Stanley Kubrick's list of films may be short for a director whose career spanned almost fifty years, but he packed a hell of a punch into nearly everything he did.

For most of his last forty years, he stuck to projects that meant something to him. He refused to play the I'll-do-this-to-get-money-to-do-something-else game. When a studio signed Kubrick, that was it. He called all the shots, from production time to final cuts.

He had the kind of patience a Trappist monk would envy. It was nothing for Kubrick to go several years between projects.

Kubrick made twelve feature films, including the soon-to-be-released Eyes Wide Shut. Eyes Wide Shut took two years to shoot and may one day take its place with the greatest of Kubrick's work. And considering that Kubrick already has three movies in the American Film Institute's Top 100 list, that's mighty impressive.

1. Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

One of the greatest anti-war satires ever filmed. Peter Sellers plays three roles (including the President of the Unites States), George C. Scott plays the President's key military adviser, and Slim Pickens gets the ride of his life as he bronco-busts the bomb to blow up "Roosia." At one point, Sellers (as the demonically Telleresque Dr. Strangelove) starts ad-libbing so hysterically that actors turn their backs on the camera so we won't see them laugh. No matter how many times you watch it, you always seem to catch a new joke. Kubrick is a master of subtle humor—such as playing patriotic music beneath scenes of Americans preparing to drop the bomb that would ultimately destroy the entire world, or one soldier's concern that if another soldier is not telling the truth about the need to break into a vending machine for phone money, damages will have to be paid to The Coca-Cola Co. of America. This movie is a true masterpiece.

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Released in 1968—a year before humans walked on the moon—this movie is much more than a simple space epic. In fact, it explores what happens when humans become so dependent upon machines that they can no longer function without them. Think that's far-fetched? Try staying away from the Internet for a few days. And HAL 9000, the computer that leads the mutiny, has a calm, irritating voice—"I'm sorry, Dave, I can't open the pod"—that will crawl inside your skull and stay there. It was "followed" by a sequel in 1984 (not by Kubrick). The book, too, has been sequeled twice, the latest one just recently hitting stores. This is a slow story, if you're expecting a lot of shootouts with x-wing fighters. But if you're looking for art, this is a great place to start.

3. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

This vision of futuristic hell features a bravura performance by Malcolm McDowell. As Alex, the leader of the Droogs, he's a brutal thief who, while jailed for rape and murder, agrees to allow scientists to disconnect his ability to cause violence—even in his own defense. At the center of this horror-show, of course, is the vital question of free choice—including the right to choose wrongly. When we no longer have that ability, Kubrick suggests, we become mechanized and thereby horribly diminished. Set up another glass of molocco plus, right right.

4. Full Metal Jacket (1987)

The satire of Dr. Strangelove's Cold War gives way here to the brutality of Vietnam. From the culture shock of boot camp—brutal sons of bitches breaking individual spirit in order to build killing machines—to the actual horrors of war, this is a torturous film to watch. For anyone with a romanticized view of warfare, this is the movie that'll forever change your perception. Not for the faint of heart.

5. The Shining (1980)

The most controversial Kubrick adaptation, at least from a literary point of view. Stephen King the novelist, Stanley Kubrick the film director: two different artists, two different media, two different results. Kubrick gets an over-the-top performance from wacky Jack Nicholson, and Shelley Duvall freaks out quite well. Those long corridors are hypnotic, and you're never sure where anything leads in this movie. The lady in the bathtub made me drop my popcorn the first time I saw it. Chilling, even to skeptics and King purists.

6. Lolita (1962)

Kubrick slipped past the censors by dropping some of the lust-filled obsessions that are the very heart of the story. But James Mason is terrific as the middle-aged professor who finds himself falling for the teenage girl. Shelley Winters turns in the performance of a lifetime as the sex-starved mother, and Peter Sellers is quirky as the drama teacher under Lolita's spell. And Sue Lyon truly gave the performance of a career as Lolita (she wound her way down to Alligator by 1980).

7. Spartacus (1960)

Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis star in this amazing sword-and-sandal epic. Thanks to restored footage, it can finally take its place among the best ever. (In the restored version, Anthony Hopkins dubbed in Laurence Olivier's lines.) Douglas plays the title role, a slave who leads his fellow slaves in rebellion. Consider the movie in its historical context with the Civil Rights movement and its power increases. Peter Ustinov won a best supporting Academy Award.

8. Paths of Glory (1957)

Douglas again. This time, he's a decent Army officer caught up in his own moral war in the middle of the First World War. The movie's worth is proven by the tracking shot that follows Douglas through the trenches as his men prepare for battle. The court battles that follow and the final outcome are a searing indictment of war itself. One of the harder of Kubrick's movies to find since few video stores go out of their way to promote quality black-and-white movies.

9. Barry Lyndon (1975)

Ever the technical innovator, Kubrick developed a camera to shoot in the reduced interior light of the 1700s. Beautiful, lush and seemingly stagnant, time slows down until at last we are moving at the speed of William Makepeace Thackery's original novel. Some claim Kubrick was at his best setting his movies in the future, but this film, Spartacus and Paths of Glory prove he was just as at home in the past. Initially panned as being tamer than his previous works, it deserves to be reevaluated.

10. The Killing (1956)

This is the movie that first showcased Kubrick's talent. Sort of Dick Francis meets Elmore Leonard, it's a case study of a racetrack heist and is full of eccentric characters, including Elisah Cook's performance as a milquetoast in love with his tramp of a wife. Kubrick adapted the script from Lionel White's novel but wisely let pulp fiction writer Jim Thompson supply the snappy dialogue. If you can find it—and that's no small task—it's well worth checking out.

11. Killer's Kiss (1955)

Shot for a buck twenty-five plus a pastrami sandwich, this was Kubrick's chance to break away from shooting magazine layouts. It's the story of a down-and-out boxer striking up a romance with a taxi driver against the slums of New York. Kubrick directed, produced, co-wrote and did the photography as well. Another one that's tough to find, but you'll spot a few similarities to another boxer's love story that made a lot more money for someone else. (Yo!)