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2001: A Space Odyssey (Remastered) [Blu-ray]

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 8,818 ratings
IMDb8.3/10.0
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December 18, 2018
Remastered
2
$9.99 $6.39
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Genre Science Fiction & Fantasy
Format NTSC, Blu-ray
Contributor Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Arthur C. Clarke, Margaret Tyzack, Douglas Rain, Leonard Rossiter, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Frank Miller, Stanley Kubrick, Gary Lockwood, Keir Dullea See more
Initial release date 2018-12-18
Language English
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Product Description

2001: A Space Odyssey (Re-Mastered) (BD)

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Product details

  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.4 ounces
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Stanley Kubrick
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ NTSC, Blu-ray
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ December 18, 2018
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Douglas Rain, Frank Miller, Keir Dullea, William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood
  • Producers ‏ : ‎ Stanley Kubrick
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Studio Distribution Services
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07KHKWNPW
  • Writers ‏ : ‎ Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 8,818 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
8,818 global ratings
The Most Influential Film Ever Made
5 Stars
The Most Influential Film Ever Made
This review covers the film — not the specific BluRay presentation. I’ll review that later.Within the industry and art form of motion pictures, the importance and influence of Kubrick’s “2001: a space odyssey” cannot be overstated or even overestimated. There is quite possibly no other film that has had the level of impact and inspiration on subsequent generations of filmmakers and the art of filmmaking that 2001 has had.Yet for many modern film viewers, the movie is often perceived as dull, opaque, unfathomable and pretentious. In fact, when 2001 debuted it received many of the same criticisms. The film was pilloried by critics and at premiere screenings audiences booed and even walked out of theaters.But despite this initial reaction, audiences lined up to see the movie. The film became not just a commercial success, but a popular phenomenon with the younger generation of movie-goers in the 60s. Partially fueled by the drug and counter-culture of the time — 2001 was ultimately accepted in the way Kubrick had intended — people went to “experience” the movie. Instead of being told a clear, specific story with conflicts and resolutions, 2001 presented the audience with a grand mythological journey — from the origins of humans to their technological future and beyond. And it did so by abandoning the conventions of storytelling and asking the viewer to simply absorb the sights and sounds of the film and allow themselves to have an instinctual, emotional response.2001 is not a movie that delivers the standard conventions of plot and character in a 3 act structure. It does not follow the rules and precepts of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero Of a Thousand Faces” that so many thousands of screenwriters were told to adhere to lest they lose the audience’s attention and interest.2001 is a narrative. But it is a meta narrative. Its story concerns the very nature of existence. It proposes a secular solution to the mystery of life. How did we get get here? Are we alone?Clarke and Kubrick imagined a a story that answered the notion of why humans are self aware and technologically capable by way of a mythology that is based on the mystery of science. Science so deep and advanced, we cannot distinguish it from magic.Kubrick wanted a movie that told the story of mankind’s evolution in the universe — from lowly ape to early man to eventually a Superman. The next step in higher intelligence.Kubrick was drawn to an Arthur C. Clarke short story that suggested an advanced alien race travels the universe looking for nascent intelligence and then once discovered, helps it along in critical next steps steps of cognitive abilities. Just enough to see if the formative intelligence becomes capable of developing technology that allows that to start traveling their local solar system and exploring their origins. The aliens leave a buried artifact on the closest nearby moon that — when uncovered — signals to the aliens that — yes indeed — this group of intelligence has made the leap — and are now possibly ready for the next step in evolution.To achieve this — Kubrick felt that trying to tell this story in ordinary fashion with lots of dialogue and conversations and drama would come off as pretentious or hokey — or at the very least would drain the mystical and magical quality he felt the film needed. He knew he had to get the audience to experience such moments of alien contact and alien manipulation of the human mind in way that felt experiential — magical and holy. He knew he needed viewers to have a personal, spiritual experience with the film — not a dramatic one.What Kubrick was seeking was much closer to the experience one has when walking quietly through a massive cathedral — one of the grand medieval cathedrals of Europe — where the person is overwhelmed by the stunning beauty and grandiosity and silence of the cathedral — Kubrick knew he needed the viewer to experience space in this manner.And that is why the movie seems slow to many modern, younger viewers. Kubrick needed you to sit in the cathedral of space — and in the austerely beautiful technology of 2001 — in order that you could absorb the reality of the mind-bending spiritual myth he was laying on you.SPOILERSIn traditional narrative-sense, Kubrick actually moves the story along at quite a clip. Man-apes are fighting for shrubs in a desert. Alien artifact appears. Man-apes learn to use weapons. First murder in human history. A bone club weapon cuts to an orbital nuclear weapon 200,000 years later in 2001. Mystery of something dug up on a moon base. It’s the same artificat we saw with apes. It sends a signal to Jupiter. Humans follow that signal to Jupiter to find out where alien artifact came from — or is leading them to. Along the way, humans murder the first machine intelligence it ever created. A test? The last vestige of violence humans will leave behind?END OF SPOILERSAll along the way — Kubrick is telling you the story with an incredibly efficient, fast moving narrative structure — but he also needs the viewer to settle into the elongated time-scape of space travel. Why? Because it’s vital the viewer experience the space mission in a way that gets them to fully believe in what’s happening. To get them to accept what they are watching is real. So that the viewer stops thinking they’re watching a movie.Think of it this way — you’ve gone to see your Dr and you’re placed in a Waiting room — expecting bad news. The longer you sit, the more you absorb all the various specific elements of the waiting room. All the mundane details and objects you see become more than just real — they become important — and the stakes about what you’re going to hear gather weight. Now imagine your Dr is about to tell you mind-bending news about having cancer and needing chemo therapy. Your body is about to be transformed. That long, long moment in the waiting room is all about accepting the reality of that journey. In 2001, humans are in a waiting room about to meet their alien doctor — their alien overlord — who will deliver the prognosis of their future. Life, death or transformation awaits.In other words the “boredom” of 2001 is not a flaw — it’s a feature. A vital feature.Beyond that — it’s nearly impossible to explain to the young film movie-goer how far advanced the effects of 2001 were at their time. Today’s films have the advantage of powerful computers to easily create seamless special effects of almost type. But back in 1966-67 there were no computer—generated effects. No CGI. It was all created on film. Analogue film. Multiple shots on differed strips of films are combined in an optical printer to look like they are all in one shot. Think of it as “artisanal” special effects — hand-crafted special effects. Even Doug Trumbull’s breakthrough slit-scan device that created the very computer-generated-looking Star Gate sequence that gives a dizzying sensation of flying through a wormhole of wildly colorful light — was a hand-built machine that achieved the illusion of fast movement with stop-motion animation — requiring days of filming to create just seconds of screen time.Same with the interior sets. All real. All painstakingly built by hand. Many of them rotated. The giant centrifuge set for the Discovery set was a massive Ferris wheel. Cameras and actor bolted to floor while it turns. The Dawn of Man man-apes were created with costume designs that were decades ahead of their time — all donned by a mime troupe that spent months studying real ape movements. The effect was so convincing that many people simply assumed real apes had been trained to “act out” the scenes. To the point where make-up and costume designer Stuart Freeborn’s amazing accomplishment was completely overlooked by the Academy awards — giving best make-up effects instead to the much more primitive and unconvincing “Planet of the Apes.”In the end, 2001 is not a film to be seen like one would go see Star Wars or a Marvel movie. It’s not entertainment. Its not a consumable flight of fancy — no matter how enjoyable those types of movies are. As pretentious as this sounds — 2001 is a work of art. It’s meant to challenge the viewer. To stimulate their senses and creat an instinctive impression. It’s not meant to be easily understood. It is a film that was made to present a mythology of how humanity came into existence. So it’s meant to be an experience. You can’t have normal movie expectations when you watch it. There’s no bad guy. No good guy. Justice is not served. It’s much bigger than that.It’s more — “What if we’re here because of alien intervention? And what if we passed the aliens’ first test? And they want us to take the next step in evolution? Evolution that will open our minds the inner workings and mysteries of the universe? We will become beings that will be capable of transforming matter and energy in a way that appears entirely magical to us now?Kubrick knew he couldn’t tell that story in normal Chris Nolan terms. Not even in Marvel Thanos Iron Man Capt Marvel tesseract terms.That’s why 2001 is not a normal movie to watch. It’s a cinematic experience the likes of which we have never seen before.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2022
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5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Influential Film Ever Made
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2022
This review covers the film — not the specific BluRay presentation. I’ll review that later.

Within the industry and art form of motion pictures, the importance and influence of Kubrick’s “2001: a space odyssey” cannot be overstated or even overestimated. There is quite possibly no other film that has had the level of impact and inspiration on subsequent generations of filmmakers and the art of filmmaking that 2001 has had.

Yet for many modern film viewers, the movie is often perceived as dull, opaque, unfathomable and pretentious. In fact, when 2001 debuted it received many of the same criticisms. The film was pilloried by critics and at premiere screenings audiences booed and even walked out of theaters.

But despite this initial reaction, audiences lined up to see the movie. The film became not just a commercial success, but a popular phenomenon with the younger generation of movie-goers in the 60s. Partially fueled by the drug and counter-culture of the time — 2001 was ultimately accepted in the way Kubrick had intended — people went to “experience” the movie. Instead of being told a clear, specific story with conflicts and resolutions, 2001 presented the audience with a grand mythological journey — from the origins of humans to their technological future and beyond. And it did so by abandoning the conventions of storytelling and asking the viewer to simply absorb the sights and sounds of the film and allow themselves to have an instinctual, emotional response.

2001 is not a movie that delivers the standard conventions of plot and character in a 3 act structure. It does not follow the rules and precepts of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero Of a Thousand Faces” that so many thousands of screenwriters were told to adhere to lest they lose the audience’s attention and interest.

2001 is a narrative. But it is a meta narrative. Its story concerns the very nature of existence. It proposes a secular solution to the mystery of life. How did we get get here? Are we alone?

Clarke and Kubrick imagined a a story that answered the notion of why humans are self aware and technologically capable by way of a mythology that is based on the mystery of science. Science so deep and advanced, we cannot distinguish it from magic.

Kubrick wanted a movie that told the story of mankind’s evolution in the universe — from lowly ape to early man to eventually a Superman. The next step in higher intelligence.

Kubrick was drawn to an Arthur C. Clarke short story that suggested an advanced alien race travels the universe looking for nascent intelligence and then once discovered, helps it along in critical next steps steps of cognitive abilities. Just enough to see if the formative intelligence becomes capable of developing technology that allows that to start traveling their local solar system and exploring their origins. The aliens leave a buried artifact on the closest nearby moon that — when uncovered — signals to the aliens that — yes indeed — this group of intelligence has made the leap — and are now possibly ready for the next step in evolution.

To achieve this — Kubrick felt that trying to tell this story in ordinary fashion with lots of dialogue and conversations and drama would come off as pretentious or hokey — or at the very least would drain the mystical and magical quality he felt the film needed. He knew he had to get the audience to experience such moments of alien contact and alien manipulation of the human mind in way that felt experiential — magical and holy. He knew he needed viewers to have a personal, spiritual experience with the film — not a dramatic one.

What Kubrick was seeking was much closer to the experience one has when walking quietly through a massive cathedral — one of the grand medieval cathedrals of Europe — where the person is overwhelmed by the stunning beauty and grandiosity and silence of the cathedral — Kubrick knew he needed the viewer to experience space in this manner.

And that is why the movie seems slow to many modern, younger viewers. Kubrick needed you to sit in the cathedral of space — and in the austerely beautiful technology of 2001 — in order that you could absorb the reality of the mind-bending spiritual myth he was laying on you.

SPOILERS

In traditional narrative-sense, Kubrick actually moves the story along at quite a clip. Man-apes are fighting for shrubs in a desert. Alien artifact appears. Man-apes learn to use weapons. First murder in human history. A bone club weapon cuts to an orbital nuclear weapon 200,000 years later in 2001. Mystery of something dug up on a moon base. It’s the same artificat we saw with apes. It sends a signal to Jupiter. Humans follow that signal to Jupiter to find out where alien artifact came from — or is leading them to. Along the way, humans murder the first machine intelligence it ever created. A test? The last vestige of violence humans will leave behind?

END OF SPOILERS

All along the way — Kubrick is telling you the story with an incredibly efficient, fast moving narrative structure — but he also needs the viewer to settle into the elongated time-scape of space travel. Why? Because it’s vital the viewer experience the space mission in a way that gets them to fully believe in what’s happening. To get them to accept what they are watching is real. So that the viewer stops thinking they’re watching a movie.

Think of it this way — you’ve gone to see your Dr and you’re placed in a Waiting room — expecting bad news. The longer you sit, the more you absorb all the various specific elements of the waiting room. All the mundane details and objects you see become more than just real — they become important — and the stakes about what you’re going to hear gather weight. Now imagine your Dr is about to tell you mind-bending news about having cancer and needing chemo therapy. Your body is about to be transformed. That long, long moment in the waiting room is all about accepting the reality of that journey. In 2001, humans are in a waiting room about to meet their alien doctor — their alien overlord — who will deliver the prognosis of their future. Life, death or transformation awaits.

In other words the “boredom” of 2001 is not a flaw — it’s a feature. A vital feature.

Beyond that — it’s nearly impossible to explain to the young film movie-goer how far advanced the effects of 2001 were at their time. Today’s films have the advantage of powerful computers to easily create seamless special effects of almost type. But back in 1966-67 there were no computer—generated effects. No CGI. It was all created on film. Analogue film. Multiple shots on differed strips of films are combined in an optical printer to look like they are all in one shot. Think of it as “artisanal” special effects — hand-crafted special effects. Even Doug Trumbull’s breakthrough slit-scan device that created the very computer-generated-looking Star Gate sequence that gives a dizzying sensation of flying through a wormhole of wildly colorful light — was a hand-built machine that achieved the illusion of fast movement with stop-motion animation — requiring days of filming to create just seconds of screen time.

Same with the interior sets. All real. All painstakingly built by hand. Many of them rotated. The giant centrifuge set for the Discovery set was a massive Ferris wheel. Cameras and actor bolted to floor while it turns. The Dawn of Man man-apes were created with costume designs that were decades ahead of their time — all donned by a mime troupe that spent months studying real ape movements. The effect was so convincing that many people simply assumed real apes had been trained to “act out” the scenes. To the point where make-up and costume designer Stuart Freeborn’s amazing accomplishment was completely overlooked by the Academy awards — giving best make-up effects instead to the much more primitive and unconvincing “Planet of the Apes.”

In the end, 2001 is not a film to be seen like one would go see Star Wars or a Marvel movie. It’s not entertainment. Its not a consumable flight of fancy — no matter how enjoyable those types of movies are. As pretentious as this sounds — 2001 is a work of art. It’s meant to challenge the viewer. To stimulate their senses and creat an instinctive impression. It’s not meant to be easily understood. It is a film that was made to present a mythology of how humanity came into existence. So it’s meant to be an experience. You can’t have normal movie expectations when you watch it. There’s no bad guy. No good guy. Justice is not served. It’s much bigger than that.

It’s more — “What if we’re here because of alien intervention? And what if we passed the aliens’ first test? And they want us to take the next step in evolution? Evolution that will open our minds the inner workings and mysteries of the universe? We will become beings that will be capable of transforming matter and energy in a way that appears entirely magical to us now?

Kubrick knew he couldn’t tell that story in normal Chris Nolan terms. Not even in Marvel Thanos Iron Man Capt Marvel tesseract terms.

That’s why 2001 is not a normal movie to watch. It’s a cinematic experience the likes of which we have never seen before.
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MAURO CESAR DE BRITO E SILVA
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Brazil on December 9, 2023
Jesus Torres Gonzalez
5.0 out of 5 stars Buena compra
Reviewed in Mexico on September 15, 2023
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Ulysse
1.0 out of 5 stars bad DVD
Reviewed in Canada on April 14, 2019
Tim Atkin
5.0 out of 5 stars Great film
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2019
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Rafael Santiago
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Reviewed in Brazil on April 4, 2023
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