This Iconic Stanley Kubrick Scene Took 148 Takes to Get Right

Like many writers and directors who rise to the top of their profession, Stanley Kubrick was, no doubt, a perfectionist, and it's hard to disagree with that statement based on evidence throughout the auteur's career. The last six films he directed took sequentially longer before he deemed them ready for release. There's a three-year gap between 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey and 1971's A Clockwork Orange. Barry Lyndon was next in 1975, a four-year gap, then another five before 1980's The Shining. Full Metal Jacket stayed in production for 7 years, and his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, wouldn't be released until 1999, an astonishing twelve years between projects (and that was released posthumously, suggesting it could have been even longer).