Fear and Desire

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Fear and Desire
Directed by	Stanley Kubrick
Produced by	Stanley Kubrick
Written by	Howard Sackler
Starring	Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky
Distributed by	Joseph Burstyn
Release date(s)	31 March 1953
Running time	72 min.
Language	English
Budget	$20,000
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IMDb profile

Fear and Desire (1953) is a film by Stanley Kubrick about a team of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in a fictional war. It was Kubrick's first feature, and he did most of the work on the film, including cinematography and editing. A good deal of the film's funding was provided by Kubrick's uncle, a wealthy pharmacist.

Despite the limited budget, and lack of experience from the cast and crew, the film garnered some respectable reviews as it went through the arthouse circuit in New York, many acknowledging the young director's potential. As well as being Kubrick's first feature, the film is also notable for being the film debut of Paul Mazursky, eventually better known as a director.

Highly sought after by Kubrick fans and movie aficionados, the director dismissed the film as an amateur project, later buying up as many prints as possible. His attempts to suppress the work were not entirely successful, with reportedly two remaining prints currently being held at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Also, many bootleg versions have sprung up, and distribution is increasing with the rise of DVD-Rs.

Although there is a limited amount that has been written on the film, some authors have given the film more attention than usual. Paulo Cherchi Usai has written an excellent essay for Image, the official journal of the George Eastman House. For books which give a fair amount of attention to Fear and Desire, see Norman Kagan's The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick, James Naremore's On Kubrick and Jason Sperb's The Kubrick Facade.