Fear and Desire
About Fear and Desire
Four soldiers crash six miles behind enemy lines in a war the narration says is not any particular war. Lt. Corby (Kenneth Harp), Sgt. Mac (Frank Silvera), Sidney (Paul Mazursky), and Fletcher (Steve Coit) build a raft. They kill enemy soldiers for food and rifles, then tie a peasant girl (Virginia Leith) to a tree. Sidney, left to guard her, shoots her when she runs. Mac takes the raft alone to draw the guards; Corby and Fletcher kill the enemy general and fly out in a captured plane. They come back to the river and find the raft with Mac dying and Sidney out of his mind.
Cast & crew
More about Fear and Desire
Stanley Kubrick's first feature. He produced, directed, photographed, and edited. Howard Sackler wrote it. Gerald Fried composed the score. David Allen speaks the narration. The estimate had been $10,000; sound, effects, and music pushed the cost up. A crew of about fifteen. It played Venice on 18 August 1952 as Shape of Fear, in a side section, and opened in New York on 31 March 1953 through Joseph Burstyn.
Themes
Background
Made and released during the Korean War, the film refuses to name a country or a year. The narration says the enemies exist only if the audience calls them into being.
Making
Kubrick shot it in the San Gabriel Mountains with a handful of people and no studio. The overage on the $10,000 estimate went to sound, effects, and Fried's music.
Audiences
It failed to find an audience. Kubrick spent later years trying to keep it from being seen.
Look
Kubrick photographed it himself in the San Gabriel Mountains, with natural locations standing in for an unnamed front.
Music
Gerald Fried composed the score, one of the costs that pushed the budget past the $10,000 estimate.
Preservation
Kubrick tried to destroy the negative and remaining prints. Copies survived despite that.
Notes
- The Venice cut ran 70 minutes. The U.S. release was cut to 62.
- Kenneth Harp also plays the enemy general. Steve Coit also plays a captain.
- Paul Mazursky, later a director, plays Sidney.
- Kubrick later tried to have the negative burned and leftover prints destroyed. Through Warner Bros. he called it 'a bumbling amateur film exercise.'
- Burstyn's company folded after his death in November 1953.
- The opening narration says the forest and the war are 'outside history.'
Scenes
- Sidney unties the girl, she runs, and he shoots her.
- Corby and Fletcher kill the general and take his plane.
- The raft comes downriver with Mac dying and Sidney delirious.
Quotes
There is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor one that will be, but any war.