No film directing career, not even those of the grandmasters of cinema, emerges out of thin air. Every director must begin and gradually hone their craft, often making more misses than hits before discovering their talent. Stanley Kubrick was no exception, and his feature debut, the 1952 war drama Fear and Desire, later became a source of great embarrassment for the legendary director – so much so that he allegedly attempted to buy and destroy every copy.
Based on the script by Howard Sackler, a classmate of Kubrick's who would later become a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, the film is set in an unnamed fictitious war between two countries. The protagonists are four men who find themselves six miles behind enemy lines when their plane crashes. They comprise Lt. Corby (Kenneth Harp), a pilot who commands three soldiers – Sergeant Mac (Frank Silvera), Private Sydney (Paul Mazursky), and Private Fletcher (Steve Coit). Their initial plan to sneak back to their lines by building an improvised raft and going down the river becomes complicated when they encounter a native girl (Virginia Leith) whom they decide to take prisoner. As they contemplate what to do with her, another issue arises when Mac discovers a house containing the enemy general and gets an idea to assassinate him, creating a diversion that would allow the rest of the men to escape by a plane parked nearby.
Made on a very low budget, financed mostly thanks to Kubrick's wealthy uncle, Fear and Desire fits the mould of a low-budget independent exploitation film, like those that began to challenge the monopoly of the Classic Hollywood major studios at the time. The plot is relatively simple, and many other directors would have turned it into a straightforward war action film about soldiers lost behind enemy lines. However, Sackler had different ideas, filling the film with pretentious philosophical dialogues and plenty of even more pretentious internal monologues.
While some actors deliver solid performances, such as Frank Silvera – the best-known among the cast – others give rather hammy performances, like Paul Mazursky, a future director who tries too hard to portray an innocent youth driven to insanity by the violence of war and the sexual allure of his female captive. Even some casting choices by the end – the enemy general and his aide are played by Harp and Coit, actors who also portray their killers – seem pretentious and give Fear and Desire the characteristics of an art film.
Initially, this did not seem to hurt the film much; it was first shown at the Venice Film Festival, where it was probably interpreted as an anti-war piece, inspired by the still-ongoing carnage in Korea. It was later distributed by Joseph Burstyn, an independent distributor specialising in bringing art and foreign films to US cinemas. The distribution ended with Burstyn’s death, and Kubrick did not make much money from the endeavour. He nevertheless learned some lessons from the experience that would help him continue his career with his next film, Killer's Kiss, two years later.
For today's viewers, the only reason to watch Fear and Desire is because it is a Kubrick film. Despite its many flaws, Kubrick – who was not only the director but also the producer, cinematographer, and editor – displays considerable skill. The film is well-lit, well-edited, and there are sparks of the greatness that would soon become apparent, including the first instance of the famous "Kubrick stare." However, inevitable comparisons with his later classics are so damning that Kubrick's alleged decision to suppress his feature debut makes at least a bit of sense.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
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