The only movie Stanley Kubrick made for the money: “My finances were rather rocky”
There’s absolutely no shame in an auteur shacking up with a major studio to make an overtly commercial movie, even if it works out much better for some than others. Stanley Kubrick was hardly seen as a gun for hire throughout his career, but even he admitted that those bills needed to be paid somehow.
It’s been one of Hollywood’s preferred pipelines for decades. If a director makes a splash with a couple of small-scale, intimate films that win rave reviews and establish them as a star on the rise, it won’t be long before they’re offered the chance to make a significant upgrade in budget.
However, for every Christopher Nolan that goes from Memento and Insomnia to Batman Begins or Greta Gerwig jumping from Little Women to Barbie, there’s a David Lynch seguing from The Elephant Man to Dune or Chloé Zhao diving into Eternals after winning an Oscar for ‘Best Director’ with Nomadland.
Even if there was a notable exception to the rule, Kubrick would never be one of those filmmakers. He was too proud, meticulous, strong-headed, and committed to his vision to ever work under the thumb of the studio system for too long, which was how he ended up in that position in the first place.
1956’s The Killing and the following year’s Paths of Glory were greeted rapturously and cemented Kubrick as one of the industry’s most innovative new voices, but they weren’t hits. To maintain autonomy, he opted to forego an upfront salary and only stood to get paid if they took off among the cinemagoing public.
Unfortunately, they didn’t. “A year went by, and my finances were rather rocky,” he told Joseph Glemis. “Since the films didn’t make any money, I had received nothing from either of them. I subsisted on loans from my partner, Jim Harris.” That was bad enough, but things were about to get worse.
Kubrick admitted that when Marlon Brando booted him off One-Eyed Jacks, “I had spent two years doing nothing.” He needed a job, and he needed money, which led him directly to a four-time Academy Award-winning classic, which isn’t a bad return for a paycheque gig.
“At this point, I was hired to direct Spartacus with Kirk Douglas,” he explained. “It was the only one of my films over which I did not have complete control; although I was the director, mine was the only one of many voices to which Kirk listened.”
Kubick wasn’t thrilled with how the historical epic turned out despite its critical, commercial, and awards season success, but on the plus side, it saved him from financial ruin. It may not have been up to the lofty standards to which he held himself, but it was enough of a hit to ensure he wasn’t broke and begging for work less than a decade after his feature debut.
