2001: A Space Odyssey

a dumb plotty question: what was HAL's plan if Bowman hadn't forgotten his helmet? and since he used the emergency airlock anyway, it made no difference. poor planning, evil HAL!

btw the jargon and empty pleasantries of Floyd and the other bureaucrats are sooooo unmistakably satire, and Leonard Rossiter is absurd.

Mark Crispin Miller's 1994 piece is quite good (tho I'd rather ignore the venom directed at MST3K at the end):

"I'm sure you're all aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural shock and social disorientation contained in this present situation," he tells the staff at Clavius, "if the facts were suddenly made public without adequate preparation and conditioning." That last proviso makes it clear that Doctor Floyd is, in fact, ideologically a close relation to those other, creepier doctors at the Ludovico Institute; the whole euphemistic warning of "potential cultural shock' betrays his full membership of that cold, invisible elite who run the show in nearly all Kubrick's films, concerned with nothing but the preservation of their won power. Surely, what Doctor Floyd imagines happening "if the facts were suddenly made public" would be uncannily like what we've seen already; everybody terrified at first, and then, perhaps, the smart ones putting two and two together and moving, quickly, to knock off those bullying others who have monopolized what everybody needs -- "the facts" having instantly subverted those others' ancient claims to an absolute supremacy....

In 1968 the 'futuristic' world Kubrick satirized so thoroughly was not, despite the title, some 30 years away. The changes the film foretold were imminent. Within a decade 2001 was already getting hard to see -- and not just because ever fewer theatre managers would book it, but because its vision was starting to seem ever less fanciful and ever more naturalistic. In other words, the world that Kubrick could confidently satirize in 1968, looking at it -- as an artist must -- from a standpoint well outside it, would soon begin to look so much like the world, that the delighted mass response of the late 60s would soon give way to reactions cooler and less comprehending. Now viewers were less likely to feel 'so impressed', so 'awed", and more likely to reply, "So what?" an indication not of the film's datedness, but of its prescience.

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0011.html

also totally forgot Floyd's remark that the Clavius personnel will have to "sign security oaths." Some utopia, eh?

I think the nuclear weaponry orbiting at the start of the 2001 section indicates, subtly, that its not a utopia.

Except almost no one recognizes that as such, including me until I read about it. Looked for the Air Force logo last night, didn't see it.

Really, it's not clear at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_2001:_A_Space_Odyssey#Military_nature_of_orbiting_satellites

Well, fair enough. It's Kubrick, who just did the world's most famous nuclear war film, where he focused on bomb
shapes, so I feel it is strongly implied. Maybe just me then.

but he was wary of mining that vein for exactly that reason, it seems.

Anyone else ever spot that the bone, before it moves out of frame briefly, is rotating anti clockwise, only to descend once back in the frame clockwise? Not an accident by all accounts; makes the match-cut appear even more awesome. Somehow.

I agree with all of it, I think its true

piscesx, there's a cut while the bone is in flight, right?

Yeah it spins upwards anti-clockwise, goes out of frame then there’s a cut, then it comes back in shot spinning clockwise.

that set was so expensive, they really ought to have loaned it out to Dr. Who or whomever.

More chess:

https://scontent.fman1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/37900930_10155580010586787_2623881910098591744_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=d4df2b9f645d878e39d83f573d5e596e&oe=5C081197

Stan beat George repeatedly, sez the legend

then he tells an outright lie for the first time in his life... And immediately after that he predicts the fault in the AE35 unit.

...just a moment...
just a moment...

Some utopia, eh?

the original Utopia was only possible through slaves mining gold in order to run everything. the ideal has never been real. tho they do have robots doing their work for them here (until they rebel & kill their masters).

I think the nuclear weaponry orbiting at the start of the 2001 section indicates, subtly, that its not a utopia.

― glumdalclitch, Friday, July 27, 2018 12:36 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Except almost no one recognizes that as such, including me until I read about it. Looked for the Air Force logo last night, didn't see it.

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, July 27, 2018 12:37 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can see him not wanting to make it a nuclear thing just to avoid tempting critics into accusing him of having this grand statement when he is just exploring these things. tho i def think there is a "technology changing man" theme in much of his work.

it doesnt matter at any rate. whether it is military or not, it is still a symbol of the Cold War. at the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War, the US brought over 1,600 German engineers, scientists, and technicians, many of them Nazis, and given dual citizenship to be employed in the struggle against the USSR in the Cold War. famous rocket scientist Werhner Von Braun had worked for the Nazis and took his experience with the V-2 to Alabama in order to help JFK's dream of getting us to the moon become a reality. the man who developed the life support systems for the Apollo missions, Hubertus Strughold, had previously done human experimentation for the Axis powers, including inducing epilepsy in children and inhuman pressure chamber experiments. awards were given in his name in the US space community until 2013.

not to mention it was not even needed for him to make it explicit, people were bombarded daily with nuclear propaganda, he had just made a movie all about it, etc.

but earlier scripts HAD made it explicit.

2010 hasn't aged well, precisely because it made it explicit.

2010 is such a depressingly literal-minded movie

It's telling that the plot hinges on the recording of Bowman saying "My god, it's full of stars" which was only in Clarke's book, not in Kubrick's film.

Many many xp to all the chess talk, but when the Kubricks first came back to the US after "Paths of Glory" and he was between jobs, he paid their bills by winning at poker against their showbiz friends. Apparently he could have been a pro at that, too.

Pink all along, nerds across the world wipe their brows and pick another argument.

https://filmandfurniture.com/2018/08/exclusive-original-2001-djinn-chair-from-kubricks-film-set-has-emerged-and-settles-a-debate/

I think '2010' is a good sequel because it doesn't try to be like '2001'. It fits 1984 the same way the original fits 1968.

I’ve literally never heard anyone suggest those magenta chairs were red xp

v important thread

How children reacted to "2001: A Space Odyssey," according to a 1968 Howard Johnson's menu. https://t.co/NtYCUYfSFk pic.twitter.com/KCnmzAtV4r

— Robert Loerzel (@robertloerzel) October 23, 2017

now i'm wondering how many of those giant cereal boxes in The Shining were product placement

the shining was conceived solely as a means to showcase the big wheel tricycle iirc

Where can buy that cute bear costume?

probably the place Cruise bought his costume in EWS

Saw it again for the first time in more than a decade, still unmoved.

were you supposed to be moved, tho? or was your mind blown?

By the second hour my mind was blown alright

You and KJB should talk about it some snowy night in front of the fire.

probably the place Cruise bought his costume in EWS

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, August 8, 2018 10:18 AM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Now you made me go look up what the heck ever happened to Leelee Sobieski.

She had a career path set up as younger/flashback Helen Hunt, did a fairly good Joan of Arc miniseries, and then a bunch of bit roles.

The look on the faces of the punters in the background.. much like the aeroplane pics of passengers 'as calm as Hindi cows' in Fight Club.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DeOTGd9XcAACNsr.jpg

I miss hand-lettering in comics (though I bet the letterers don't).

The computer in Demon Seed >>> HAL

I don't miss hand-lettering in comics, because I avoid comics with computer lettering as much as possible.

Alfred, I get the feeling you're not much of a Kubrick fan in general. How accurate am I?

Correct! One of the few cases when I think of his fans (mostly guys who blather about his depths). I like most of his films through Lolita and love Barry Lyndon.

Finally going to watch “2001,” the way Kubrick intended. pic.twitter.com/G8Pd6LBZLD

— Chris Regan (@ChrisRRegan) August 7, 2018

lol

"through Lolita"! which SK admitted was made too soon...

I'm rewriting the dialogue in 2001: A Space Odyssey to more accurately reflect the period it's set in pic.twitter.com/ChAdhtgTQf

— How do i get the rose in my name (@i_zzzzzz) April 25, 2016

when should kubrick have made lolita, if not in 62?