2001- A Space Odyssey

[TaylorTRoom]

The pacing may seems slow, because he was showing us things we hadn't seen before. For example, the sequence showing the spaceplane docking into the space station took about 3 minutes, in other words, about what it ought to take. Subsequent sci-fi movies (like Star Wars) accellerated the process to about 15 seconds, and that's now what we're used to.

The sequence where Bowman's pod is retrieving Poole's body- he could have sped it up with some jump-cutting in the editing. Instead, he decided to show it at the speed such a thing would have happened at. It gives the viewer an idea of how long it would take to find something in outer space, and in my opinion modulates the pace of the suspense.

 

[GatorHorn]

I can't argue with that. Again, nothing like it had been done before. The film didn't open to large audiences and didn't receive accliam right away. Yet once the film was viewed in the proper context and people were able to see the quality of the film from a visual perspective, it took off. It's now considered a landmark sci-fi flick and THE quintessential space exploration flick.

I also really dig Kubrick's choice in music. "Atmospheres" and Khachaturian's Gayane Ballet, for example. And then of course there's the chilling requiem that serves as the monolith's theme.

 

[DRAG69]

Taylor is correct.
It was the only flaw NASA could find.

This movie was also one of the first to use a lot of rear projection to show people moving through the windows of some of the spacecraft. Amazing stuff for it's time.

 

[TaylorTRoom]

I read that Kubrick actually commissioned an original score. While he was editing, he felt that he needed some music to help his creative process, so he used his own classical music collection. At some point, he decided that the original score wouldn't be any better than his own mix.

 

[Statalyzer]

Great and groundbreaking in many respects, but as far as entertainment value goes, I would have liked it more if I was on enough LSD for the ending to make sense.

 

[Scooter]

this photo doesn't do it justice, but one of the most breathtaking things i've seen in a movie comes from 2001. Early in the film there is a shot of a big cat looking up from the zebra it has killed. The reflection in its eyes and the background of the sky...

 

[BA93]

what was up with the giant baby attacking Earth at the end? that would scary seeing that taking up the entire sky.

 

[HornGrandioso]

Great post Scooter. There are so many haunting and unique images in the film.

Most important achievement in film-as-visual-art ever (in my opinion).

Another crazy aspect of the movie is how sparse the music is. No music over the mini-chapters "The Dawn of Man" or "Jupiter: To the Infinite and Beyond" (or whatever it says). Kubrick used silence as the ultimate suspense builder. Take the scene where Frank is dying in space and there is DEAD SILENCE. So creepy and terrifying.

I could talk about this movie for hours, and I usually will if anyone will listen.

 

[grammer_police]

In reply to:

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[Ampoliros]

I can't imagine the ending making a hell of a lot of sense to anyone who hadn't read the book. It was very cool in the book, but very confusing in the movie. If you didn't already know, I can't see many people making the deductive leap that Bowman had been reborn as the star child, the next leap in human evolution.

 

[Giovanni Jones]

Things to look for in various parts of the movie:

people eating
people sleeping
people dying (apemen, Frank Poole, Discovery astronauts, HAL, David Bowman)
birthdays (early man, Heywood Floyd's daughter, Frank Poole, StarChild)
people losing control of their tools (bone, ballpoint pen, HAL)
reaching out to touch the unknown (i.e., the monolith)

one glitch that bugs me:

When we first see the space station, it is revolving clockwise (as it would appear to a person approaching the finished side); in every scene thereafter, it's rotating counterclockwise from that prospective.

Using The Blue Danube for the space station rendezvous and trip to the moon was pure genius

The stewardesses are pretty foxy,
even with those silly zero-G bonnets