I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This one is from over 60 years ago and belongs to the very early years when Kubrick filmed short documentary features on seafarers or boxers. The center of this one is priest Fred Stadmueller and his activities in the parish and I wish I could even say that Kubrick just directed it and was forced to go with the terrible script. But no, he wrote it himself. Really hard to believe. In these eight minutes, the film quickly switches effortlessly from completely uninteresting to over-the-top re-enacted.The scene with the little girl and the bully boy was so bad it surely had MST 3000 potential. Of course, they lacked the balls to include a Kubrick film into their show, but it just wasn't a good sight at all. In any case, I'm fairly certain that this short film would have sunken completely into oblivion by now (where it belongs) if it wasn't for the famous director behind it. It's one to watch for Kubrick completionists and that's it.

Had Stanley Kubrick never gone on to become a famous director, three of his early films would never have been packaged together for sale on a DVD. That's because these films are cheap shorts made by an eager and unknown director--hardly works of art. They show none of the director's expert touches--they are just standard short films you might have seen in the early 1950s.THE FLYING PADRE is not a bad film nor can you really blame Kubrick for it not being all that interesting. It tells the story of a priest who covers a huge region in New Mexico by plane! It's from a long series of "Screenliner" shorts from RKO and were intended as filler when people went to the theater to see a feature. As such, this film is pretty typical of this style of film and nothing more.If you really want to see one of Kubrick's early seminal films, try KILLER'S KISS or THE KILLING.

Flying Padre (1951) ** (out of 4) Stanley Kubrick's first film is a documentary about a priest in New Mexico who needs a plane to keep up with all his people. This is a really boring and flat film even with its 9 minute running time. The priest really isn't that interesting and the narration is flat and stiff. God knows better things were to follow from Kubrick.Day of the Fight (1951) *** (out of 4) Kubrick's second short shows us a day in the life of a middle-weight boxer as he prepares for a fight. Even with the boring narration, this film here moves a lot better and the fight scene is rather interesting because it's shown complete as it happened. You can spot Kubrick in a few scenes with his camera.Seafarers, The (1953) ** (out of 4) Overly long and dreadfully boring promotional film for the Seafarers Union, which basically tries to teach people why they should join. This is historically interesting only because it's Stanely Kubrick's first film in color. The rest is pure boredom and it's no wonder Kubrick doesn't want this film seeing the light of day.

There are some very small moments where one might find something of interest in Flying Padre, a small view of a father in a small village farming community who acts as part-time keeper of the peace, and part-time flying enthusiast. But it is not, per-say, for being as a Stanley Kubrick film. It was his second documentary, funded very cheap for an even cheaper profit, but unfortunately seems to be caught in a bind. It would be one thing to get some kind of interview or closer look at this man, but in the profile the only really exciting bits are when he's up in the air (which does contain a few clever shots from right in the plane, ironic for the air-phobic Kubrick). There are staged scenes that are rather, well, silly, like when the Padre sorts out a matter between a little girl and boy. Is it cute, maybe, but it's not really interesting. Another problem, which may be for some more than others considering its very obscure stature, the quality of the picture is bad, and the amateurish style of the staging doesn't help matters. It would be one thing if, like in his last short doc the Seafarers, if there were some more marks to see of him as a filmmaker, or just in general interesting compositions. There isn't much of that here, only in the most minuet moments that pass by very quickly. In short, this is one that was done for hire, on the fly, and is not worth seeing unless you're, like me, a Kubrick die-hard.