It is easy to look into the eyes of a motion picture and dissect it for its form, style, underlying meanings, and other characteristics that separate it from a film and a classic. There are concrete elements that can be found in all classics that make it such a powerful and remarkable work. One of these elements is undoubtedly the concept of the auteur theory. The Auteur theory is described as a filmmaker, usually a director, who exercises creative control over his or her works and has a strong personal style. Next to this definition should be the line “-for more help see Stanley Kubrick.” He exemplifies all the characteristics of not just a film director, but also a film auteur because of the intellect and genius that goes into each minute of each scene of each incredible film. Since it is impossible to describe all of the details of Kubrick’s auteur theory here, it will be my goal to touch on one of them, arguably the most important, and explore it. The one to which I will concern myself with now, is that of Kubrick’s brilliant portrayal of the dark side of human nature. Hey accurately portrays in all of his movies the common element of people having unscrupulous traits. He shows through all of his characters the evil strand of badness that is inside all of us just waiting to come out. It is debated that not even one of Kubrick’s many characters in any of his many films possesses redeemable qualities. That is, all characters display, or has hidden inside them, qualities that make them bad and immoral. And although some characters are more bad than good, there is a certain trait that makes them not a truly good person. In considering the “more good than bad people, This argument suggest to say that Kubrick is outwardly telling his audiences that all human nature is in essence bad and that goodness is only a mask of what truly lies underneath. These qualities can be exemplified through the examinat...
