Collection of seven films from celebrated director Stanley Kubrick. In
'Lolita' (1962), an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial
novel, Humbert Humbert is a fastidious, middle-aged British novelist who
is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture.
When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze he
soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter. In
fact, his passion for the girl becomes so overwhelming that he is
willing to accept Charlotte's intimations of marriage just in order to
be close to her daughter. Humbert then plots to spend more and more time
alone with Lolita, but his pursuit of his obsession soon becomes such
that it leaves all their lives damaged. In '2001 - a Space Odyssey'
(1968), at the dawn of mankind, a tribe of ape-like beings are visited
on Earth by a large black monolith. Thousands of years later, in the
year 2001, scientist Dr Heywood Floyd discovers a similar black monolith
on the moon, which then emits a signal aimed at the planet Jupiter. A
year later, astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole are en route to
Jupiter to investigate the signal's destination and purpose. However,
their mission comes under threat when the ship's computer, HAL,
seemingly develops a malfunction. Kubrick's controversial crime drama 'A
Clockwork Orange' (1971) supposedly triggered copycat violence on its
initial release and, as a result, the director withdrew the film from
circulation in Britain, keeping it suppressed right up to his death in
1999. The film follows sadistic punk Alex as he takes his gang on a rape
and murder spree, showing absolutely no mercy to any of his victims.
When he is eventually captured, the authorities subject him to a series
of experiments designed to rid him of his violent tendencies. 'Barry
Lyndon' (1975) is based on the novel 'The Luck of Barry Lyndon' by
William M. Thackeray. Redmond Barry is an Irish country boy who falls in
love with a well-to-do local girl and is subsequently tricked by her
family into leaving town. Disillusioned with love, the brokenhearted
youngster then embarks on an adventure which sees him serve in the Seven
Years' War, earn a living as a professional gambler, and eventually
move into the higher ranks of society when he meets and marries the
beautiful Lady Lyndon. However, despite the luck which has brought him
such riches, it is this final move, the cynical choice to marry for
social advancement rather than love, which brings about Barry's
downfall. In 'The Shining' (1980), adapted from the Stephen King
shocker, Jack Torrance takes a job as an off-season caretaker at the
remote Overlook Hotel in Colorado in an attempt to seek solitude to
write a novel. Eager to get started, Jack disregards warnings that the
isolation drove a former caretaker mad, and moves into the massive
resort with his wife Wendy and son Danny. But Danny has a supernatural
gift which makes him aware of an evil lurking in the hotel, and sure
enough, as winter storms cut the hotel off from civilisation, Jack
gradually becomes murderously insane. 'Full Metal Jacket' (1987) details
the dehumanizing effect of military combat, as experienced by a bunch
of Vietnam conscripts under the training of the sadistic Gunnery
Sergeant Hartman. The second half of the film follows one of the
recruits, Joker, onto the battlefield as he is thrown into the war at
the height of the Tet offensive. Finally, in 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999),
Kubrick's last film, Alice returns home from a party one night and
confesses that she still has fantasies about a sailor she once knew. Her
husband William is shocked and jealous, and when he is later called
away on business, he finds it impossible to return home, embarking
instead on a journey into an illicit underworld of prostitution and
sexual debauchery. (description courtesy of bluray.com)