Fear and Desire, 1953.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Starring Frank Silvera, Paul Mazursky, Kenneth Harp, Steve Coit, and Virginia Leith.
SYNOPSIS:
Kino Lorber has issued Stanley Kubrick’s debut, Fear and Desire, on Blu-ray before, but this time they’ve commissioned a 4K restoration of the film, along with the presentation of the long-lost original version that has an additional nine minutes of footage. You also get two new commentary tracks, one for each version, along with newly restored copies of three of Kubrick’s early short films.
How does one judge the first movie made by someone with the stature of Stanley Kubrick? The director didn’t make many movies during his life, but his early years were a fertile period, starting with 1953’s Fear and Desire.
Also notable as the debut of Paul Mazursky, Fear and Desire uses just 71 minutes to tell the story of four soldiers shot down behind enemy lines. They must figure out a way to return to safety while dealing with enemy planes overhead, a nearby house full of soldiers and a general, and a young woman who may or may not be willing to help them.
The war these men are fighting in is nameless, and their uniforms are a hodgepodge meant to not evoke any particular time period. Even the planes overhead are small passenger craft that could exist even today.
Kenneth Harp is Lt. Corby, the leader of the group and a guy who has a lot of deep thoughts running through his head via voice-over. Mazursky plays Private Sidney, who begins to crack under the pressure of the situation, and Steve Coit is the dependable Private Fletcher.
And Frank Silvera, who was just beginning a long career as a character actor, is Sergeant Mac, a no-nonsense guy who doesn’t mind putting his life on the line if it means he can create a distraction enabling the others to make their way out of the precarious situation.
The script by Howard Sackler, who was also embarking on a long, storied career during his early days with Kubrick, sometimes veers into recursive “War is hell and what’s the point?” voice-overs, but for the most part, it keeps the story moving along as the four men argue about the best course of action.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll also notice something odd about the enemy general and his second in command, which lends the story a dreamlike quality. Like many of Kubrick’s later movies, Fear and Desire can easily leave a viewer pondering what they’ve seen as the end credits appear on the screen.
This isn’t the movie’s first appearance on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber, but this time, the company is serving it up with a 4K restoration (yes, there’s also a 4K Ultra HD version available) and has also included Kubrick’s original cut of the film. He sliced it down to 62 minutes not long after it was released, excising much of the philosophical voice-over to make it more palatable to mainstream audiences.
Fear and Desire pretty much disappeared after its original brief theatrical run, and during his lifetime, Kubrick did everything he could to dissuade people from seeking it out. It entered the public domain in the 1990s, however, enabling Kino Lorber to present it to Kubrick fans so they can decide how they feel about it.
The company has also included 4K restorations of three short films Kubrick also made during the 1950s: Day of the Fight (1951), about a middleweight boxing match; Flying Padre (1951), which chronicles two days in the life of a Catholic priest why flies his own plane between rural towns to hold services; and The Seafarers (1953), showing seafaring men at work in a documentary shot for the Seafarers International Union.
In addition, Kino Lorber commissioned a pair of new commentary tracks for the disc, one for each version of the film. Film historian Eddy Von Mueller takes on the 71-minute so-called “premiere cut” while film historian and screenwriter Gary Gerani talks aver the 62-minute version.
As you’d imagine, both of them have plenty to say about the film, discussing everything from its place in Kubrick’s career to their thoughts on the symbolism found in it. Given the fact that World War II had ended only several years earlier and the Korean War was happening when Fear and Desire was made, it’s easy to see how Kubrick wanted to offer his own thoughts on war, initiating ideas that he would shape to much better use over thirty years later in Full Metal Jacket.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
Originally published March 15, 2024. Updated April 22, 2024.
