Library Journal
"An in-depth biography about filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. In a conversational yet authoritative tone, the book delivers a vast amount of detail about every aspect of Kubrick’s career, from his formative days as a Look magazine photographer, his early cinematic missteps, and his documentary shorts, to the years he devoted to unrealized projects. An admiring look at a fascinating figure. Likely to be the definitive word on Kubrick for years to come."
Publishers Weekly
"An authoritative portrait of the director. Filled with striking behind-the-scenes stories and elevated by a keen understanding of Kubrick’s style, this is a biography as monumental as its subject."
Todd Field
Kolker and Abrams have broken new ground and achieved what many of us thought was impossible. That of supplying us with absolutely everything one could ever want to know about Stanley Kubrick.
Air Mail
The spine of Kubrick: An Odyssey is his journey from oddball independent, funded by a pharmacist uncle, to oddball studio maverick with 'complete total final annihilating artistic control' (his words). Stanley lives on, his dreamlike hold unbroken.
Kirkus Reviews
"Though Stanley Kubrick and his body of work have been well documented, this book adds considerably to our knowledge of both the man and his masterpieces. Kubrick left the world his remarkable, enduring films, and this volume pays homage to his considerable legacy. A welcome new biography of a cinematic genius."
The Telegraph
"[Kubrick: An Odyssey] aims to evaluate Kubrick in the round, weighing achievements against methods, and clearing away some of the apocryphal dead wood."
The Guardian
This thorough, detailed and fascinating biography should be commended for looking into areas of Kubrick’s personal and professional life that have never previously been discussed, as well as offering lucid critical commentary on his films, their themes and his reputation. Myths are debunked, and everyone from the Kubrick obsessive to the casual fan will be beguiled.
Town & Country
"In this wide-ranging new biography from Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams, Kubrick's life and work are explored through private documents and interviews with his friends and family to help tell the largely unknown story of a man whose work helped define our culture."
The Wall Street Journal
"The filmmaker emerges from this biography as a contradictory and enigmatic man. Fanlike in their deep respect for his work, the authors describe his perfectionism in relentless detail. The biography celebrates its subject as a man who lived his life 'in the service of making great art,' whose films are 'cinematic masterpieces."
The Times (London)
"Drawing on access to the Kubrick archive, Kolker and Abrams have unearthed some superb new facts about the director."
Town & Country
"In this wide-ranging new biography from Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams, Kubrick's life and work are explored through private documents and interviews with his friends and family to help tell the largely unknown story of a man whose work helped define our culture."
From the Publisher
Praise for Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film:
John Boorman
"Kubrick challenged everything, but I loved that about him...in his mind, a film came down to how it was filmed, the cinematic look of the film, and it's what separated him from other directors and film makers."
Christopher Schobert
"The book is an immaculately researched account of the film's creation."
Mike Segretto
"I'm not sure if it will spur Eyes Wide Shut haters to reevaluate the film, but Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film will give them some fresh insight into the seemingly impenetrable mind of Stanley Kubrick.
Whitlock & Pope
"With Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film, we finally have the great book this film deserves. Every chapter in this book is valuable to the Kubrick scholar or the casual cinephile; thoughtful yet readable throughout, it hits that golden spot of being a scholarly page-turner."
Peter Krämer
"Two leading Kubrick scholars have joined forces for this hugely impressive study of the filmmaker's final masterpiece. Examining the film from every conceivable angle, they offer unique insights into its form and themes—and also, more broadly, into Kubrick's working methods, his personality and his place in twentieth century culture.
MidCenturyCinema
"As recounted in a new book by Robert Kolker and Nathan Abrams—an essential resource for anyone interested in the film's development and production—Eyes Wide Shut was a project that Kubrick had been seriously contemplating for decades."
Vincent LoBrutto
"Through obsessive research and details within details worthy of the man they chronicle in Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of his Final Film, film scholars Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams prove decidedly that the last movie of a great film director not only sums up their career but defines and illuminates it with clarity. This is a must-read for admirers of Stanley Kubrick and his work and the cinema itself.
Matt Thorne
"Loved it. I thought I knew everything about Eyes Wide Shut but discovered much more. I think it's the most significant book on a single film since Stephen Bach's Final Cut."
Kirkus Reviews
2023-09-28
Though Stanley Kubrick and his body of work have been well documented, this book adds considerably to our knowledge of both the man and his masterpieces.
Kolker and Abrams, noted film scholars who previously collaborated on Eyes Wide Shut: Stanley Kubrick and the Making of His Final Film, examine all 13 of Kubrick's completed features, as well as many unfilmed projects, filling in the broad outlines of his life (1928-1999) based on interviews with family members and professional colleagues. The authors exhaustively catalog each film's planning, financing, production, editing, and critical and commercial reception. They highlight Kubrick's reimagining of such tried-and-true film genres as film noir (Killer's Kiss), heist films (The Killing), war movies (Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket), epics (Spartacus), love stories (Lolita), science fiction (2001: A Space Odyssey), costume dramas (Barry Lyndon), and horror (The Shining). Notably, the authors place these films in the context of their times: 2001 as the emblematic film of the Space Age, Dr. Strangelove as the ultimate Cold War paranoid fantasia, and A Clockwork Orange as symptomatic of the 1970s age of anxiety. Kolker and Abrams register salient themes and motifs throughout Kubrick's oeuvre, pointing out trademark visual cues such as symmetrical composition and geometric patterning. The authors are especially good at showing how Kubrick's "confluent interests—sound and image—laid the foundation for a career that married both into films of exceptional power.” For example, they describe how "The Blue Danube" waltz, "Also Sprach Zarathustra," and Ligeti's otherworldly compositions helped make 2001 “a concerto for film images and orchestra," as one critic noted. The authors’ consideration of Kubrick's personal life is less detailed, as perhaps befits this "famously private family man.” But Kubrick left the world his remarkable, enduring films, and this volume pays homage to his considerable legacy.
A welcome new biography of a cinematic genius.
