It's difficult to rate this film because of the poor bootleg quality. Nevertheless, it was a wise decision of Kubrick to "kill" this movie.

65.375

More interesting as a bit of insight in Kubrick's learning process than anything else. It's pretty bad in most aspects, especially the horrid acting. The cinematography is the best part, and even it has some terrible moments, but there's also some good ones, and underneath it all one does get the sense there could have been a good film underneath it all. Not that it makes the experience any more enjoyable.

It's worth watching to see the early incarnations of shots that would later be fully realized in Dr. Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket, but yeah, it's pretty bad.

Um, I don't know. It's not a great movie, especially if you compare it to the other works of Mr. Kubrick, but I'm glad I watched it. Some interesting ideas and maybe a couple good scenes but overall just alright. Nice cinematography though.

It's a big idea and ambitious movie, made with no budget and by a very amateur Kubrick. There's that desire to make the best and most meaningful movie ever and even an early keen eye for camerawork, but the writing, acting and editing is a disaster. There's a good reason why he tried to delete this one from history.

There are a few glimmers of Kubrick's photographic talent, but the writing is godawful. Really, really overwrought, just trying SO HARD to be profound, while attempting to disguise his ambition in crappy clichés. Even when it's not clichéd or ambitious, it's simply crap writing. The performances are horrible too, but you can hardly blame them. The plot is a lot of ho-hum war stuff that doesn't hang together well at all, and again strives for some sense of importance that it can't live up to.

Foi mal kubrick.

I think Kubrick said it best when he called this a "bumbling amateur film exercise." His audacity shows through with some interesting ideas, but the execution just isn't very good. The dialogue is horribly written and pretentious (especially the General's musings near the end), the acting isn't any better, and the dubbing is bad. There are a couple neat shots scattered throughout, though.

About as good as its title. Like a really bad Twilight Zone episode (the one with William Windom in the Salvation Army donation box, say). Filled with unnecessary and hammy closeups, like a silent movie. The lieut speaks like a narrator even when he isn't narrating. The funniest part was the montage where they break into the shack to kill everybody and eat their dinner; and then one of the characters cuts short the lieut's rambling VO! Would've been better had it been given some specific venue.

There is no mistaking that Fear and Desire is a bad movie, but at the same time, you can't help but love it. It has a ton of cheesy lines, it has bad acting. One of the only good things about this movie is the cinematography which is not all that great anyway. It is as if a new person sprouted out of this and started fresh with Killer's Kiss and went on to be one of the greatest directors in film. It's great seeing this film, especially if your a crazy Kubrick fan. If you can find it, watch it.

Kubrick has described this as amateur hour so I expected it going in. It's really terrible. I don't buy into the notion that a director's first film is a film where they are learning the medium and thus I should give them a pass. And when someone says, "wow, this is a first film!?" I lol and move on. Look at the directorial debut collection, so many great films there. First films are often times one of the best cause studios aren't fucking with the director, this is certainly not the case here.

Early Kubrick is not great, but his intentions are clearly there for everyone to view. An interesting movie, in many ways; not just on its own merit, but as a study of Kubrick himself. But shit.

Interesting, taking into consideration, that it was just the start for one of the greatest directors ever. It looks like a piece of work of unexperiensed student but every Kubrick fan has to see it to know that there is no limits for perfection.