2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
* Airs on TCM on Sunday, June 1 at 6 pm ET

SYNOPSIS

A tribe of prehistoric ape men learn to use weapons after discovering a mysterious black monolith. Centuries later, U.S. astronauts discover a similar object on the Moon, only to be nearly deafened by the high-pitched signal it emits on being uncovered. Astronauts tracing the signal to Jupiter are placed in a perilous situation by the ship's computer when it malfunctions and develops a super-ego of its own. The sole survivor of the mission is eventually confronted by another monolith that sends him on a cosmic journey through space and time, leading to a re-birth in some other form.

Producer/Director: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
Based on the short story "The Sentinel" by Clarke
Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth
Editing: Ray Lovejoy
Art Direction: John Hoesli
Cast: Keir Dullea (David Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole), William Sylvester (Dr. Heywood Floyd), Daniel Richter (Moonwatcher), Leonard Rossiter (Smyslov), Margaret Tyzack (Elena), Frank Miller (Mission Controller), Vivian Kubrick ("Squirt," Dr. Floyd's Daughter), John Ashley (Astronaut), Douglas Rain (The Voice of HAL)
C-139 m.

Why 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is Essential

The creation of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was as big an epic as the movie itself. Employing teams of professionals in every field from space flight to food services, Stanley Kubrick set out to make what he simply described as a "good science fiction film." His first step was to contact famed author Arthur C. Clarke, and over the next four years the two men crafted a "fictionalized science lesson" which was to be a coming of age of the entire human race.

One of the crowning achievements of 2001: A Space Odyssey was the level of detail, which surpassed even Kubrick's usual demands. With the help of Scientific Consultant, Frederick Ordway, the production collaborated with companies like Whirlpool, RCA, GE, IBM, Pan Am, and NASA to provide a technological product placement. In exchange for discussing their plans for the future, and providing feasible designs for futuristic devices, cooperating companies would earn a place in the movie's environments. Hence, 2001 ASO is littered with amusing logos like Pan Am on the shuttle, and Howard Johnson's on the hotel in the space station. These little touches make life in space that much more believable.

This same commitment to detail was extended to the groundbreaking special effects in the film. During the "Dawn of Man" sequence, Kubrick employed front projection rather than rear projection, which was most common. Kubrick felt that rear projection never looked convincing, so he mounted a projector from above and projected the background slide behind the set pieces at very low light. The result was a completely realistic environment. But without convincing ape-men, the background would have gone entirely to waste, so Kubrick employed British makeup artist Stuart Freeborn to bring early man to life. Though Freeborn was snubbed for an Oscar for makeup in lieu of Planet Of the Apes (1968), Freeborn's complex masks and prosthetics actually allowed actors to articulate their lips more convincingly than those used for Planet of the Apes. Stuart Freeborn went on to design creatures for the Star Wars films.

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With only 40 minutes of dialogue, 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most purely cinematic film experiences since the coming of sound. In a Playboy interview, Kubrick described it as "...a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with emotional and philosophic content." Many hailed it as the mainstream's absorption of underground filmmaking techniques and the death knell of the big-budget, traditional narrative Hollywood film. It clearly inspired later filmmakers to view their work more as visual experience than cohesive storytelling.

The space sequences proved no less imaginative. Because characters would be traveling and living in a variety of environments onboard spaceships, Kubrick needed to find a realistic way to blend both gravity and weightless conditions. The techniques ranged from the simple method of mounting a pen on a piece of rotating plexi-glass so that it appeared to be floating, to actually rotating the set, while the actors roamed about inside. The weightless space walk sequences were achieved by suspending actors, and in some cases set pieces like the "pod" transports, from the ceiling by wires. The "floating" actors were then shot from below, their bodies hiding the wires. For the "stargate" sequence, FX Supervisor Douglas Trumbull devised what was called a "slitscan machine." The machine helped with the process of photographing backlit transparencies of artwork, exposing each frame for a full minute, and moving the camera and artwork in sync, recording the art with a "streaked," stylized fashion. The result was the appearance that Dave Bowman was moving through time and space at infinite speeds.

Taking just over four years, and costing MGM $11 million, 2001: A Space Odyssey was met with mixed reviews when it premiered on April 12, 1968. Critics pretty much hated the film, calling it slow, boring, and confusing. Luckily, for Kubrick and Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey struck a cord with younger audiences, who made the film the second biggest box office draw of 1968.

2001: A Space Odyssey is now widely praised as a remarkable achievement for its realistic depiction of space flight during a time when our space program was in its infancy. Years before we actually set foot on the moon, Kubrick and Clarke not only envisioned settlements there; they showed us an unsettlingly accurate portrayal of the lunar surface.

True, the film can be confusing ¿a point that Clarke concedes. During a trip to Hawaii from his home in Sri Lanka, Clarke was detained by an immigration official who joked, "I'm not going to let you in until you explain the ending of 2001 to me." But the film's ambiguity is part of its importance. Had Kubrick spelled it out entirely, he would have robbed viewers of the experience, and we would not still debate it today. As Kubrick himself commented, "...it's a non verbal experience - the truth is in the feel of it, not the think of it."

by Bill Goodman