Stanley Kubrick, one of cinema’s greatest perfectionists, is the author of such classics as Spartacus and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but not all viewers share his admiration for his works. A 1970 book discussing the flaws in his productions irritated him, and the director threatened to sue its author, a threat that lingered 25 years after his death.
Now “Magic Eye: The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick” will finally see the light of day, more than half a century after it was written, the Guardian reports. Before that, Kubrick threatened its author Neal Hornick and the publisher that he would fight “tooth and nail” and “use all legal means” to block its release – and he did.
Hornick, now 84, says Kubrick’s legal threats were a “painful episode” for him. More than 50 years ago, he was commissioned by The Tantivy Press to write the first book about the director, initially with his consent. When he found out, Kubrick helped with information and even provided critics with material otherwise unavailable to the general public. His mood changes dramatically after reading the first draft.
In his words, the book “sums up the good things about each of the films, then summarizes the negatives, and they outweigh the positives because of the overly categorical way in which such reviews are presented”. To avoid a court date, Tantivy signed an agreement with Kubrick that the book would not be published, “until all ú content is approved in writing by me [Кубрик]”.
According to Hornick, the agreement meant Kubrick would fact-check the information, but it did not allow him to block the book’s release, he told the Guardian. The “unacceptable” criticism, according to the director, amounted to a third of the content (70 thousand words in total).
However, Hornick doesn’t think he overstepped the bounds of good tone. Of Lolita, the 1962 adaptation of Nabokov’s novel, he wrote:
“There are also good things about Lolita. But in too many ways the film squanders the original material, robbing it of its complexity and eroticism, turning it into something conventional.”
In other cases, however, the critic did not spare his praises and called “A Space Odyssey” a “peak achievement” and called “Paths of Glory” “a film of intoxicating visual sophistication.”
Kubrick never responded to Hornick’s suggestions that the “problem” passages be reworked and instead worked with his friend Alexander Walker on the book Stanley Kubrick Directed, which was published in 1972.
In modern times, the New York publishing house “Sticking Place Books” is showing interest in the forgotten book. Paul Cronin, the book’s UK publisher, claimed that Kubrick’s treatment of the book’s author “demonstrates his extreme obsession with his image”.
“He doesn’t just make amends. Deletes the entire project,” he commented.
“Magic Eye: The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick” will be released in the English-language market on April 30.
