While the film industry has its fair share of greatness, with consistent, innovative filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese, one filmmaker stands apart from the rest: Stanley Kubrick.

“He created more than just movies,” Spielberg said when asked about Kubrik. “He gave us complete environmental experiences that got more, not less, intense the more you watched his pictures. He copied no one, while all of us were scrambling to imitate him.”

Kubrick’s career as a filmmaker spanned nearly half of a century, beginning with black and white pictures like “The Killing”(1956) and “Paths of Glory”(1957) and ending with the novella-inspired “Eyes Wide Shut”(1999). In that span, he revolutionized the industry with his attention to detail that successfully produced, as Spielberg put it, “complete environmental experiences,” rather than “just movies.” The following three innovative films serve as clear justifications for Kubrick’s mastery filmmaking.

“2001: A Space Odyssey”

“2001: A Space Odyssey” is a 1968 sci-fi thriller that revolutionized the genre. The film follows a crew of two astronauts and an artificial intelligence, named HAL 9000, as they search for a mysterious monolith that’s been detected near Jupiter’s orbit. The monolith they seek, as the audience knows from the very beginning scene, has been influencing human evolution since the dawn of man. As they near their destination, it quickly becomes apparent to the astronauts that HAL, whose series of AI has a perfect track record, is malfunctioning and has become an adversarial entity on board the ship. The rest of the film follows a dynamic of man versus machine, an increasingly relevant theme today.

Aside from being the first major movie to tackle the subject of AI gone rogue, the visual effects of the film are groundbreaking, especially for 1968, a year before the moon landing. The first scenes in space are truly breathtaking. Just out of Earth’s epic shadow, we see a spacecraft cruising toward the moon with a smoothness akin to movies produced today. Once we’re taken inside the spacecraft, the audience is given multiple shots displaying the effects of zero gravity on board, from a floating pen to a flight attendant  walking upside down. Later, we watch as HAL 9000, who’s taken control of a small “pod,” hurls one of the astronauts into deep space. As he spins and descends away from the pod, his body evermore shrinks until entirely out of sight. Even now, these shots and their accordance to the physics of zero gravity are mind boggling.

Along with the special effects seen throughout, the intricate, pristine and fluorescently lit set design has been a model for future space travel films to follow.

“The Shining”

“The Shining” is a 1980 horror film that blazed the trail for future slow-burn horrors. It follows a struggling writer, Jack Torrance, and his family as they tend to the Overlook Hotel, which is later revealed to be haunted during the winter. Over the course of the preceding weeks, Jack begins unraveling while his son, Danny, begins to hone his gift of “shining,” which is essentially clairvoyance. Once Jack’s mental state degrades to a homicidal point, the rest of the film follows Danny and his mother as they attempt to flee the dangers, paranormal and otherwise, of the Overlook.

This film utilizes a mix of long shots and quick interruptions to the original shot, as well as startling background music, that compound the elements of horror and suspense throughout. In one instance, Danny is in front of the mirror asking his “imaginary” friend why he’s afraid of the Overlook, and we’re then given quick shots of an elevator flooding blood into the lobby, then a set of eerie looking twins, then Danny himself screaming. This sequence works to provide us with glimpses of the terror to come and sets off the story with a strong layer of unease, which, with an early assurance of frightening moments, means the film can pace itself.

In another instance, Danny is riding his tricycle through the corridors of the empty hotel and happens upon that same set of ghostly twins who, as they speak, switch between being alive and holding hands, to dead, on the floor and blood soaked. This leaves the audience with the sense that anything could be lurking around the corners of the Overlook, and, once stumbled upon, can rapidly become more horrifying.

As these horrifying and tense scenes unfold, a symphony of high-pitched strings plays at a speaker busting volume that ensures even those prone to averting their eyes can’t escape the film’s frightening moments. Although “The Shining” isn’t the first horror film to take its time, it outlined the formula for how to do so successfully.

“Full Metal Jacket” 

“Full Metal Jacket” is a 1987 Vietnam War film that follows Private Joker through the trials of basic training and the horrors of combat. What makes this film so incredible is its authenticity. Opposed to other war movies that focus on valor or sacrifice, this film puts the unnaturalness of prepping men to fight, kill and die in a far-off land on full display. For the scenes in basic training, Kubrick used R. Lee Ermey, a former marine drill sergeant, as the drill sergeant for Joker’s marine class. His performance, obviously based on his real-life experience, is phenomenal and offers the audience with a heap of quotable, over-the-top lines. Unlike other war films, “Full Metal Jacket,” through a sluggish marine cadet named Private Pyle, displays the full extent of the stress placed on people through basic training. Pyle, having had enough of the drill sergeant singling him out, kills him and then himself.

After Pyle’s murder-suicide, the film takes us to Joker, whose now a marine photographer, as he seeks “the shit,” or combat. This is when the film shows us the full depravity of war. While Joker makes his way across Vietnam, he meets a helicopter gunner who kills women and children indiscriminately, spectators insensibly gathered around a mass grave and his friend, Cowboy, from basic training. After finding Cowboy, he joins his squad as they patrol enemy territory. Along the way, they’re ambushed by an enemy sniper and multiple of the men, including Cowboy, are killed. Once they find the sniper and mortally wound them, the squad realizes it is a young Vietnamese girl, who then begs for a quicker death than her wound can provide. This film centers on the grotesque elements of fighting a war and offers, even to those who we witness die. There is no glorification of their efforts, which makes it not only accurate, but ahead of its time.

Ryan Long can be reached at [email protected].