The Complete Kubrick

[CriterionPhreak]

I just looked through all 30 discs and noticed that there are actually pretty substantial new supplements from the titles that already have 4K discs from other publishers, such as 2001, A Clockwork Orange, and The Shining. A few of these are vintage documentaries over an hour long. Criterion didn't just port existing extras over, but they also spent time looking for worthy new ones, knowing that the fans probably wouldn't be satisfied with the same old extras for such an expensive set. That is commendable. The disc that has A Life in Pictures also has new extras too. By "new," I mean not having been released on US home video before.

Even though we can find a lot of rare videos online, Criterion often manages to find stuff that can't be found on YouTube or anywhere else online. That's true for some of the aforementioned new extras (and many extras in other Criterion discs). Maybe that's why they spent the effort to find them -- you have to buy their discs to see them.

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

For any New Yorkers, The Museum of the Moving Image will be doing a full retrospective in conjunction with the release of this box set, most of which are on prints.

[mfunk9786]

For any New Yorkers, The Museum of the Moving Image will be doing a full retrospective in conjunction with the release of this box set, most of which are on prints.

Lotta people are gonna be unhappy about that color timing!

[agnamaracs]

The box is now listed as out of print on Criterion's website.

On the set's page, under "purchase options," it lists... absolutely nothing.

[therewillbeblus]

It's not out of print, it's just unavailable for purchase after the big sale. It'll come back in stock soon

[CriterionPhreak]

Here are the old and new extras on the discs, to the best of my knowledge after glancing through all 30 discs. Audio commentaries are on both 4K and Blu-ray discs, while other extras are only on the Blu-rays. As I said earlier, by "new," I mean never on US home video before, but I can't be sure. Many new extras are vintage programs, so there is a good chance that older home videos (VHS?) may have shown them.

Killer's Kiss and Early Films:
The 3 early films are new 4K restorations. One interview is a new extra, and one is old. Does not include audio commentary from Kino Lorber's 4K Bu-ray of Killer's Kiss.

The Killing:
Extras are carried over from the 2011 Criterion Blu-ray.

Paths of Glory:
Extras are carried over from the 2010 Criterion Blu-ray.

Spartacus:
Extras are carried over from the 2001 Criterion DVD.

Lolita:
New 4K restoration. All new extras, including Sue Lyon's screen tests.

Dr. Strangelove:
Extras are carried over from the 2016 Criterion Blu-ray.

2001: A Space Odyssey:
Has both old and new extras. Several, but not not all, extras from 2018 Warner 4K Blu-ray are carried over. New extras are 4 vintage documentaries and TV programs.

A Clockwork Orange:
Carries over 2 extras from past Warner releases, and adds 3 vintage documentaries and interviews.

Barry Lyndon:
Extras are carried over from the 2025 Criterion 4K Blu-ray.

The Shining:
The theatrical cut has the 4K restored Vivian Kubrick short doc, plus a new extra: 2013 doc Staircases to Nowhere. The international cut has 2 old extras and 5 new ones, mostly vintage programs.

Full Metal Jacket:
Has one old extra: Beyond Good and Evil featurette. New extras are 3 vintage docs.

Eyes Wide Shut:
Extras are carried over from the 2025 Criterion 4K Blu-ray.

Stand-alone Blu-ray supplement disc:
A Life in Pictures is an old extra. New extras are vintage interviews and the 2020 doc Kubrick by Kubrick.

[DimitriL]

The box is now listed as out of print on Criterion's website.

On the set's page, under "purchase options," it lists... absolutely nothing.

That’s pretty unusual for sure. They may simply have no hope of getting any more copies pressed with everyone else rushing to press holiday releases (including their all-important KPop release, currently an astonishing-for-Criterion #16 on Amazon), and are setting expectations accordingly. BN may be the only hope before the new year.

[CriterionPhreak]

Maybe not "out of print" per se, otherwise it would show that exact wording on the page, like here.

[CriterionPhreak]

Here is my unboxing video. I check out the packaging, the discs, and I also sample the disc content. I can't show film clips, of course, due to copyrights. So I show still frames whenever possible.

[CriterionPhreak]

I saw the international cut of The Shining for the first time on this set, and it definitely took some getting used to, because of the big chunk of footage that was removed. Some of the deletions were probably done to avoid repetitions, but some were not. Some deleted scenes have info (some of which seems crucial) that is only in those scenes. Unfortunately, we don't get much of an explanation of these removals from the international cut's audio commentary, which is otherwise an excellent track.

The family doctor's visit is completely gone, even though Anne Jackson, the actress who plays the doctor, is still shown in the closing credits. We lose all the info in her scene. We don't hear about Tony being Danny's imaginary friend, a fact we never learn later on. Crucially, we don't hear about Jack's past alcoholism nor Danny's injury, both of which are revealed only when Jack meets Lloyd the bartender.

The maze is only revealed when Wendy and Danny actually go inside it, not during Mr. Ullman's tour of the hotel. Hence, to those who have never watched The Shining, the presence of a maze is a surprise at that point, a feeling that is enhanced even more by the eerie music.

Right after "A Month Later," when Wendy serves breakfast in Jack's bedroom, we don't hear Jack say he has "deja vu" about having been in the hotel before. That bit of foreshadowing is gone.

We don't hear Jack refer to Wendy as "sperm bank" nor Lloyd say, "Women, can't live with them, can't live without them." These moments that would've made them more repugnant are gone.

Gone is also the moment when a seemingly possessed Danny saying, "Danny’s not here, Mrs. Torrance," as well as all the scenes leading up to it. The international cut bypasses showing a possessed Danny and gets straight to the scene where he writes "MURDER" on the door, quickly followed by Jack wielding an axe right outside that same door. In other words, when Danny is writing "MURDER," we are led to think that it is a "normal" Danny. This is quite problematic for me. Why would a "normal" Danny do such a weird thing?

When Hallorann travels to the Overlook, we don't see the last leg of his trip, so we don't hear him say on the phone, "[The Torrance family] are a bunch of unreliable assholes!"

There are probably a lot more little deletions here and there that I haven't mentioned.

[tenia]

Funnily enough, I'm used to the European version, and all the things you're talking about feel understandable enough from the European cut, and almost all the cuts are described in a way that makes me think these scenes were redundant.

[mfunk9786]

The excellent film critic and interviewer Nick Newman posted that he watched the international cut and found it was an improvement:

This led me to watch the 25-minutes-shorter international cut of The Shining (Kubrick's preterred version) which lacks the child-psychologist scene and is much better for it—
Jack's abuse is revelation instead of exposition, whole movie becomes more trapped in his horrible psyche.

Despite seeing the U.S. cut dozens and dozens of times since childhood, I think finally watching the international cut for the first time will need to be the first thing I do with the new box when it arrives.

[nicolas]

Getting the international cut in 4K is the biggest plus of the set for me. It’s the cut I’ve watched first and always preferred to the US version for the reason Newman stated and its more organic buildup of tension. I never got the impression that the film is incomplete either, which is hard to believe with 25 minutes “missing.” Looking forward to revisiting that cut after almost a decade.

[Tuppence]

Yes, there's no difficulty understanding any of the characters' backstories in the international cut. When I finally saw the US version for the first time, I was shocked by how redundant and borderline graceless a lot of the exposition within the extra material seemed (the child psychologist scene certainly, but also Jack's "deja vu" conversation during breakfast was particularly egregious). I find the film is much more concentrated and intense in the international version.

[Roger Ryan]

… I was shocked by how redundant and borderline graceless a lot of the exposition within the extra material seemed (the child psychologist scene certainly…

I’ve not seen the international cut yet, but my favorite moment in the film is when Kubrick holds on Wendy for an extended period as she makes excuses for Jack’s behavior in classic co-dependent fashion then cuts to the psychologist looking aghast but trying to keep her facial reaction neutral - the effect is darkly comic and always makes me laugh. I don’t know that I would enjoy the film as much without that scene.

[Stefan Andersson]

In-depth description, and some analysis, of scenes cut from the international version of The Shining:

POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN LINKED TEXTS:
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/films/cutshining.htm
https://www.kingwiki.de/index.php/Shini ... ittbericht (German language)

Movie-censorship.com and Schnittberichte.com also have detailed pages. Both sites are down and the moment.

[CriterionPhreak]

I got a freeze-up during playback of the international cut of The Shining, at around the 45-minute point when Jack is on the floor, with Wendy consoling him after he wakes up from a nightmare. I had to skip to the next chapter to continue the playback, which was fine the rest of the way. There was no visible damage on the disc surface. My Sony and Panasonic 4K players both showed the same problem. But my computer 4K Blu-ray drive could scan the disc from beginning to end with no problems. I'm still pondering a return request. This is one of three discs that exist only in this set -- the other two are the discs with the new restorations of the 3 early short films and Lolita, and both 4K discs played fine, thankfully. The Shining 4K discs are also triple-layer (BD-100), which, as we know, is more prone to playback issues. Except The Killing, Paths of Glory, and Dr. Strangelove, all 4K discs in the set are triple-layer.

Regarding redundancies in the US cut of The Shining, I feel that repeating plot points is not always a bad thing. I've seen it done in good films and old classic films. Sometimes the re-iteration shows us a different perspective, as in the case when Wendy recalls Jack's past alcoholism and Danny's injury. We get her side of the story, and we see how seemingly unconcerned she is and how shocked the doctor is. That is important information too, completely different from the way Jack tells the story later.

[hearthesilence]

I may have posted this before, but I saw both cuts years ago when I wasn't really a fan of this film - I thought the international cut would be more palatable because (at the time) the U.S. cut felt too much like a slog. However, I've since grown to love the film and prefer the U.S. cut because what I've come to appreciate most is the atmosphere, not the plot - it's the strongest and most unique aspect of the film, and the strange, hypnotic pacing of the longer U.S. cut feeds into that.

[Lowry_Sam]

The Stand & The Shining were probably the 2 books that instilled an enthusiasm for reading as a kid. When I first saw the trailer for The Shining I was really struck by the opening elevator doors & thought "wow" that's really something. For some inexplicable reason I never saw it when it was released, particularly as King was my favorite writer until I discovered classic literature (at about the same time as the movie's release). When I finally saw it, I was completely underwhelmed & would have to say I found it to be Kubrick's most disappointing film, probably in part because I had such high expectations. Everything seemed to be technically proficient, yet for me it all fell flat & I couldn't believe I was bored with a Kubrick take on King. I've concluded that it's the material itself & that some things just don't lend themselves to film, particularly something where the mystery is so entangled with the act of reading (REDRUM) that it just can't translate visually. I haven't seen the European cut yet & maybe that'll help rectify things, but I'm noy optimistic.

[James Stock]

Now listed in the OOP section.

[Finch]

Now listed in the OOP section.

Didn't a rep from Criterion already confirm they'd have trouble restocking this before sometime in the first quarter of 2027?

[nicolas]

Interesting excerpts of an in-depth interview with release producer Michael Chaiken: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... st24468410

[Noiretirc]

Interesting excerpts of an in-depth interview with release producer Michael Chaiken: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.ph ... st24468410

Ha! That's a miniscule part of what is interesting in that thread!

(I need to be there.)