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A beautifully produced work of Science Fiction by Stanley Kubrick. This interesting adaptation of a storyline that grew out of the space race chronicles a find on a futuristic Moon base of a monolith that seemingly was buried, on purpose, millions of years earlier. This was nothing that could have happened naturally, but something hidden until Earth man had developed technology sufficient enough to move out into space and explore his surroundings. All of this information is closely hidden from the world's population while a long distance manned space probe is readied for a trip to Jupiter, the destination of a strange signal sent by the uncovered monolith. The subsequent journey, almost totally controlled by an advanced computer system, the HAL9000, unfolds. There are mostly mundane duties for the astronauts who remained awake for the years long journey. All of the rest were in deep sleep hibernation. In this time a special relationship develops between those awake and HAL. But as the ship approaches Jupiter, and it's moons, some stark changes in HAL's personality begin to emerge. This relationship starts to unravel as HAL unexpectedly turns off the hibernation systems and kills all of the sleeping crew members. As HAL's paranoia deepens, it is obvious that something has gone seriously wrong and a battle of logic develops, with HAL being disabled by the remaining crew as a means of survival. The developing back story of the possible discovery of life, and the impact of that on human religious beliefs, are all in the background of this story. The premise of the birth of an ultimate being is one of the suggestions made. . . a bridge between Earth man and the Cosmic man. . . The open ended ending was prime for a sequel or series of sequels, and one followed, years later. This story was straight out of the space race, the Apollo moon missions, the proposed (at that time) Space Shuttle program, regularly scheduled PAN-AM moon shuttle flights to a fictitious space station in Earth's orbit, and on to a series of international Moon bases. This was a perfect example of Si-Fi imagination running wild. All of this was believable, and much of it could have happened. . .or still may happen! The model builders created many great cinematography firsts, and this film was a great success. The musical score was also excellent. A very enjoyable movie, but a movie that left most confused by the ending. I find it curiously interesting that all of this seemingly came on the heels of a popular TV series just several years prior that was gaining much new interest at the time. Of course, I'm referring to the Star Trec series.Read full review
I had a lot of trouble remembering this film from when I was a kid in 1982. I just bought it on DVD and sat with my wife, who had never seen it, and told her what a great movie we were about to watch. Long story short, she went and did laundry 1/4 into this film and I had fallen asleep about 6 times. The scene with HAL was the only worthwhile part of the movie. Not only was I disapointed with the film, I was embarrased that I had spent a couple days talking this film up based on the little I remember and all the hype I've been bombarded with over the last couple decades. Let's face it, put aside the outstanding special effects for its time and the completely non-conveyed beatnik existential point, and you have THE WORST FILM EVER. Because those are the only reasons anyone is all goo-goo over this film. Someone on the IMBD forum said there was no entertainment value in this film. And that was rebutted with "It doesn't have to entertain to be entertaining." Well neither does watching a ceiling fan spin. My 4-month old baby finds ceiling fans the most entertaining thing since her fingers and even she fell asleep watching this. Watching a sequence of a man in his space pod suddenly appearing in a hotel room, then seeing himself out of the pod, then seeing himself eating at the dinner table as an old man, then seeing himself die in a deathbed... can be pretty profound. But literally taking 35 minutes of SILENT film to show this sequence is a good reason to get up and walk out of the theatre. Do you honestly think 40 minutes of psychedelic imagry is necessary to show the audience that he's going somewheres? Hell! Stargate sent people across the whole universe in what IS considered to be a very profound existential concept and they did it in just 20 seconds. In short, they took what was a 1 hour movie tops and porked it to 2 1/2 hours with slow, boring imagry and pretty lights.Read full review
Director Stanley Kubrick created a Masterpiece with this movie. He did win an Oscar for Best Special Effects when the movie was released, 1969, just before the Apollo Moon landing. Kubrick withstood severe and unjustified criticism in making this movie during the Space race of the 1960's. What I liked about this product was the FACT that this movie was way ahead of its time; there was no CGI and Special Effects that the computers can generate now. Kubrick and his staff had to do it the meticulously hard way: on the sets, painted design cards, miniatures, cut jumps, practical lights, and specially designed simulators to show the Astronauts living in the Space Station. There was not the Internet that Kubrick could have used to get stock footage of space that did not even exist in 1968-69. Another thing I liked about the product: no outer space monsters, no boogey-man/zombies. The villain was from an unexpected source. The only thing that was mildly dislikable was the slower moments of the movie; but this is a minor point. I can see where some people got bored at certain times. However, Kubrick had it right again; things actually DO go slower in a space environment. A LOT of inactivity and repetitious activities until something URGENT arises. NASA and their foreign counterparts take great lengths to prevent any sort of unexpected surprises in Space to help prevent loss of life. Again, Kubrick was ahead of the times. Many Space movies followed 2001, and 2001 was the PIONEER for all the Space movies that dared to copy Kubrick's visions. This movie has that look and tone for the Ultimate Space Movie. Kubrick was a Genius. Yes, I would buy this product again, and recommend it to a friend.Read full review
I bought this movie primarily so my kids could see it. I was horrified to find out that the employee in Blockbuster didn't even know what 2001 was. I couldn't imagine and world in which a person entrusted to help me with my videos was perplexed by a classic!!! Who can forget HAL? The claustrophobic feeling of trying to hide from the omnipresent , malevolent HAL, deep in space, cut off, silence so thick it covers every gleaming surface? This is a horror film with no gimmicks, no cheap thrills and no boogey man. A masterpiece that everyone should know about. And the opening is a classic that I was sure people in the jungles of Borneo knew about. When you get a great script and a great director, it's hard to screw up a film and 2001 proves that in every frame. If you haven't seen this film, you haven't really thought about what life would be like if your artificial intelligence-driven world were to take a left turn on you and start thinking for itself. It's even scarier today then it was when it came out, more powerful, more visceral and more contemporary. Not many films you can say that about, except maybe Dr. Strangelove. Oh yeah, I think I remember that director too!!Read full review
The main focus of this movie seems to be the special effects of showing the realistic representation of space and human quarters in space. Many scenes just contain shots of the space stations and the people moving about in the space stations with classical music as background for like 20 minutes, then theres 5 minutes of plot, then new scene. HOWEVER, if you look past these (and try to envision yourself in the time period of the movie, which magnifies the accomplishment of the space-environment effects), the movie is a great story about life, where we came from, and where we're going.
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