4th February 2019.
Right …
I’ve …
How do I start this off … ?
OK …
I have a lot of time on my hands, right now.
Frankly?
I’m job hunting.
I’ve a call to make, tomorrow: chasing one particular sunbeam down.
My phone’s screen … ?
Is useable … but really does need fixing: although I’ve got that covered.
The laundry … ? At least, the bit of it consisting of my socks, pants and bits … ?
Done, for the most part.
Although you possibly didn’t want to know about my pants.
Unless you’re looking for something really odd on Patreon.
Oh … and I had just enough savings to order a copy of German retro flïck, Der Golem, today.
I had a spout of arty German silent films, a while back: that, M and the various Mabüse movies are something I’d like to catch … at some point …
Given I haven’t got them … ?
Given I had a quiet night in … ?
Given I wanted to catch a film I’d not seen in a while … ?
What could I do, except dig up the film it’s director called the “the proverbial ‘really good’ science-fiction movie … ”
2001: A Space Odyssey, it was …
And, yes: I think my intro video makes a point …
~≈§≈~
Opening with darks screens and some music, 2001: A Space Odyssey opens at the dawn of man.
Showing us a tribe of out ancestors slowly starving to death: until one day, they taught — by the mysterious Black Monolith that’s one of the films icons — that they can hit things … in order to eat.
~≈§≈~
Many years later?
We see Dr Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) visiting an American moon base in the Clavius.
And giving a speech to the base staff.
He’s sympathetic to their not liking the plague story — it’s caused him an issue or two — used as cover for their discovery.
But given this is the first sign of extraterrestrial life humanity’s discovered?
They can appreciated it’s got to be kept quiet.
It’s only when Floyd himself get’s taken to the discovery that we find out it’s another Monolith …
One that sent a signal to Jupiter, as soon as sunlight hits it.
~≈§≈~
Eighteen months after that … ?
We’re introduced to the crew of the Discovery One.
Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) are the only two human crew members not in suspended animation.
Much like the ship’s one non-human member, the ship’s computer, HAL 9000* (Douglas Rain).
The ship is on a long voyage to explore Jupiter.
And only starts having issues … when the circuit board that controls the ship’s antenna …
Seems to go wrong.
Then proves to be perfectly functional.
Leaving Dave and Frank deeply suspicious of HAL.
A crew member who is foolproof, accurate …
And who can read lips …
You can tell there’s trouble coming, can’t you … ?
~≈§≈~
Now …
Good … ?
I have to admit, 2001: A Space Odyssey still a fantastic looking film …
After all, it’s now a month younger than me: and looking in far better condition, if I’m honest.
It’s …
I’m struggling, here.
Kubrick, himself, when he first proposed making the film to Arthur C. Clarke, literally said he wanted to make the “proverbial ‘good’ science fiction film.”
Frankly?
I think he got that right: science fiction had a terrible reputation prior to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
And, yes: it’s STILL something I found watchable, today.
The film gets the science right in the film: everything in it, bar the Monolith, is a logical extension of what was then regarded as scientifically possibly.
Even HAL’s behaviour.
After all, in the sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two HAL’s killing of Poole, and the hibernating crew members, is as caused by a programming conflict: between his orders to honestly pass on information … and his orders to NOT tell Poole and Bowman about the Jupiter Monolith.
About the only fictional part of the film … ?
Is that we don’t know who to make Star Gates …
Yes … It’s science fiction …
It’s possibly the only piece of SF between the lates 1960s and things like Interstellar and Gravity: as we can possibly view Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr Who, et al, as space opera.
Of a breed that Terry Pratchett called “Fantasy with rivets.”
And yes … …
when I said — in the opening video — 2001: A Space Odyssey changes all the time, I think I meant it.
Watching it back now, I can happily admit to being impatient with Kubrick’s tendency to play us a few minutes of music, along side a blank screen … and admit that — today — I find that tedious …
Tedious enough to press fast forward.
In a better mood, I’d called it brilliant.
Yes: each time I view 2001: A Space Odyssey I’m in a different place.
That … is part of what makes it watchable …
And what makes 2001: A Space Odyssey the good science fiction film it still is …
It changes, every time …
2001: A Space Odyssey★★★★
* Again, in one of the sequels — 3001 I believe — Clarke describes the Monoliths as high sophisticated computers: admittedly, ones build by aliens. I believe Kubrick confirmed this is a very symbolic way. In the design of HAL 9000. It is a big red eye … on a black rectangular background. OK, I can see I’m going to possibly cause an argument, there. But I feel, right here and now, that Kubrick’s telling us the Monolith’s a computer.
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