Ranking All Of Director Stanley Kubrick’s Movies
“What are Stanley Kubrick’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Kubrick’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!
We took all of the movies directed by Stanley Kubrick and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.
The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.
Happy Viewing!
The Top Film’s Of Stanley Kubrick
16 ) The Seafarers
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 16
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 16
Acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick’s first film made in color. The documentary focuses on the benefits of membership to the Seafarers International Union.
15 ) Flying Padre
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 14
- Letterboxd User Score: 14
Two days in the life of priest Father Fred Stadtmuller whose New Mexico parish is so large he can only spread goodness and light among his flock with the aid of a mono-plane. The priestly pilot is seen dashing from one province to the next at the helm of his trusty Piper Club administering guidance (his plane, the Flying Padre) to unruly children, sermonizing at funerals and flying a sickly child and its mother to a hospital.
14 ) Fear and Desire
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 14
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 15
- Letterboxd User Score: 15
A ficticious war in an unidentified country provides the setting for this drama. Four soldiers survive the crash-landing of their plane to find themselves in a forest six miles behind enemy lines. The group, led by Lt. Corby, has a plan: They’ll make their way to a nearby river, build a raft, and then, under cover of night, float back to friendly territory. Their plans for getting back safely are sidetracked by a young woman who stumbles across them as they hide in the woods, and by the nearby presence of an enemy general who one member of the group is determined to kill.
13 ) Day of the Fight
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 14
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 13
- Letterboxd User Score: 13
American short subject documentary film in black-and-white, which is notable as the first picture directed by Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick financed the film himself, and it is based on an earlier photo feature he had done as a photographer for Look magazine in 1949. ‘Day of the Fight’ shows Irish-American middleweight boxer Walter Cartier during the height of his career, on the day of a fight with black middleweight Bobby James, which took place on April 17, 1950.
12 ) Killer’s Kiss
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 12
- Letterboxd User Score: 12
The film revolves around Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a 29 year old welterweight New York boxer in the end of his career, and his relationship with a dancer and her violent employer.
11 ) Eyes Wide Shut
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
- Metacritc Critic Score: 6
- Metacritic User Score: 7
- IMDB User Review Score: 11
- Letterboxd User Score: 9
After Dr. Bill Hartford’s wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings — and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
10 ) Lolita
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 5
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 10
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman’s teenaged daughter.
8 Tie ) The Killing
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 2
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 8
- Letterboxd User Score: 8
The Killing was Stanley Kubrick’s first film with a professional cast and the first time he achieved public recognition as the unconventional director he’s now known for. The story is of ex-prisoners who plan to set up a racetrack so they can live a life without monetary worries. One of the more exceptional films of the 1950’s.
8 Tie ) Spartacus
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 9
- Metacritc Critic Score: 2
- Metacritic User Score: 6
- IMDB User Review Score: 9
- Letterboxd User Score: 10
The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and return to their homes.
7 ) Barry Lyndon
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 2
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 7
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
In the Eighteenth Century, in a small village in Ireland, Redmond Barry is a young farm boy in love with his cousin Nora Brady. When Nora engages to the British Captain John Quin, Barry challenges him for a duel of pistols. He wins and escapes to Dublin, but is robbed on the road. Without any other alternative, Barry joins the British Army to fight in the Seven Years War.
6 ) Full Metal Jacket
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- Metacritc Critic Score: 5
- Metacritic User Score: 5
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 7
A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the U.S.-Vietnam War has on his fellow recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting in Hue.
5 ) A Clockwork Orange
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
- Metacritc Critic Score: 4
- Metacritic User Score: 4
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 5
Demonic gang-leader Alex goes on the spree of rape, mugging and murder with his pack of “droogs”. But he’s a boy who also likes Beethoven’s Ninth and a bit of “the old in-out, in-out”. He later finds himself at the mercy of the state and its brainwashing experiment designed to take violence off the streets.
4 ) Paths of Glory
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
- Metacritc Critic Score: 8
- Metacritic User Score: 8
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
During World War I, commanding officer General Broulard orders his subordinate, General Mireau, to attack a German trench position, offering a promotion as an incentive. Though the mission is foolhardy to the point of suicide, Mireau commands his own subordinate, Colonel Dax, to plan the attack. When it ends in disaster, General Mireau demands the court-martial of three random soldiers in order to save face.
3 ) The Shining
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
- Metacritc Critic Score: 7
- Metacritic User Score: 1
- IMDB User Review Score: 2
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren’t prepared for the madness that lurks within.
2 ) 2001: A Space Odyssey
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
- Metacritc Critic Score: 3
- Metacritic User Score: 3
- IMDB User Review Score: 4
- Letterboxd User Score: 1
Humanity finds a mysterious object buried beneath the lunar surface and sets off to find its origins with the help of HAL 9000, the world’s most advanced super computer.
1 ) Dr. Strangelove
Review Website Ranks:
- Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
- Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
- Metacritc Critic Score: 1
- Metacritic User Score: 2
- IMDB User Review Score: 1
- Letterboxd User Score: 2
After the insane General Jack D. Ripper initiates a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, a war room full of politicians, generals and a Russian diplomat all frantically try to stop the nuclear strike…
Stanley Kubrick’s Best Movies
Stanley Kubrick Review Website Filmography Rankings
| Film | RT Critic | RT User | MC Critic | MC User | IMDB | Letterboxd | Overal Rank |
| Dr. Strangelove | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2001: A Space Odyssey | 6 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| The Shining | 10 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Paths of Glory | 6 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| A Clockwork Orange | 9 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| Full Metal Jacket | 8 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 6 |
| Barry Lyndon | 2 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| The Killing | 2 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Spartacus | 4 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 8 |
| Lolita | 5 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Eyes Wide Shut | 13 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 11 |
| Killer’s Kiss | 11 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Day of the Fight | 14 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
| Fear and Desire | 12 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 15 | 15 | 14 |
| Flying Padre | 14 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 14 | 15 |
| The Seafarers | 14 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 15 | 16 | 16 |
