Posted on 04/03/2018 6:01:25 AM PDT by C19fan
Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of the original release of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," a seminal film in motion picture history and one that has awed — and confused — thousands over the years.
"2001" is often credited with paving the way for science-fiction films that took a realistic approach to depicting the future. A few decent sci-fi dramas were made before Kubrick's space exploration story — "Forbidden Planet" and "The Incredible Shrinking Man" come to mind — but most were strictly B-movie pulp with low production values. After "2001" came "Silent Running," "Star Wars", "Alien" and "Aliens", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "E.T", "The Fly" (1986) and other well-received films of the genre.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
There may be the sci-fi angle, but there is the director angle as well.
Kubrick put his flair onto all his movies. Barry Lyndon with its use of camera, special lenses. Dr. Strangelove...
I thought I was the only person in the world who remembered "Silent Running". Despite the tree-hugger mindset of the movie, I quite enjoyed Bruce Dern's portrayal and the subject matter. I usually re-watch it at least once a year.
The only reason I know about “Silent Runnings” is the reuse of models and/or footage for Battlestar Galactica.
The title of this article should be: “Why 2001 A Space Odyssey is still BORING after 50 years.”
I watched Silent Running a few years back. Not a bad film and Bruce Dern is always interesting to watch.
Let me guess...you didn't like it. I can't believe it's been out for 50 years and I still haven't ever sat through it from beginning to end.
2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the worst movies ever made.
It is also one of the most overrated. I remember seeing it the first time and being completely bored. The story made little sense, the pacing was slow and disconnected.
People tended to watch it stoned. It was the only way to sit through it.
Those little droids were sure cute.
I watched 2001 all the way through for the first time when they released the high definition disk. I was stunned to find it was a cinematic treatise of the classical Greek vision of time (eternal return).
Well OK, that made the movie understandable, but it was still boring.
Yep. I’m with you. By the end, I was wishing HAL had won.
Breaks my heart.
I remember a friend and I arguing theories of why HAL wouldn't open the door... this was 2nd grade...seems like yesterday.
The lady in Arizona being killed by the car happened just a few weeks ago. That actually has a lot to do with this movie, too, in a strange way.
The AI, communications, computer, etc., predictions made by Arthur Clarke and Kubrick in the movie were uncanny.
But, my wife thinks this movie was ridiculous and boring too.
Oh, well.
No CGI back then. They had to have micro light bulbs made and intricate models for many sequences. Amazing movie.
Space Mutiny did the same thing but made it look cheaper.
2001 is a great movie on so many levels but it must be understood in its own time. This was just before the moon landings when we were seeing manned space expeditions in reality on TV every few months. There was an awe and expectation for what we would find once we as a species left our own planet for the first time. The movie was the first to try to convey the actual physics of weightlessness in space, the ballet of relative motion between vehicles and planets, and the almost comic banality of the highly trained scientists and astronauts whose professional affect was so detached from the profound evolutionary step that we were about to take. It was highly prescient in showing the inherent conflict between our human consciousness and the then emerging concepts of self aware artificial intelligence. These are technologies that are only now being explored in reality. The enigmatic finale even tried to depict the reality of transport between distant galaxies and civilizations via a “worm hole” that was based on advanced concepts in quantum physics. This was the inspiration for the movie Interstellar by Chris Nolan. Its most profound notion was that we were about to be reborn (the star baby) as a new species capable of leaving our cradle planet and joining other advanced civilizations across the universe that had been waiting for us for millions of years. Star Wars is just the mythology of knights in shining rocket ships by comparison.
Thank you! While much of it is interesting, it's not particularly entertaining.
That's why I can forgive not having the foggiest idea what the hell was going on past the halfway point of the movie.
50 years later, I still haven't figured it out.
We were forced to sit through it in high school...
Rebuttal: the last half hour is still only for druggies 50 years later.
It has one of the best depictions liberals reacting to the Trump Tower ever seen in a movie...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHWs3c3YNs4
That has always been my interpretation.
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