Why read The Wolf at the Door?

Book cover of The Wolf at the Door: Stanley Kubrick, History, and the Holocaust

Book description

The Wolf at the Door explores the remarkable formal and substantive patterns of cinematic discourse on Germany and the Holocaust in Stanley Kubrick’s films. It is the first book on Kubrick to place his cinema into the full context of his life and times – his Jewish past, early years…

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American history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Wolf at the Door as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Nathan Abrams

Author

I like this book because it is controversial – it suggests that Stanley Kubrick always wanted to make a film about the Holocaust but never did, so the film he made that ended up being about the Holocaust was The Shining.

While I don’t always agree with its conclusions, the research and analysis are first-rate, in-depth, detailed, and penetrating. It also uses a lot of archival research, which still tends to be rare in academic writing about film. I would love to see more books about film and Hollywood like this.

From Nathan's list on The best fiction and nonfiction books about movie directors.