Stanley Kubrick is one of the greatest directors who ever lived. His command of the technical side of filmmaking was unparalleled. Every one of his movies is a fiercely visual experience. But whereas some directors with this technical command will favor the practical side of things over giving the story real substance, Kubrick gave both elements a lot of attention. He was a master storyteller.
He also created unforgettable characters, cast the perfect actors to play them, and then provided those actors with the direction to give fantastic performances in their roles. We’ve ranked the 10 best performances that Kubrick ever directed.
Nicole Kidman As Alice Harford In Eyes Wide Shut
Nicole Kidman was the ideal choice to play Alice Harford in Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut. Tom Cruise was a compelling lead, but he never really shed his movie-star image to embody the role of Bill like Kidman embodied the role of Alice.
She plays Alice’s naivety through her sexual odyssey brilliantly. She doesn’t just shine in one or two scenes; she’s fantastic in every single scene she’s in.
Douglas Rain As The Voice Of HAL 9000 In 2001: A Space Odyssey
Douglas Rain ensured that millions of sci-fi fans across the world would forever be skeptical of artificial intelligence with his definitive portrayal of one in 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL 9000 will always be remembered as one of the big screen’s most iconic A.I. characters, and visually, he’s just a red light on a black screen.
Kubrick relied entirely on Rain’s vocal performance to make sure that HAL stood out as a character. The actor’s cold, impersonal delivery of each line made HAL seem chillingly inhuman.
Kirk Douglas As Colonel Dax In Paths Of Glory
All of Kubrick’s war films took a decidedly anti-war stance, but Paths of Glory is the most obvious example. Kirk Douglas stars in one of his noblest roles as Colonel Dax. He refuses to allow his soldiers to carry out a suicidal mission, and then has to defend his men against a charge of cowardice in a court martial.
Douglas’ impassioned performance is what makes this movie work. The message doesn’t come off as preachy because Douglas brings a real humanity to Dax and his unfortunate situation.
Matthew Modine As Private Joker In Full Metal Jacket
It was Matthew Modine’s idea for Joker to survive Full Metal Jacket. The original script ended with Joker dying, but Modine felt he should live. Joker’s only friend at boot camp committed suicide, he saw his comrades die in the battlefield, then he took a child’s life and watched her die with his own eyes. In Modine’s view, the true horror of war would be having to live with those memories and the trauma that comes with them.
Joker was the perfect protagonist to carry Stanley Kubrick’s powerful critique of the Vietnam War, and with his subtle command of humanity’s darkest emotions, Modine was the perfect actor to play him.
Keir Dullea As Dave Bowman In 2001: A Space Odyssey
Keir Dullea was faced with some serious acting challenges when he played the lead role of Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey. He had to get into a tense standoff with an artificial intelligence; he had to lose his mind as he was flung through cosmic worlds beyond human comprehension; he had to play an older version of himself, withering away, while the younger version stood in the corner of the room and watched. And he nailed every single scene.
2001 is a triumphant technical achievement, but Dullea’s performance makes sure it’s an emotional experience, too.
Shelley Duvall As Wendy Torrance In The Shining
Shelley Duvall reportedly got so stressed out while she was playing Wendy Torrance in The Shining that she developed medical problems and her hair started falling out.
Wendy is never anything but nice to her husband Jack, but when he slowly goes insane and is drawn to commit horrific acts of violence, she quickly turns on him and desperately wants to keep her son safe. In many ways, Wendy is the audience surrogate, experiencing the on-screen terror first-hand.
Malcolm McDowell As Alex DeLarge In A Clockwork Orange
Alex DeLarge is not your typical protagonist. He roams the streets of a dystopian future Britain, committing heinous acts of murder and sexual violence, and eventually gets sent to prison, where he undergoes haunting experimental therapies developed by the government to shorten his sentence.
Malcolm McDowell perfectly walked the tightrope between depicting Alex as a callous, violent sociopath and bringing an odd charm to his performance that keeps the viewer hooked, even as he does reprehensible things.
R. Lee Ermey As Gunnery Sergeant Hartman In Full Metal Jacket
R. Lee Ermey was an actual drill sergeant and not an actor when he was cast in Full Metal Jacket. He was simply brought on as a consultant, but he told Stanley Kubrick that he didn’t think the actor he’d cast to play Gunnery Sergeant Hartman was convincing enough, and asked him if he could play the role instead.
The rumor that Ermey ad-libbed all of his dialogue is a little exaggerated, but he did improvise a lot of lines. Kubrick is the last director to encourage improv, but he was happy to give Ermey the freedom to make Hartman an icon.
Peter Sellers As Lionel Mandrake, President Merkin Muffley, And Dr. Strangelove In Dr. Strangelove
Studio executives only greenlit Dr. Strangelove on the condition that Peter Sellers had to play a few different characters because they felt that the success of Lolita was down to Sellers’ performance. (He only played one character, but he dipped in and out of different personas.) Sellers’ successors, like Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers, were hugely influenced by his multiple-roles-in-the-same-movie style.
His trifecta of performances in Dr. Strangelove — as an RAF exchange officer, the U.S. President, and especially as the titular wheelchair-bound ex-Nazi — makes the movie a comedy classic.
Jack Nicholson As Jack Torrance In The Shining
The great thing about Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack Torrance in The Shining is that he plays him like he was an unhinged psychopath who hated his family long before he took a job at the Overlook.
In the book, Jack was a good man who got corrupted by the demons in the hotel, but in the movie, his violent rage has always been there, and it simply bubbles to the surface when he’s isolated in the middle of nowhere with the wife and son he wants to kill. There’s a dark sense of humor in Nicholson’s delivery of certain lines, and it gives the movie a unique tone.