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This personally is my favorite film ever, and I hear a lot of people bashing it, mostly non-Sci-Fi fans really, but still. I want to know what everyone's opinion is on this classic movie...and novel too if you want to add that.
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-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
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The movie was good ... but honestly, I've never been as enthralled with Kubrick's work as others. I really liked the set design -- the opening sequence, where the one fella' runs up and then down the circular corridor really struck me as damn cool. Never read the novel.
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Technically he was running both Up and Down, since the entire circular set was truely spinning, and he was merely running in place at the bottom while it rotated around him. This kind of thing was also used to show the Stewardess on the Pan Am shuttle going upside down to reach another compartment.
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I saw 2001 projected in Cinerama during its original run at the Cooper Theatre in Minneapolis in 1969 (or whenever it was). Unless you've seen 2001 on a big wide screen like that, you really haven't seen it. Watching 2001 in pan and scan on a tiny TV screen with a tinny mono TV speaker is sort of boring, because a lot of it is just little white blobs moving around. Seeing it on an enormous screen with theatre sound is a completely immersive, transforming experience, especially if you saw it when you were very young. The special effects, even when blown up that large, are completely believable. The movie puts you into space.
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
It is also my favourite film. I first saw it in 1978, at some sort of 10th-anniversary screeing; my Dad & Uncle took me, and it scared me quite a lot at the time (well, I was only eight. . .).
Since then I've seen it countless times on video, and once more on the big screen, at the Tyneside Film Festival back in '92 or '93. I don't actually OWN a copy of it at all (about 5 years ago MGM did a range of classics on VHS, available in Widescreen and Pan'n'Scan; well, one of the series wasn't available in W/S, guess which?); If I ever get a DVD player, maybe it'll be time.
What I do won is two copies of the novel, including a first edition; the making-of book, and an original film poster (the Belgian version - "2001 L'Odyss�e de L'Espace / Een Ruimteodyssee").
The movie was revolutionary not only in the plot, the way it was film, and the background music is truly amazing.
A pop-quiz for you guys, name the background music right when Dave was reborn in space, which is the very famous scence when he was reborn as a baby in space with the sun rising in the background (who wrote it, what's the title, which orchestra played it, and who's conducting the orchestra).
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
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I can't remember the movie's music too well, but I remember that at least two classical works were used. One was Richard Strauss's "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and Johann Strauss's "On the Beautiful Blue Danube." I also want to say that one of Khachaturyan's ballets was used as well, but I'm rather fuzzy on it all.
I saw the movie at home when I was in the ninth grade (or thereabouts). I rather enjoyed the movie. I had to watch the ending several times before I could really comprehend what I was seeing. A lot of people I know who've seen the movie tell me the same thing. Later that year, I got to read the book for an English project. I really enjoyed Clarke's work. The movie was fabulously done, but the book was by far even more outstanding.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
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You mean the "Worlds of 2001" book, Vogon? I would love to have that, except I can't find it anywhere.
I personally have 3 copies of the film: 1985 MGM/UA VHS Cassette (Widescreen) 1999 WB Stanley Kubrick Collection VHS (Widescreen) 1999 WB Stanley Kubrick Collection DVD (Widescreen)
And of course I also have 2010: The Year We Make Contact on DVD.
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
posted
I can't remember what the book is called right now, and I'm not gonna go fumbling around downstairs trying to find it. I'll dig it out tomorrow. What I do remember is, I think there have been two books about it, and I have one. . . There's also ACC's "Lost Worlds of 2001" book which talks about the creative process and has many rejected drafts and plot points.
The music that plays at the end is the same piece that features throughout, Richard Wagner's Also Sprach Zarathustra. I also have the soundtrack album downstairs, I'll find it tomorrow as well.
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It is "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss.
The version on the movie is played by Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert Von Karajan recorded in 1959.
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
posted
Excellent film. Definitely one of the most innovative films ever made. This week in San Francisco they are showing a restored 70mm print. I will most definitely be in attendance...
-------------------- "Nah. The 9th chevron is for changing the ringtone from "grindy-grindy chonk-chonk" to the theme tune to dallas." -Reverend42
Registered: Sep 2000
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EdipisReks
Ex-Member
posted
i wish that i had been in town when it was shown at the local art theater on jan 1st, 2001 at midnight. a friend of mine has a huge wide screen HDTV and a $15k sound system, and watching it on that was a revelation compared to the 13" in my bedroom. great, great movie
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The book I have is imaginatively entitled 2001: Filming the Future by Piers Bizony (Aurum Press, 1994).
As regards the soundtrack, there are only about half a dozen pieces used:-
Richard Wagner, Also Sprach Zarathustra (Karl Bohm, Berlin Philharmonic) - used during the "Earthrise" sequence; Moonwatcher learning how to use tools; and at the end
Gyorgy Ligeti, Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra (Francis Travi, Bavarian Radio Orchestra) - All appearances of the monolith: on prehistoric Earth, on the Moon, and in Jupiter's orbit
Johann Strauss the Younger, The Blue Danube (Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic) - scenes in Earth orbit, and a reprise at the end when the Star Child appears in Earth orbit
In addition, you can now get Alex North's original, incomplete score for the movie as rejected by Kubrick. But I wouldn't bother. It's boring, standard oompah-oompah music you'd find in any music throughout the 40's, 50's or 60's (before Lalo Schifrin and Jerry Goldsmith gave us scores that were then copied throughout the 70's). The music, most of it for the prehistoric sequences, could be put into any other film (or even a Star Trek - TOS - fight sequence) without sounding strange.
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Certianly one of the best films ever made, and absolutely one of my favourites. But the book is essential reading, especially for those who didn't quite grasp the movie - particularly the ending. 2010 is great too, 2061 not so great, but its still an entertaining read.
-------------------- "To the Enterprise and the Stargazer. Old girlfriends we'll never meet again." - Scotty
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