Stanley Kubrick, the relentless perfectionist who directed some of cinema’s greatest classics, was so sensitive to criticism that, in 1970, he threatened legal action to block publication of a book which dared to discuss flaws in his films.

The director of Spartacus and 2001: A Space Odyssey, warned the book’s author and publisher that he would fight “tooth and nail” and “use every legal means at his disposal” to prevent its publication – and he did.

Now, 25 years after his death, the book Kubrick did not want anyone to read is being published, more than half a century late.

The Magic Eye: The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick by Neil Hornick now has three prefaces reflecting its subject’s ruthlessness in trying to block publication and control his image.

Hornick, now 84, from London, said Kubrick’s legal threats had come as a shock: “I regard it as a painful episode.”

    • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      8 months ago

      I feel the same about aerosmith. When I actually read the lyrics to most of Aerosmiths songs, it became a question of how the fuck is Steven Tyler not in prison. Half their songs are about how much they want to have sex with minors.

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Blues Traveler answered your question with a whole song back in the 90s:

        It doesn’t matter what I say

        So long as I sing with inflection

        That makes you feel I’ll convey

        Some inner truth or vast reflection

        But I’ve said nothing so far

        And I can keep it up for as long as it takes

        And it don’t matter who you are

        If I’m doing my job, it’s your resolve that breaks

        Because the hook brings you back

        I ain’t tellin’ you no lie

        The hook brings you back

        On that you can rely

        There is something amiss

        I am being insincere

        In fact I don’t mean any of this

        Still my confession draws you near

        To confuse the issue I refer

        To familiar heroes from long ago

        No matter how much Peter loved her

        What made the Pan refuse to grow

        Was that hook brings you back

        I ain’t tellin’ you no lie

        The hook brings you back

        On that you can rely

        Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in, if you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn

        Make a desperate move or else you’ll win and then begin to see

        What you’re doing to me, this MTV is not for free

        It’s so PC it’s killing me, so desperately I sing to thee of love

        Sure, but also of rage and hate and pain and fear of self

        And I can’t keep these feelings on the shelf

        I’ve tried, well, no, in fact I lied

        Could be financial suicide, but I’ve got too much pride inside

        To hide or slide, I’ll do as I’ll decide and let it ride until I’ve died

        And only then shall I abide this tide

        Of catchy little tunes of hip three minute diddys

        I wanna bust all your balloons

        I wanna burn all your cities to the ground

        I’ve found I will not mess around unless I play then hey

        I will go on all day, hear what I say

        I have a prayer to pray that’s really all this was

        And when I’m feeling stuck and need a buck

        I don’t rely on luck because

        The hook brings you back

        I ain’t tellin’ you no lie

        The hook

        On that you can rely

        TL:DR dude went on a 3.5 minute rant about how no one listens to the lyrics, hit the top 10 in the US with said song, and was totally correct that no one would know what the song was even about.

        • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          I contend the only reason that song hit top 10 was because that Rin Tin Tin line. Everyone is a sucker for a good dog story.