UHD Review 2001: A Space Odyssey UHD Review (1 Viewer)

[Worth]

…I've previously mentioned here how one Friday when Mr Kubrick refused to stop they shut down the lighting board. That resulted in my electrician friend being chased around a Borhamwood supermarket by Kubrick the following day.

Kubrick was a genius, but he must have been an utter nightmare to work for.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Pretty sure that the VHS release of the film that I owned was the silver box with a shot of the Pan Am clipper and the orbiting 'ferris wheel' on the cover. ( 1980 street date?) I hadn't thought of it in years, but the minutiae of the VHS release came tumbling out of the recesses of my mind while reading this thread.

- Walter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Now you've reminded me that the VHS I first watched the movie on had edited out the intermission. I didn't even realize the movie was supposed to have an intermission until years later. I still find that break intrusive. The movie's really not long enough to need or support an intermission.

It’s not about length, it’s about the roadshow presentation format including overtures, intermissions, entr’acts and exit music - if your film played in that format, it included those elements.

Contemporary accounts of seeing the film’s original presentation reported high audience engagement with the intermission - it worked very effectively at heightening suspense during the most narrative segment of the film. In an era where most people who were going to see a roadshow presentation got to see the movie just once, it was enormously effective. It still is at repertory screenings when a large segment of the audience hasn’t seen the film before.

I do agree that it simply can’t be as effective upon repeated viewings. I wouldn’t have objected if the disc versions included the option to play it with or without the break.

Pretty sure that the VHS release of the film that I owned was the silver box with a shot of the Pan Am clipper and the orbiting 'ferris wheel' on the cover. ( 1980 street date?) I hadn't thought of it in years, but the minutiae of the VHS release came tumbling out of the recesses of my mind while reading this thread.

- Walter.

That’s the classic early release. There were a few different ones that utilized that design. The original original was a 1979/1980-era release by MGM/CBS in an oversized case with flap, and that one is fairly rare to find these days. There’s a more common MGM/UA one from not long after that retained the same package design but updated the logo.

 

[Nelson Au]

Well Josh, my memory must be playing tricks with me. I could have sworn I had a copy of 2001 on VHS. but it’s not where I thought it was. I may have given it away after I got into laserdisc. What I think I am recalling is the Kubrick box set that has the white snapper cases. I have that box set. Plus I have it on HD-DVD. And I have the film on the Criterion laserdisc and the MGM laserdisc. I may dig those out later for fun.

And from the DVD/blu ray/4K era, here’s what I have that was more readily available in my cabinet:

I remember going out of my to buy that silver box set in 2001, it has the DVD, the soundtrack CD and a mounted 70mm Senitype film clip.

 

[KPmusmag]

I think I'd enjoy starting a thread dedicated to 8mm/Super 8mm film collecting (the 16mm market was a whole different ball game and could use its own thread). Anyone interested?

I would definitely follow such a thread, even though I would have very little to contribute.

I am loving hearing about everyone's experiences collecting copies of 2001, as much of it echoes my experience. Ah, those days when letterbox editions first started appearing. Fun times. I wish I still had all that media but, alas, space considerations did not allow for that.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have each of those discs you have there Nelson - the only difference is that for my copy of the one on your top left, I have the repack version after Warner put it into a white snapper case (there were two white snapper versions). My copy of that one is signed by Keir Dullea.

 

[Nelson Au]

I have each of those discs you have there Nelson - the only difference is that for my copy of the one on your top left, I have the repack version after Warner put it into a white snapper case (there were two white snapper versions). My copy of that one is signed by Keir Dullea.

That’s really cool you had your copy signed by Keir Dullea.

I was at a Star Trek convention and I could have had Keir Dullea sign the McCall poster art print, but only got Gary Lockwood, Mr. Dullea was taking a break. The signature is so faded now.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Fun fact: Keir Dullea now travels with copies of a “2001” photo that has both him and Gary Lockwood in costume, and he had Lockwood pre-sign a bunch (and vice versa) so if you’re at an event with just one of them, you can still get both of their autographs. That was a clever idea. I’ve never had the chance to meet Lockwood but I’ve seen Dullea speak a bunch of times over the years, and Dan Richter once.





Forgive me looking so disheveled - my twins were very little when this event happened so I was not getting much sleep. This might’ve been the first time I got to go out to do a solo thing after they were born. And then the pandemic happened a couple weeks later so this was basically my last trip out into the world for fun for a couple years.

 

[jayembee]

I still have the Criterion Laserdisc box set that spread the movie to six sides in CAV format in my collection, though my LD player is no longer operational. As I recall, the transfer was mastered from a 35mm reduction source.

According to LDDb, early pressings of that set are prone to laser rot.

I still have the Criterion CAV edition as well. Mine hadn't rotted as of the last time I watched it, which would've been about 20 years ago. It was a 3M pressing, as most of their CAV releases were (at that point in time, Criterion was using 3M for CAV, and Pioneer USA for CLV). There was a point were 3M pressings were dicey in terms of rot, but 3M managed to fix whatever the problem was, and their releases were solid after that. For most of the time that LDs were a thing, the three pressing plants one could depend on were Kuraray and Mitsubishi in Japan, and 3M in the US.

I never had 2001 on VHS. I was a Beta guy, but I don't think I ever had a commercial release of it on Beta, either. It was one of the earliest recordings I made on Beta from TV broadcast, and I think at the time I bought the Criterion LD, I reused the tape.

On edit: After seeing Walter's description of his VHS copy, I realize that I did have a commercial Beta copy at one point. I hunted around for some images, and found an eBay listing of the edition I had:

 

[jayembee]

TBH, I was bored to tears during my first viewing of 2001 during its initial theatrical run. I was a young teenager then so I just didn't recognize the significance of what I was seeing in 1968. Over the decades, my appreciation for this film has significantly increased with the passing years.

The opposite for me. I was 14½ when it came out, and I went by bus from my suburban town to Boston to see it at the Cinerama Theatre. The bus cost $1.60 round-trip, and the movie ticket was $2.00. Add in whatever concession-stand snacks I got, and it cost me a week's worth of paper-route money!

I was enthralled by the movie, enough so that I repeated the excursion 2-3 weeks later.

 

[Robert Crawford]

The opposite for me. I was 14½ when it came out, and I went by bus from my suburban town to Boston to see it at the Cinerama Theatre. The bus cost $1.60 round-trip, and the movie ticket was $2.00. Add in whatever concession-stand snacks I got, and it cost me a week's worth of paper-route money!

I was enthralled by the movie, enough so that I repeated the excursion 2-3 weeks later.

I was 2.5 years younger than you when I watched this film and I wasn’t a big Sci-fi at that time with little interest in space travel.

 

[TravisR]

Kubrick was a genius, but he must have been an utter nightmare to work for.

It's not hard to believe (or understand) that story about Harvey Keitel telling Kubrick "You're fucking crazy!" and quitting Eyes Wide Shut.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Fun fact: Keir Dullea now travels with copies of a “2001” photo that has both him and Gary Lockwood in costume, and he had Lockwood pre-sign a bunch (and vice versa) so if you’re at an event with just one of them, you can still get both of their autographs. That was a clever idea. I’ve never had the chance to meet Lockwood but I’ve seen Dullea speak a bunch of times over the years, and Dan Richter once.

Forgive me looking so disheveled - my twins were very little when this event happened so I was not getting much sleep. This might’ve been the first time I got to go out to do a solo thing after they were born. And then the pandemic happened a couple weeks later so this was basically my last trip out into the world for fun for a couple years.

We had Dullea and Lockwood as guests at the Lafayette in 2004 for a screening and it was a blast. Both guys were friendly to everyone and patiently did a Q&A on a Sunday night after the film, then another hour signing autographs. Standing at the back of the auditorium with the two of them as the stargate sequence ran was a trip all by itself.

 

[Robert Harris]

I don't think it's any secret at this point that Kubrick treated just about everyone who worked for him horribly, sadly.

An unfair statement.

 

[JoshZ]

It’s not about length, it’s about the roadshow presentation format including overtures, intermissions, entr’acts and exit music - if your film played in that format, it included those elements.

I get that, but most of those roadshow movies were also much longer than 2001 wound up being.

Contemporary accounts of seeing the film’s original presentation reported high audience engagement with the intermission - it worked very effectively at heightening suspense during the most narrative segment of the film. In an era where most people who were going to see a roadshow presentation got to see the movie just once, it was enormously effective. It still is at repertory screenings when a large segment of the audience hasn’t seen the film before.

I remember seeing the movie in 70mm during its re-release (that hit Boston around early 2002). There were a fair number of people in the audience clearly watching the movie for the first time, who expressed vocal bafflement when the intermission hit and the lights came up.

I do agree that it simply can’t be as effective upon repeated viewings. I wouldn’t have objected if the disc versions included the option to play it with or without the break.

Yeah, I wouldn't want any label to make a unilateral decision to edit the movie with no ability to see the original, but I would likewise love a seamless branching option to watch without the intermission.

Forgive me looking so disheveled - my twins were very little when this event happened so I was not getting much sleep. This might’ve been the first time I got to go out to do a solo thing after they were born. And then the pandemic happened a couple weeks later so this was basically my last trip out into the world for fun for a couple years.

Two Joshes on this forum with beards and glasses, and twins born before the pandemic. Are you my doppelganger, or am I yours?

 

[JoshZ]

An unfair statement.

Allow me to rephrase: I don't think it's any secret that Kubrick treated just about everyone that he felt didn't live up to his impossible standards horribly.

So, congratulations on living up to his impossible standards, I guess.

The stories about Kubrick's appalling and unreasonable treatment of his casts and crews and assistants are too numerous to ignore or shrug off.

 

[Robert Harris]

Allow me to rephrase: I don't think it's any secret that Kubrick treated just about everyone that he felt didn't live up to his impossible standards horribly.

So, congratulations on living up to his impossible standards, I guess.

The stories about Kubrick's appalling and unreasonable treatment of his casts and crews and assistants are too numerous to ignore or shrug off.

The point that you may be missing is that I’m not an easy leader, and he lived up to my standards.

 

[Nelson Au]

Fun fact: Keir Dullea now travels with copies of a “2001” photo that has both him and Gary Lockwood in costume, and he had Lockwood pre-sign a bunch (and vice versa) so if you’re at an event with just one of them, you can still get both of their autographs. That was a clever idea. I’ve never had the chance to meet Lockwood but I’ve seen Dullea speak a bunch of times over the years, and Dan Richter once.

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Forgive me looking so disheveled - my twins were very little when this event happened so I was not getting much sleep. This might’ve been the first time I got to go out to do a solo thing after they were born. And then the pandemic happened a couple weeks later so this was basically my last trip out into the world for fun for a couple years.

That’s great Josh! Looks like a great opportunity to meet Dullea and Richter. . I was never a big autograph collector, I’d get them if the opportunity arose. That’s really cool Dullea and Lockwood had signed photos for events that has both autographs!

It just occurred to me that the film premiered on April 3rd, 1968. As it’s 56 years as of a few days ago, might have to do a viewing of 2001!

 

[Dick]

Now you've reminded me that the VHS I first watched the movie on had edited out the intermission. I didn't even realize the movie was supposed to have an intermission until years later. I still find that break intrusive. The movie's really not long enough to need or support an intermission.

When seen on a Cinerama screen, which is how this Super Panavision 70 film was showcased during its roadshow days, 2001 was visually overwhelming. I was grateful for an intermission, so I could step on terra firma for fifteen minutes. Nice to rest the eyes a bit before settling in for that wild stargate sequence. Plus, I feel that the intermission was brilliantly placed for maximum suspense and anticipation.

 

[KPmusmag]

The last time I saw 2001 in 70mm was at the Seattle Cinerama in 2016 and I thought the intermission was quite effective.