For one week only they dusted off
the film cells for 2001: A Space Odyssey, tweaked them, and put them in IMAX
theaters. And, it was exactly how I
remembered it; a slow prodding film, with plenty of time to contemplate what
you were seeing, and lots of well framed static camera shots. Yeah, it’s a long film and it feels that.
In fact, the movie itself feels
like three films, at least, three distinct acts. The first act, with the “ape-men,” is the act
that stylistically and visually feels the most out-of-place from the others. It also is the only act with no dialogue, and
no clear discernible characters (all the ape-men look the same). I wonder now, how different the entire film would
have been (received at least) if the first act had been cut out completely and
it started immediately on the rocket ship going into space. Imagine going into a theater in back in 1968,
thinking you about to see a space adventure film (A SPACE ODYSSEY!) and for the
first thirty minutes you watch a bunch of similar looking ape-men in a desert
wasteland yelling at each other in monkey-like noises. I’m sure
that it was, plus the difficult to understand plot and ending, a factor in the
film not doing well at release.
But whatever, that’s not what I
thought about while watching the film this time. What I thought about was how wrong they got
the future. The movie and book, both, were
attempting to be something called hard science-fiction. You know, the kind of sci-fi with realistic
expectations that’s been thoroughly researched, and, is loved by snobs a lot
(no offense). However, 2001 turned out
to be pure fantasy.
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We are never going to see real stewardesses in space |
Don’t get me wrong, you tell how
much thought was put into the film from velcroed shoes in low gravity to what food
would be like in space (a selection of different colored baby shit for adults). But, I thought it was funny to see people using
corded phone boxes to make calls back to earth and see people watching low
definition television shows as if those technologies had never improved as
space travel did.
Ultimately, like all science
fiction that presumes to predict the future, the film fails to get it right. The
time was the late 1960s though, so I bet a lot of this was from just pure
optimism. The idea of having regular charted
space flights with attentive stewardesses that would take you to a space
station with a hotel and staff waiting probably made a lot sense back then. I imagine teenagers believed that one day
they would be able to vacation in space or even on the moon. 2001 felt like a long long way away from
1968, and everyone assumed space technology would just keep progressing as did
from the 1940s. Yet the sad truth is,
space travel tech slowed, and eventually hit a wall. The current world, at least, can’t seem to keep
rockets and shuttles from exploding too much.
The idea of a space hotel or a moon base sounds like a pipe dream
now. And, traveling to another planet? That’s pure science fiction nonsense.
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Yes, I took a picture of a ticket stub |
In a way, this makes 2001 seem
that much more depressing now than before.
I also have to wonder too, if the film got the future wrong, then doesn’t
it stand to reason that the film got the past wrong too. The first act, with the ape-men, probably doesn’t
actually resemble how “early man” looked or behaved. I got a hunch that there were a lot of unchallenged, um, ideological assumptions held by the film makers when they set out to make this
film. But, what do I know.
If you haven’t seen it before,
then you should try to see 2001 in IMAX (although you are probably too late as
of reading this unfortunately). It’s definitely
going to be a long time before it’s in the theaters again.
I give the IMAX version of 2001 a B-.
I give the IMAX version of 2001 a B-.
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