Kubrick as Antihumanist: Essay Reassesses the Filmmaker's Legacy

A revised essay originally published in La Nave in September 2009 argues that Stanley Kubrick's cinema is fundamentally antihumanist, challenging the persistent label of misanthrope. The text, now republished by La Tempestad, contends that Kubrick, who died 27 years ago, thought through images in parallel with French antihumanist philosophers Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, and Jacques Lacan. It cites Gilles Deleuze's 1983 book La imagen-movimiento to position Kubrick alongside thinkers, and Alain Badiou's 2003 La ética to frame antihumanism as a violent reaction to the 1960s. The essay examines Kubrick's use of music, narration, and performance to create distancing effects, referencing films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). It notes Michael Herr's observation that critics complained Kubrick's films lacked prescribed emotions, and discusses Michael Haneke's view that A Clockwork Orange was a 'miscalculation' due to its stylized violence. The text also mentions Kubrick's withdrawal of the film from UK exhibition and his genre deconstruction, quoting Jaime Rosales on 'invisible transgression' and Rick Altman on genre. It concludes by defending Kubrick's antihumanism as a step toward cinematic autonomy, referencing 2001 and the AI project later realized by Steven Spielberg.