedita dal set di Killer's Kiss, scattata da Alexander Singer.

[Bob Wake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an elegant little 96-page rumination on Michael Herr’s friendship and working relationship with filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. However, 80% of the text is essentially a reprinting of a 1999 Vanity Fair profile that Herr wrote at the behest of Kubrick as PR for the release of the director’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut. And the Vanity Fair piece is readily available online: http://bit.ly/1SvNRLm. Which leaves the book’s 20-page “postscript”—a spirited defense of Eyes Wide Shut—as the only new material.

[Jeremy Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An emotional, first-hand account from a friend and co-contributor of Kubrick's on his process and way of thinking culminating as an ode to the memory of a late friend.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume sat on my shelf for a couple of years, but I’m so glad to finally rip through it. Instantly, I want to re-read it. Love Kubrick. Of course. But also really love Michael Herr’s way with a word, this is surely one of the most economical biographical tributes - it serves now as tribute, also, to Herr. His style. His way. Brilliant writing. As someone else said, a genius…writing about a genius. No one goes home disappointed!

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically a long magazine article, a good one, but sketchy on Kubrick. Herr worked with Kubrick on several movies and was a friend and I got a much clearer sense of the director's character and obsessions. There's a great afterword on Eyes Wide Shut that pinpoints the dream logics at work in a film that's radically undervalued. But I wanted more on the films themselves. Clearly, Herr doesn't want to "interpret" or "explain" Kubrick and I get that, but the Eyes Wide Shut section demonstrates what Herr might have offered if he'd chosen to engage Strangelove or Clockwork Orange. Good book, just don't espect anything comprehensive.

[Andrin Albrecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Herr (the author of the Vietnam memoir “Dispaches”, still one of the greatest books I’ve read in my entire life) delivers an account of his decades-long friendship with Stanley Kubrick that’s as compelling as it is brief. Those who mostly want to learn about Kubrick’s filmography, the controversies surrounding him, the making of his various classics, or even Herr’s own hand in them (he worked with Kubrick on the screenplay for “Full Metal Jacket” and held late night conversations on the phone about various others) should better look elsewhere – there are much more comprehensive, detailed, and thoroughly researched biographies of Kubrick. However, Herr’s stands out by mostly focusing on Kubrick’s private character: chapters are devoted less to his filmmaking and more to his passions, quirks, views, quips, the things Kubrick struggled with and those he loved. You won’t learn much about how he handled the technicalities of which movie, but you’ll realize that even though he’s so often painted as a reclusive sociopath, and not entirely without reason, Kubrick was at least as much a caring husband and father, a lifelong teenager and voracious learner, someone disgusted by the glamorous pretense of Hollywood but enthralled with history, philosophy, the infinite chess games of film editing, composing, and distribution.
There is one chapter towards the end where Herr’s otherwise effortless, elegant, and deeply sensitive prose turns briefly tacky: After having delivered his accounts of his various encounters, struggles, and precious memories with Kubrick over the years, and having sagely pointed out that, even though he started off as an unpaid film journalist in New York, he could never cut it as a critic, Herr nevertheless ill-advisedly launches into a lengthy defense of Kubrick’s last and possibly most controversial movie “Eyes Wide Shut”, summarizing that somnambulant film’s plot and alleged symbolic genius for pages on end. It sounds, irritatingly, like Kubrick’s friend is able to take criticism a lot less maturely than the man himself, and leaves scratches in Herr’s appearance of impartiality that this book could have well done without.
Nevertheless, “Kubrick” is a well-written, refreshing, frequently touching, and as frequently humorous elegy on a director oftentimes counted among the greatest in cinema history. Finishing it, you can’t help but wish that you’d known, spent hours on the phone with, and been talked into shittily paid screenwriting jobs by Stanley Kubrick yourself.

[Jonathan Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herr's "Kubrick" was an enjoyable look behind the scenes at what it was like to know Kubrick as a person - to the extent that was really possible - and what it was like to work with him. As a big fan of Kubrick's movie, I appreciated hearing what it was like to know him, to spend hours on the phone with him discussing philosophy, even to hear about his renowned cheapness.

Herr takes Kubrick down off of the lofty pedestal of cinematic demigod and lets us see that he was an exceptionally talented man who knew exactly what he wanted, one who was willing to take the time and effort to make that happen.

People wanted desperately to work with Kubrick and then hated life while they went through his seemingly endless process, only to say at the end that they would do anything to work with him again. Herr describes how he resisted Kubrick's repeated urging to work with him on the script for "Eyes Wide Shut" - "Come on, it'll be fun!!" - knowing what it would do to his life if he said "yes." He watched with relief from the sidelines as the shooting schedule went months past the deadline. He looked forward to an exclusive interview with Kubrick for Vanity Fair magazine when production wrapped, only to lose Kubrick to a heart attack the week before he was supposed to meet with him.

Herr's dry humor made this an enjoyable read for me. Paraphrasing here, but "one thing you never heard around Kubrick was 'Use your best judgment and don't bother me with the details.'"

Recommended as a quick and enjoyable initial read that also will benefit from repeated, deeper readings. I'm not sure I understand Kubrick's process any better - or what made him a genius - other than that he was willing to let ideas take as much time as necessary to mature.

[Cameron Krogh Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially an extended obituary, or a fine collection of anecdotes from the friend and collaborator of a cinema legend. It offers interesting insights into the manners of a mysterious man shrouded in myth for decades and seeks to debunk many of them - or at least the more negative ones.

A short read, easily doable in an evening sitting (alas, I found myself opening it as I was drifting off for the three evenings I read it). Full of interesting behind-the-scenes details from a few of his later films, as Kubrick and Herr were acquainted in the later half of the former’s life, as well as more personal quotes that give a general sense of how the many lived his life and what interested him when not talking about film.

Read it if you’re a film or Kubrick fan and want some inspiration or simply to peep through a keyhole into his world.

[Britt · Rating 2 out of 5]

There doesn’t seem to be a ton of effort into this book. It’s just shy of 100 pages so you can read it one sitting. The author (who worked on Full Metal Jacket) gives you some brief glimpses into Kubrick, because let’s be honest, no one will ever be able to figure him out. The organization of it was not well done and it’s a set of different musings about his interactions and views on the famous director. There is much defending of Kubrick who know was a nightmare to work with (although a genius) with an odd post-script defending his last movie, Eye Wide Shut.

[Robin Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fairly short read but felt long as Michael Herr included an almost scene by scene rundown from the movie Eyes Wide Shut.

I sensed a hint of insincerity on Herr’s part as he spoke of Stanley Kubrick. He bounced back from claiming to like him and then claiming to be annoyed by him. There was something off-putting about his vernacular that I can’t quite pinpoint.

Overall this book gives a glimpse of Kubrick’s personality from Herr’s perspective. It might be interesting to Kubrick fans, but also feels like there’s nothing new here.

[Burton]

More the defense of a friend than an analysis of the man, written very much in the aftermath of the poorly reviewed Eyes Wide Shut. Herr clearly loved Kubrick and did not take kindly to what he perceived as little more than grade school level name calling from Frederick Raphael in Eyes Wide Open. Reads like the long magazine piece that it was initially intended to be. Light and fleet on its feet, its concerns seem about a million miles from 2023. I wish there were a cheaper digital copy available.

[Stewart Monckton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael certainly has a way with words, and reading this short book reminds me just how dull and straightforward much other 'journalistic' writing is. Herr seems to play with words in the way that Kubrick played with ideas and light. And both produce result is works that feel significantly different to other in the same field.

Clearly I have no real idea of what Kubrick was like as a person, but this book does provide some pointers to both his genius and his limitations.

Rather wonderful. SM

[Sean Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Herr slim yet thoughtful memoir of working with Kubrick Ultimately has him regarding his former collaborator with a fondness that Is based on mutual respect despite Stanley’s irritating need to get the upper hand.) Unlike Frederic Raphael’s more egocentric Remembrance, the partnership depicted here is Rooted in friendship as much as work. Sure, I wish it went deeper into full metal jacket stories but that may have derailed the focus.

[Dan Lalande · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finely observed and forgiving portrait of Stanley Kubrick by long-time friend and reluctant collaborator Michael Herr (of "Dispatches" fame.) Where others found hermetic conceit, Herr finds prickly charm. It's marred, though, by its last act of mercy: a long, lame defense of Kubrick's justly scarred 'Eyes Wide Shut.'

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly marvelous extended rumination on Herr's relationship with Kubrick over the years, with surprisingly minimal discussion of "Full Metal Jacket," and with an extended (and extremely insightful) critical essay on "Eyes Wide Shut" thrown in for good measure. Essential for even the most casual Kubrick fan.

[Johnny Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining collection of memories from a friend. Insightful at times about the man, at other times it falters (eg. when Herr attempts to offer rebuttals to the criticisms of Kubrick's work). Definitely worth a read. Warm, endearing and short.

[Fraser Burnett · Rating 2 out of 5]

A wee bit too hagiographic for my liking.

[Tanja Bresan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweet.

[Allan MacDonell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Herr’s Kubrick is a follow-up to his Dispatches. Once a war correspondent, always a war correspondent.

[Shervin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly a puff piece, slim on insight.

[Anthony Lopez-Ona · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author notes that he originally intended to write a magazine article about Kubrick but that the subject died before he had a chance to revisit his friend. In the end this felt like an overly long article. While the portions detailing Herr’s interactions with Kubrick were revealing, the warm feelings Herr has for Kubrick clouded judgment, especially when Herr tears into some of the movie reviews of Kubrick by noted contemporary critics. In the end I wished for more stories and less opinions.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A remembrance far more than a biography proper, and much the better for it really. Though there's certainly objectivity present to the extent possible, Herr is excused the typical expectations of such, and yet still ends up far shier of hagiography than do many biographers. Numerous Kubrick quotes are included--we get a true sense of his humor and the cadence of our voice, helped by Herr, who writes a wonderful paragraph describing the qualities of his speaking style--but his voice is not the only distinct one present; Herr's authorial voice is wonderful on its own, and the two coalesce into something rather warming and comforting, not like a conversation exactly, but like a recounting of a conversation. At its best, Kubrick is the story of a specific personal relationship between two men drawn with great specificity, the more famous of whom was so often incorrectly judged to be cold and impersonal. Coming as this book did shortly after Kubrick's death, the informal reminiscences have the feel of those that tend to arise after the death of a loved one, fond memories and not-so-fond ones that can nevertheless become pleasing to recall just as a reminder of the life force that was; one quibble with the way Herr presents some of his anecdotes is that it can be unclear at times if certain anecdotes were experienced by him or told to him directly by Kubrick, or instead sourced from elsewhere. The last quarter of a book is devoted to the posthumous release of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, and while I concur with Herr, in general and in many of the specifics, in his designation of the film as a masterpiece, after so much delightful time spent in the company of Kubrick and Herr as people, treated for the most part distinctly from Kubrick's finished work, I would have preferred more of that to the unadulterated opinions of Herr, however correct I might deem them.