Posted on 03/09/2018 6:09:34 PM PST by Rummyfan
Fifty years ago next month, invitation-only audiences gathered in specially equipped Cinerama theaters in Washington, New York and Los Angeles to preview a widescreen epic that director Stanley Kubrick had been working on for four years. Conceived in collaboration with the science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, “2001: A Space Odyssey” was way over budget, and Hollywood rumor held that MGM had essentially bet the studio on the project.
The film’s previews were an unmitigated disaster. Its story line encompassed an exceptional temporal sweep, starting with the initial contact between pre-human ape-men and an omnipotent alien civilization and then vaulting forward to later encounters between Homo sapiens and the elusive aliens, represented throughout by the film’s iconic metallic-black monolith. Although featuring visual effects of unprecedented realism and power, Kubrick’s panoramic journey into space and time made few concessions to viewer understanding. The film was essentially a nonverbal experience. Its first words came only a good half-hour in.
Audience walkouts numbered well over 200 at the New York premiere on April 3, 1968, and the next day’s reviews were almost uniformly negative. Writing in the Village Voice, Andrew Sarris called the movie “a thoroughly uninteresting failure and the most damning demonstration yet of Stanley Kubrick’s inability to tell a story coherently and with a consistent point of view.” And yet that afternoon, a long line—comprised predominantly of younger people—extended down Broadway, awaiting the first matinee.
Stung by the initial reactions and under great pressure from MGM, Kubrick soon cut almost 20 minutes from the film. Although “2001” remained willfully opaque and open to interpretation, the trims removed redundancies, and the film spoke more clearly.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
“I just don’t see Strangelove as effective in the light that it (at least in my generation) was never much more than a cult film.”
The movie didn’t have to remain popular to be a propaganda victory. Once the ideas it contained were implanted in the consciousness of the general population, its work was done.
Boring movie...except the scene where HAL is singing Daisy. Only good thing in this worthless waste of time.
See how simple that was?
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Yep, but that presupposes anyone on this forum other than a handful ever heard of Nietzsche, let alone read his work. Anyway it was obvious after seeing the movie for the first time back in 68.
The opening scenes still stick with me.
Thinks about the mass media whining and virtue signaling and screaming—and then think about those apes whining and virtue signaling and screaming around the monolith.
While we humans claim to be the pinnacle of nature we spend most of our time imitating those apes.
“interpretation of the arrival of the “Star Child” on Earth”
Among my humble interpretations of that the arrival of the ‘star child’ on earth scene was a loop back to the initial contact scene. The Star Child being the source of the monolith.
The first time I saw it, I was stoned. That helped.
See my previous post, I think you’ll like it quite a lot!
See my Alexa post a few above this.
Precisely.
I’m pretty well ignorant re that Alexa thing, but it kinda makes my neck hair stand up.
Strikes me as inviting a spy into your house AND paying for the privilege.
No thanks, HAL.
Agreed .. mesmerizing !
At the time I thought it was a marvelous movie and a realistic peek into our future...we were very optimistic.
“What struck me about the movie was the rationality of the actors roles.”
Partly the point of the movie: The movement of humans toward machine, and machine towards human.
That stress pill addiction will eventually get to you.
Best movie ever: “The Best Years of Our Lives.”
Story behind paywall.
I was at the premier at the Uptown theater in Washington D.C. In 1968. Gary Lockwood, one of LBJ’s daughters, and lots of people from NASA were there. I sat near the front, and it began with a full house and an enthusiastic crowd. When I turned around at the intermission, the balcony was nearly empty, and more than half the people in the theater had already left.
If I remember correctly, that was ‘Colossus The Forbin Project’ a ‘made for tv’ movie. Very interesting and thought provoking..
The book was written from the original script. In it, Discovery ‘s goal is Saturn, not Jupiter, and we see more of Clavius base than just that conference room. Saturn’s rings were a little too much for mid 1960’s technology, given Kubrick’s standards.
I just bought a new car and it’s like a spaceship inside. Think I’ll name her Hal.
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