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Dan Owen reviews
Metrodome
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MTD 2001
- Running time: 136 minutes
- Year: 1968
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 32 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.0
- Languages: English, German
- Subtitles: English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish,Icelandic, Italian
- Widescreen: 2.21:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 1 * DVD 9, 1 * CD
- Price: £39.99
- Extras: Trailer, Booklet, Film Cell, CD soundtrack
Director:
- Stanley Kubrick
(A Clockwork Orange, Dr Strangelove, Eyes Wide Shut,Full Metal Jacket, The Shining)
Producer:
- Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay:
- Arthur C. Clarke & Stanley Kubrick
Music:
- Aram Khachaturyan, Gyorgy Ligeti, Richard Strauss & Johann Strauss
Cinematographers:
- John Alcott & Geoffrey Unsworth
Editor:
- Ray Lovejoy
Cast:
- Dr Dave Bowman: Keir Dullea
Dr Frank Poole: Gary Lockwood
Dr Heywood R Floyd: William Sylvester
HAL 9000: Douglas Rain (voice)
Smyslov: Leonard Rossiter
Elena: Margaret Tyzack
Moonwatcher: Daniel Richter
In the mists of human history, a group of primitive apes, find a black”monolith” structure outside their cave dwelling. Millions of years later,the descendents of those early apes – human beings – are beginning theirexploration of the Universe, and discover another monolith – on the Moon…
2001: A Space Odyssey is a masterpiece. It’s undeniable. It’sunquestionable. It’s fact. This extremely ponderous, epic, cerebral filmgarnered huge notoriety and mixed reviews when it was first released, yetover time its legendary status keeps on growing, managing to enthral wholenew generations of movie-buffs.
The scale and scope of the film is awesome; the time-span it crosses ismillions of years, its budget at time of release was massive, the monumentalthemes it grapples with are at the pinnacle of human philosophy. Some peopleeven declare it to be a religious experience. It’s easy to see why.
Director Stanley Kubrick created many legendary movies in his lifetime, butit’s 2001 that will forever be intrinsically linked to his name. It bothconfuses and inspires throughout, sucking you in to its unique narrative andcovering you in its near-silent, tense, atmosphere.
Kubrick was an eccentric genius and perfectionist, sometimes filming scenesalmost 200 times just to get the *perfect* take (in the case of TheShining), and even here you can see the fruits of his labour. Everything is”just so”. The composition of the shots, the camera-angles, the measuredminimalist acting, the note-perfect voice of computer HAL, the awesome lightdisplay of the climax. Perfection.
Never has Space been so realistically portrayed – eerie, silent, tense,awesome, beautiful. The choice of music is legendary – classical tracks,such as the Blue Danube, float through the cosmos, making the spin ofspacestations a glorious ballett of motion and spectacle.
It’s humbling to think that this movie is over 30 years old. While the realyear 2001 couldn’t be further away from the vision predicted by Arthur C.Clarke, in terms of special-effects there are very few shots that elicitsnickering and embarrassment. 2001 refuses to age…
However, especially for modern audiences, the pacing is often too slow.Although the hypnotic quality of the film would be damaged by cutting suchlengthy sequences to the bare minimum, it’s would still perhaps benefit fromsome editing and certainly be made more palatable for contemporary tastes.But that’s the only gripe.
From the opening, gorgeously filmed, scenes with the prehistoric apes(incidentally, the makeup there is better than the original Planet Of TheApes, although that film won the Oscar!), to the thought-provoking anduplifting finale, 2001 isn’t so much a movie… more a moving piece ofart, blending sound and vision into an epic film odyssey.
No film should ever dare try and better 2001 – it’s unique. In over 30years, no film has ever succeeded in trying to answer such spiritualquestions about evolution and the creation of the Universe. 2001 itself isnever so forthright as to give a definite answer, it just leaves audiencesto make up their own minds – meaning the film can be debated and ponderedfor decades. Perhaps forever.
With that in mind, if you haven’t seen 2001: A Space Odyssey but *have*heard about it (who hasn’t?), then I urge you to buy this DVD and, with anopen mind and tolerance for the slow, but necessary, narrative… watchit… think about it… learn from it… it truly is one of the best filmsever made and a true, *true* classic.
The 2001 box-case is a deceptive treat. It’s unique grey “case-box” is, atfirst, a welcome and sturdy looking piece of manufacturing, but… looks canbe deceptive! Inside, the 2 discs are seated at each end of the box inplastic casing, that soon unglues from the box-case and causes theinner-packaging to fall out whenever you open the box!
Still, you do get a carrying the film and a CD with the fullsoundtrack, which has been restored and remastered, and is a terrificcollection of spine-tingling classical tracks. Criminally, the only extra onthe DVD is the original theatrical trailer – that manages to encapsulatesthe scope and power of the movie, although the style of the trailer hasn’tdated very well! Where are the interviews? The documentaries? The script?Deleted scenes? Alternate takes Kubrick ditched? Screen-tests? Make-up’behind-the-scenes’ footage? Where? I’ve *seen* such extras, so I *know*they exist, but why aren’t they here on this special DVD box-case? It’s a*huge*, and unforgivable, disappointment for such an important film. Headsshould roll.
There is, as if trying to make amends, an mildly interesting 16-page bookleton the film enclosed in the case, and a collectible 70mm limited editionsenitype image from the movie. Sadly, the amount of separate materialsinside the case-box only add to the frustrations of the box-case – withbooklets and other bits-n-pieces falling out whenever the box-case isopened! It would have helped if the box-case atleast had some kind oflocking mechanism to prevent things spilling out. Both discs are alsocradled on very shallow ‘roses’, meaning you sometimes feel you’re in dangerof over-bending and snapping them just to get them out to play!
The artwork on the case and discs is minimalistic and, frankly, a littleboring, failing to capture the epic nature of the film in any way, althoughit does capture the no-thrills advertising poster-work of films released inthe 60’s. Hopefully that was the intention!
Thankfully, the picture quality of the film itself is exemplory. I’d onlyever seen 2001 previously on bad quality video in 4:3 ratio and anincorrectly proportioned widescreen on the ‘Turner Classic Movies’ channel.So, for the first time since it was released in theatres, the movie ispresented in its correct aspect ratio (2.21:1) and has been digitallyremastered accordingly! As such, it’s as if the movie was filmed yesterday,with rich, virbant colours, pitch black space scenes, pure white spacecraftinteriors, and blood red astronaut suits. Perfect.
The audio has also been revamped into Dolby Digital 5.0, meaning the grandscore and the film’s climax have never sounded better. The opening apessequence also heralds a cacophony of haunting ape-calls and eerie desertplain sounds of nature. Excellent.
Overall, an immaculately presented film with a very welcome separatesoundtrack disc, but everything else is a *massive* disappointment (besidesthe senitype image, which is kind of cool…). They really should have triedbetter, and I can already imagine a further re-release is on the cardsbecause of this. Still, atleast the main reason for buying the DVD – thefilm – has never looked or sounded better.
DVDfever Ed:: A standalone DVD is due for release on September10th 2001 for £19.99 as part of the Stanley Kubrick Collection,but it doesn’t appear to have any other extras.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.