However, it’s reported that during the first few months of the film’s release, studio execs discovered that many audience members were getting high during their screenings to match the film’s high. At the time, 2001 polarised opinion during the New York premiere, 250 people walked out. With an enormous (for the time) budget of $10 million, the film failed to make a profit during its initial release run (its successful re-release in 1971 made it so). Completely immersed in the world he was creating, Kubrick was involved in every decision made, from the shape and colour of the monolith to the colours and patterns used during Dave’s ‘ Beyond the Infinite‘ flight sequence. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and A Clockwork Orange (1971), 2001: A Space Odyssey was inspired by Kubrick’s love of and fascination with extraterrestrial life.įilmed at England’s Shepperton Studios, the space was large enough for scenes shot of the monolith discovery and the opening sequence featuring our ape friends. Sitting between the releases of director Stanley Kubrick‘s Dr. We slowly get to know scientists and crewmen Dr David Bowman ( Keir Dullea) and Dr Frank Poole ( Gary Lockwood), working alongside three other scientists kept in stasis, and the ship’s computer HAL (voiced by Douglas Rain), a HAL 9000 known for never, ever making a mistake. Skipping ahead by 18 months, the spacecraft Discovery One is bound for Jupiter. As he and his crew land and approach the artefact – identical to the monkey tribe’s monolith – it’s hit by sunlight and lets out a high-pitched radio signal. Floyd refuses to confirm or deny the rumours, but when we watch him present in his team meeting he urges complete secrecy that he’ll be travelling to a lunar crater to investigate a recently discovered artefact, buried in the surface four million years ago. During his flight he meets a group of Russian scientists who let him know that there are rumours quickly spreading that Clavius and its team are ‘ incommunicado‘ (one of my favourite words, ever). Jumping ahead in time by a few million years or so, we meet Dr Heywood Floyd ( William Sylvester), Chairman of the United States National Council of Astronautics, flying through space to visit Clavius Base, a US lunar outpost. From there we see the tribe use them to hunt with, and then to fight off their rivals. As they adapt to its presence, they’re influenced by its strange alien powers, and discover that they’re able to use tools made from bone. As the sun rises and sets, the apes wake up to find a monolith (much like the one found in Utah) standing in the sand before them. We open on a prehistoric African desert, watching a tribe of great apes scare off another from a watering hole. Now, I’m not saying that this discovery is my serendipitous fault, but if aliens attack I’m outta here. Which has been great timing on my part after news surfaced this week that a mysterious monolith has been found in the middle of a desert in Utah… To catch up, I’ve been watching a title a month that I think other people would deem ‘a classic’, and November’s choice is 2001: A Space Odyssey. If you’ve stuck around for the last 11 months, you’ll understand that I’ve seen zero films…well, I’ve previously missed many of the big, blockbuster classics and cult favourites but, thanks to my film degree, I have seen lots of post-War German cinema if you’re interested.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |