2001 - A Space Odyssey
by Stanley Kubrick
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Daniel Richter, Gary Lockwood, Keir Dullea, Leonard Rossiter, William SylvesterDirector: Stanley Kubrick
Cinematographer: Geoffrey Unsworth
Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Writer: Stanley Kubrick
Editor: Ray Lovejoy
Producer: Victor Lyndon
Writer: Arthur C. Clarke
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 141 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-06-12
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Original recording remastered; Widescreen; NTSC
Movie Reviews of 2001 - A Space Odyssey
Movie Review: Don't listen to the pseudo-intellectuals commenting on 2001
Summary: 5 Stars
And there are apparently many, or also many who are simply
too thick to understand anything about one of the greatest
films of all time. I can understand people being turned off
by its slower pace and lack of dialogue, the dating of a film from 1968, ultra space realism, (no silly Star Wars explosion noises in space!) and metaphysical abstraction (especially the final sequence Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite which is abstract as it is for reasons which I could write volumes on, and might someday, 2001 being my favorite film of all time). Anyone puzzled by what the monolith is, or represents, can find out some answers to these and other questions simply by cracking a few books (if anyone reads books anymore), namely Arthur C. Clarke's original novel 2001, and also the book covering the making of the film itself 2001: Filming the Future, and also the early paperback of The Making of Kubrick's 2001, if you can find a copy, it's a highly recommended collection of early reviews, commentaries, and material inspiring the film and novel that is simply indispensable to fully grasping the impact this film
had on release, and continues to impart to audiences today.
I first saw this film in theatrical reissue in the early
1970s, and my parents were correct that it would make an
enormous impression on me. I was anything but bored at
six years old seeing the film, and I understood it fairly
easily, even on a subconscious level. The HAL sequence
hit home the most as an early glimpse of artificial
intelligence (gone awry) so far ahead of its time, it's still astonishingly fresh. Without giving too much away to someone who has never seen this masterpiece, the monolith was intended
by Clarke and Kubrick as mainly a "tool" or conduit, both
a communications beacon, signal, intelligence booster (for the
pre-hominids at the Dawn of Man etc.) and when Bowman finds
the Jupiter monolith at the film's final sequence, something
of a "star gate" or wormhole (not a black hole since they
would having nothing to do with Bowman's journey, since nothing
escapes a black hole)left by the "aliens" or cosmic intelligence (some argues it's God, which is probably as valid an argument as any, even "aliens" as in reality Kubrick and Clarke posit in novel and film) to transport the eventually advanced mankind to another level of "being" and intelligence, or another level of evolution. The monolith is represented as a simple, mathematically "pure" construction, similar to Dr. Who's famous police call box time machine, its simple appearance belies its
unbelievable complexity. This is why Kubrick and Clarke
embodied the "calling card" of the "aliens" as the monolith,
as simple an object as you could imagine, yet it contains
the key, in this story, to mankind's ultimate evolution
and fate in the universe. Bowman's bizarre "transformation"
in the "hotel room" at film's end is merely a construct,
a "way station" the aliens use to cushion his psyche as
he undergoes a fast, aging, death and rebirth as the
"star child," essentially Bowman has become reborn and
is now pure consciousness, another level of intelligent
being. You could also say Dave Bowman's become a spirit or ghost, in one sense, it might be just as accurate a description....who knows? the point of this film is not to provide all the answers, you must think about it and find out some of its truths for yourself. This is the whole point of
doing this movie for Kubrick and Clarke. If the film
explained everything there would be no point in watching it.
The spacecraft The Discovery is not so named for nothing.
Bowman alone (sadly) makes the discovery of the universe,
of all lifetimes, and this is the crux of 2001 for me.
I can't understand why people also don't "get" why
the HAL sequence has the astronauts speaking so little
and so tersely, this is as realistic as you can get;
the Discovery Jupiter mission is a long one, most of the crew
spend it in cryosleep, before HAL murders them tragically later,
so it's boring until they get to Jupiter, this is why
Poole and Bowman seem so low-key. The mission is uneventful
until the point at which the film finds them hurtling towards Jupiter space, as HAL for various reasons explained more in the shoddy sequel 2010 (far inferior but somewhat entertaining), disintegrates before their eyes. Astronauts are trained to remain calm and collected even in the face of the most extreme
situations, as it could mean their lives if they panic.
This is reflected directly in Poole and Bowman's careful
reaction to HAL's increasing unreliability. There's no reason
for them to act over-emotionally. Bowman later almost loses
his temper in a moment of near-panic outside the ship
in his pod, having rescued the body of Poole,
and this is showing his panic, but also that he must
think of the mission and survival to get back in the ship
and dismantle HAL. I never understood why critics
or viewers thought negatively of this sequence, to me the
dialogue and action are exactly as I would imagine it
if it were happening in reality. Contrast this dialogue
and action to the panic and hysteria in a film like ALIEN,
which warrants such a reaction (being hunted down by a
ravenous alien creature twice your size warrants some
more emotion! such as fear and panic and flight), and
I think you'll see what I'm getting at here.
That's enough, go back and watch this marvelous
film a few more times and really stay with it and you'll
eventually "get" it. 2001 is also starting to remind me
more and more of Antonin Artaud's seminal book The Theatre and Its Double, he wanted a film and theater wherein the sound and visuals carried most of the story, since language is so full of
pitfalls and dishonesty of meaning. The fact that Kubrick
and Clarke tell this story mainly with the visuals and sound,
(and the remixed DVD 5.1 soundtrack is the best I've ever heard it) with an absolute minimum of dialogue, reflects Artaud's
theories directly, and I believe, most superbly. It is the
very concrete realization of this concept, especially the final
Jupiter and Beyond section of the film, which contains zero dialogue but explains the almost "unexplainable" in strictly sensory terms, sound and vision, no words! This is also directly reflected in Kubricks' flash cut edits to Bowmans' blinking
eye, taking in the sensory overload of his amazing journey
and transformation with no speech to interfere with it; how could he possibly speak at this point anyway? Words are inadequate, there was simply no other way to tell the finale of the story. Why have a stupid voiceover narration over the completely ineffable? And that's why 2001 is a masterpiece, but it may take some 50 viewings to figure it all out, and some may never figure
it out at all. But I believe they will be the poorer for
not making the attempt.
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