2001: A Space Odyssey [Blu-ray]

Film culte

So far ahead of it's time. Picture quality and sound is awesome.....

Many think that "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) is one of the greatest films of all time, and even some think that it's the greatest, and I can say that this Stanley Kubrick masterpiece is one of my favorite films of all time! Everything in this film is absolutely beautiful. The stunning visuals, the harrowing plot, the haunting music, the lush cinematography, the beautiful directing by none other than Kubrick. "2001" is way more than a film. It's a cinema masterpiece like no other, just like Kubrick's other films, like "A Clockwork Orange", or "The Shining". This film is simply one of the greatest. The thing about "2001" is some think it's one of the best, and some think it's one of the worst (although very few, and I don't know why they would hate it so much), but the reason that they hate it is for it's slow pace and that there's only about 40 minutes of dialouge in a 2 1/2 hour movie, but the scenes without dialouge, with slow pace really show the beauty of the film, and only Kubrick could have made each and every scene a masterpiece. If you see it for the first time, you might not like it, but the second or third time you see it, you'll most likely be blown away by the beauty (although in just my first viewing, I absolutely loved it). "2001" is an epic sci-fi that questions life on other planets and human destiny, that apparently gets affected whenever a striking black monolith appears. You may not understand this film fully the first time, but the beauty of Kubrick's films is that it takes a few viewings to understand Kubrick's message, and it's amazing. "2001" is broken down into four sections, "The Dawn of Man" where it shows what the title suggests. It shows ape-like humans who learn to fend for themselves. It's about 20 minutes. "TMA-1" shows a Pan-Am space plane orbiting Earth. It focuses on Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) going over plans for a trip to Clavius Base, which is on the moon, with a large number of other members to the very futuristic ship. It's about 35-40 minutes "Jupiter Mission: 18 Months Later" shows spaceship Discovery One, with 2 members, Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), and 3 other members in hibernation. On that ship is a very intelligent computer named HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain), who eventually wreaks havoc to the ship. It's about 55 min.-1 hour long. Finally, "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" shows Dr. Bowman's psychadelic and frightening trip through space, which includes the "Stargate sequence", showing flashing lights moving forward for a few minutes, following the next few minutes of cosmic phenomena and strange landscapes that actually kind of creeped me out (I saw this film in the dark), leading to the ending. It's about 25 minutes, leading the film to 2 hours and 28 minutes, including the 3 minute overture, intermission, and exit music, along with ending credits. The special features on this two-disc special edition of "2001" are pretty good, but they felt sort of repetitive to me. The Disc 1 comes with the film, along with a commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood and the theatrical trailer, and then there's the disc 2. The first special feature is titled "2001: The Making of a Myth". It's about 45 minutes long. It's narrated by James Cameron, and shows different people talking about the making and legacy of the movie. It was pretty good. "Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001" is about 20 minutes long and is another film that talks about the legacy of the movie and different film critics, including Roger Ebert (when he could still talk), praising the film. It's really not much that the earlier featurette hasn't said. "Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001" is 20 minutes of Keir Dullea, the main star of "2001" speaking about the film and what Arthur C. Clarke, the author of "2001" wrote and said about it. It also includes black-and-white audio footage of Arthur C. Clarke. It was a pretty good featurette, but I really like the 60's vintage featurette "2001: A Space Odyssey - A Look Behind the Future". It's about 20-25 minutes and it shows the film being made including footage of Stanley Kubrick. It's one of my favorite featurettes. "2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork" is 9 minutes long and shows Stanley's wife, Christiane Kubrick, talking about the artwork and paintings made for the famous "Stargate" sequence in the film for 3 minutes, and the rest shows the original sketches and paintings. It's pretty cool. "Look: Stanley Kubrick!" is 3 minutes long and shows a montage of photos Stanley Kubrick shot in his few years before directing when he was still working for "Look! Magazine". Here, you see Stanley's extreme talent for photography, which definitely influenced his creativeness in directing. The real treat here is the 1 hour, 17 minute audio-only interview from 1966, where Jeremy Bernstein interview's Stanley Kubrick, titled "Audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick". Here, he talks about his childhood, his photography days, his first movie, "Fear and Desire", and later on, talks about each and every one of his films, leading up to "2001", which was still in production at that time. It's extremely interesting and worth listening to. I think it's the best featurette on the second disc. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a truly beautiful, mesmerizing, and amazing film that everybody should see, and it's brilliance just can't fit into the 6000 characters that Amazon reviews allow. All I have to say is, if you haven't seen this Stanley Kubrick masterpiece, see it now! And see it multiple times after that. It's one of the greatest.

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This 4k remastering of this movie is a must have especially at the $25 price point. I first saw the movie when released in 1968. The 4k colours are fantastic and there is a blue Ray and DVD. The cassette it came in is also worth mentioning due to its top notch presentation.