The best of the rest: The feature films of Stanley Kubrick, ranked

Everyone has to start somewhere, and on a list of greatness, if your first film is your "worst," then that says quite a bit about what's to come. "Fear and Desire" is the first of Kubrick's three war films, and while it's more abstract (and short at 60 minutes) than his other offerings, it's here where Kubrick's eye is very evident.

Kubrick's final film isn't as "bad" as his first, but "Eyes Wide Shut" feels more like a vanity project for the then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman than the last effort from a lion of cinema. While many of the concepts about this tawdry tale of sex as communication between a couple clearly at the end of their rope land as something interesting, the troublesome results were probably best left on the page.

Kubrick's second film is the first of two to take a deep dive into film noir. "Killer's Kiss" is a seedy fable about a fatal love triangle between a boxer, a dancer and her mean-spirited boss. What's remarkable about the film is not so much the story as it is the level of growth Kubrick shows as a director, just two years removed from his first film. Utilizing light and shadow to great effect, the film is worth watching just for the cinematography alone.

Critics and audiences were divided by Kubrick's adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's popular novel about a middle-aged man obsessed with a young girl. Given production codes of the time, Kubrick was unable to take a deep dive into some of the more sensitive areas of the novel, so instead he injected a level of black comedy that didn't settle well on screen. In retrospect, the ideas behind the adaptation are interesting and worth another look.

Kubrick, as a director, was interested in war stories, but in each film, he displayed a strong anti-war stance. His second war film, "Paths of Glory," focuses on the horrors of WWI, both on the battlefield and in the courtroom as a group of soldiers are being court-martialed for cowardice, only for the audience to learn an even larger problem exists just under the surface.

In "Barry Lyndon," Kubrick takes a bit of a turn in this tale of a dim Irish rogue (Ryan O'Neal) who swaggers his way through this hybrid adventure/chamber drama. Audiences and critics, on the whole, weren't all that impressed upon release, but what makes "Barry Lyndon" so notable as a film is the pristine cinematography by John Alcott, who treats each scene like an oil painting, befitting the 18th century aesthetic in which the film was set.

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Kubrick's take on Stephen King's classic horror novel "The Shining" drew ire from fans and the author himself, but Kubrick's deviation from the source material is ultimately its saving grace, as he allows his claustrophobic vision of the creeping dread of madness shine through a top-rate performance from Jack Nicholson as he stalks through each scene with a visage of evil that still haunts to this day.

Kubrick's one real shot at an epic during the waning days of the studio era, "Spartacus" is certainly more about Kirk Douglas than Kubrick, but even as a so-called "director for hire," Kubrick still gets enough of himself, albeit the young version of him, into this bold and brazen saga of a slave who would fight his way into becoming a legend. 

Much of "A Clockwork Orange," based on Anthony Burgess' dystopian tale of youth gone wild and the draconian methods used to rehabilitate them, feels precisely like the social satire it is, but when packaging in a memorable performance from Malcolm McDowell as the sadistic yet charming Alex DeLarge, the material rises above its source and becomes a classic in its own right. 

The last of Kubrick's anti-war opuses, "Full Metal Jacket" is really two films sewed into one, with the opening half taking place during Marine Corps boot camp, where we are introduced to Private Joker (Matthew Modine), a happy-go-lucky malcontent who finds himself caught between a relentless drill instructor (R. Lee Ermey) and an oafish recruit driven to the brink (Vincent D'Onofrio). When the second half of the film opens in Vietnam, days before the infamous Tet Offensive, Joker is literally and figuratively miles away from his days as a private, but his sardonic humor even under pressure underlies Kubrick's ultimate message about war: it not only sucks, it blows.

As black comedies go, "Dr. Strangelove" broke the mold with a film that is both urgent and hilarious. "Dr. Strangelove," as a film, is also every bit as urgent in today's climate as it was upon release. Featuring multiple performances from Peter Sellers, and one singularly strong performance from George C. Scott, the key to the success of this film is the slow-burn of the story, which, if told straight, would be horrifying enough on its own, but delivered with Kubrick's flair for the sardonic, it holds up a mirror to a world obsessed with the devastating power of the atom. A mirror that still reflects to this day.

So let's toss up what might be a controversial hot take of the moment: "The Killing" is Stanley Kubrick's best film. No, it's not number one on our list, but this noir tale of a heist gone sideways is practically flawless in every way. Only his third real film, Kubrick is fully mature as a filmmaker, employing a cinematographer for the first time, and the work feels like a concert of hardboiled greatness. Sterling Hayden leads an ensemble cast of characters that honestly are unlike any he's had since, and Hayden, for his part as a down on his luck veteran who sees a solid chance at a big score by robbing a race track may be Kubrick's best leading man. The final scene of "The Killing" hits like a ton of bricks, knocking the wind out of viewers until they can't wait to see it again.

While anti-climatic to put the obvious at number one on our list, what can never be overstated is the impact "2001: A Space Odyssey" had and continues to have on film and filmmakers. While "Odyssey" isn't Kubrick's best film (that distinction goes to "The Killing") it is, by far his greatest. This is the film that launched countless imitations, parodies and everything in between, but Kubrick's adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's hard sci-fi novel is a masterpiece of sight, sound and concept, even if it's a bit boring on first view. If we're being honest, the complicated perfection of "Odyssey" is the reason lists like these exist.