donartz

This is genuinely, and I'm not exaggerating, the worst film I have ever seen. Because of the seriousness of the topic, it can't be a The Room "so bad it's good" type of film. This horrible monstrosity is offensive to me as a film student and as a Kosovo Albanian simultaneously. I simply wish it had never been made.

I would consider this film a decent effort, it's just put down when you compare it to all the masterpieces this director has produced. What really dissapoints, as in "Fear and Desire", but slightly less here, is the acting; especially the performances of the female supporting character and the antagonist. The former's abilities are questionable at best, and it makes her relationship with the lead character(a focal point of the film) cringeworthy in certain moments. The plot has flaws. The motives of the antagonist are not well substanced. It's perplexing seeing an antagonist like that in a Kubrick film in comparision with the very well-written characters in his later masterpieces.

Visually this film is really good and it foreshadows Kubrick's ingenuity that we see in his later works. Everything camera-related in the film is done perfectly. If you took the movie scene by scene and didn't really bat an eye on the plot it would be a great movie.

A definite improvment over "Fear and Desire". If it had better actors it would rank close behind some of his greats. As it is, it is a good experience of Stanley Kubrick's early filmography; visually captivating, nothing more or less.