...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?
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OK, since you can't tell the edition without a scorecard anymore, here's the story: MGM issued Stanley Kubrick's 1968 landmark sci-fi film, "2001: A Space Odyssey," on DVD in 1998; two years later, Warner Brothers reissued it in this digitally restored and remastered version. Since the Time-Warner Company and AOL and Turner Entertainment and MGM all seem to be connected in one, big, happy family, it's easy to see how the film might pop up under any number of banners. Anyway, the movie has, indeed, been cosmetically improved, and it is one of many Kubrick films to get the new, restored treatment in Warner's Kubrick series, among them "Lolita," "A Clockwork Orange," "Barry Lyndon," "The Shining," "Full Metal Jacket," and "Eyes Wide Shut," available separately or in a nine-disc gift box that also includes "Dr. Strangelove" and an excellent documentary disc on Kubrick, "A Life in Pictures."
In my original review of the MGM edition, I mentioned that I remembered film critic Roger Ebert asking Tom Hanks what film had had the most influence on his becoming an actor and Hanks answering "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 in pan-and-scan on a monaural television, we hear such comments as those from some of my high school students like, "It's boring" or "I don't get it." I sympathize. Watching "2001" cut up for TV is like reading "The Lord of the Rings" in "Reader's Digest." "2001" is probably the screen's ultimate audiovisual experience, telling its story almost entirely in pictures and sound; and those are, after all, the major differences between the screen 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 DVD presentation 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 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 its 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 just in watching the gorgeous scenery and listening to the atmospheric music. Again and again. Thank the heavens for DVD.
The film opens with Richard Strauss's introductory fanfare to "Also Sprach Zarathustra," and from there the story is divided into four parts, each punctuated by the director's unique use of classical music to set the scene. In the first part, "The Dawn of Man," humankind's ancient, ape-like ancestors learn to use tools through the influence of a giant, black monolith that suddenly appears in their midst. In the second part, "From Earth to the Moon," 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 two 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 millions of years.
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 laid-back voice and maddening penchant for always insisting on being right. In his final book in the "Odyssey" series, "3001," Arthur C. Clarke denies that he chose the initials HAL because they are one letter removed from IBM. Coincidence, I guess. 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.
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