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Film review by John J. Puccio:
"2001: A Space Odyssey." This is why people buy high definition.
Ever since the introduction of high definition in the home, I've heard more than once comments like "The little bit of difference between standard definition and high definition isn't worth the bother" or "You need a television screen that is at least 50" or bigger to notice any difference in high def." To which I can only reply, "Nonsense." I believe people who make such remarks are speaking from any of several motives: (1) They are speaking from ignorance, having never seen or heard a properly set up high-definition system in their home. (2) They are speaking from envy because they cannot afford a good high-definition system themselves, even at today's relatively inexpensive prices. Or (3) they are speaking from fear because they have spent the last decade replacing all of their old VHS tapes with standard-definition DVDs, and now they are unwilling to start over again with HD discs. I could also say these folks are blind and deaf, but that would be peevish on my part. In any case, it has been my experience that high definition does make a difference and that HD can enhance one's enjoyment of the picture and sound of any film, thus increasing the value of the film itself. Although ideally one should see "2001" on a huge theater screen, the next best thing in the home is high def.
Some years ago film critic Roger Ebert asked Tom Hanks what movie had had the most influence on his becoming an actor, and Hanks answered "2001." He said he had never realized the visual power that films possessed until seeing Kubrick's masterpiece, and then he watched it again and again. Since most of today's younger moviegoers have probably never seen "2001" on a big movie screen, only on TV, we hear such comments as those from some of my former high school students like, "It's boring" or "I don't get it." I sympathize. Watching "2001" in pan-and-scan or edited for commercial TV is like reading "The Lord of the Rings" in "Reader's Digest." The fact is, "2001" is perhaps cinema's ultimate audiovisual experience, telling its story almost entirely in pictures and sound; and those are, after all, the major differences between movies and the printed page. "2001" is one of my top-ten favorite films, and while a big movie theater is still the best place to see it, for home viewing Warner's restored, widescreen, high-definition presentation of this MGM classic is better than ever.
"2001" does nothing less than attempt to deal with some of the ultimate questions of the universe: Who are we, where did we come from, and where are we going? The movie deals with the evolution of the human race and then muses on the probability that not only is Mankind not alone in the universe, but that we may have had outside help with our development. The screenplay, co-authored by Kubrick and science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, contains little plot and even less dialogue. Yet it conveys through its eloquent, often majestic images and creative inferences answers to age-old mysteries. Clarke said the film was "...an attempt to convey the probable place of Man in the hierarchy of the universe." It's true that Clarke went on to write three more books about the continuing adventure, in the process providing too much banal explanation for the far more imaginative possibilities he and Kubrick first proposed in "2001." But if one can put aside the author's later over-clarifications, one can revel in the film's endless mysteries and argue interpretations until the suns come up. Alternatively, if viewers prefer not to think about any of it at all, they can take pleasure in just watching the gorgeous scenery and listening to the atmospheric music. Again and again. Thank heaven for HD DVD.
The film opens with Richard Strauss's introductory fanfare to "Also Sprach Zarathustra," and can you think of a more-famous opening shot? From there Kubrick divides the movie into four parts, each punctuated by the director's use of classical music to set the tone. In the first part, "The Dawn of Man," humankind's ancient, apelike ancestors learn to use tools through the influence of a giant, black monolith that suddenly appears in their midst. Then we come to the second part, "From Earth to the Moon" (preceded by one of the most audacious edits in the history of cinema--a split second that jumps millions of years), humans discover a giant, black monolith identical to the first one, buried under the lunar surface, apparently pointing a signal into space. In the third part, "Jupiter Mission," Earth sends several astronauts in the direction indicated by the moon monolith. And in the final part, "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," there is yet another monolith, which leads one of the astronauts on a final, mind-bending adventure into galactic rebirth. The film implies that some unidentified higher powers have been guiding Earth's progress and destiny for eons.
There are only a few important characters in the film. The first is Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester), head of the space agency that assigns the astronauts their mission to Jupiter. The next are astronauts Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood). And the last is the HAL 9000 computer, with his easygoing voice (Douglas Rain) and maddening penchant for insisting on always being right. Arthur C. Clarke has denied that he chose the initials HAL because they are one letter removed from IBM. Coincidence, I guess. In any case, John Eastman in his book "Retakes" says that "Kubrick had originally named the computer Athena, which would speak with a woman's voice; then he decided to name it by combining the acronym of 'heuristic' and 'algorithmic,' the two principal learning systems." Anyway, HAL has more personality than any of the other characters in the movie, a clue that this is a story of sights, sounds, and ideas rather than a story of human relationships. The American Film Institute voted HAL the thirteenth greatest villain in movie history.
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that. ... Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? ... "Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it."
The final twenty minutes or so of the movie contain what was in 1968 a state-of-the-art audiovisual show that delighted every pot-smoking hippie as well as every buttoned-down pencil pusher on the planet. It still makes a stunning impression today, especially in this HD DVD edition, and we can easily see how it influenced future films, like the similar climactic visuals in "Contact." For that matter, the whole structure of "Contact" owes much to "2001," a tribute to the older film's continuing impact on storytelling and filmmaking.
The production does not appear dated at all, except perhaps the women's hair and clothing styles and some of the space station's furniture. Additionally, no one in 1968 could have foreseen that in the real year 2001 we would have abandoned the moon as a destination for scientific inquiry, that transportation giant Pan Am would have gone out of business, or that phone calls from an orbiting space station would cost more than $1.70 to Earth. Certainly, nothing about the special effects looks dated, thanks mainly to the imagination of producer/director Kubrick and the wizardry of special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull and others. It's easy to see how "Star Wars," "Close Encounters," "Alien," "Contact," and the rest owe their graphic origins to "2001."
Technical review by Dean Winkelspecht:
Video:
Wow. That one word easily describes my first thoughts when the image quality of "2001: A Space Odyssey" first appeared on screen. There was a long wait to actually see something as a musical selection occupies a black screen for a lengthy period of time before an image of apes finally appears. However, the wait was well worth it and I was quickly blown away by the picture quality of this 1968 film. I have always used Warner Bros. "The Searchers" as reference material for how well a catalog title can look, but after seeing Stanley Kubrick´s masterpiece, John Wayne might be retired. This is just an awesome transfer and the film easily looks better than ninety percent of the more recent science fiction films released. John began his review with the quote "This is why people buy high definition" and I couldn´t agree more. This Blu-ray title reinforced my belief that the new high definition formats are easily superior to the older DVD technology and anybody that spends just a few minutes watching this film would be hard pressed to field a legitimate argument.
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