Kubrick's Salad Days: The Seafarers

After a two-year break, Kubrick returned in 1953 with two films -- his first feature, Fear and Desire, and a short film he made for the salary alone -- The Seafarers. Made as an infomercial of sorts for the Seafarers union, it was Kubrick's first color film, and his only one until Spartacus, seven years later. Unfortunately, that's about all that can be said for this lifeless film. In Kubrick's defense -- how exciting can you make the Seafarers union look? Actually, Filmbrain did check out their website, for there was a brief moment when the wanderlust that had been so active in his youth returned for a few fleeting moments. (In just one short year you too could be working on a ship bound for [fill in dream country here]). The film opens with a stiff, somewhat creepy guy sitting behind a desk, reading quotes from a book about seafaring. Cue credits. Then we get nearly thirty minutes of information about the benefits of the union, which are pretty damn good if you must know! Visually, Kubrick clearly had a hard time making the union, its members, and their hall look interesting. There are some cool shots of punch card computers doing lord knows what, and some have said that the shots of the assignment board (picture on far right) resemble HAL's memory room in 2001, but that's a bit of a stretch. There is a lengthy tracking shot, but it's of the cafeteria -- seafarers eating franks and beans, and such. The quality is even worse than the two earlier films, and the 50th generation transfer makes everybody look like a burn victim. Other than the experience of seeing his first foray into color, there's little here for the average Kubrick fan. Next time: Kubrick directs his first feature -- Fear and Desire.

Comments

[girish]

The dark silhouette against a rigid grid--looks very cool.
kubrick certainly did have a great "eye".

[AP]

The Seafarers is now out on DVD. It's on sale at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Best Buy and many other outlets. The DVD has director audio commentary from Roger Avary and Keith Gordon as well as an interview with Kubrick's daughter.