2001: A Space Odyssey

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2001: A Space Odyssey
File:2001Style B.jpg
Original film poster
Directed byStanley Kubrick
Written byNovel:
Arthur C. Clarke
Screenplay:
Stanley Kubrick
Arthur C. Clarke
Produced byStanley Kubrick
StarringKeir Dullea
Gary Lockwood
William Sylvester
Daniel Richter
Leonard Rossiter
Douglas Rain
CinematographyGeoffrey Unsworth
Edited byRay Lovejoy
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1968-1998, video only from 1986-1998)
Turner Entertainment (theatrical and TV, 1986-1996)
Warner Bros. (via Turner) (theatrical and TV since 1996, video since 1999)
Release dates
April 6, 1968 (USA)
Running time
160 Min
(premiere)
141 Min
(general release)
Countries United Kingdom
 United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10,500,000

2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. The film deals with themes of human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life, and is notable for its scientific realism, pioneering special effects, and provocatively ambiguous imagery and sound in place of traditional narrative techniques.

Despite receiving mixed reviews upon release, 2001: A Space Odyssey is today recognized by critics as one of the greatest films ever made; a poll of critics in 2002 ranked it among the top ten films of all time.[1] It was nominated for four Academy Awards, and received one for visual effects. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

Plot summary

File:Apemen.JPG
Tribal apes approach the mysterious black monolith.

The title sequence begins with an image of the Earth rising over the Moon, while the Sun rises over the Earth.

Over images of an African desert, a caption reads "The Dawn of Man". A tribe of prehistoric ape-men is struggling to survive in the dry desert. One morning, a mysterious black rectangular monolith appears near their habitation and is nervously examined by the apes. Following this encounter, a lone ape-man (Daniel Richter) invents the first tool while scavenging through a pile of bones. The ape-man picks up a bone and plays with it, finally using it as a club to crush other bones. The ape-man who created the tool, now standing partially upright, leads the tribe in defense of their waterhole from another tribe, clubbing an enemy ape to death with the new-found weapon. The victorious ape-man throws his weapon into the air, at which point the film jumps forward to the future, in a match cut that links the tumbling bone to a man-made orbital satellite.

A Pan American spaceplane carrying only one passenger, Dr. Heywood R. Floyd (William Sylvester) docks with an Earth-orbital space station. While aboard, Floyd meets a group of Soviet scientists, including an old friend. Floyd reveals that he is traveling to the Moon base in Clavius crater. Dr. Andrei Smyslov (Leonard Rossiter) asks why no-one has been able to contact Clavius and mentions that the base recently denied emergency landing to a Soviet shuttle (a violation of space travel rules). Floyd feigns surprise, but when Smyslov alludes to intelligence reports that an unusual epidemic has broken out at the base, Floyd refuses to comment, citing security restrictions.

At Clavius Base, Floyd meets scientists and administrators and speaks on the importance of hiding the true reason for the base's suspicious quarantine. He states that the "cover story" of an epidemic and a base-wide communications black-out will remain in effect until decided otherwise by their superiors on Earth. He reminds them of "the potential for cultural shock and social disorientation" that their discovery presents. Though ostensibly there to assess the situation and make a report, Floyd informs those present that new "security oaths" are required from all personnel.

During a later moonbus ride to the excavation, a discussion between Floyd and a base administrator reveals they have discovered an alien object, "deliberately buried" on the Moon four million years earlier. At the dig site, the scientists approach an identical monolith to that found by the man-apes; like them, Floyd strokes the smooth surface of the object. The scientists gather around it for a group photo but are interrupted when a continuous high-pitched tone is picked up by their radio receivers.

Three of the Discovery One crew are in a state of hibernation, ostensibly to conserve resources for the voyage.

At this point, a caption reads "Jupiter Mission: Eighteen Months Later". On board the spaceship Discovery One, bound for Jupiter, are two mission pilots, astronauts Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), and three scientists "sleeping" in cryogenic hibernation. Dave and Frank watch a BBC television program about themselves, in which the "sixth member" of the crew, the HAL 9000 supercomputer (voiced by Douglas Rain), is introduced and interviewed. The interview reveals that the supercomputer is the pinnacle in artificial machine intelligence, with a remarkable, error-free performance record. HAL 9000 is designed to communicate and interact like a human, and even mimics (or reproduces) human emotions; in fact the astronauts have learned to treat it like another crewman, addressing it as "Hal".

During an informal conversation with Dave, HAL raises concerns about the unusual secrecy surrounding the mission, and repeats rumors about "something being dug up on the moon." When Dave suggests that HAL's quizzical conversation is actually part of his "crew psychological profile," HAL abruptly reports an imminent equipment malfunction. He claims to have detected a defect in a component of the ship's communications system. Dave exits the Discovery in an EVA pod to retrieve and replace the faulty AE-35 unit, but upon detailed examination no fault can be found. Mission controllers back on Earth assert that HAL is "in error in predicting the fault", something unheard of for the 9000 series. HAL suggests another EVA mission to restore the part and wait for it to fail, to determine the problem. Hiding their concern, Dave and Frank retreat to a pod to discuss HAL's questionable reliability in secret, finally agreeing to "disconnect" him should the AE-35 not fail, as HAL predicted. However, unbeknownst to them, HAL is reading their lips.

Frank exits in a pod to put back the original AE-35 as Dave watches from inside Discovery. While Frank is performing the EVA, HAL takes control of the empty pod, hurtles it at Frank and kills him, sending his body tumbling in space. Dave hurriedly exits the ship in another pod to rescue Frank, forgetting to bring his space helmet. While Dave is outside, HAL kills the three hibernating scientists by deactivating their life support systems.

Upon returning to the ship with Frank's lifeless body, Dave is refused reentry into the ship by HAL. HAL reveals that he knows of Frank and Dave's plan to disconnect him, and asserts that the mission is "too important" to allow Dave to jeopardize it. HAL terminates the conversation. After releasing Frank's body, Dave opens an air lock, and activates the pod's emergency hatch bolts. The explosive decompression propels him into the airlock, exposed to the vacuum of space without a helmet, but he manages to close and pressurize the airlock.

File:Hal brain room605.JPG
Bowman enters HAL 9000's Central Core in the Discovery to disconnect his "higher functions."

Safely inside the ship, Dave enters HAL's 'Logic Memory Center'. As HAL futilely attempts to negotiate with him, Dave proceeds to disconnect his higher brain functions. HAL pleads and protests his termination, slowly regresses to past memories, and finally falls silent. Suddenly, a pre-recorded video briefing by Dr. Floyd plays, explaining the true nature of the mission — to investigate the signal sent to Jupiter from the alien artifact on the Moon. Floyd discloses that the secret mission had been known only to HAL until the ship's arrival in Jupiter space.

The Star Child looking at the Earth

A third monolith is seen in orbit around Jupiter. As the planet and its moons and the monolith appear to align, Dave exits Discovery One in a pod to investigate. He appears to travel across vast distances of space and time through a "Star Gate," a tunnel of colorful light and imagery and sound. After passing over the landscape of an alien world, Bowman arrives in a futuristic room containing Louis XVI-style decor [2]. As he walks about the room, he repeatedly sees himself at later stages of ageing, first in his spacesuit, then in an ornate dressing robe, sitting down to a well-appointed meal. The older Dave accidentally knocks his glass on the floor, smashing it and breaking the silence. Looking up from the broken glass, he sees himself lying on what appears to be his deathbed, at the foot of which appears a final monolith. Dave slowly reaches out to it and is transformed into a fetus-like being enclosed in a transparent orb of light — the "Star Child". The film suddenly returns to space near the Moon and Earth. Floating in space, the Star Child gazes at Earth.

Cast

File:David Bowman.jpg
Keir Dullea as Dave Bowman

Production

Writing

Shortly after completing Dr Strangelove (1964), Stanley Kubrick became fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial life,[2] and determined to make "the proverbial good science fiction movie".[3] Searching for a suitable collaborator in the SF community, Kubrick was advised to seek out Arthur C. Clarke by a mutual acquaintance, Columbia Pictures staffer Roger Caras. Although convinced that Clarke was "a recluse, a nut who lives in a tree", Kubrick agreed that Caras would cable the Ceylon-based author with the film proposal. Clarke's cabled response stated that he was "frightfully interested in working with enfant terrible", and added "what makes Kubrick think I’m a recluse?".[4]

In early conversations, Kubrick and Clarke jokingly called their project How the Solar System Was Won, an allusion to the 1962 Cinerama epic How the West Was Won.[5] Like that film, Kubrick's production would be divided into distinct episodes. Clarke considered adapting a number of his earlier stories before selecting "The Sentinel", published in 1950, as the starting point for the film. The collaborators originally planned to develop a novel first, free of the constraints of a normal script, and then to write the screenplay; they envisaged that the final writing credits would be "Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick", to reflect their pre-eminence in their respective fields.[6] However, in practice the cinematic ideas required for the screenplay developed parallel to the novel, with cross-fertilisation between the two. In the end, the screenplay credits were shared while the novel, released shortly after the film, was be attributed to Clarke alone, but Clarke wrote later that "the nearest approximation to the complicated truth" is that the screenplay should be credited to "Kubrick and Clarke" and the novel to "Clarke and Kubrick". [7]

On 22 February 1965, MGM announced it was backing Kubrick’s new science fiction film under the title Journey Beyond the Stars.[8] Interviewed by The New Yorker shortly afterwards, Kubrick compared the proposed film to "a space Odyssey",[6] and in April he officially changed the title to 2001: A Space Odyssey.[7] The date of 2001 was said to allude to Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which was set in 2000.[9] Arthur C. Clarke kept a diary throughout his involvement with 2001, excerpts of which were published in 1972 as The Lost Worlds of 2001. Clarke's diary reveals that by the time backing was secured for Journey Beyond the Stars in early 1965, the writers still had no firm idea of what would happen to Bowman after the Star Gate sequence, though as early as 17 October 1964 Kubrick had come up with what Clarke called a "wild idea of slightly fag robots who create a Victorian environment to put our heroes at their ease".[7] Initially all of Discovery’s astronauts were to survive the journey; a decision to leave Bowman as the sole survivor and have him regress to infancy was agreed by 3 October 1965.[7] The computer HAL was originally to have been called "Athena", from the Greek goddess of wisdom, with a feminine voice and persona.[7] Clarke noted that, contrary to popular rumor, it was a complete coincidence that each of the letters of HAL’s name immediately preceded those of IBM.[10]

Filming

Filming of 2001 began December 29, 1965 in Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, England. The studio was chosen because it could house the 60'x 120'x 60' pit for the Tycho crater excavation scene, the first to be shot.[11] From 1966, filming was at MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, from where the production was run to facilitate special effects filming; it was described as a "huge throbbing nerve center. . . . with much the same frenetic atmosphere as a Cape Kennedy blockhouse during the final stages of Countdown."[12]

The film was photographed in Super Panavision 70 in a 65 mm negative; the 35 mm release prints were made with Technicolor. In March of 1968, Kubrick began editing the film, making his final cuts just before the film's general release in April 1968. The budget was $4.5 million over the initial $6.0 million budget, and 16 months behind schedule.[11]

Special effects

This film pioneered retroreflective matting (front projection) used in the African scenes where apes learn to use tools. Static landscape transparency images were projected through a partly-silvered mirror emplaced diagonally before the camera. The projected landscape image illuminates both the actors and the retro-reflective glass-bead background screen. The projected landscape is invisible on the actors because it is dimmer than the scene illumination. The glass-bead background screen selectively reflects the landscape and actors' images to the camera, passing through the mirror and photographed as the background of the scene the audience view. The projected background image is reflected in the eyes of the cheetah, because the feline retina is highly reflective. Front projection produced more realistic images than did other methods of the time; today, computer-processed bluescreen techniques have replaced it.

Deleted scenes

Kubrick filmed several scenes that were deleted from the final film. These include a schoolroom on the moon base; Floyd buying a bush baby in a department store for his daughter; additional space walks; and astronaut Bowman retrieving a spare part from an octagonal corridor (MGM made a lobby card publicity still from this). The most notable cut was a 10-minute black-and-white opening sequence featuring interviews with scientists discussing extraterrestrial life, which Kubrick removed after an early screening for MGM executives.[13]

Release

The film's world premiere was on April 2, 1968, at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C.. Kubrick deleted 19 minutes from the film just before the film's general release on 6 April 1968.[14][15] It was released in 70mm format, with a six-track stereo magnetic soundtrack, and projected in the 2.21:1 aspect ratio. In autumn 1968, it was generally released in 35mm anamorphic format, with either a four-track magnetic stereo soundtrack or an optical monaural soundtrack.

The original 70 mm release was advertised as Cinerama in cinemas equipped with special projection optics and a deeply curved screen. In standard cinemas, the film was identified as a 70 mm production. The original release of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70 mm Cinerama with six-track sound (via Klipschorn- and Odyssey-model cinema speakers) played continually for two years in The University Theater, Toronto, Canada, a feat recognized by A.C.Clarke in the non-fiction book The Lost Worlds of 2001.[15]

In 1980, it was the second movie released in VHS format by MGM/CBS Home Video, after The Wizard of Oz.[citation needed] MGM also published letterbox laserdisc editions (including an updated edition with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound). There also was a special edition laserdisc from The Criterion Collection in the CAV format. In 1999, it was re-released in VHS, and in 2001 as part of the "Stanley Kubrick Collection" in both VHS and DVD formats with remastered sound and picture.

It has thrice been released on Region 1 DVD, once by MGM Home Entertainment in 1998, twice by Warner Home Video in 1999 and 2001. The MGM release had a booklet, the film, trailer, and an interview with Arthur C. Clarke, and the soundtrack was remastered in 5.1 surround sound. The 1999 Warner Bros. release omitted the booklet, yet had a re-release trailer. The 2001 release contained the re-release trailer, the film in the original 2.21:1 aspect ratio, digitally re-mastered from the original 70 mm print, and the soundtrack remixed in 5.1 surround sound. A limited edition DVD included a booklet, 70 mm frame, and a new soundtrack CD of the film's actual (unreleased) music tracks, and a sampling of HAL's dialogue.

Warner Home Video released a 2-DVD Special Edition on October 23, 2007 as part of their latest set of Kubrick reissues. The DVD was released on its own and as part of a revised Stanley Kubrick box set which contains new Special Edition versions of A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket, and the documentary A Life in Pictures. Additionally, the film was in both high definition HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Reaction

Upon release, 2001 polarized critical opinion, receiving both ecstatic praise and vehemently negative criticism. Some critics viewed the original 160-minute cut shown at premieres in Washington, New York and Los Angeles,[14] while others saw the general release version that was in theaters from April 6 1968 onwards, for which Kubrick had removed 19 minutes of footage. In The New Yorker, Penelope Gilliatt said it was "some kind of great film, and an unforgettable endeavor....The film is hypnotically entertaining, and it is funny without once being gaggy, but it is also rather harrowing."[16] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times opined that it was "the picture that science fiction fans of every age and in every corner of the world have prayed (sometimes forlornly) that the industry might some day give them. It is an ultimate statement of the science fiction film, an awesome realization of the spatial future....it is a milestone, a landmark for a spacemark, in the art of film."[17] Louise Sweeney of The Christian Science Monitor felt that 2001 was "a brilliant intergalactic satire on modern technology. It's also a dazzling 160-minute tour on the Kubrick filmship through the universe out there beyond our earth."[18] Philip French wrote that the film was "perhaps the first multi-million-dollar supercolossal movie since D.W. Griffith's Intolerance fifty years ago which can be regarded as the work of one man...Space Odyssey is important as the high-water mark of science-fiction movie making, or at least of the genre's futuristic branch."[19] The Boston Globe's review indicated that it was "the world's most extraordinary film. Nothing like it has ever been shown in Boston before or, for that matter, anywhere...The film is as exciting as the discovery of a new dimension in life."[20] Roger Ebert gave the film four stars in his original review, believing the film "succeeds magnificently on a cosmic scale."[21] Time provided at least seven different mini-reviews of the film in various issues in 1968, each one slightly more positive than the preceding one; in the final review dated December 27, 1968, the magazine called 2001 "an epic film about the history and future of mankind, brilliantly directed by Stanley Kubrick. The special effects are mindblowing."[22]

However Pauline Kael said it was "a monumentally unimaginative movie",[23] and Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic called it "a film that is so dull, it even dulls our interest in the technical ingenuity for the sake of which Kubrick has allowed it to become dull."[24] Renata Adler of The New York Times wrote that it was "somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring."[25] Variety's 'Robe' believed the film was a "Big, beautiful, but plodding sci-fi epic...A major achievement in cinematography and special effects, 2001 lacks dramatic appeal to a large degree and only conveys suspense after the halfway mark."[26] Andrew Sarris called it "one of the grimmest films I have ever seen in my life....2001 is a disaster because it is much too abstract to make its abstract points."[27] (Sarris soon reversed his opinion upon a second viewing of the film, and declared "2001 is indeed a major work by a major artist."[28]) John Simon felt it was "a regrettable failure, although not a total one. This film is fascinating when it concentrates on apes or machines....and dreadful when it deals with the in-betweens: humans....2001, for all its lively visual and mechanical spectacle, is a kind of space-Spartacus and, more pretentious still, a shaggy God story."[29]

The "Star Gate" sequence, one of many groundbreaking visual effects.

2001 earned one Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Director (Kubrick), and Original Screenplay (Kubrick, Clarke).

Top film lists

2001 is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films, was number 22 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies, and was recently bumped up to 15 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - 10th Anniversary Edition, was named number 40 on its 100 Years, 100 Thrills, included on its 100 Years, 100 Quotes ("Open the pod bay doors, HAL."), also HAL 9000 is # 13 villain in the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is the only science fiction film to make the Sight & Sound poll for ten best movies, and tops the Online Film Critics Society list of "greatest science fiction films of all time."[30] In 1991, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry. Other lists that include the film are 50 Films to See Before You Die (#6), The Village Voice 100 Best Films of the 20th Century (#11), the Sight & Sound Top Ten poll (#6),[31] and Roger Ebert's Top Ten (1968) (#2). In 1995, the Vatican named it as one of the 45 best films ever made (and included it in a sub-list of the "Top Ten Art Movies" of all time.)[32]

Academy Awards

Award Person
Best Visual Effects Stanley Kubrick
Nominated:
Best Original Screenplay Stanley Kubrick
Arthur C. Clarke
Best Art Direction Anthony Masters
Harry Lange
Ernest Archer
Best Director Stanley Kubrick

Other awards

Won

Nominated

Interpretation

Main article: Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Since its premiere, 2001: A Space Odyssey has been analyzed and interpreted by multitudes of people ranging from professional movie critics to amateur writers and science fiction fans. Kubrick encouraged people to explore their own interpretations of the film, and refused to offer an explanation of "what really happened" in the movie, preferring instead to let audiences embrace their own ideas and theories. In a 1968 interview with Playboy magazine, Kubrick stated:

You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film—and such speculation is one indication that it has succeeded in gripping the audience at a deep level—but I don't want to spell out a verbal road map for 2001 that every viewer will feel obligated to pursue or else fear he's missed the point.[33]

Scientific accuracy

File:Discovery1b.JPG
Spaceship USS Discovery 1 launching an EVA pod. Note the deliberately non-aerodynamic design of both craft. In space aerodynamics do not matter.

2001 is highly realistic when compared with other science fiction films, particularly its predecessors. It accurately presents outer space as transmitting no sound. Its portrayal of weightlessness in spaceships and outer space is notable. Tracking shots inside the rotating wheel providing artificial gravity contrast with the weightlessness outside the wheel during the repair and HAL disconnection scenes. The pod bay walking scenes of the astronauts may be explained by the earlier scenes where stewardesses walk in zero gravity using velcro-equipped shoes labelled "Grip Shoes".

Much was made by MGM of this aspect of the film in its promotion, claiming in a 1968 publicity brochure that "Everything in 2001: A Space Odyssey can happen within the next three decades, and....most of the picture will happen by the beginning of the next millennium."[34] This has proved to be wrong, although some of the film's predictions (see below) have been realized.

The film is scientifically inaccurate in minor details, many explained by the technical difficulty inherent to producing a realistic effect:

  • When spacecraft land on the Moon, dust billows as it would given an atmosphere, not a vacuum.[citation needed]
  • As Bowman retrieves Poole's body, reflections from the pod's monitors on Bowman's face are unrealistically sharp. [1]
  • Bowman holds his breath just before ejecting from the pod into the airlock. Before exposure to a vacuum, NASA states, one must exhale, because holding in the breath would rupture the lungs.[35] (See also vacuum.)
  • The blown pod hatch simply vanishes.

Imagining the future

File:2001-centerfuge.jpg
The Centrifuge in Discovery One — Exercising astronaut Frank Poole jogs its circumference.
File:2001interview.jpg
Small, portable, flat-screen televisions, as well as microwave dinners, were indeed available in the year 2001.

The film shows an imagined version of the year 2001. Some of what is seen in the film has come to pass:

  • Flat-screen computer monitors (simulated by rear projection in the film)
  • Small, portable, flat-screen television sets
  • Television screens with a wide aspect ratio
  • Glass cockpits in spacecraft
  • Home and business videoconferencing
  • The proliferation of TV stations (the BBC's channels numbering at least 12)
  • Telephone numbers with more digits than in the 1960s (to permit direct national and international dialing)
  • The endurance of corporations like IBM, Aeroflot, Howard Johnson's, and Hilton Hotels
  • The use of credit cards with data stripes (the card Heywood Floyd inserts into the telephone is American Express; a close-up photo of the prop shows that it has a barcode rather than a magnetic strip, as some present-day ID cards have PDF417 barcodes)
  • Biometric identification (voice-print identification on arrival at the space station)
  • The shape of the Pan Am Orbital Clipper was echoed in the X-34, a prototype craft that underwent towed flight tests from 1999 to 2001
  • Electronic darkening of a normally transparent surface (Bowman uses a helmet control to darken his visor during an EVA)
  • A computer that can defeat a person at chess
  • Personal in-flight entertainment displays on the backs of seats in commercial aircraft
File:2001 film Clavius surveyors.jpg
Establishing a permanent colony on the moon is not yet a reality.

However, many things in the film were not realities by 2001:

Soundtrack

Music

Music plays a crucial part in 2001, and not only because of the relatively sparse dialogue. From very early on in production, Kubrick decided that he wanted the film to be a primarily non-verbal experience,[36] one that did not rely on the traditional techniques of narrative cinema, and in which music would play a vital role in evoking particular moods.

The film is remarkable for its innovative use of classical music taken from existing commercial recordings. Major feature films were (and still are) typically accompanied by elaborate film scores and/or songs written especially for them by professional composers. In the early stages of production, Kubrick had actually commissioned a score for 2001 from noted Hollywood composer Alex North, who had written the stirring score for Spartacus and also worked on Dr. Strangelove. However, on 2001 Kubrick did much of the filming and editing using, as his guides, the classical recordings which eventually became the music track. In March of 1966, MGM became concerned about 2001's progress and Kubrick put together a show reel of footage to the ad hoc soundtrack of classical recordings. The studio bosses were delighted with the results and Kubrick decided to use these 'guide pieces' as the final musical soundtrack, and he abandoned North's score. Kubrick failed to inform North that his music had not been used and, to his dismay, North did not discover this until he saw the movie just prior to its release.[37] What survives of North's soundtrack recordings has been released as a "limited edition" CD from Intrada Records. The original North theme music (resembling "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and later recycled as the title theme to The Shoes of the Fisherman,[citation needed] another MGM film also scored by North) made its public premiere in early 1993 on a Telarc recording by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for the compilation CD Hollywood's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. All the music North originally wrote was recorded commercially by North's friend and colleague Jerry Goldsmith with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and was released on Varese Sarabande CDs shortly after Telarc's first theme release but before North's death. Similarly, Ligeti was unaware that his music was in the film until alerted by friends. He was, at first, unhappy about some of the music used, and threatened legal action over Kubrick's use of an electronically "treated" recording of Aventures in the "interstellar hotel" scene near the end of the film.[citation needed]

In an interview with Michel Ciment, Kubrick explained:

However good our best film composers may be, they are not a Beethoven, a Mozart or a Brahms. Why use music which is less good when there is such a multitude of great orchestral music available from the past and from our own time? When you are editing a film, it's very helpful to be able to try out different pieces of music to see how they work with the scene....Well, with a little more care and thought, these temporary tracks can become the final score.[38]

2001 uses works by several classical composers. It features music by Aram Khachaturian (Gayane's Adagio from the Gayaneh ballet suite) and famously used Johann Strauss II's best known waltz, An der schönen blauen Donau (in English, On The Beautiful Blue Danube), during the space-station rendezvous and lunar landing sequences. 2001 is especially remembered for its use of the opening from Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra (or "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" in English), which has become inextricably associated with the film and its imagery and themes. The film's soundtrack also did much to introduce the modern classical composer György Ligeti to a wider public, using extracts from his Requiem (the Kyrie), Atmosphères, Lux Aeterna and (in an altered form) Aventures (though without his permission).[39]

HAL's haunting version of the popular song "Daisy Bell" (referred to by HAL as "Daisy" in the film) was inspired by a computer synthesized arrangement by Max Mathews, which Arthur C. Clarke had heard in 1962 at the Bell Laboratories Murray Hill facility when he was, coincidentally, visiting friend and colleague John Pierce. At that time, a speech synthesis demonstration was being performed by physicist John Larry Kelly, Jr, by using an IBM 704 computer to synthesize speech. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizer vocoder recreated the song "Daisy Bell" ("Bicycle Built For Two"), with Max Mathews providing the musical accompaniment. Arthur C. Clarke was so impressed that he later used it in the screenplay and novel.[40]

Dialogue

Alongside its use of music, the dialogue in 2001 is another notable feature, although the relative lack of dialogue and conventional narrative cues has baffled many viewers. One of the film's most striking features is that there is no dialogue whatever for the entirety of the first and last acts of the film—the entire narrative of these sections, totalling almost 45 minutes of the entire film is carried by images, actions, sound effects, and two title cards.

Only when the film moves into the postulated "future" of 2000 and 2001, do we encounter characters who speak. By the time shooting began, Kubrick had deliberately jettisoned much of the intended dialogue and narration,[41] and what remains is notable for its apparently banal nature—an announcement about a sweater being found (though this is likely a "winking reference" to the sweater lost in Kubrick's Lolita), the awkwardly polite chit-chat between Floyd and the Russian scientists, or his comments about the sandwiches en route to the monolith site.

The exchanges between Poole and Bowman aboard the Discovery are similarly flat and unemotional, and generally lack any major narrative content. Kubrick clearly intended that the subtext of these exchanges – what is not said, that is – should be the real, meaningful content. Equally, it represents the emotionless stereotype of the astronaut as technological Man. As such, Poole and Bowman do not speak to each other until Hal's integrity comes into question. At one point during the film, HAL lip reads a conversation between Poole and Bowman (they have secured themselves in one of the ship's pods for this conversation, wishing HAL not to hear them, his apparent failure being the object of their discussion).

Narrative through ambient sound

Kubrick's unique treatment of narrative in 2001 is perhaps best exemplified by the scene in which the HAL-9000 computer murders the three hibernating astronauts while Bowman is outside the ship trying to rescue Poole.[who?] The inhuman nature of the murders is conveyed with chilling simplicity, in a scene that contains only three elements.

When HAL disconnects the life support systems, we see the life-signs monitor flashing warning sign, "COMPUTER MALFUNCTION", shown full-screen and accompanied only by the sound of a shrill alarm beep; this is intercut with static shots of the hibernating astronauts, encased in their sarcophagus-like pods, and close-up full-screen shots of the life-signs monitor of each astronaut. As the astronauts begin to die, the warning changes to "LIFE FUNCTIONS CRITICAL" and we see the vital signs on the monitors beginning to flat-line. Finally, when the three sleeping astronauts are dead, there is only silence and the ominously banal flashing sign, "LIFE FUNCTIONS TERMINATED".

The film combines eerie contemporary music with classical waltzes and ballet suites, grunts and snarls with pneumatic hisses and synthesized beeps. One character has a rough, throaty voice but a computer talks with a soft, mellifluous tone (the classic characterization of a smooth-talking villain). Space is accurately depicted as a truly silent vacuum, but technological mankind fills this world with the sound of circulating air systems, humming computers and hissing doors. 2001 is alive with sound, and most of it is environmental.[42]

Sequels and offshoots

Kubrick did not envisage or plan on a sequel to 2001. Kubrick was afraid of the later exploitation and recycling of his material in other productions (as was done with the props from MGM's Forbidden Planet), so, to the dismay of MGM Studios, he ordered all prints of unused scenes, sets, props, miniatures, and production blueprints destroyed — and, thus, these materials were lost with the exception of a 79 inch model of the Discovery. It was somehow salvaged and appeared in modified form in Space 1999.[2][43][44][45]

Clarke went on to write three sequel novels: 2010: Odyssey Two (1982), 2061: Odyssey Three (1987), and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997). In 3001: The Final Odyssey, we reconnect with Frank Poole, who has been found drifting by a ship that was looking for frozen water near the edge of the solar system. Sufficiently preserved by the vacuum of space, he is revived by the advanced medical technology of the time and becomes the novel's protagonist. The novels in the series A Time Odyssey are not direct sequels; they are a retelling of the "aliens affect human development" story, except that the monolith has been replaced by a spherical eye.[who?]

The only filmed sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, was based on Clarke's 1982 novel and was released in 1984. Kubrick was not involved in the production of this film, which was directed by Peter Hyams in a straightforward style with more dialogue. Clarke saw it as a fitting adaptation of his novel.[46] Stanley Kubrick had ordered all models and blueprints destroyed from 2001, so Hyams had to recreate the models from scratch for 2010. There has been no discussion of filmmakers adapting the other two for the screen.

Beginning in 1976, Marvel Comics published both a Jack Kirby-written and drawn comic adaptation of the film and a Kirby-created 10-issue monthly series 'expanding' on the ideas of the film and novel.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Sight and Sound: Top Ten Poll 2002". British Film Institute web site. Retrieved 2006-12-15. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b c Agel, Jerome (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001. New York: Signet. ISBN 0-451-07139-5. Cite error: The named reference "Making of 2001" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Clarke, Arthur C. (1972). The Lost Worlds of 2001. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. pp. p.17. ISBN 0-283-97903-8. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  4. ^ LoBrutto, Vincent (1997, 1998). Stanley Kubrick. London: Faber and Faber. pp. pp.156-257. ISBN 0-571-19393-5. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |year= (help)
  5. ^ Arthur Clarke's 2001 diary, excerpted from Lost Worlds of 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke. Retrieved October 7, 2006.
  6. ^ a b Agel (1970): pp.24-25
  7. ^ a b c d e Clarke (1972): pp.31-38
  8. ^ Agel (1970): p.1
  9. ^ Phillips, Gene D. (1977). Stanley Kubrick: A Film Odyssey. New York: Popular Library. pp. p.210. ISBN 0-445-04101-3. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  10. ^ Clarke (1972): p.78
  11. ^ a b Gedult, Carolyn. The Production: A Calendar. Reproduced in: Castle, Alison (Editor). The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Taschen, 2005. ISBN 3-8228-2284-1
  12. ^ Lightman, Herb A. Filming 2001: A Space Odyssey. American Cinematographer, June 1968. Excerpted in: Castle, Alison (Editor). The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Taschen, 2005. ISBN 3-8228-2284-1
  13. ^ Agel, Jerome (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001. Signet. pp. p.27. ISBN 0-451-07139-5. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  14. ^ a b Agel, Jerome (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001. Signet. pp. p.363. ISBN 0-451-07139-5. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  15. ^ a b Clarke, Arthur C. (1972). The Lost Worlds of 2001. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 0-283-97903-8.
  16. ^ Gilliatt, Penelope. "After Man", review of 2001 reprinted from The New Yorker in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  17. ^ Champlin, Charles. Review of 2001 reprinted from The Los Angeles Times in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  18. ^ Sweeney, Louise. Review of 2001 reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  19. ^ French, Philip. Review of 2001 reprinted from an unnamed publication in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  20. ^ Adams, Marjorie. Review of 2001 reprinted from The Boston Globe in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  21. ^ Roger Ebert, Reviews: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968. Retrieved from http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19680412/REVIEWS/804120301/1023
  22. ^ Unknown reviewer. Capsule review of 2001 reprinted from Time in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  23. ^ "Critical Debates: 2001: A Space Odyssey". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  24. ^ Stanley Kauffmann, "Lost in the Stars", The New Republic. Retrieved from http://www.krusch.com/kubrick/Q16.html
  25. ^ Adler, Renata. Review of 2001 reprinted from The New York Times in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  26. ^ Review of 2001 by 'Robe'. April 1, 1968
  27. ^ Sarris, Andrew. Review of 2001 review quoted from a WBAI radio broadcast in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  28. ^ "Hail the Conquering Hero". FilmComment.com. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
  29. ^ Simon, John. Review of 2001 reprinted from The New Leader in Jerome Agel's The Making of Kubrick's 2001, Signet Books, 1970. ISBN 0-45107-139-5
  30. ^ ""2001: A Space Odyssey Named the Greatest Sci-Fi Film of All Time By the Online Film Critics Society"". Online Film Critics Society. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
  31. ^ "Sight & Sound: Top Ten Poll 2002". British Film Institute web site. Retrieved 2006-12-15. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  32. ^ "USCCB - (Film and Broadcasting) - Vatican Best Films List". USCCB web site. Retrieved 2007-04-22. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  33. ^ Norden, Eric. Interview: Stanley Kubrick. Playboy (September 1968). Reprinted in: Phillips, Gene D. (Editor). Stanley Kubrick: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi, 2001. ISBN 1-57806-297-7 pp. 47-48
  34. ^ MGM Studios. Facts for Editorial Reference, 1968. Reproduced in: Castle, Alison (Editor). The Stanley Kubrick Archives, Taschen, 2005. ISBN 3-8228-2284-1
  35. ^ "Human Body In a Vacuum". Imagine the Universe!: Ask An Astrophysicist. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center web site. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
  36. ^ "New Titles - The Stanley Kubrick Archives - Facts". Retrieved 2007-02-05.
  37. ^ LoBrutto, Vincent (1998). Stanley Kubrick. London: Faber and Faber. pp. p.308. ISBN 0571193935. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  38. ^ "Kubrick on Barry Lyndon: An interview with Michel Ciment". Retrieved 2006-07-08.
  39. ^ "György Ligeti -- music scores used in '2001' film (obituary)". Retrieved 2006-06-13.
  40. ^ "Bell Labs: Where "HAL" First Spoke". (Bell Labs Speech Synthesis web site). Retrieved 2007-08-13.
  41. ^ "Trivia for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)". IMDb. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
  42. ^ http://www.korova.com/kmr95/kmr5025.htm
  43. ^ Mark Stetson (model shop supervisor) (1984). 2010: The Odyssey Continues (DVD). ZM Productions/MGM. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  44. ^ "Starship Modeler: Modeling 2001 and 2010 Spacecraft". 2005-10-19. Retrieved 2006-09-26.
  45. ^ Bizony, Piers (2001). 2001 Filming the Future. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 1-85410-706-2.
  46. ^ STARLOG magazine

Further reading

  • Agel, Jerome (1970). The Making of Kubrick's 2001. Signet. ISBN 0-451-07139-5.
  • Bizony, Piers (2001). 2001 Filming the Future. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 1-85410-706-2.
  • Castle, Alison (ed.), ed. (2005). "Part 2: The Creative Process / 2001: A Space Odyssey". The Stanley Kubrick Archives. New York: Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-2284-1. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
  • Chion, Michel (2001). Kubrick's Cinema Odyssey. translated by Claudia Gorbman. London: British Film Institute. ISBN 0-85170-840-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |other= ignored (|others= suggested) (help)
  • Clarke, Arthur C. (1972). The Lost Worlds of 2001. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 0-283-97903-8.
  • Kolker, Robert (ed.), ed. (2006). Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517453-4. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
  • Richter, Daniel (2002). Moonwatcher's Memoir: A Diary of 2001: A Space Odyssey. foreword by Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1073-X.
  • Schwam, Stephanie (ed.), ed. (2000). The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey. New York: Modern Library. ISBN 0-375-75528-4. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); Unknown parameter |other= ignored (|others= suggested) (help)
  • Wheat, Leonard F. (2000). Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-3796-X.

External links

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