Les marins

This is The first Coloured Short/Short film done by Mr. Stanley Kubrick , it talks about seafarers and their benifets and how it's like being one of those Seafarers, this dosent feel like a really something you would watch it feels like a school project because it's a documentary but since Mr. Stanley Kubrick has directed this i wanted to see what was his first movies/short film were like

the documentary aspect of this movie is good , the narration is very good and probably the best thing about this movie , while this movie does not have high ratings i say it wasn't as bad as people say it certinaly wasn't something revolutionary but in Kubrick's eyes this was what he did 6.5/10.

Kubrick's first color in the third season, right, than Lolita also used color early, but this is not a commercial advertising campaign, itself thought that this advertising director culture will only be produced in most of the domestic writer-director students, I did not think that the library is also such a way to go over, some of the footage is also quite good to make people feel that none of them are like a real record. Some of the shots are pretty good and don't feel like a real documentary. The character talking to the camera is kind of breaking the fourth wall... It's the performance that's a bit cloying, just for that look that's cringeworthy!

This is considered, at least by IMDb, as Stanley Kubrick's "first feature made in color" and it was long thought lost. Well, first, it isn't a feature film but just a dreadfully boring promotional video for the Seafarer's Union and the narration makes Jack Webb's delivery on "Dragnet" seem emotional and off-the-cuff in comparison!! Now the awfulness of this film should NOT be held against Kubrick. Sure, it's dull, uninspired and stilted, but he was a young man who was hopeful of becoming a professional director one day and was dirt poor--so poor that he had to start at the bottom...and this is certainly the bottom! For a more fair idea of his potential, try watching his real first features--KILLER'S KISS and THE KILLING--two exceptionally well made low-budget films that proved the man could make a lot with nothing.

Anyone who sees brilliance in this film is a fanatic and is not to be trusted! This film should have stayed lost, if you ask me! Don't say I didn't warn you!

Seafarers, The (1953)

** (out of 4)

Overly long and dreadfully boring promotional film for the Seafarers Union, which basically tries to teach people why they should join. This is historically interesting only because it's Stanely Kubrick's first film in color. The rest is pure boredom and it's no wonder Kubrick doesn't want this film seeing the light of day.

Day of the Fight (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Kubrick's second short shows us a day in the life of a middle-weight boxer as he prepares for a fight. Even with the boring narration, this film here moves a lot better and the fight scene is rather interesting because it's shown complete as it happened. You can spot Kubrick in a few scenes with his camera.

Flying Padre (1951)

** (out of 4)

Stanley Kubrick's first film is a documentary about a priest in New Mexico who needs a plane to keep up with all his people. This is a really boring and flat film even with its 9 minute running time. The priest really isn't that interesting and the narration is flat and stiff. God knows better things were to follow from Kubrick.

As soon as this short film ended I wanted to sign a Union Card and join The Seafarers International Union. Great benefits package by-the-way.. Produced for the SIU, Atlantic & Gulf Coast District, which is head-quartered in Sir Stanley's birthplace & then home, New York City.

Yes this is Sir Stanley's (not knighted yet & will never be, because he only lived in England for almost 40 yrs & is American born--for shame Gov's)), ANYHOW, its his first colour film, his second was Spartacus. Kubrick never actually wanted to do this film, in the first place, but he needed the money - that was the motivation for this film. As usual, it was not up to Sir Stanley's standards and is why it remained 'buried' for so long until it resurfaced in the early-80's--but only the VHS copy survives. I guess dee prints are somewhere in Sir Stanley's vault outside London? Anyhow, his first feature FEAR & DESIRE, suffers the same fate, no prints available, because in the early-80's, Kubrick took the film prints out of circulation, only two copies of F&D, survive - at George Eastman House archives (Rochester, NY); but those can't be screened publicly.

I love THE SEAFARERS, you see Kubrick's love of the camera showing through every grain of colour. The narration track is very traditional Kubrick, this is only his third film, and had only been making films for three years & a still- photographer for about 13 years at this point in 1953. He never went to film school, never actually finished high school (it bored him), and was self taught as a filmmaker by reading both Pudovkin's FILM THEORY & FILM ACTING.

Religiously attending MONA film screening in late forties (Jay Leyda, was a curator there), was all he needed, to propel him into dee film world and abandon photography - more-or-less!!!

This film was used by SIU as a membership-drive tool. They let workers know the benefits of organized labour and why the SIU in particular. The benefits package alone was worth the monthly union fee. Sir Stanley did a bang-up film here. The seafarers were the men & women that worked on the ships, and not to be confused with the longshore men. OK, now go out and get a copy for yourself!!! GO.....

Gio.