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2001 - A Space Odyssey









The Brighton Bear

Come on Kylie, get a grip
May 3, 2010
13,877
Rottingdean
I went to see this film in the Astoria as a 14 year-old in 1972. I had spent my younger years watching the race to the moon and this seemed to be a glimpse into the possible future. I remember the vivid images and the amazing music. HAL seemed such a frightening machine to me and I thought that this clearly could be the world in 2001.

2001 seems so long ago now.
 










Normal Rob

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
5,644
Somerset
Bruce Dern plays a reluctant hero who falls in love with the idea of the happy little eco-systems that are stored in orbit awaiting the day when Earth has become clean enough for all the species to be reintroduced, it's a kind of noah's Ark. When the company paying for the ships maintaining these arks decides its not worth it and blasts them all off and detonates them our hero crosses the line and kills the other crewmen and takes the ship out of orbit in a desperate attempt to keep some of Earth's flora and fauna alive, that's it really. But, if you are not moved by the moral and ethical dilemma's in the film....

The sample 'We have just received orders, to nuclear destruct all the forests, and to return our ships to commercial purposes' that the Future Sound Of London included in a Radio 1 live mix in about 1992 is still one of the best sets i've ever heard and still stays with me today. It's the reason i watched the film, and love the film. But as already pointed out, it's far to accurate in it's portrayal of the problems of the (then) future.
 




Trufflehound

Re-enfranchised
Aug 5, 2003
14,104
The democratic and free EU
Cost ten bob to make and it looks like it but I do love Dark Star.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wbzJxXxhIQ

Talk to me Bomb...

Dark Star is brilliant, but the one place the 'ten bob'ness really stands out and trips it up is in the quality of the sound recording, which is abysmal, and even a DVD clean-up has done little to improve it. Some film sound boffin needs to give it a serious makeover.

The sound on 2001, however, was and is masterful.

Both are all-time favourites.
 


Mr Cleansheets

New member
Jun 7, 2017
98
The book makes sense the film doesn't ,you shouldn't have to read a book as a pre requisite to understand the film so thats why the film ultimately fails, having read all 3 of ACC's Odyssey books and the two films then the film does fit in welll and has great qualities but I would not call it a great film as the ending was messed up and didn't explain what was going on.

That's why it's cinema as art. Let's you interpret it for yourself.
 


Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
45,919
at home
always struggled with Arthur C Clarke, although his book Rendezvous with Rama was brilliant.

I always thought the bit at the end of 2001 where the astronaut was catapulted through space and time represented his breath and it was the equivalent of his life flashing before him ( a bit like Harry Potter last film had the same type of sequence when HP met Dumbledoor)
 




looney

Banned
Jul 7, 2003
15,652
So many of my friends (& Kermode, obviously) badgered me to watch Silent Running - I eventually did a couple of years ago. Umm, I was bored rigid. How people put this in the category as Alien, Blade Runner, 2001, etc as a great Sci-Fi film is beyond me. I know it must be me, cos I'm the only person I know who thought it was tedious beyond belief. Tell me what I'm missing, please?

Silent Running is supposed to be the "Proto-environmentalist" movie and as such appeals most to Students, Stoners and Pseuds Thats why the obvious flaws are over looked, like it involves killing people to achieve those aims. It is also imo deeply narcassistic. I thought it was about OK as a sci-fi movie, on the level with Disney's Black hole.
 




TimWatt

Active member
Feb 13, 2011
165
Richmond
Ron Howard made Apollo 13 with something of a Mad Men like retro look - with lots of brown and orange 70s style fashion contrasting with 50/60s narrow tie engineer fashions - so I'm not sure it was ever meant to stand up to future scrutiny other than to recognise the heroism.

At the cinema I found it gripping but the special effects second rate, especially as much of that seemed to be based on the official NASA documentary 'For All Mankind' - which had the advantage of being the real thing so thousands of times the budget. That film also had a very spacey Brian ENO soundtrack that will be very familiar to all as it was used in Trainspotting and many many adverts.

As to the prescience of 2001 - with the iPads etc - don't be too sure that Steve Jobs didn't study the film carefully.... probably on acid.
 
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marlowe

Well-known member
Dec 13, 2015
3,903
Silent Running is supposed to be the "Proto-environmentalist" movie and as such appeals most to Students, Stoners and Pseuds Thats why the obvious flaws are over looked, like it involves killing people to achieve those aims. It is also imo deeply narcassistic. I thought it was about OK as a sci-fi movie, on the level with Disney's Black hole.

That doesn't mean that the film is flawed but merely that the character portrayed in the film is flawed, just as people are flawed in real life.
 


Pevenseagull

Anti-greed coalition
Jul 20, 2003
19,513
Silent Running is supposed to be the "Proto-environmentalist" movie and as such appeals most to Students, Stoners and Pseuds Thats why the obvious flaws are over looked, like it involves killing people to achieve those aims. It is also imo deeply narcassistic. I thought it was about OK as a sci-fi movie, on the level with Disney's Black hole.

The soundtrack to "The Black Hole" is magnificent.
 











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