2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

2018 marks the 50th Anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. I remember walking out of the cinema after I saw it for the first time feeling distinctly… underwhelmed. It was long, hard to understand and a little weird, and my legs ached from the ancient cinema seat. I could not work out what all the fuss was about.

But something about it stuck with me and refused to budge. I spent the whole following week thinking about it. I started reading as much as I could about the production and Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke's collaboration on the dual creation of screenplay and novel. Learning of Kubrick’s intention for the movie to be a subjective experience, as if music or a painting, so that 2001 “hits the viewer at an inner level of consciousness”* brought the film into fascinating perspective.

Likewise the attention to detail and accuracy that made it a benchmark for Hard SF started to get inside my head. But the most astounding fact turned out to be one that had been staring me in the face. That 2001 was released in April of 1968, a full year and change before Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the Moon!

With tiny mind officially blown, I revisited 2001 and it all gradually developed into a bit of an obsession with the film. I've watched it many times since, enjoying it more with every viewing. I love it.

IMDB: 2001 A Space Odyssey

*1970 interview with Joseph Gelmis (well worth a read!)
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0069.html