Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey Since its release over half a century ago, the film has been celebrated in every sense of the word. Early advertising campaigns, capitalizing on the counterculture enthusiasm of the time, called it “the ultimate journey.” In 2020s buzzwords, the film is “intense” in the sense that it’s bold, with many unprecedented aesthetic and dramatic twists. New Video Essays Just one more thing Further explanation 2001 It has been described as “the most difficult film Kubrick ever made,” which certainly makes sense given Kubrick’s uncompromising ambition as a filmmaker.
In one of the many interview clips that make up the 23-minute video, Steven Spielberg recalls a conversation he had with Kubrick towards the end of the director’s life: “I want to make movies that bend the format,” Kubrick would often tell Spielberg. Perhaps he had already done just that. 2001continues to take first-time audiences on a journey like they’ve never experienced a movie before. Unlike his more materialistic contemporaries, Spielberg went into the cinema “with a pure heart,” yet “came out changed.” In the end, he didn’t need drugs to watch; “the movie was the drug.”
this is, 2001 It is a purely or primarily abstract piece of cinema. Arthur C. ClarkeKubrick invested a lot of technological thought into the film’s vision of the future, including fully equipped space stations, computers with artificial intelligence, video calling, and mobile devices like tablets. Working in the years before the moon landing, Kubrick Stanley Kubrick: The Complete Works According to author Paul Duncan in his book A Space Odyssey, they “had to completely visualize and make real things that had never happened before.” The realism of their fantastical creations (even down to imagining what Earth would look like from space) was such that, as Roger Ebert points out, the real Apollo 11 astronauts could easily describe their experience: “It was like 2001.”
Conceived at the height of the space race, the film depicts many things that hadn’t happened by the year of the same name, and indeed still haven’t happened today. “We’re not there yet, as depicted in the AI,” star Keir Dullea said in a 50th anniversary interview. “Almost, but not yet.” Still, technology has advanced enough since then that, when we think about the current state of AI, sooner or later we’re sure to hear HAL’s creepy, polite voice somewhere in our minds. The story of the astronauts currently stranded on the International Space Station Contrasting 2001The film depicts Kubrick’s vision of a stable life in space, but the story is The Doctor’s Abnormal Love mode.
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Based in Seoul, Colin MaOnershall Writing and broadcastingHe has written papers on cities, languages, and cultures, and his projects include the Substack newsletter. Books about cities And books A city without a state: Walking through 21st-century Los Angeles. Follow us on Twitter CollinhamOnershall or Facebook.