It’s my favorite because of the cinematography and atmosphere. It’s my favorite because of the themes and philosophy. It’s my favorite because space and psychedelia are cool.
It’s just an all around great movie if you can appreciate the slow pacing and intentionally jarring or tense aspects that drag on. 30 minutes of monkeys fucking around for seemingly no reason (at least, at first). Discordant wailing that lasts so long it nearly leaves your ears ringing. Space shots with no sound at all, or just the hissing of the space suit, which linger on the slow drift of a character moving from one location to the next. A character begging for his life as another dismantles his brain bit-by-bit.
To me, this movie always flys by, and it always feels like i was there in it, fully immersed. To my friends, it lasts a week and has one cool part that took an eon to get to.
Also it begs for multiple watchings to develop a theory of what the fuck is happening at the end and what the obelisk is and where it comes from.
It also raises philosophical questions that are interesting to come up with and grapple with in new ways with each viewing. Is HAL alive? Whats the next leap in evolution? can uncomfortable art be good? Who owns the moon? How did consciousness evolve? What’s happening to Dave?
it truly is, especially visually. The vfx are incredible for any time. And I’m not ever talking about the ending, which is mostly just film-editing; I’m talking about the space scenes that actually feel like space, or the scene where frank makes a complete loop running through the ship, or the zero g scene when the space age is first introduced. That’s all astounding, and it boggles the mind to think how they achieved that with practical fx
And this was made around the time of the original Star Trek and before Star Wars.
Its prescience is a whole other layer on top of that. It was obviously influenced by the space race and how that captured the public imagination: what will we find on the moon? Will we have a moon colony? Will we have commuter class space travel? What’s next, travelling to another planet? Will computers be sentient?
And lo and behold, they were only about 25 years off with some guesses. And it’s looking more and more likely that the rest are coming down the pipe.
2001: A Space Odyssey
It’s my favorite because of the cinematography and atmosphere. It’s my favorite because of the themes and philosophy. It’s my favorite because space and psychedelia are cool.
It’s just an all around great movie if you can appreciate the slow pacing and intentionally jarring or tense aspects that drag on. 30 minutes of monkeys fucking around for seemingly no reason (at least, at first). Discordant wailing that lasts so long it nearly leaves your ears ringing. Space shots with no sound at all, or just the hissing of the space suit, which linger on the slow drift of a character moving from one location to the next. A character begging for his life as another dismantles his brain bit-by-bit.
To me, this movie always flys by, and it always feels like i was there in it, fully immersed. To my friends, it lasts a week and has one cool part that took an eon to get to.
Also it begs for multiple watchings to develop a theory of what the fuck is happening at the end and what the obelisk is and where it comes from.
It also raises philosophical questions that are interesting to come up with and grapple with in new ways with each viewing. Is HAL alive? Whats the next leap in evolution? can uncomfortable art be good? Who owns the moon? How did consciousness evolve? What’s happening to Dave?
Mind boggeling that it was made in the 60’s. Incredibly prescient.
it truly is, especially visually. The vfx are incredible for any time. And I’m not ever talking about the ending, which is mostly just film-editing; I’m talking about the space scenes that actually feel like space, or the scene where frank makes a complete loop running through the ship, or the zero g scene when the space age is first introduced. That’s all astounding, and it boggles the mind to think how they achieved that with practical fx
And this was made around the time of the original Star Trek and before Star Wars.
Its prescience is a whole other layer on top of that. It was obviously influenced by the space race and how that captured the public imagination: what will we find on the moon? Will we have a moon colony? Will we have commuter class space travel? What’s next, travelling to another planet? Will computers be sentient?
And lo and behold, they were only about 25 years off with some guesses. And it’s looking more and more likely that the rest are coming down the pipe.
Did you watch second part, 2010: The Year We Make Contact? Really like quality of effects.
I did not, but you’re also the first person I’ve met who liked it. Does it add much to the original?
This is a really good summary. Such a ground breaking film, good shout for this post.