2023: A Stanley Kubrick Boxset Oddity

Monday is movies. And TV. Today it's the DVD boxset. A rarity in this day and age. Sadly...

This weekend I purchased The Stanley Kubrick Collection on DVD. Not exactly the most 2023 thing to do. But, hey, I told you all last year that I was back collecting DVDs. (I’m also buying CDs again too - so, lol!)

There are all sorts of stories circulating about physical media making a comeback; about how it’s actually a good idea to get your collection back, or never let it go in the first place.

And, sure, you can laugh. Or you might lament. You either have no room now for DVDs, or, more likely, you don’t have a working DVD player. You have your subscriptions to more streaming sites than you can keep up with (again, I’m guilty of that as well). But there’s a doomsday feel to re-collecting the physical format/s. Eventually someone is going to pull the plug on all streaming and it’s going to be premium-price only. Right?

That doesn’t really worry me so much - I don’t quite believe that. And if it is ever an eventual truth I’ll have the collection of films and music on old-fashioned formats and the machinery to make it all work, so it won’t matter to me anyway.

But, really, my interest in collecting (again) is nostalgia.

I have a bunch of reasons for wanting the Kubrick Collection:

I’ve never seen Barry Lyndon, and owning a copy is a good way to finally get to it (it’s a long film too, so maybe I’ll watch it over two or three attempts). The Shining is close to my all-time favourite film. A Clockwork Orange is something I want to watch with my son (when he’s ready). Full Metal Jacket is also close to my all-time favourite film, and certainly one of the ones that had the biggest impact on me. It’s the only way you can collect up Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (the feature length documentary). I was lucky enough to be in America when the Stanley Kubrick Exhibition was touring. It was a perfect way to eclebrate my 40th birthday. Heck, 2001: A Space Odyssey is even the first movie I ever saw on the big screen after getting high. And I’ve only ever seen Eyes Wide Shut once or twice, and I’ve always been a defender of it. It’s probably time to watch it again - and see if it stands up at all.

So there are loads of nostalgia stories.

When it comes down to it - I had to have this for one simple Nostalgia Story: I used to own it.

I bought this boxset when it was released in 2001.

Stanley Kubrick was the first director I fell for - long before I was into Marty or Tarantino or Woody Allen or any of the other filmmakers that have had enormous impact on the way I see the world. Stanley Kubrick was the one. And the story of Stanley Kubrick, or the stories about him, is part of that magic. It’s a little like Fleetwood Mac. The music is one thing. But it’s the story about the band and the making of the music, and the madness that nearly consumed them…that’s the full story.

I felt ready to have the full story of Kubrick again. These are most of his best and most representative and well-known films in one box. The earlier ones…some of them are great too. I’ve seen them all, and some of them I prefer to some of the films in this box. But this is the one I owned. And so it’s the one I want to own again.

Nostalgia like this is silly. Yes. But it’s also really lovely.

I had enough money to justify the purchase. So I’m not hurting anyone.

I’ll watch these movies. And love them all over again. Or maybe I’ll find my opinion has changed completely. But I’m open to that. I couldn’t locate them all on a streaming service. And even if I could, it wouldn’t mean anything. I can’t explain it beyond that. Planning a movie night on the big TV is all about having the film in the collection, taking it from the shelf, deciding it’s the time to sit with it once again, maybe introducing someone to it in the process.

These are memories you can’t stream.

This is the magic of physical media.