Michael Herr (the author of the Vietnam memoir “Dispaches”, still one of the greatest books I’ve read in my entire life) delivers an account of his decades-long friendship with Stanley Kubrick that’s as compelling as it is brief. Those who mostly want to learn about Kubrick’s filmography, the controversies surrounding him, the making of his various classics, or even Herr’s own hand in them (he worked with Kubrick on the screenplay for “Full Metal Jacket” and held late night conversations on the phone about various others) should better look elsewhere – there are much more comprehensive, detailed, and thoroughly researched biographies of Kubrick. However, Herr’s stands out by mostly focusing on Kubrick’s private character: chapters are devoted less to his filmmaking and more to his passions, quirks, views, quips, the things Kubrick struggled with and those he loved. You won’t learn much about how he handled the technicalities of which movie, but you’ll realize that even though he’s so often painted as a reclusive sociopath, and not entirely without reason, Kubrick was at least as much a caring husband and father, a lifelong teenager and voracious learner, someone disgusted by the glamorous pretense of Hollywood but enthralled with history, philosophy, the infinite chess games of film editing, composing, and distribution.
There is one chapter towards the end where Herr’s otherwise effortless, elegant, and deeply sensitive prose turns briefly tacky: After having delivered his accounts of his various encounters, struggles, and precious memories with Kubrick over the years, and having sagely pointed out that, even though he started off as an unpaid film journalist in New York, he could never cut it as a critic, Herr nevertheless ill-advisedly launches into a lengthy defense of Kubrick’s last and possibly most controversial movie “Eyes Wide Shut”, summarizing that somnambulant film’s plot and alleged symbolic genius for pages on end. It sounds, irritatingly, like Kubrick’s friend is able to take criticism a lot less maturely than the man himself, and leaves scratches in Herr’s appearance of impartiality that this book could have well done without.
Nevertheless, “Kubrick” is a well-written, refreshing, frequently touching, and as frequently humorous elegy on a director oftentimes counted among the greatest in cinema history. Finishing it, you can’t help but wish that you’d known, spent hours on the phone with, and been talked into shittily paid screenwriting jobs by Stanley Kubrick yourself.

An emotional, first-hand account from a friend and co-contributor of Kubrick's on his process and way of thinking culminating as an ode to the memory of a late friend.

A remembrance far more than a biography proper, and much the better for it really. Though there's certainly objectivity present to the extent possible, Herr is excused the typical expectations of such, and yet still ends up far shier of hagiography than do many biographers. Numerous Kubrick quotes are included--we get a true sense of his humor and the cadence of our voice, helped by Herr, who writes a wonderful paragraph describing the qualities of his speaking style--but his voice is not the only distinct one present; Herr's authorial voice is wonderful on its own, and the two coalesce into something rather warming and comforting, not like a conversation exactly, but like a recounting of a conversation. At its best, Kubrick is the story of a specific personal relationship between two men drawn with great specificity, the more famous of whom was so often incorrectly judged to be cold and impersonal. Coming as this book did shortly after Kubrick's death, the informal reminiscences have the feel of those that tend to arise after the death of a loved one, fond memories and not-so-fond ones that can nevertheless become pleasing to recall just as a reminder of the life force that was; one quibble with the way Herr presents some of his anecdotes is that it can be unclear at times if certain anecdotes were experienced by him or told to him directly by Kubrick, or instead sourced from elsewhere. The last quarter of a book is devoted to the posthumous release of Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, and while I concur with Herr, in general and in many of the specifics, in his designation of the film as a masterpiece, after so much delightful time spent in the company of Kubrick and Herr as people, treated for the most part distinctly from Kubrick's finished work, I would have preferred more of that to the unadulterated opinions of Herr, however correct I might deem them.

i enjoyed hearing an informal, first person account of someone who worked close (well, close considering the man) with stan. however, the defense of eyes wide shut in the postscript left a bad taste in my mouth. it was based only on personal feeling and didnt offer any real insight. Herr's attempt actually backs up the detractors who only think kubrickphiles would like it... if you want a better perspective to begin to see the movie again this is more like it.

I brief look into Kubrick's interactions with his friend and screen writer mainly during the filming of Full Metal Jacket. It also includes and interesting chapter in which he defends Eyes Wide Shut from some the negative reviews and makes his own case for its brilliance.

Great views of a Master.

a quick read (it took me about two hours), but one of the more informative profiles of kubrick.

the man had full control on everything he did, very few directors ever get away with that kind of power. If he wanted an extra million to do the project, he didn't ask, he told the studios. Now that's power.

Written I suspect as a defense of his good friend Stanley Kubrick in light of character assassinations from critics who were drunk on the 'myth' of a megalomaniacal, reclusive, perfectionist director who was basically every cliche in the eccentric movie director playbook, and also as a response to the critical hammering Eyes Wide Shut received upon release, Michael Herr pens this affectionate memoir about his time with Kubrick.

He dispels many of the more over-the-top tales about Kubrick's eccentricity to get down to who he was: just a guy who really loved filmmaking. There's sweet, affectionate recalling of moments chatting to his friend over the phone (Kubrick had phone calls with people that ran on for hours, that one still rings true here) and about his jokes, his worries about money, his devil-may-care treatment of actors, monk-like discipline and restraint in lifestyle. Kubrick had it all, but he didn't want to make a big deal of it, so the entertainment press, hungry for stories on one of the world-famous directors, made up his choice for privacy into a monstrous tale of bizarre isolation and social anxiety, mixed in with your usual 'crazy genius' guff. Herr throws out the window the idea that Kubrick drove around with a helmet on his head. He did indeed have a fear of flying though, gained from when he observed air traffic controllers one day in the sixties.

Then the final portion of the book, once Herr has ruminated on his twenty-year friendship with Kubrick, is his reflection on the state of affairs surrounding the press's unsavoury reaction to Kubrick's death, and a brief analysis of what was missed by critics with Eyes Wide Shut. I especially found it interesting to read his personal reaction to the closing of Eyes Wide Shut, how the credits signified, for Herr at least, an end to a generation of filmmakers, from Ingmar Bergman to Hitchcock, the auteurs of the forties, fifties and sixties. The ones who were willing to experiment with film and throw themselves wholly into their work, unimpeded by studios.

While I don't agree that the film auteur is dead necessarily, this memoir was a beautiful send-off to one of the greatest filmmakers.

A brief, but in-depth, account of Stanley Kubrick from someone who actually knew him. This book does not discuss the meanings of his films, but the meaningful and artistically demanding eye behind the camera. A quick and rewarding read.

"En su libro Kubrick, Michael Herr descubre que los rumores eran ciertos: el autor de La naranja mecánica era humano. Solía divertirse con telecomedias, como Seinfeld o Los Simpsons, le encantaba el dinero y...
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Michael Herr slim yet thoughtful memoir of working with Kubrick Ultimately has him regarding his former collaborator with a fondness that Is based on mutual respect despite Stanley’s irritating need to get the upper hand.) Unlike Frederic Raphael’s more egocentric Remembrance, the partnership depicted here is Rooted in friendship as much as work. Sure, I wish it went deeper into full metal jacket stories but that may have derailed the focus.