2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Watched 20110118 (Netflix, Instant)
Watched 20151008 (Netflix, Instant)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick. 141 min.

HAL 9000 (Douglas Rain - voice)

Relevant Links:
2001: A Space Odyssey (IMDb.com)
2001: A Space Odyssey (film) (Wikipedia.org)

20110118:
This movie was pretty awesome. It had great special effects, fantastic visuals, and an intricate story.

Some scenes were off-the-map bizarre - particularly near the end of the film. I didn't know what to make of them.


Other scenes tried my patience, as they excessively focused on an object or an idea. Granted, I have a preference for catchier or flashier media.

For example, most of the songs I enjoy listening to have to pick up a good beat within the first couple of seconds. As a rule of thumb, I won't like a song that starts off without a good hook, even if I enjoy the middle of it. I do, however, enjoy having such songs play in the background.


In any case, it was fun to think about how some of the scenes were filmed. In particular, I had supposed the film makers used rotating sets, green screens, rotating cameras, and wire (to recreate the effect of floating in space).

Wikipedia confirmed my suspicion about a rotating set. Both the jogging scene and the scene with the stewardess used rotating sets. The set for the jogging scene is like a giant ferris wheel. Apparently the background in Africa was not a green screen, but a different effect.


Oh, I almost forgot to mention, the make-up for the human apes was unbelievably convincing. At first, I had to focus closely on the movements to convince myself that the apes were played actually human actors. This was more clear in some of the following scenes, especially when contrasting the grown apes with the (two) real baby chimpanzees. By the way, the baby chimpanzees were so cute.

As a side note, this is one of the few movies where I have also read the book. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, the movie and the book were more or less written in parallel.


[20151008 Edit]

Instant Comments:
There's an intermission at one and a half hours.
I love when HAL sings "Daisy, daisy..."

20151008:
One interesting fact I read is that HAL never says, "Good morning, Dave."

Instant Comments:
The first three minutes is music playing over a black screen. Finally Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra plays as silhouettes of a planet and star come into view (most likely the Earth and the Sun)


Ah, 'The Dawn of Man.'
I love the costumes in this first segment. They're very lifelike.
What is the point of this monolith?
Lol. The spaceship attendant walking with her grip shoes.
$1.70. Not bad for long distance.
The walking around was a bit funny.
The scenes without dialogue in this film make the traveling scenes in The Lord of the Rings (FotR TT RotK) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part I (2010) relatively exciting.

Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) and Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir Dulllea)

[Apparently 88 minutes of the film lack dialogue, 25 of which are at the beginning and 23 of which are at the end]
Oh, it's the same monolith. (Or perhaps just a similar looking one.)
ATM, VEH, NUC, and FLX are among the various sets of three letters which appear on the various screens.
Playing chess vs. HAL.
"Good evening, Dave."


The infaultiness of HAL is similar to that of the story of the Titanic.
Haha. The Futurama episode. The ship wishes she could read lips.
INTERMISSION.
Similar to the beginning of the movie, the movie resumes from intermission with a black screen.
For a computer built with pseudo-feelings, I'm surprised there weren't alarms of some sort going off after such an incident. Other than sabatoge.


"I'm sorry, Dave. I don't have enough information."
I think ultimately there's poor programming. What one would want to design is software with a voice interface. Instead, they installed an A.I.
"I can see your lips move."
"Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?"
Oh, there's a Futurama episode where Bender dates the Planet Express ship. Apparently many of those scenes reference this movie (I realized when Dave enters the room with the computer's memory)


"I can feel it."
"Good afternoon, gentle... I am a HAL 9000..."
"Yes, I'd like to hear it HAL, sing it for me." "It's called 'Daisy.'" (HAL sings 'Daisy.')

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