Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made

Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made documents the director's decade-long preparation for an unrealized film about Napoleon Bonaparte. This oversized book presents Kubrick's complete archive of research, notes, and pre-production materials compiled between 1967-1971. The volume contains scripts, location scouting photographs, costume research, production budgets, and correspondence from the film's development period. Kubrick's handwritten annotations and editing marks appear throughout the primary materials, revealing his creative process and vision for the project. The collection includes Kubrick's cataloged reference library on Napoleon, featuring over 18,000 archival images and extensive historical documentation. Maps, military records, and period artwork demonstrate the scope of research undertaken for the planned epic. The book captures both the promise of Kubrick's ambitious vision and the challenges that ultimately prevented its realization. Through these materials emerges a portrait of artistic perfectionism and the complex relationship between historical accuracy and cinematic storytelling.

Readers appreciate the comprehensive collection of Kubrick's Napoleon research materials, production documents, and planning details. Multiple reviews highlight the value of seeing Kubrick's meticulous pre-production process through original materials and notes. Likes: - High quality reproductions of documents and photos - Insight into Kubrick's research methods and attention to detail - The book's unique format with removable document copies Dislikes: - Very high price point ($700-1000) - Large, unwieldy size makes it difficult to read/store - Some found the amount of detail overwhelming - A few noted paper quality issues in certain sections Ratings: Goodreads: 4.4/5 (23 ratings) Amazon: 4.8/5 (12 ratings) As one Amazon reviewer noted: "The detail and scope is staggering - every costume sketch, location photo, and production note shows why this would have been Kubrick's most ambitious film." Some readers mentioned the book works better as a museum piece or collector's item rather than a practical reading experience.

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🎬 Kubrick amassed over 17,000 location-scouting photographs and had his research team create a card index system of nearly 25,000 images chronicling Napoleon's life day by day. 📚 The book weighs approximately 23 pounds (10.5 kg) and comes in a custom-designed box containing 10 smaller books, each focusing on different aspects of the unmade film project. 🎭 Kubrick planned to use the Romanian army to film the battle scenes, having secured an agreement to employ up to 40,000 soldiers as extras. 👔 The director collected so many details about Napoleon's wardrobe that he knew the exact number of buttons on each of the emperor's uniforms at different stages of his life. 🎥 After the project was shelved, some of Kubrick's Napoleon research was later utilized in his 1975 film "Barry Lyndon," particularly regarding 18th-century lighting techniques and period costume details.