Batman and Robin was a boring movie. Especially the action scenes. It’s funny how fights were super-duper over-sized but I’ve seen arm wrestling that was more enthralling. I don’t really connect with it.
2001 on the other hand is completely captivating. It may have still scenes but they are well composed scenes that put you in the place and what it feels like to be there.
Loved 2001 when it came out in the late 1960s.
Saw it again in 1983 and was bored shitless.
Haven’t bothered with it since. I have to think that if there had been some subtle thing that made the tedium worthwhile, I’d have noticed it as a 29 year old, rather than as a 14 or 15 year old, and I would have liked it the second time rather than the first.
At Arisia 2012 they did a steampunk version of 2001.
Here’s the HAL-900 from it:
You can’t see clearly in the picture, but HAL’s eye is on an old bellows-type camera. The horn in the upper left goes to a rotating Edison Cylinder for HAL’s voice.
Other images:
For those who find 2001 boring, I’d like to give my perspective on the opening scenes of a barren rocky desert with nothing happening. It struck me as an accurate portrayal of Earth back then without the teeming hordes and all the modern noise, just nature being nature. For the apes, barring the occasional leopard attack and fight over the waterhole, the highlight of an ape’s day would usually have been finding a juicy plant behind a rock, and that’s it. It was a slice of life from that long ago reproduced so realistically on the screen that I was transported back to that time.
I think that was a big reason for the success of 2001, and why I was so thoroughly moved by it without understanding the story. Kubrick’s attention to detail and insistence on accuracy produced a believable realism that put me in every scene. When Bowman left Discovery to encounter the monolith, I was vicariously right there with him. I felt the same trepidation at what was about to happen, and experienced the mind-bending trip through the stargate just like he did.
Now, who said what about boring?
So I saw it again on the big screen over the weekend (I’ve lost count how many times in a theater at this point) and a couple things about Dave’s timeline:
The BBC broadcast with their interview suggests that they’ve been on their mission for a matter of weeks. Let’s say 1 month, or even two. The suggestion is that not too long thereafter, HAL delivers the misdiagnosis of the AE-35 uni, which leads to the events surrounding Frank’s death as well as the 3 other hibernating scientist before Dave pulls the plug on HAL.
Then, eventually, Dave makes it to Jupiter. But I’m guessing they didn’t get too far in that first couple of months, and if the communication unit with Mission Control was good, wouldn’t have Dave told NASA about the loss of his crewmates?
Or do you think that the video he saw revealing the real purpose of their mission would’ve so alienated him that he cut off all contact with Mission Control himself? The non-AI side of HAL was still running the basic life support functions of the ship (including navigation, I’m guessing) so Dave had lots of time to read by himself before he arrived in Jupiter–since wouldn’t it take a year or so to get there? He’s not traveling via some fake hyperspace conceit. This is going to be a slow ride, especially solo.
We can also assume that the cover story about the epidemic on the moon to mask the discovery of the monolith was never lifted. The video Dave saw suggests that that incredible archeological lunar find was never revealed publicly! How would people react if the Starchild flew up to wave Hello and the US government goes, “Oh yeah, we didn’t tell you but years ago, we found this thing that proves other life exists in the universe. Our bad.”
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Most of this was covered in the book. (Though he went to Saturn there.) We see an asteroid in one of the pictures of Discovery, so he is pretty far - I can check on the time lag mentioned in the broadcast and we can figure out exactly how far.
He is broadcasting as he goes into the stargate. (Referenced in The Last Hero, one of my favorite lines in all of Pratchett.)
The fallout is shown in 2010. Word comes out - it is hard to hide losing a ship and crew, and Floyd gets fired. No one at that time knows what happened - Bowman doesn’t come back until 2010. I suspect work of TMA-1 gets out also - they can’t keep Clavius quarantined forever after all.
I don’t know the book, but, from what I know of Pratchett, may I venture a WAG? “My stars, it’s full of God!”
No, someone who fell off the disk said “Oh my god, its full of elephants!”
You should read it. Duh, that goes for any Pratchett book, of course. I like it because it was such an unexpected reference, which made it funnier.
One of the Nancy Buttons (Sold by Nancy’s Calligraphic Buttons, a big dealer at SF cons) reads:
**2001 Dalmations
“My Stars! It’s full of Dogs!”**
If you look carefully in Star Trek: First Contact, you’ll see that the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-E, also has AE-35 units. Nice little homage.
“it’s a great movie, if only for the visuals.”
“There is no plot, there are no actual characters, and nothing happens of note.”
“People who like this film are idiots.”
2001 is my favorite film.
It’s absolutely not just about the visuals, it’s The Odyssey + The Sentinel + Thus Spake Zarathustra.
There is absolutely a plot and I figured it out after seeing it about 15 times after it came out on VHS in 1993.
Lots of sex allusions.
David Bowman is Odysseus - the ‘bow man’.
HAL is the Cyclops. Dave kills HAL with a key … the sword.
The ‘singing’ before the apes and man touch the monolith is the siren song.
The radio signal from the moon to Jupiter is an orgasm.
Discovery is a penis.
The pods are sperm.
Humans are the DNA in the pod.
… which makes the monolith a ?..
I am making a video explaining the movie and I’ll post the link here.
1968 was a pretty good year for films.
2001 held up well against Barbarella,
I’ve always felt one’s enjoyment of this film is affected by how you experience it. I saw it on its roadshow release, projected in 70mm in a brand-new theater with a deeply curved 70-foot Cinerama screen and six-track stereophonic sound, state-of-the-art for the time. It was quite impressive. I saw it later at my dinky neighborhood theater, and it was not so much. I understand how many people would find it “boring,” given today’s limited attention spans, but having grown up with the motion pictures of the 1960s, which were stylistically much different from what we typically see now, its pace doesn’t bother me at all.
I recommend 2001 to people, but with some very stern caveats:
This is not a conventional film. Don’t expect it to be.
Dedicate a full 3-4 hours without interruptions. This allows for watching and then a little contemplation afterwards.
It moves very slowly compared to most other films. Let it go at its own pace.
The first 20 minutes are not a mistake, you did not rent the wrong film.
The ending is controversial, and even people who like 2001 (such as me) sometimes aren’t crazy about it.
Watch the sequel, 2010. A much more conventional film, and also worth seeing.
Try to think of this as an “experience”, rather than merely watching a movie.
I would also recommend reading the book as it will clarify a few things. Having said that, I love 2001 and have it on DVD and seen it a zillion times. But then I do like some slower, more contemplative movies (I like the second version of Solaris (I’ve never seen the original)).
And I really like the realistic feel of most of it as well.
I fall squarely in the “one of the best movies ever made” camp. Loved it. Sorry.
Yes, and the fact that this motion picture is still being discussed, debated and dissected, passionately loved and intensely hated some 54 years after its release is proof of its landmark status in the long history of film. Does any other film from 1968 engender that kind of discussion?
I’ve told this story before on the boards, but not for a while.
I grew up near Tacoma, and my mom used to take my brother and me to Seattle to go to the science museum or the zoo. When I was 8 or 9, we were riding the monorail and saw a theater marquee that was showing 2001. We begged mom to take us, so we were back a week later to see it. I was bored out of my mind. I thought there were supposed to be space ships, and instead there was 30 minutes of monkeys. But I never forgot it.
I grew up. I read the book, I’d seen the movie on TV a few times, and probably read some background about filming it and what it was all supposed to mean. I grew to appreciate it, but I’d never seen it again on a big screen. Well, I saw that it was going to be a theater in Seattle, so I decided to go. It turned out to be the same theater. I even tried to sit in the same seat. I noticed some things that I’d never seen before on a small screen. It was one of the best movie-going experiences I’ve ever had.
I’ve seen the original Solaris (on TV), and read the novel, but not seen the remake. I really should.
There is a very superficial plot concerning space ships and computers, some people concentrate only on this plot and try to “solve” it ultimately getting bored and frustrated. However, the movie is hugely symbolic with many shots and lines of dialogue representing something else. Consider the very end of the movie after the credits have rolled, the music continues playing over a totally blank screen for a full five minutes. What does this suggest? Some people also interpret a third level of underlying symbolism concerning the seven diamonds in the star gate sequence. Either way, I find it an absolutely captivating movie and realise I’m hardly breathing at times, totally engrossed in the scenes. PS: The 4K Ultra HD BluRay disk is well worth getting, having been filmed in Super Panavision 70 it translates really well to 4K and the extra resolution is stunning particularly in the background detail of scenes.
I think this is a movie that did not age well. Back in 1968, we were at the height of the space race with the Soviet Union and on the verge of landing on the Moon. Interest was very high in anything “space”. Then, this movie came out, and people found it fascinating. 50+ years later, it is simply dated and has lost any fascination it may have once had.