Fear and Desire

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Fear and Desire

1953

1h 8m

War

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

70%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

34%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Four soldiers must confront their fears and desires behind enemy lines.

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Steve Erickson

The Atlantic

02/22/2018

... Fear and Desire shows that Kubrick's polished vision didn't emerge from a void. He had to start out with a rough draft first.

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Tim Grierson

Village Voice

03/27/2012

Treat it like a wobbly, precocious demo from a 24-year-old with mighty aspirations, filled with hints of what he would become, and you'll be properly enthralled.

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Nick Schager

Slant Magazine

03/17/2012

For all its heavy-handed gloom and stylistic unevenness, Fear and Desire has a certain fierceness that's hard to shake.

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

04/01/2024

It’s a talky, eccentric little movie that no doubt would have puzzled but also intrigued anyone catching it on the bottom half of a double bill...

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

03/16/2024

2/4

The picture itself remains a Kubrick curio rather than an integral part of his filmography.

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Jeremy Carr

Vague Visages

11/16/2023

Fear and Desire is more than just a curio for the Kubrick completist. It is indeed a genuinely revealing work.

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Madam D

@Madam1948 Dec 8

Really bad film. Guess even Kubrick has to start somewhere, but -yuck- not here.

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gdavisloop f

Sep 7

Kubrick was right to pull this film. It looks like a 20-minute student film stretched to a feature, and even at 20 minutes it would be boring, and awful. Kubrick's next film, Killer's Kiss, was MUCH better. The two shorts included on the Kino Lorber disc are more interesting than the feature.

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Mark M

@Markmazurik Jul 20

Fear and Desire is a tedious, pretentious mess. Incoherent plot, forgettable characters, and heavy-handed symbolism make it a chore to watch. Avoid. 2 out of 10 🤙 from this guy.

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Stephen C

@bob25009 May 23

What the flying **** and bull****?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Tom F

Mar 2

As a first-time director’s low budget project, it is understandably clunky and unpleasant. Best viewed as a pupal stage in Kubrick’s development, with themes he would later explore.

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thiago s

@Thiagostone 10/27/2024

filme bacaninha, o roteiro é bacana, os personagens são meio fracos, as cenas de tiro ficou legal, mas teve uma cena quase perto do fim do filme, que o maluco estava no lado de fora da casa com uma espingarda, e ele atirou no cara que estava dentro de casa, através da janela, o cara que rebeceu o tiro caiu de um jeito engraçado. mas mesmo assim o filme é bacaninha.

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Synopsis

Four soldiers must confront their fears and desires behind enemy lines.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Screenwriter: Howard Sackler
Distributor: Joseph Burstyn Inc.
Production Co: Kubrick Family
Genre: War, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 31, 1953, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 23, 2017
Runtime: 1h 8m

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