"...it's always painful to see a great artist belittled by fools, simply because of their mean, confused, negative conjectures, misconception layered upon misconception, awesomely committed to misconception."

An essential read for admirers of the man.

More of a pamphlet than a book, but that doesn't belittle its content.

Worth reading for any Kubrick enthusiast - if only to confirm suspicions that he wasn't a genuine recluse, did have many friends and often met with them.

Herr provides a series of annecodates and tales that all go towards a portrait of Kubrick as a driven film maker as well as a thoughtful family man and pet owner.

Dispels the bitter aftertaste of the Frederick Raphael alternative - all copies of which should be burnt on a bonfire.

Sweet.

Great insight into Stanley Kubrick the man and the artist by his friend and collaborator, Michael Herr. It's too short and the last chapter on Eyes Wide Shut seems thrown together, but it's still worthwhile reading for the Kubrick enthusiast.

Essentially an extended obituary, or a fine collection of anecdotes from the friend and collaborator of a cinema legend. It offers interesting insights into the manners of a mysterious man shrouded in myth for decades and seeks to debunk many of them - or at least the more negative ones.

A short read, easily doable in an evening sitting (alas, I found myself opening it as I was drifting off for the three evenings I read it). Full of interesting behind-the-scenes details from a few of his later films, as Kubrick and Herr were acquainted in the later half of the former’s life, as well as more personal quotes that give a general sense of how the many lived his life and what interested him when not talking about film.

Read it if you’re a film or Kubrick fan and want some inspiration or simply to peep through a keyhole into his world.

I came across this book today and found I'd read half of it before leaving the store (it's less than 100 pages). Herr's writing is light and informal as he recounts his years as a friend and collaborator of Stanley Kubrick's, providing a rare insight into the true personality of the filmmaker.

More of an extended essay than a biography, this book makes an excellent companion piece to Stanley Kubrick: Interviews for anyone who wants to understand the brilliant, funny, and sometimes contentious nature of the man.

"They say Kubrick had no personal life, but that's ridiculous. It would be more correct to say that he had no professional life, since everything he did was personally done." Lo scrittore di Dispacci e collaboratore, assieme ad Hasford, alla sceneggiatura di Full Metal Jacket, racconta la sua amicizia decennale con Kubrick in un libro sincero e, contrariamente all'operazione di Frederic Raphael, senza autocompiacimenti. Nel capitolo dedicato a Eyes Wide Shut, acutamente recensito, Herr svela la proposta fattagli da Kubrick per migliorare i dialoghi del film e per scrivere un articolo ufficiale sul backstage del film per la rivista Vanity Fair, in modo da sfatare i pettegolezzi sorti su Internet e sui quotidiani. Completano lo scritto alcune foto in bianco e nero di Kubrick, di cui una inedita dal set di Killer's Kiss, scattata da Alexander Singer.

More the defense of a friend than an analysis of the man, written very much in the aftermath of the poorly reviewed Eyes Wide Shut. Herr clearly loved Kubrick and did not take kindly to what he perceived as little more than grade school level name calling from Frederick Raphael in Eyes Wide Open. Reads like the long magazine piece that it was initially intended to be. Light and fleet on its feet, its concerns seem about a million miles from 2023. I wish there were a cheaper digital copy available.

Having been surprised at the size of this book when it arrived, I was first and foremost impressed by its concision - even though I'd read much of it excerpted or rehashed in parts of Taschen's more weighty Kubrick Archives, this was like barreling through those pages in a tenth of the time, missing none of the feeling of "solving" the mystery of the man.

But it's in the "postscript" (which is actually about a quarter of the short page length) about Eyes Wide Shut, art phobia/masterpiece fatigue, and our present culture, where Herr transcends mere biography for me. Don't let the shortness of this one blind you to its vitality and importance - remember Killer's Kiss was only 67 minutes long.

A wee bit too hagiographic for my liking.

Finely observed and forgiving portrait of Stanley Kubrick by long-time friend and reluctant collaborator Michael Herr (of "Dispatches" fame.) Where others found hermetic conceit, Herr finds prickly charm. It's marred, though, by its last act of mercy: a long, lame defense of Kubrick's justly scarred 'Eyes Wide Shut.'