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Kubrick on Crime and Deviance 

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Abstract

In Kubrick’s last film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), an introductory sociology textbook appears on screen for a relatively long time. The analytical framing of this textbook yields an insight that helps us understand Kubrick’s filmography, as the framing suggests that humans and their civilized societies cloak some dangerous cultural motivations, acquired throughout a long process of evolution. With this framing in mind, we researched 11 of Kubrick’s 13 films and extracted 15 general themes and 25 crime-deviance related ones. We suggest that Kubrick’s films indeed present a critical perspective that challenges viewers to contemplate the contrast and implications of crossing symbolic-moral boundaries of human civilized societies into criminal and deviant—many times extreme—infringements. We also present a critical perspective vis-à-vis Kubrick’s views that emphasizes choices.

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Notes

  1. For just a few examples on American war films see Basinger (1986), Doherty (1993). Garland (1987) and Suid (2002). See High (2003) on Japanese, MacKenzie (2001) and Chapman (1998) on British, Hull (1973) on Nazi films (including war movies), and Youngblood (2007) on Russian war films.

  2. For three exceptions see Rafter (2006), Rafter and Brown (2011), Goode (forthcoming 2024).

  3. For academic and more popular writings on Kubrick see Baxter 1997, Abrams (2018), Nelson (2000) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Kubrick (accessed 9 December 2022).

  4. While Kubrick’s challenges to our moral and cognitive make up are perhaps the most notable, he was not alone. Otto Preminger’s Advise & Consent (1962) and Stanley Kramer’s Ship of Fools (1965) fall into this category, and were made around the time that Kubrick made some of his movies. Directors such as Ingmar Bergman and more so Paolo Pasolini created similar challenges.

  5. See for example Carolin Ruwe (2000) on symbols in Eyes Wide Shut.

  6. E.g., Lombardi (2004).

  7. Abrams (2009), Kuberski (2012).

  8. Kolker and Abrams (2019: 168–169) pointed out that the appearance of this book “has led to much internet speculation” and added, “we know from preproduction documents” that “Domino [the sex worker in the scene] was envisaged as a student of sociology at NYU.” Nevertheless, the relative length of exposure of this book requires some explanation, as well as the specific choice of this UK textbook for a supposedly NYU sociology curriculum.

  9. The “naked Ape” refers to British Zoologist and Ethnologist Desmond Morris’ 1967 and 1969 popular books. Morris used an evolutionary perspective to compare human behavior to animal behavior. His analysis focuses on how biological factors reside at the core of human cultural behavior, on the personal and societal levels. Other works by Konrad Lorenz in ethology preceded Morris, and he was followed by anthropologists Robin Fox and Lionel Tiger.

  10. See Janowitz (1991).

  11. Reference to animal-like behavior in this perspective obviously focuses on a negative stereotypical imagery of animal behavior.

  12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_of_Man_Series (accessed 11 October 2022).

  13. The neuropsychological discovery that decision making in situations of uncertainty relies on the most primitive parts of our brain is taken by some to support this view.

  14. As, for example, one can see in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 Marnie or in Fred M. Wilcox’s 1956 Forbidden Planet.

  15. Quoted from “Stanley Kubrick.” Wikipedia, attributed to Duncan, Paul. 2003. Stanley Kubrick: The Complete Films. Taschen GmbH, p. 12.

  16. While Kolker and Abrams (2019) do not mention Spartacus in their count, according to The Numbers, Spartacus grossed about $60 million (https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Spartacus#tab=summaryaccessed 11 October 2022).

  17. For example, The Dispatch suggested that Kubrick’s 1999 Eyes Wide Shut is “an essential holiday classic” for 2021 Christmas (https://thedispatch.com/p/eyes-wide-shut-is-an-essential-holiday accessed 11 October 2022). See also Szaniawski (2021).

  18. Stanley Kramer’s On the Beach (1959) is a similar powerfully persuasive movie but one that focuses sympathetically on the human side of a nuclear Armageddon.

  19. See Gehrke and Ercolini (2006).

  20. On some impacts see Szaniawski (2021).

  21. Each one of us did a visual detailed on-screen work for each film.

  22. For example, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 2022), Journey’s End (1930, 2017), Aces High (1976) or 1917 (2020).

  23. On Kubrick’s unusual role in this film, see Radford (2015).

  24. See, for example, https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-sci-fi-movies/ or https://www.timeout.com/film/the-100-best-sci-fi-movies or https://www.wired.co.uk/article/best-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time (all three accessed 9 December 2022), and https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/2001-a-space-odyssey-named-greatest-movie-of-all-time/?fbclid=IwAR0UK2roSCtOYv1ixSIzFiRHD2BFnTYClx8WsSd6Ev5EBBTwsy2P5UsosXM (accessed 9 April 2023).

  25. On making 2001 see Benford (2018).

  26. See, for example, https://www.slashfilm.com/563218/eyes-wide-shut-christmas/ (accessed 11 October 2022).

  27. See also Kolker and Abrams (2019: 141).

  28. See Kolker and Abrams (2019: 139–140).

  29. On the issue of boundaries and deviance, see Ben-Yehuda (1985)

  30. For more on death in Kubrick’s films See Webster (2011).

  31. On a similar theme see Sidney Lumet’s sophisticated (1964) Fail-Safe.

  32. On socially constructed ambivalence, see Smelser (1998).

  33. See also Baxter (2011).

  34. See Cocks, Diedrick and Perusek (2006).

  35. Carnes’ volume (1996: 40–43; 266–269) presents contrasts between Kubrick’s Spartacus and Dr. Strangelove and history.

  36. The first half recreates the cultural ambience of militarism and war in the eighteenth century.

  37. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paths_of_Glory (accessed 11 October 2022).

  38. And to a significant degree a constructivist perspective as well.

  39. Nonetheless, he is still mentioned in the production credits and the film ends with the line: “For Stanley Kubrick.” Abrams J. 2007; Abrams N. 2018; Kolker and Abrams (2019); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence (accessed 11 October 2022).

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Diana Munayer whose efforts yielded a good copy of Introducing Sociology, to Wendy Ben-Haim, video librarian at Hebrew University library, who helped make Kubrick’s movies available for us. We are deeply grateful to two reviewers whose comments helped us make this paper significantly better.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

    Nachman Ben-Yehuda & Galia Frank

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  1. Nachman Ben-Yehuda
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Correspondence to Nachman Ben-Yehuda.

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Ben-Yehuda, N., Frank, G. Kubrick on Crime and Deviance . Crit Crim 31, 1191–1215 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-023-09719-3

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