All Stanley Kubrick's films ranked

(Image credit: We Got This Covered)

Stanley Kubrick remains without a doubt one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema. Despite having a fairly limited filmography, his style has become somewhat iconic for its surrealist quality. His multi-dimensional exploration of the human consciousness through drama, comedy and historical epics are a testament to his versatility as a director and a writer. In this list, we will rank all of Kubrick’s films from worst to best. Two things before we begin: One, although we will try to be objective, this list mostly reflects our opinions and preferences. Second, Kubrick’s films are pretty much all excellent works of cinema in one way or another. So worst to best does not really apply here, since “worst” in this case just means not as good as the ones above it.

(Image credit: The New York Times)

11 – Lolita (1962)

This film is one of the best dark comedies to come out of the 1960s. There are parts of the film that evokes the witty dialogs of Billy Wilder and sequences that remind us of the comedic works of Ernst Lubitz. Because of this reason, Lolita sometimes feels less Kubrick. But this is not yet Kubrick at his best, so one could easily forgive that. As a dark comedy about a middle-aged man falling in love with a teenager, this film is an absolute triumph. We slowly lose respect for the main character as he becomes genuinely disgusting and repulsive. Even as this is happening, you just want to keep watching it. The film’s greatest achievement is being able to create this voyeuristic addiction: it’s such a weird thing to be watching, but you can’t take your eyes off it. A lot of credits have to go to the actors. James Mason is absolutely brilliant here. But Sue Lyon really stole the show here. The chemistry between the two characters is really strong and keeps the films afloat, even in some of the more awkward scenes. Lolita also has a kind of poetically tragic ending that leaves the audience both satisfied and icky at the same time. Nevertheless, it illustrates Kubrick’s ability to explore duality in humanness as well as his bravery to tackle a rather complex subject matter.

(Image credit: Silver Screen Modes by Christian Esquevin)

10 – Barry Lyndon (1975)

Barry Lyndon is an aesthetically pleasing film. It is perhaps one of films with the most beautiful cinematography of all time, definitely the most pretty-looking Kubrick film. However, in terms of content, this movie falters a slight bit in comparison to his more exquisite character pieces. This does not deter from the excellent filmmaking on display. There is a battle sequence in this movie so beautifully shot, drawing out heavy emotions just by watching it. While that sequence is a highlight, there are also a couple other scenes that show Kubrick’s strength as a director. This movie also benefits a great deal from the excellent performances of the cast. Ryan O’Neal as the titular character is perhaps the most memorable. As a rise and fall narrative, the film could’ve used more exploration into the main character psyche, which Kubrick has shown himself capable of in his other films.

(Image credit: SFMOMA)

9 – The Killing (1956)

This is Kubrick’s first film. While there was Fear and Desire, Kubrick has renounced that movie and what is left of the film is more of a reconstruction than the actual film itself. In any case, The Killing is much more of a true debut. The movie follows a basic plot, but illustrates the talent and skills of the director. It gives us a glimpse into what Kubrick could do – showing his ability to create tension, intercut scenes and plot lines while keeping complex characters at the story’s centre. The story is really cool down to the final moment. It feels like a prototype of the modern heist movie, topped with a fascinating cast and an intricately formulated plot. But in true Kubrick form, it’s the how rather than the what of the plot that is the heart of the film. Kubrick seems to have in his mind a web of how the story would play out. He presents the movie in a documentary-like format, with narrations. We feel like a police captain analysing how this heist went the way it did. We look over the shoulder of the mastermind, seeing all the processes and contingencies that contribute to the execution of the heist. Roger Ebert describes this film as a multiple-layered chessboard and there really is no better description than that.

(Image credit: Locus Cinemae)

8 – Spartacus (1960)

Spartacus is filmmaking in an epic proportion. It is arguably the most conventionally entertaining and epic film Kubrick has ever made. That is probably the reason why it isn’t higher on the list. Despite its quality, Spartacus sometimes feels more like Kirk Douglas’ film or Dalton Trumbo’s film for that matter. That does not deride the film of course, but as a Kubrick film it does not have a great deal of Kubrick flavour. That said, Spartacus benefits from Kubrick’s skill and experience. This movie is filled to the brim with sequences that are enjoyable but also dramatic. Many times, these kinds of epic films get lost in their own scale and in the process lost hold of the character. But here, perhaps helped by Douglas’ charismatic performance, we feel like we are Spartacus on the journey. There are intimate moments that allow us to see the wider picture through the eyes of one man. Kubrick understood that a true epic links the larger historical processes with the little humans that inhabit it. And again, I cannot stress how well-directed this film is. Unlike most other epics where the production designs and set pieces take centre stage, you really feel the artistry in Spartacus. You get a sense of Kubrick as a passionate architect of scenes, moments and characters. Here is an epic film helmed by a director approaching his peak and ready to take on a project that might not be entirely his. Kubrick proves, with Spartacus, that he is not just an idiosyncratic director but a genuinely effective one.

(Image credit: Offscreen)

7 – The Shining (1980)

In many ways, The Shining is Kubrick’s simplest film to date. It involves the least number of characters, takes place in one location under a short time span. On the surface, it’s a horror movie with the aim of being scary. And it is scary. Many people have professed that The Shining is the scariest film of all time. Many have also disagreed. The quality of the film seems to rest on its ability to scare. And it is precisely this fallacy that makes The Shining an oddly under-appreciated work. Saying that this is a simple horror movie is kind of missing the point of the story. It may have been a horror movie, but like the best kinds of horror, the principal aim is not to induce cheap scares. Rather, this is an illustration of a man’s psychological breakdown and the impact it has on his family. It is a character study. Jack Torrance starts out as a main character we sympathise with but soon becomes the monster that oppresses his family. In this way, Kubrick investigates the complexity of domestic abuse and even to an extent the pressure of a patriarchal world. One might say, the implication of what happens at the Overlook hotel is the scariest thing about this film.

(Image credit: Britannica)

6 – Paths of Glory (1957)

The final scene in Paths of Glory is a rare instance of emotion in a film that emphasises the brutality of war in a filmography that insists on seeing humanity at its most senseless. Even in these days when we become desensitised to reports of war, Paths of Glory is still difficult to watch. The title of this film uses the technique of emphasising positive determinism – this path of war is also one of glory. No matter how you walk it – it is always a path of glory. And yet the film ingeniously subverts the title. There is a path to be walked here, only it ends with frustrating injustice and blind patriotism. We follow Colonel Dax, an archetypal general who seems to have been plucked out of a Greek epic. Only here he seems utterly powerless against the machinery of war, the mini society within the military barracks, and the injustice that resides within it. The movie rolls towards its inevitable conclusion. And you feel angry once it comes to an end. Kubrick seems to know how we feel, and give us a moment of emotional tranquility so rare in this world of war and violence. The juxtaposition of individual emotions and social indifference will become more and more prevalent as his styles become more and more distinct.

(Image credit: Screen Slate)

5 – A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Kubrick makes a definitive statement of style in this darkly comedic film which is also a sociological thesis. In this film, Kubrick explores wider social phenomena through each characters' actions. He poses profound questions about free will, agency and social control and created one of the most controversial films of that time. It was truly worth it. A Clockwork Orange is an exquisite, almost unparalleled study into one of the least understood aspects of human society: our propensity for violence. In doing this, it dares to go to genuinely dark places. It presents a truly unforgivable character and gives him an arc that questions our moral universe and the social mechanism that supposedly underlies it. If society cannot cure violence, does that mean it is in our genetics? How do we make do with our association between violence and sexual desire? Can we create mechanisms that control that violence? And what does it mean to control it? Suppression? Disguise? This film raises profound questions that are often overlooked if one focuses too much on the provocative sequences. Here we get to see Kubrick beckoning his audience to try a little harder, to dig under the surface of his film, to see the meaning behind the madness.

(Image credit: Military.com)

4 – Full Metal Jacket (1987)

In many ways, Full Metal Jacket is a spiritual sequel to A Clockwork Orange. Much like Clockwork, it analyses social violence. However, Full Metal Jacket investigates something even more absurd: collective, organised violence. What we call war. There are a lot of great war movies out there, but none of it feels like Full Metal Jacket. By this point in his filmography, Kubrick has developed a visual style so distinct that watching his film is like seeing the world through Kubrick’s eyes. And in Full Metal Jacket, we see the absurdism of war. We actually spend the first half the film understanding how the military machine dehumanises the individual. And Kubrick does this not with exposition or dialogues but with filmmaking techniques: shots de-individualising the characters, taking away the things that distinguish them or make them who they are. It’s not surprising that the characters go crazy in the end.

(Image credit: The Gauntlet)

3 – 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968)

This is certainly Kubrick’s most ambitious project. Whether or not it achieves what it sets out to do is not as important as the impact it had on cinema. It changes science fiction forever and is almost certainly the most significant milestone of that genre. 2001 explores the development of humanity, crystallising evolutions and histories into tension-filled moments depicting humans confronting technologies. It contrasts the emotionality of humans and the rationality of the machine. In our quest for greatness, we are perhaps the machine of our own destruction. Yet with all this, 2001 also suggests the eternity of evolution and change. Of course, what each person gets out of this movie is likely to be personalised. The success of this movie is not presenting a coherent thesis, but rather asking profound questions that humans will have to struggle with in times to come.

(Image credit: AmazingStories)

2 – Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb (1964)

Dr. Strangelove is a cinematic perfection. This is a film so iconic and so vastly enjoyable; it transcends its director. I mean, we know it’s a Kubrick film. But it’s not really dominated by Kubrick. This movie, much more so than any other in this list, rests upon a plethora of amazing performances from so many actors we could not even name them all. Peter Sellers plays three distinct characters in what might be his best performance(s) of all time. Meanwhile we have George C. Scott’s general Buck more or less grounding us in reality. At the same, Sterling Hayden’s amazingly named character, general Jack D. Ripper, gave us a glimpse into the insanity of cold war mentality. Dr. Strangelove isn’t as deep as Full Metal Jacket or even Paths of Glory. Instead of trying to analyse the insanity, it lays bare the craziness of Mutually Assured Destruction. This is a rare instance where Kubrick focuses on just showing the craziness and not the mechanism that produces it. What we get is a vastly entertaining film that continues to define the nuclear era. Humanity is at the brink of extinction, and all we’ve got are a bunch of jokes.

(Image credit: So The Theory Goes)

1 – Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

The last film that Kubrick made is also his most transcendental work. In the vein of 2001,Eyes Wide Shut’s inscrutability made it a source of frustration for a lot of critics. And yet, most have grown to appreciate it and many I’m sure will consider it as Kubrick’s masterpiece. This movie is about love, and its unreliability. It’s about dream and ambition and the self. We follow Tom Cruise, who is presented here as an archetypal perfect man. And yet there is this inner hubris that leads him to feel insecure. The confidence that makes him scared. The kind of loyal love that leads him into unfaithfulness. And the beauty that whispers violence. Kubrick uses his camera, directs the actors and sets the scene to convey this constant duality of existence and non-existence. Watching this film, you feel as if you’re drifting in and out of consciousness. The line between reality and unreality is so blurred that you feel like you’re in a trance, witnessing humanity at its purest ambivalence. If 2001 was a ponderous exploration of what could be, Eyes Wide Shut is a philosophical exploration of what it feels like to be. It directs our gaze into the abyss that is humanity, revealing the institution that we reified to be figments of our minds, quick to crumble once the cracks form. It is Kubrick’s most mature statement about his worldview. It invites us to look deep into who we are, and what makes us who we are. What can we see, when our eyes are wide but also shut?