Fear and Desire

Name: Fear and Desire
Genre: Thriller, Drama, War
Released: 1953-03-31
Duration: 62 min
Rating: 1.5
Cast: Stephen Coit, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky, David Allen, Frank Silvera

Trapped… 4 desperate men and a strange half-animal girl!

Rating

1.5 (1)

Release Date

3/31/1953

Runtime

62 mins

Genres

Thriller Drama War

Overview

After their airplane crashes behind enemy lines, four soldiers must survive and try to find a way back to their battalion. However, when they come across a local peasant girl the horrors of war quickly become apparent.

Status

Released

Original Language

English

Budget

$53,000

Revenue

Homepage

How It Feels

Read from this film's synopsis, keywords and credits, and used to work out what it sits beside.

A claustrophobic descent into the psychological toll of war, where four stranded soldiers confront both the hostile landscape and the moral disintegration that combat demands. Kubrick's debut is a visceral, deeply unsettling experience, intimate despite its spare runtime.

Mood

Dread-soakedTenseBleak

Themes

WarSurvivalComing apart

Tone

Bleak

Pacing

Slow-burn

Look

HandheldNaturalistic

Structure

Single location

Heads up

Graphic violenceSexual violence

Frank Silvera

Mac

Kenneth Harp

Lt. Corby / The General

Paul Mazursky

Sidney

Stephen Coit

Fletcher / The Captain

Virginia Leith

The Girl

David Allen

Narrator (voice)

Reviews

nicolascagegoons

Aug 27, 2026

i'll give kubrick some slack, like me, i didn't know anything about directing, editing or anyting of how films are actually made.
but like with my first film, im still critical.
i will say this has way better acting.
the editing is very weird tho.
(also watch my latest film <a href="https://boxd.it/b9kZWJ">boxd.it/b9kZWJ</a> )