The classic improvised lines in Stanley Kubrick movies
From Dr Strangelove to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick made some of the most influential contributions to cinema in the history of the medium. Starting out as a photographer, Kubrick was determined to create movies, and his first project, Fear and Desire, saw him take on many production roles, including cinematography and editing, to bring his creative vision to life.
While Fear and Desire didn’t hit the expected heights, it demonstrated Kubrick’s intense dedication to filmmaking. By the decade’s end, his skills had miraculously improved, and his reputation grew with movies such as Paths of Glory and Spartacus.
The 1960s was a prosperous decade for Kubrick, who released his dark comedy Lolita, anti-war black comedy Dr Strangelove, and the epic sci-fi drama 2001: A Space Odyssey. He established himself as a defining cinematic voice, although much of his success was achieved due to his intense perfectionism.
Kubrick was known for being incredibly strict, often requiring actors to do many takes to achieve the director’s desired vision. It is well-documented that Kubrick required Shelley Duvall to film a scene repeatedly in which she had to cry dramatically. It was emotionally and physically demanding, yet Kubrick directed Duvall with a lack of care, treating her considerably worse than other members of the cast.
The director was so strict that he was generally opposed to letting his actors veer off script – after all, he was an auteurist filmmaker. Yet, there were a few instances where this wasn’t the case, resulting in some moments of sheer brilliance.
Most notably, the iconic “Here’s Johnny!” quote from The Shining was improvised by Jack Nicholson, and Kubrick liked the line enough to keep it in the final cut. The line occurs when his character, Jack Torrance, is pummelling an axe through the bathroom door, where Shelley Duvall’s Wendy is screaming on the other side. As he smashes through the wood, he says the oft-quoted line inspired by Ed McMahon, who would introduce Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show with the same phrase.
Full Metal Jacket, meanwhile, contains lots of improvised dialogue from Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, played by Lee Ermey, who was a real drill sergeant in the Vietnam War. Thus, because Kubrick was so trusting of the actor due to his real-life experience, he allowed him to make up some of his own lines, resulting in some of the movie’s most memorable – and terrifying – scenes.
Another one of Kubrick’s most unforgettable scenes came in A Clockwork Orange when Malcolm McDowell’s Alex DeLarge performs ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ while attacking and raping a woman. It’s a hard watch that captures the absolute depravity of Alex and his friends, yet McDowell improvised the choice of song.
Finally, arguably one of Kubrick’s greatest works, Dr Strangelove, saw the director allow his main actor, comedian Peter Sellers, to improvise a lot of his lines in rehearsal, which were then added to the screenplay in a practice known as ‘retro-scripting’. One of the most notable examples of Sellers’ improv is the phone scene, in which he declares, “Mein Führer, I can walk!” It was clearly the right decision – Sellers’ comedic experience is the perfect fit for Kubrick’s film, and his added improvisation makes Dr Strangelove even stronger.
