2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, and was inspired by Clarke’s 1951 short story “The Sentinel” and other short stories by Clarke. Clarke also published a novelisation of the film, in part written concurrently with the screenplay, after the film’s release. The film stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain and follows a voyage by astronauts, scientists, and the sentient supercomputer HAL to Jupiter to investigate an alien monolith.
The film is noted for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight, pioneering special effects, and ambiguous imagery. Kubrick avoided conventional cinematic and narrative techniques; dialogue is used sparingly, and there are long sequences accompanied only by music. The soundtrack incorporates numerous works of classical music, including pieces by composers such as Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss II, Aram Khachaturian, and György Ligeti.
The film received diverse critical responses, ranging from those who saw it as darkly apocalyptic to those who saw it as an optimistic reappraisal of the hopes of humanity. Critics noted its exploration of themes such as human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Kubrick the award for his direction of the visual effects. The film is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made.
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I have never seen a Kubrick film that I appreciated. There were some cool shots and aesthetics here and there, but overall I’m not a fan of his style of storytelling.
2001 felt boring. Clockwork felt gross. FMJ was decent in the first half, but I forgot everything after the rifle incident scene. I’ve admittedly never watched the Shining. I get that these movies have been influential to other films, but Kubrick seems over-hyped in the storytelling aspect. Good visuals and music though.
I don’t get it, why are these movies so revered?
He didn’t write the story of many of his films just adapted them so the stories aren’t his fault. Dr. Strangelove he did cowrite and it is excellent. Lots of the respect he gets is for being true to source material. Nobody adapted novels like he did. He also really pushed cinematography and sound engineering to new places.
I was not aware most of his work was adaptations, but I can definitely agree with the point about the cinematography and sound.
Except the Shining is famously not a good adaptation. Not even close to the book. Its a whole different plot at the same setting.
But the Shining is a shitty book
It’s better than the movie.
I am a second half of FMJ defender
Tbf, I just don’t remember it.
I’d give it a rewatch sometime. Really weird behind the scenes coincidence: so Kubrick filmed pretty much everything in England where he lived cause he had a fear of flying but had photos from pre war Vietnam to get the architecture right and all that. They thought this was gonna be super fucking expensive cause they’d have to build all this stuff and then blow it up and find a place in England they could do so. It turns out that the buildings they were referencing were contracted by a british company that also built a block of former neighborhood around the same time in the 30s in England, the area was busted up in ww2 and was due for demolition anyway. So they had a partially bombed out exact replica of what they needed and it was going to be destroyed anyway.