Tonight I rewatched 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm at the museum of the moving image —i've grown up with the film, yet i've come to realize that it's a really a fascinating and unique film on a number of levels:

1. it's a very much a european art film done on with a hollywood mega budget (and with hollywood level special effects) 

2. there really isn't a single star that carries this film from start to finish, you have heywood floyd carry the 2nd act, and then you have david bowman carry the 3rd act 

3. it's a film about the future, yet it seems to capture something very unique about what was going on in the 1960s (from modernism, to the space race, to the fashions and even mega corporatism of that era) — so in a sense it's what makes the film dated really fascinating 

4. even though it's a european or british film, it still has a very american centric take on the near future (granted of course that kubrick was a product of america)

5. you never really see the aliens, which is quite brilliant 

6. i never really appreciated the sound design of the film because it's so easy to get lost in the soundtrack — but it has some really nice touches from the flies buzzing the apes to breathing sounds within a space suit (even the way the sound carries from one scene overlapping to the next)

Agree.

$1.70 for Floyd's video phone call home was a bit off though. So was the photographer winding on film during the photo shoot at the moon excavation.

I watched it on cable yesterday.

I also found reading the book (20 years ago) greatly helped with enjoying the film.

Great review, incredibly insightful. One of my regrets is missing the showings in 70mm when Christopher Nolan had the new print made in unrestored form.

2001: A Space Odyssey returns to theaters in 70mm for its 50th anniversaryStanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was released in American theaters 50 years ago this week, blowing the minds of a generation primed for its heady themes and psychedelic visuals and changing sci-fi filmmaking forever.news.avclub.com

You're so lucky to live where you could find a showing. I checked and here in California, there are none currently. Damn.

i hope it gets a wider release, it was a real pleasure to watch — it was also nice seeing a level of detail that you might not see on a tv set

the film has an interesting mix of technology predictions as a benchmark of where we are or aren't. so it's kind of dissapointing to me that we're only now talking about going back to the moon vs. say sending manned exploration trips to jupiter. yet the film gets some things right from visualizing an iPad to voice recognition.

there are other things as well: the film nails the end of the cold war very well, or at least could hint at that. yet it shows men and women in very traditional roles, and a lack of racial diversity (which you do see in star trek which was made in the same era).

nails the end of the cold war

Although its escalation is one of the premisses in Clarke's sequel, 2010.

clarke was a gifted science fiction writer (childhood's end was an amazing book) and an amazing futirist — yet that said I always tend to view 2010 as being more of a cash in attempt by clarke rather than being a legitamte creative work related to the film.

2001 is really a complete story, so adding a follow up was missing the point. the genius of the film was what kubrick brought to the story. so 2010 is to me really bad fan fiction at best (it's also a good example of what hollywood does poorly).

the best films are based on the average books (the godfather is a good example of this), and the genius of kubrick was his ability to rewrite and flesh out a script — so i see that film as more of his baby.

Actually I really enjoyed 2010 for a number of reasons. But mostly the explanation of why HAL wigged out.

I drove an hour to see Apollo 11 at a great IMAX theater with huge screen and I will never forget it. They had incredible found 70mm footage that was lost for 50 years. The detail was amazing.

The original changed the way I looked at clouds forever. This, to me, is a sign of true art.

The other thing I recall was Mad Magazine's brilliant satire of the monolith:

I recall was Mad Magazine's

Indeed - "Dem Bones!"

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Great post and insight. If the theater and 70mm is not an option, the restored 70mm was made into a 4K release available at Amazon:

After finally seeing this in the original format, my next "big read" is going to be the Odessy series.

Turned up in my You Tube feed on the back of searching for that Mad Page. Fassskinatin'.

Yerp - The extra detail in the books joins a lot of the dots that the movie doesn't reach.

Also check out an anthology of ACC's short stories if you haven't already done so.

'The City And The Stars' is outstanding.

Thanks, the anthology is also on my list...

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