Filmguide to 2001: A Space Odyssey

90 Pages·1973·6.305 MB·English

by  Carolyn Geduld

Filmguide to
2001: A Space
Odyssey
CA ROLYN GEDULD
rG·l $1.71
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS FILMGUIDE SERIES
Harry Geduld and Ronald Gottesman,
General Editors
PllmpIU
10
2001:
A Space Odyssey
CAROLYN GEDULD
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
BloomiDatoD
LoadOD
u• ......, rr..
Cott7riIbt 0 1m ., lalla. .
riIIata ,. ..
All
No part of dIiI book ma, be reproduced or utiU_ ill form
8D)'
or by any mana, olectroalc or meclaaak:a', lacIudia. pbokIIc)op'y"iq
aD,
and recordIq. or by iaformadoa ..... aDd retrieval
ne
witbDuI penniaioIllll wdtlq from tIae pub1itbcr. AlIOdatioD
of AInericaD Ualwnily Pre.el RaoIutioD on Permillioaa CODIdtuta
.... aaJy excepdoa 10 dais probibkiae.
Publitbed ill Canada by Pit,henry a WbitaWe Llmiled. DoD "iUs. ODtario
eoaan-
Ubrary of cataloi card aUIII.r: 72-1"35
ISBN: 0-253-39305-1 d. D-25J-39306-X pa.
saata
MaauI.:tured iD the United of America
To my parents
Thanks are due to Royal BrowD. ROD Gottesman,
Wmiam Johoson, Scott SaDders,
and, as always, Harry.
contents
1 Credits 3
2 0ut1iDe: 2001: A SptICt 5
Odyu~y
3 The Director: Previous Odysseys 9
4 The Production: A CaleDdar 21
5 ADalysis 29
6 Summary Critique 73
A Kubrick Fdmo. ...p hy 81
BibUoarapby 81
Rental Source 87
Filmguide to
200 I: A
Spac~ Od)'ss~y
I ·
credits
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Metro-Goldwyn-Maycr, Films, Inc .• 1968. Super Panavision,
T echnicolor and Metrocolor.
Dir~ctor and Produc~r Stanley Kubrick
Screenpla)' Stanley Kubrick and
Arthur C. Oarke
Production Company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Sl"cial ED~c's Dir~ctor Stanley Kubrick
Wally Veevers, DougJas
S~cial EO~cls S'lp~r,!isors
Trumbull, Con
Pederson, Tom Howard
Special Effects Photographic Unit Colin J. Cantwell, Bruce
Logan. Bryan Loftus.
David Osborne.
Frederick Martin
t
John J. Malick
Production Designers Tony Masters. Harry
Lange, Ernest Archer
Editor Ray Lovejoy
Hardy Amies
Wa;drob~
Dir~c'or 01 Photography Geoffrey Unsworth D.S.C.
A dditional Photography John Alcott
First A -fs;stanl Director Derek Cracknell
Art Director John Hoesli
Sound Editor Winston Ryder
Scientific C(Jnsullant Frederick I. Ordway ill
3
" to 2001: A Odysuy
Film,,,;d~ Spac~
Music Aram Kbatchaturian.
Gytirgy Used, JoIwul
Strauss Richard Strauss
y
Time: 141 minutcs (venion in general release)
Filmin. began on December 29. 1965 in M.G.M.'s SbeppertOD
and Boreham Wood Studios in England. Fint public Ibow
inl in New York on April 3. 1968.
Dall~ BowntIUI KeirDuUea
Frank Pool~ Gary Lockwood
Dr. Heywood Floyd William Sylvester
Moon-Watelle, Daniel Richter
Smysloll
(1M Russian sc;~nlist) Leonard Rossiter
Elellll Margaret Tyzack
HlIlllorsen Robert Beauy
MichMb Sean Sullivan
HAL's Douglas Rain
lIoic~
Mission Comrol Frank Miller
Stewardess Penny Brahms
FatMr
PooI~'s Alan Gifford
outline:
2001: A Space
Odyss~y
A gigantic pockfaced moon. glorified by Richard Strauss' Also
Sprach Zaratluutra. drifts down the cavernous Cinerama screen.
Sunrise is seen on the Earth-crescenl banging above in the sky.
So begins the cinematic purple-prose of 2001: A Sp«e Odyssey,
a film in four episodes:
( 1) uThe Dawn of Man." This title. appearing after the
view of sunrise beyond the moon and after the credits, brings
us directly to Earth. In silence, we continue with shots taking
us from sunrise to sunset on a forbidding primordial half
desert, where a tribe of apes live a kind of minimal existence
among a herd of gentle tapirs. One ape (Daniel Richter),
called Moon-Watcher in the script. singles bimseU out as the
leader when the mock ferocity of his screams discourages a
rival tribe from using the territorial waterhole.
After an ominous night, the awakening apes ftnd that an
unnatural object has appeared in their den. It is an outsized
black rectangular made more mysterious by Gy6rgy
monoli~
Ugeti's unearthly requiem slowly swelling in the bac:qround.
After Moon-Watcher cautiously fingers the mooolith, the
whole tribe, speUbound, pthen around to caress it as the sun
"magically" over its roof.
~
Some time after, we find Moon-Watcher foraginl as usual
near the broken skeleton of some large. homed animal when
an interruptiDg shot of the monolith suggests a new idea
CDters his c:oosc:iousness. Tentatively. be picks up one of the
larger boDes and tries to use it as a cudgel. His efforts become
more and more vigorous. and while Strauss' triumphant music