Malcolm McDowell’s least favourite Stanley Kubrick movie: “It was past its sell-by date”
Stanley Kubrick’s filmography has long been the subject of speculation and intrigue, with audiences questioning his creative intentions and the often elusive meaning behind his work. While some of his films, like The Shining, have resonated with wider audiences, others remain as enigmatic and mysterious as they were upon release, sparking endless conversations about the social commentary within Barry Lyndon or A Clockwork Orange.
While he is controversial to some, his work is generally held in the highest regard and considered as one of the best filmmakers of all time, despite how they were interpreted at the time. Perhaps the most misunderstood from his body of work was his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, which was ripped apart by many critics and seen as a flop, an opinion that was shared by one of his key collaborators.
Eyes Wide Shut was a production plagued by hounding press members, reshoots and creative complications, with everyone becoming obsessed with the private vision of the director and a shoot that was shrouded in secrecy. After casting two of the hottest Hollywood actors at the time to star in his final film, playing on the real relationship between Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as they starred in the dream-like and dystopian story about a man who becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter after hearing about his wife’s sexual fantasies.
The film is nightmarish and haunting, blurring the line between temptation, perversion and eroticism, looking at what it means to leave behind our values in search of quick thrills and hedonistic pleasure, exposing the twisted underbelly of our values and ideas about marriage.
While it is loved by many and now has a devoted fan base, which contrasts to the strained reception of the film after its turbulent production, Malcolm McDowell even spoke about his dislike for Kubrick’s swan song.
Malcolm McDowell has built a reputation through his strange and unconventional characters over the years, but perhaps his most controversial role was in Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, set in a futuristic Britain as a gang of men go around inflicting violence on the people around them, something that the government attempts to stop by offering a procedure that will rid him of his personal agency.
While some would consider this film the most offensive and explicit from the auteur’s body of work, McDowell shared his own opinion of Kubrick’s work, saying, “It [Eyes Wide Shut] isn’t my favorite Kubrick film; I’ll just put it that way. I understand why he wanted to do it. He should have done it before A Clockwork Orange. It was past its ‘sell by’ date in 1999”.
Interestingly, his use of the phrase “sell by date” implies that he thinks the film is too dated or old-fashioned, as though it wasn’t ahead of its time but behind the times. Many have interpreted the delayed love of the film as a symbol that Kubrick was simply ahead of the curve and doing something that people were unable to understand, but McDowell seemingly thought otherwise.
