ABSTRACT
Two recurrent ideas in the vast and growing literature on Stanley Kubrick are that he was a director who never repeated himself and that he remained reticent about laying out his political views. Using the criteria in studies by Bechdel and Bleakley, this chapter shows that when it came to gender and race, Kubrick not only repeated himself throughout his work but he supported the hegemonic politics of a patriarchal value system. Women and black people are either absent (structured absences) or subordinate in his films. They are consistently depicted, dramatically, and socially in unequal patriarchal relations where they are compelled to assume the status of Other. They are often reduced to walk-ons or stereotypes such as the femme fatale or the magical negro. The author shows that power, especially the struggle for male dominance, is a river that rages through every film in his oeuvre, with a focus on Full Metal Jacket. It also argues that Kubrick in his terminal decade became aware of this issue and sought to make amends.
