WELL, this movie wasn't what I expected! What a crazy journey from the dawn of man to...whatever that ending was! 🤣 Loved all the classical music! What are your thoughts on 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Kubrick loves ambiguity in his movies. I was lucky enough to sell a 35mm Camera to the great man here in the UK in my retail says, albeit over the telephone. We took the chance to ask him what the end of 2001 actually means and his reply was: "Sit down, take whatever stimulants you choose to partake in, and watch the movie. Whatever the ending means to you, that's what I wanted for you..."
BTW you should watch the sequel 2010 at some point. It's nowhere near as an experience as 2001 but it's still a good movie. I'm glad you appreciated the period that this was made. It's a year before we actually set foot on the moon for real but Kubrick nailed the look. You can see why the tinfoil hat brigade believe he helped take the landings !
I feel, like a lot of people, your instincts are right-on. It’s a lot to process, and I think in many ways, we’re meant to feel as out-on-a-limb as Dave trying to comprehend a super-intelligence. At each stage of man’s development, there’s a war, and whoever experiences the monolith gets to move forward - first the two proto-human tribes over the watering hole, then later the Russians vs The Americans and the cover story to hide the monolith. Then once that alarm sends the signal to Jupiter, the final battle over who’s going to advance is between mankind and A.I.. HAL 9000 almost wins, but Dave dismantles him and gets to meet the intelligence who created the monolith and sent us the breadcrumbs. But it’s a little like, ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’, because for Dave there’s no conversation or explanation. He’s a fish in a tank. He is kept comfortable and fed, in an uncanny habitat, where time has no meaning, until he’s dead and reborn.
The opening music (which recurs throughout the film, and closes the film as well) is more than a hundred years old, "Also sprach Zarathustra" by German composer Richard Strauss. The piece that plays throughout the space docking sequence is "The Blue Danube", an even older composition, written in 1866 by the great Johann Strauss (no relation) and is perhaps the most famous waltz ever written. The other pieces in the film are by contemporaneous composers, but are taken from existing works: the "sound" of the monolith is from modernist composer Gyorgy Ligeti, whose work appears throughout the movie and is utterly crucial to 2001's cinematic effect. Kubrick originally intended on creating a full score for the film (meaning, music written specifically for the film itself), even hiring a composer who actually wrote pieces for 2001, but thought the classical and modern pieces he and his designers used for "filler" tracks worked so much better. So technically, this film has no score, only a soundtrack.
Yes I have listened to the Music that was composed for the film and my lord I am so happy Kubrick chose to go with the classical pieces! The composed score was terrible!
@@geraldnormandeau4144 That reminds me of Sir William Walton's proposed soundtrack for "The Battle of Britain." His "The War In The Air" is the sole surviving piece, but Ron Goodwin's "Aces High/The Luftwaffe March" makes this movie iconic.
"I totally believe that pen is floating in the air." And I'm going to tell you how they did it! 😎 Fun Fact: Stanley Kubrick worked for several months with effects technicians to come up with a convincing effect for the floating pen in the shuttle sequence. After trying many different techniques, without success, Kubrick decided to simply use a pen that was adhered (using newly invented double-sided tape) to a sheet of glass and suspended in front of the camera. In fact, the shuttle attendant can be seen to "pull" the pen off the glass when she takes hold of it.
My first viewing was very much like your "wtf is this tripfest" sort of idea. I understood that the monolith (the black cuboid thing they touch) basically triggered human evolution. What you may have missed is that, the monolith triggers evolution in general. When Dave went to Jupiter, he essentially evolved into what's known in 2001 realms as the "Star Child". Basically he evolved beyond the understanding of time and space (which is why he was able to see other versions of himself), opening up new views of the universe. Basically, Ape touches stone, ape makes tools, ape conquers world, ape conquers solar system, ape touches stone, ape conquers universe.
Yes, there is an alien life form involved. The book, which Arthur C Clarke, one of the greats of the era, wrote at the same time he wrote the screenplay, is clearest where the film is most obscure. Aliens went looking through the galaxy for someone to talk to, because they were lonely. They kept finding potential for intelligence and left the monoliths to encourage the potential's evolution. So it for example teaches tool use, and Clarke explains in detail what each tool does and how it affected our evolution.. The monolith on the moon was a solar-powered alarm, given a HUGE magnetic signature so if intelligent life from Earth went to the moon, they would find it - looking for that is how you find Iron-ore deposits - and dig it up. When the sun shone on it that triggered the alarm. It also recorded Earth transmissions and sent it on to the Jupiter monolith, which in turn sent it to the alien's homeworld. That is what the room Astronaught Bowman's pod lands in is from, it is a copy of a high-class Paris hotel room from a soap opera. They wanted him as comfortable as possible while they tested him, and transformed him to the next stage of human evolution. See the sequel movie for some clarification, but don't expect a movie like this. it is actually perfectly straightforward. Honest.
Whaaaaa?!!! "2001"?! I'm dropping everything to watch this. I had no idea you were doing this one! I must say: there are three movies I NEVER send people blind into, and this is one of them! I'm laughing at your comment below, lol. "Whatever that ending is". I had a New Year's Eve party once that went on for 3 days! lol. And through the whole thing, I had "2001" on (with the sound off). And people were definitely "under the influence", so people would camp out by the TV sometimes just to zone out, lol. Anyways.....on the 3rd day of the party, it was pretty much down to about ten of us....and someone said "What IS this movie?!" Others chimed in with a similar sentiment. I said "I'll show it to you now! It's considered one of the greats!". I put it on......and when the closing credits came up, 10 people said in perfect unison....."What the f***?!!!!" LOL. Ok, going to watch this NOW! Cancelling EVERYTHING. I don't even mind if you hate it! Just for the effects alone, I'm psyched to see your reaction to them. 1968!!!!! This movie isn't about a space trip.....it IS a space trip! PS: The same day this opened (nationwide), the original "Planet Of The Apes" opened, which is outstanding. 'twas the year of the ape in cinema! lol
2001 was really intended to be seen on a gigantic Cinerama screen in 70mm, at least at certain theaters back then. With a really good sound system. But yes Kubrick intended it as the "Ultimate Trip" backwards in time and forwards into the future and it's supposed put you there with the astronauts etc. and Dave as he travels through the "Stargate." I saw it in theaters as a kid in 1975 and then in 2001 in NYC in a proper theater, and it was 70mm, and it just was fantastic. Can only really be appreciated properly that way.
The theme song sound so contemporary it was actually written in 1896. zubrick was a stickler for details the instruction for the zero gravity toilet are real. HAL(IBM)sings daisy because it was the first song a computer sang.a IBM 7094
I thought of a few other comments to make. First of all, Arthur C Clarke did write a book version of the story. But rather than the movie being based on the book, the two were developed in parallel, with feedback in both directions. Despite this, there are some big differences, the most major being that in the book, the destination was Saturn, not Jupiter. Also, Bowman never tried to retrieve Poole, who was clearly dead. Instead, HAL tried to kill him by evacuating the atmosphere from the ship. But in the sequel "2010," he matched these details with the original movie rather than the book, no doubt because he hoped that it would be turned into a movie. 😊 Another detail was that the Russian that Heywood Floyd chatted with on the space station was called Moisevich, not Smyslov. So clearly it was supposed to be the same guy as in the beginning of "2010." Clarke is famous for writing a paper all the way back in 1945, explaining about the geostationary orbit and how valuable that would be for communications satellites. And he never misses an opportunity to educate the reader about orbital mechanics. In "2001," he wrote about the "gravity assist" where Discovery used Jupiter's gravity to fling itself towards Saturn. Years later, the Voyager probes would use this precise maneuver in real life. And in "2010," he explained about Lagrange points. Just now, that is being used for the James Webb telescope.
To quote some of your reaction lines at the end: "What is happening?" "I don't understand" "Huh?" "What?” "I have no words" That's pretty much the reaction everyone has
Great reactions! Exactly what we said/did while watching this incredible movie in the theater. I had to laugh at your reactions, saying, "That what we said!"
No, you pretty much nailed it as far as interpretation goes. It’s always entertaining watching viewers taking in the final 20 or so minutes of this movie. It always results in a ‘mind blown’ look on their faces and comments along the lines of “what did I just watch?”
This film shows two stages in human evolution - both triggered by aliens. The aliens were the gardeners of intelligence throughout the cosmos - the aliens often supported and nurtured intelligence, but sometimes they also weeded. In the past, Humanity was dying out. The African savannah was becoming a desert, and man was preyed upon by leopards. Man was not able to effectively hunt. The monolith makers saved man - by affecting man’s minds, the monolith gave humanity technology, the ability to use tools ( such as the tapir jawbone). With tools, man conquered the predators, other tribes, and even space. Thousands of years in the future, man was again in danger of dying out. Technology had been taken as far as it could go, with self-aware computers and orbiting nuclear bombs. Man had become bored with space travel - that is why the human dialogue is so bland ( discussing a child’s birthday, talking about ham and turkey sandwiches, etc.). Technology was a dead end - man was in danger of being killed by orbiting bombs, killer computers, and just boredom. The monolith aliens had left an alarm - a monolith buried on the moon which sent a signal when man reached the moon and uncovered it and the moon monolith was struck by sunlight. The monolith aliens took Bowman through a stargate and transformed Bowman into a post-technological creature, who had new horizons to explore.
"The monolith aliens took Bowman through a stargate and transformed Bowman into a post-technological creature" Huh? In the book they put him in a human zoo cell - that was the environment in which he grew old in the movie's end
@@foljs5858 Bowman was transformed into the Star Child, both in the movie and the book. In the book, the Star Child waves his hands and destroys all the orbiting nuclear missile satellites because “he preferred a cleaner sky.”
@@foljs5858 as i always have looked as it, it was death -> rebirth to spacebabby ("post-technological creature"), but I don't know what the official "lore" is
The movie predates the Moon Landing by a year, and considering that it took a total of four years to make, I'd say the Moon Landing didn't have much of an impact on it.
It also didn't have much impact upon the Moon Landing, as the strategy for reaching the moon was decided upon in 1962, two years before the movie production would have began. So both developed essentially in isolation from each other. The funny thing is, even though the classic and iconic film 2001 has no impact upon the space program,... it would be a relatively little known film from a year later called "Marooned" that would have a big impact on it, and spur not only the ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project) mission, forming the beginnings of cooperation between American and Russian space agencies, but also set the precedent for rescue mission contingencies through the rest of the Apollo program (its too bad the Space Shuttle didn't have such rescue options)
I didn’t watch this movie for the first time until the pandemic, and it absolutely blew my mind in every way. It’s astounding, especially considering it was released before the actual moon landing and nearly a decade before the first Star Wars film. It truly was ahead of its time, but the fact that it still holds up so well TODAY is just amazing to me.
It's really amazing that Stanley Kubrick (or was it Arthur C. Clarke?) knew what the Moon would look like (rounded hills rather than jagged peaks) despite not having any close-up photos of the actual lunar surface to refer to. AFAIK, until this groundbreaking movie came out, no other artist ever got this aspect correct. Unfortunately, he didn't depict the Earth quite so well at the end of the movie. It's way too pale. At least he added clouds - though without cloud patterns.
It's brilliant. Kubrick made his operatic movie an unforgettable experience. Dealing with a lot of topics that are still today fascinating and intriguing. Existence, survival, evolution and our still big mistery, the meaning and true nature of life, the what, how and when is/was/become.
The movie convinced me that the aliens that had planted the monoliths and took over HAL were a malevolent force intent on eliminating humans and take over earth.
@H b.34 LOL. You could be missing the point of the film, but maybe people are just too used to faster paced action these days vs 1968. Kubrick's idea was to provoke more questions for the intellect than it answered and let the audience sit & think. But, I do skip over the apes now whenever i watch it now.
@@billolsen4360I do not believe that the aliens took over HAL. What happened with HAL was due to human error, just as “he” stated. The scientists who invented HAL did not include any measures that would have prevented “him” from killing the humans onboard. They just told “him” to complete the mission at all costs. HAL killed them so that he would not be disconnected, enabling “him” to complete his task.
This movie was so far ahead of its time, its crazy. Some bits of production design aside (like the bright red chairs onboard the Space Station) it has aged amazingly well too, in my opinion. The Sets and Effects still look great. As a sidenote, this is the first of only a handful of sci-fi-films to bother with the simple fact that _there is no sound in space._ In this movie, all you can hear is either what the astronauts themselves are hearing (their own breathing, mostly) or nothing at all. And this makes large chunks of "2001" incredibly eerie.
About those "bright red chairs"... BTW, to consider the movie as reality (for the moment), those large magenta chairs aboard the space station didn't have to take up much room when they were carried up there. It would be far more economical to simply pack them as vinyl balloons and pre-shaped fabric covers packed in small, light boxes (one chair per box). Once aboard the station, all that would be needed would be to fit each balloon into its proper place in the cover (only 4-5 needed per chair) and then inflate them with some of the station's air. Presto! Light but comfortable chairs! So what if they look weird? It wouldn't be very practical to lug big heavy chairs up into space. Doing it this way would be much more sensible.
Ok, so the ending (which I"m sure everyone will be writing about): Kubrick hardly ever talked about it, it's up to what YOU see in it....and I thought you "got it" really well, actually. But here's it in a nutshell, the way most of us "understand" it. Dave is transported (people call it a Stargate) by the monolith to basically like a human zoo where he lives the rest of his life, alone. On his deathbed, the monolith appears and he is reborn, a superhuman, the next advance in mankind. Is he really a big infant, floating next to the Earth? Is it symbolic? I don't know. Is the monolith alien intelligence? Is it GOD? Both? Like "Close Encounters" this movie is about the unknowable mysteries of the universe.....and of existence itself!/ The pace of the movie is very deliberate, obviously. His next movie, "A Clockwork Orange", is as fast as this one is slow. / And lastly: this came out in '68, the height of the youth culture of the period, and LSD was very much the intoxicant of the day, so people would see it over and over again on acid, and is definitely a reason the movie was a "hit", lol. Different times! :P (That said: my grandfather LOVED it. My uncle loves it, and he doesn't do any inebrients, so.....I could be wrong.)
@@CasualNerdReactions Just found your channel and since the comment above mentioned Clockwork Orange, you should check it out. It's my favorite Kubrick. If you can get past the mostly unpleasant first 45 minutes, I think you'll find the remaining hour and a half will give you plenty to think about.
This movie is art. It forces the audience to THINK and come up with their own conclusions (unlike most modern movies that treat their audience like stupid children).
I really is art, Venus of Willendorf, Lascaux Neolithic cave paintings, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony level art. If we ever construct our own monolith, a copy of this film should be archived within it.
Actually, it's like most current movies are made by stupid children for other stupid children. I just saw "Dune" though and I was mesmerized. But I also loved the David Lynch movie.
Yes, it's meant as an audio visual experience meant to be seen on a large screen with loud sound that excites your senses including your brain. It makes you think about where man came from and where we're going, artifical intelligence of HAL-9000 which might end up killing humanity, and the meaning of life and other intelligence in the universe. The viewer is meant to let this experience wash over them in silence so unfortunately a reaction video where a person is rambling ruins the experience.
@@altaclippermost Zoomers couldn’t sit through this. It’s not fast paced enough. I grew up in the 80s and 90s on mostly classic movies and some of the better paced movies from my childhood like My Girl and Roger Rabbit. I can’t stand how fast these movies are. There’s no time for storytelling. I’m a writer and it annoys me. You very rarely see a movie where 2 people just sit and talk for more than 30 seconds. 12 Angry Men is one of my favourite movies because it’s just 12 guys in a room talking, with the camera moving closer and closer to their faces. I have ADHD, but apparently it’s not as bad as most kids these days. I enjoyed the Bourne movies and Run Lola Run as a novelty, but I don’t want every movie to be like that, with no pacing and CGI replacing stunts and real filmmaking. I grew up on British television in Canada and it was nothing like American sitcoms. I can’t watch that crap. I need good storytelling.
That's really the way Kubrick intended people to see this movie. 70mm or as big a screen as possible and the best possible sound, although back in 1968 they didn't have the full multichannel audio that they do now, of course. These days the movie sounds and looks better than ever.
Hey Chris. This movie and music was dazzling in the theaters back in 1968 and beyond! I was 13 when my dad and I saw 2001 when it opened in 1968. @ 3:24 Notice the pre-human was looking at the monolith intently just before picking up that bone-club. In the book the monolith was projecting imagery into the brain of that creature to show him what to do with it, as well as a myriad of other images the creature did not understand at first, until needed later. The creature didn't stumble across it but was "told" by the monolith how to use it. Notice back at the pond scene the ones with the newly discovered bone tool/weapons where standing more upright to use them better. @ 4:40 The music is "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss from 1866. @ 5:24 When the price for the picturephone call appeared, that got a chuckle from the audience because of how EXPENSIVE that phone call was, for the time in 1968! LOL! My dad whispered to me "With prices like that, they won't be making too many phone calls from outer space!". Little did we know! LOL! BTW, the little girl was Kubrick's daughter, Vivian. @ 7:13 What you're saying right there Chris is spot-on, exactly why this movie was so impactful in '68 and beyond. 2001 was the "state-of-the-art" in effects then, and ever after influenced and enhanced special effects, story telling and budgets in scifi movies. And as far as moon landings affecting the movie, it's really the other way around. The moon efforts were well underway for a good 7 years at NASA, in the news a lot, so It's likely Kubrick, Clarke and others knew the timing of this movie was perfect. @ 11:25 In the book, the high-pitch signal began at the exact moment the first sliver of sunlight hit the top of the monolith that had not seen sunlight for over 4 million years. It was the smaller monolith letting the giant one around Jupiter know that humans finally have dug it up, and will be visiting Jupiter soon. @ 13:20 Would love to discuss the AI topic with you! @ 31:02 I suggest watching 2001 again, soon without distraction at least one more time then do its sequel "2010: The Year We Made Contact" (1984) made a long 16 years later! We 2001 fans assumed a sequel would come since the ending begs for a sequel, and around the 80s we had given up on it. But what a sequel, and one you need to do a react video on. And it's a great story where you'll get a LOT of those "question marks" answered! One fun thing to do is look out for the two Arthur C. Clarke and the one Stanley Kubrick cameos in 2010. Listening to your summary at the end, I think you GOT the movie, the basic understanding about the alien monolith's influence, computer going haywire for some unknown reason, etc, but baffled over the star child at the end. I suggest you not research it though, as you might get spoilers screwing up your 2010 experience. Research it all after 2010 if you wish, and there's a video of Kubrick discussing the ending, but wait until 2010. So it won't be a shock to you, the same Dr. Floyd character is in 2010 but played by an actor you'll recognize from Jaws. I figured you'd like this timeless classic 2001. I've read all four of Clarke's books on the saga, 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001: The Final Odyssey, and the books have much more detail, so check them out someday. This was an enjoyable reaction, glad you liked it and will look for your 2010 video. ✌️😎
First saw it in the Cooper Theater in Lincoln Nebraska. The movie house was a magical experience in itself, built in 1958, a round building designed for Cinerama so the screen was severely curved, inside dark reddish curtains & walls & very good acoustics. The architecture contributed much to enjoying an escapist movie like 2001.
Bell Labs in 1961 made an IBM 7094 computer sing the song "Daisy Bell". It is the earliest known computer synthesized voice recording. Arthur C. Clarke heard the song, he was so impressed he decided to make his HAL 9000 computer sing the same song in this film.
2001 was released more than a year before the 1969 moon shot landing. All the colors at the end is Dave going through a stargate. If you've ever seen Stargate SG-1 it's a different representation of going through a stargate in space. At the beginning the ape/man throws the bone into the air and it instantly morphs into an orbiting weapons platform. Even after that many eons man is still in the Dawn of Man, our technology may have advanced but we are still the wild animals on the ancient plain that kill each other. Only by evolving into a new life form, the starchild at the end, can we advance.
Imagine it's 1968 with none of the references you were reminded of in existence. Space movies had men in rubber suits as monsters, Forbidden Planet was the most esoteric sci fi to date and it was ten years old. Take a look at pre 1960 scifi and you'll see the quantum leap that this movie took. My high school friends and i watched the premier of this film on an 80 foot wide curved theater screen. I'll just say that when we came out of the theater we were basically speechless something like you must have felt. A stunning viewing experience.
That’s incredible! Really a significant part of history. One day I’ll see some of those films and have an even greater appreciation for how ground breaking this one is.
You really need to see 2010: The Year We Make Contact to get the answers to your questions 2001: A Space Odyssey is a beautiful but trippy movie. After seeing it a few times, I finally decided that the end was the monolith taking him, maybe us, to the next level of evolution, like it did with the monkeys. He's looking back at Earth and maybe about to impart his new knowledge with us?
I love 2010. I even prefer it over 2001. I know it isnt as grand. But I prefer the characters and narrative there. 2010 is a great movie (I really love the books too).
I loved your very intent and often perceptive reaction to this movie. The first watch is just the beginning of trying to understand it, something that will continue to compel and intrigue no matter how many times you might rewatch it.
You are reacting the same way I reacted when I first saw this movie when it first came out on the big Cinerama screen. I was ultimately baffled and yet experienced some kind of overwhelming sensation of transcendence emotionally intellectually spiritually that I'm still unable to fully express in ordinary words.
That "scary" piece of music that plays when the Monolith is first interacting with the human apes and later with the humans on the Moon, is from "Requiem" by György Ligeti, specifically the piece called "Kyrie". It's a really fascinating piece of music and it's definitely a mixture of something very beautiful but very scary at the same time. Definitely worth checking out. :)
Since the monoliths were placed 4 million years ago, I think the hominids (ape-like) were Australopithecus, early ancestors of Homo sapiens. They were the ones who transitioned from eating insects and plants to meat. I’m no anthropologist, but I have read a bit about them.
Saw this in 1968 at the age of 16 by myself, walking in cold. Don’t usually comment, but your response brought back some of the original wonder. Thanks. Kubrick was a genius, a word to be used circumspectly. In this case it applies. Think WHEN this was made. An indelible experience. Thanks for opening yourself up to it.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I agree, I always had ideas about this little movie from the sixties. No, this is an Incredible accomplishment!! Genius absolutely applies.
This is my favorite sci fi movie. I love Kubrick more than any other director. Unfortunately, that is a cliche lol. I hope you enjoy it. Tucking in. Important note: My first watch of a Kubrick film is never near as rewarding as my subsequent viewings. You can never get everything out of his movies in one viewing.
Movies are very expensive to make and studios often dumb down their content so they attract the largest possible audience.Sometimes it's good to feel lost when watching a film because it can stimulates thought and perhaps thinking about it afterwards. Kubrick is a brave film maker because he credits his audience with enough intelligence not to have all meaning spoon-fed to them.
Great, great reaction, thank you, and I think most of your instinctive interpretations are right on the money 😃 10 quick random thoughts: 1) The SFX _still_ look amazing 50 years later 2) An actual soundtrack was commissioned, the classical music was a temp track that Kubrick used for editing, but decided to keep 3) Sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact has a far more conventional narrative, but is far better than it has any right to be and is worth watching 4) "HAL" is alphabetically 1 letter down from "IBM" - _coincidence?!_ 5) Bell Telephone company actually designed the "picturephone" used on the space station... 6) ... and the little girl asks for a telephone for her birthday - exactly the gift a girl of that age would ask for these days! 7) Another good bit of fortune-telling is the big "iPad" the astronaut Frank is watching while eating lunch on the Discovery... 8) ... and the newsreader he's watching is actual BBC newsreader Kenneth Kendall 9) The "star child" we see at the end is a model, but Kubrick also shot footage of a real baby, Sarah Cracknell, who became the singer for the band Saint Etienne (her father was one of the film crew) 10) I'd recommend anyone should see this on a big screen - I saw a 70mm presentation a few years back, which also included musical overture and entr'acte sequences to build up the atmosphere - fantastic!
I saw this at the UC Theater in Berkeley, California. Huge old art-house theater that played a different double feature every day. Rocky Horror on Saturday nights, (midnight), animation festivals, that kind of place. Saw all the old James Bond films, Laurel and Hardy, Pink Panther, Woody Allen, Monty Python, Woodstock, Pink Floyd at Pompeii, The Song Remains the Same, on and on. It still stands, now it hosts live music. People for sure took psychedelics for this film.
The Monolith represented "KNOWLEDGE" like in the bible with the "Tree of Good and Evil". We saw the apes who learned how to conquer arise to dominion. Then 4 million years later we saw a Human become a de facto "god" in an embryo when that same monolith was discovered again, so the monolith seems to have put forth jumps in evolution. Yes, it is very weird, LOL.
Thank you again for a great, thoughtful reaction to a film that has had generations of viewers scratching their heads, even as they were soaking up the awe, wonder and mystery presented in this film. Your final analysis, unsurprisingly, is spot on based on the usual interpretations by viewers, as well as the novel written by Arthur C. Clarke simultaneously with the screenplay. One thing I did not mention in my earlier comments to you was that Kubrick originally used this music in the film as a temporary score, while Alex North was composing an original soundtrack for it. The score is interesting and can be heard on CD and TH-cam, but sounds nowhere near as timeless and powerful as the classical music he ended up using. I'm not a fan of dissonant music in general, but Ligeti's cacophonous music for the monolith and the "stargate" sequence are now favorite listens.
Oh wow! I need to check out the original sound track and try to imagine what that would have been like. I’m sure they made the right choice using the music they did. Astounding.
Well, she did the makings of for The Shining and Full Metal Jacket, I don't think she did a film about her father, unless you count those. She is mainly known these days for being a Scientologist (which made her estranged from the Kubrick family), conspiracy theorist, neo-fascist and anti-vaxxer. It's so weird to see cute kids growing up to be like that...
I think every movie would is better on the big screen, but certain parts of this movie should be mandatory. Other parts I’m terrified to see on the big screen 🤣
@@CasualNerdReactions no, i don't mean just big. This was made for and with 70mm film and iirc 6 channel sound. On a proper cinemascope or cinerama screen this movie would literally sourround you. You would be _in_ it. Nowadays kids watch it on their 6" phone screen and think it is boring
There is a sequel, but...like the books, I think I prefer the first movie without all the big questions answered. There is a fascinating you tube upload of someone examining the meaning of the diamond shapes during the Infinity sequence.
2010 was definitely more of a modern conventional movie experience rather than an artsy film experience. But it appeals a bit more toward me from the standpoint of characters rather than just the world, as well as focusing more on the actual space travel aspect rather than it just being the setting.
@@porflepopnecker4376 In its case, its the story you're watching for, not the "experience" Quite the opposite of 2001, which is all experience, but no real "story"
Your reaction is entirely appropriate and pretty much universal. I was twelve years old in 1968 and saw it in the theater the week it was released. Some fifty-plus years and a hundred or so viewings later I have my own ideas yet I'm still asking your same fundamental questions. Which is the point, I believe. Kubrick was the Dante/Michaelangelo of the last half-millennium.
Funny that you describe this film as "An acid trip" since it was not successful on it's original release but hippies loved watching it on LSD during the later rereleases.
Interesting point that shows how much thought went into this film: the reason that stars can be seen in the Discovery scenes, as well as that the pods carry headlights is because out by Jupiter the sunlight is much fainter, about the same as moonlight in Earth's sky. The Discovery is always lit from behind it's tail, for the same reason; they are moving away from the Sun all the time. When the pods come over the nose-ball of the Discovery into sunlight, they also repeat the film's first image of the Sun - Earth - Moon sunrise, the moon / sunrise over the monolith the monkeymen see and the later Earthrise / Sunrise over the monolith on the moon the spacemen see. This happens again later, close to Jupiter, but in a more complicated way, with all of Jupiter's moons lined up. A series of Dawns for Mankind.
You’re not alone in your confusion. Many people walked out of the theater in the middle of the film in frustration and even anger. Beautifully done movie with no actual plot and an insanely ambiguous ending. I read the book back in 1980 thinking it would make it more clear, but it did the opposite. Anyone that says they ‘get it’ really don’t. I believe at the premiere, Rock Hudson walked out shouting “can anyone tell me what the hell this movie is about?!!” Nonetheless, it is an amazing technical spectacle that ushered in the modern era of sci-fi filmmaking. PS: the beautiful standard classical music pieces were originally put in as just a “place holder” until the score could be written and recorded, but Kubrick decided to keep them in the final cut. 😉
BTW, to consider the movie as reality (for the moment), those large magenta chairs aboard the space station didn't have to take up much room when they were carried up there. It would be far more economical to simply pack them as vinyl balloons and pre-shaped fabric covers packed in small, light boxes (one chair per box). Once aboard the station, all that would be needed would be to fit each balloon into its proper place in the cover (only 4-5 needed per chair) and then inflate them with some of the station's air. Presto! Light but comfortable chairs!
The two classic pieces in the beginning is "Also sprach Zarathustra" ('Thus Spake Zarathustra') by Richard Strauss, and "An der schönen blauen Donau" ('The Blue Danube') by Johann Strauss the Younger.
I saw this on the big screen when it first came out in 1968 (I was 6), and as a child that age, I wasn't too concerned about interpreting a grown-up movie. But I remembered the primitive man scenes, the stewardess with the tray being inverted, HAL cutting the umbilical, and the psychedelic sequence. I didn't see the movie again until it came out on DVD. I recently got to watch it on the big screen again. It was the premier feature at the re-opening of one of our classic movie theatres. My main take away from seeing it in the theatre again was noticing how silent the film is for long stretches. You really don't notice that when you're watching it at home. I could hear the other audience members breathing, and their every movement made a sound.
🤣I laughed at myself when editing cause that didn’t work out haha. It’s so interesting watching movies with other people, especially movies like this. Really get an idea of peoples movie theater habits. Sometimes for the worse.
My thoughts? That I'm hoping that during my lifetime, another piece of art will come along that will come even close to being the experience of this movie. Really enjoyed your reactions!
Great choice friend, I've seen this movie every decade for 40 yrs and still ask questions and have no definite answers, it's absolutely part of it's genius
There is even a sequel called 2010: The Year We Make Contact, released in 1984, and it was not directed by Kubrick, but Peter Hyams stepped in as director, writer and producer
Yes, this is a masterpiece and not for everyone. It is a slow paced movie with several long scenes without dialogue. The effects are fantastic. You need to see the sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact with Roy Scheider. Nice reaction 👍
I love the idea that a movie can simultaneous be a masterpiece and not be for everyone. Great thought. I do plan to watch the sequel at some point soon (ish)
i saw this in the theatre the year it came out(or just after) at age 9. with my dad. who was a scientist, and kinetic artist using colored light. this is part of my childhood. my favorite film. and will always be my favorite film. and one day, it will come true shomewhow. . we will transcend and join the universe. this was the feeling at the time, all around. a precursor, a premonition of our future. at least thats what i believe.
Hey man! This is one of my favorite Sci Fi movies! It was nominated for 4 Oscars: Best Director Best Visual Effects Best Production Design Best Screenplay. It won Best Visual Effects. It received mixed reviews upon release and even actor Rock Hudson, 10 minutes before the movie was over, walked out of the theater, and said: "Could someone please tell me what the hell that was all about!?" Lol! The movie is based on the short story called The Sentinel, written by Arthur C. Clarke.
in Arther C. Clark's novel, in the narrative when the Discovery passed Europa several pictures were taken of the surface, and in one picture there was a single black dot in the center. When Voyager 2 made its flyby more than a decade later, images transmitted back showed the icy surface of Europa... with a single black dot in the center, just as Clark described it! Carl Sagan sent Clark a copy of the image with the note: "Thinking of you."
Yeah, the novel took place at Saturn, but the movie elected to change this to Jupiter simply because Saturn's rings would have been too difficult to convincingly pull off on film in the same way. And since then, Clarke retconned his story to where Odyssey Two would take place at Jupiter like in the film, rather than Saturn like in the original book.
I saw this film 14 times in Cinerama, as a 14/15 year old. I could not get enough. Never saw anything like this in my life. Own several copies in different media. Why I was amours with the film 'Interstellar' so much. Can't stop watching it. It's actually an homage to THIS film in every sence of the word. Sooooo many easter eggs. You must watch and compare for your watchers.
I love watching people watch this for the first time. Yes it was intended to leave you asking questions for a long time. How the monoliths push human evolution is much of the core but most is explained in the sequel 2010
To explain what's happening in the first part of this movie (the apeman part): Moonwatcher and his group (tribe?) are chased away from their precious waterhole by a more aggressive group. Then one day the Monolith arrives and Moonwatcher and group are afraid (but fascinated) by its otherworldliness. Later, he is inspired (somehow) to consider the bones of the nearby animals (including themselves) in a new light. He makes the connection between the bones and internal anatomy and figures out that by using the bones, his group may be able to gain an edge. He proves this to himself by using a heavy thigh bone to smash other bones. He then arms his group with more bones and his group uses them to kill and eat the nearby protohorses, thereby adding much-needed protein to his group's diet. Now much stronger, Moonwatcher and group take back their waterhole, killing the leader of the other group to demonstrate their dominance. Moonwatcher celebrates their victory (in which it can be assumed that he will teach all his future offspring the value of hand weapons) and the scene jumpcuts into scenes of orbiting nuclear weapon platforms (old weapons to new weapons). Brilliant!
Great reaction!! Your feelings often aligned with mine. I like that you wanted to sit with it for a bit too even if you felt the urge to look up stuff about it. I think people really need to see movies and TV can be art and not just mainstream entertainment.
(I say this last part because I am frankly alarmed at how many respond with *fury* when they have to think or decide how they feel about something they watch. Recently especially.)
I recently got done re-reading 2001, and reading 2010, 2061, and 3001. In the "Dawn on Man" in the book, the main character, Moonwatcher, is developed a lot more. And the panther(?) or whatever it is -- is a MUCH bigger part of the story. It regularly picks up a kinsman every couple of days. When Moonwatcher first thinks to move a scavenged antelope(?) kill up to his high-cliffside cave, the panther follows the blood that evening. However Moonwatcher and one of his mates desperate to protect their offspring fight back until the panther flees in confusion, as nothing had ever fought back somewhat effectively before. Moonwatcher's cave was further up on the cliff than the panther had ever gone before, and in fleeing, misjudged its leaping elevation and fell to its death. Moonwatcher affixes the beast's head to his bone club to confront the "Others" at the water hole.
watching this on the uhd bluray while coming up on shrooms was a rollercoaster, that whole soundtrack was a trip itself and Hal made me question if an AI really controls the universe lmao. Sent me into some insane but also amazing visuals for the rest of my trip. solid movie and amazing it was made in 1968. Kubrick is a legend
Good reaction. The soundtrack for 2001 was my very first LP Album - 13th birthday present. I believe the unused score composed by Alex North is available online but I think Kubrick made the right call going with classical pieces.
Intrigue is what it’s all about.. Both monoliths appear at the same time, one in front of the apemen, and one buried on the moon.. The apemen, IMO, are intrigued by the unnatural appearance of the monolith.. The smoothness and right angles and corners.. And that makes them think in a different way, sparking a divergent evolution.. The 2nd monolith can only be found once were capable of leaving the atmosphere and traveling in space.. So yes, an unseen hand is guiding these events, and they don’t seem to mind it taking 4 million years to shake out..
Special Effects wizard Douglas Trumbull created effects that had never been used before in any movie . 9 years later he would work on another masterpiece called Star Wars.
Hal didnt have more to say when being murdered because he was literally losing his consciousness/intelligence bit by bit. He kept repeating "I can feel it" because the pain and sadness, but limited vocab/processing power only allowed him such. Then as the astronaut keeps disconnecting, he reverts to a non conscious robot saying preset things such as that song.
11:24 - For that shock moment alone your reaction is already worth watching. I am really appreciating your reaction to this ultimate favourite movie for me. Thanks for taking me along. Gonna check out the rest of your video library.
"Like AN ACID TRIP!" This was very popular with the stoner crowd for several years after it came out. Especially for the ending. Some theaters would have this as a every night midnight showing and there was a SF theater as late as the mid 70's that only showed this.
"Tales of the Vienna Woods" Skinny Puppy's "Rabies" sampled the audio from this film with magnificent results. In response to some of your remarks on some of the more peripheral aspects of HAL's personality, well, it depends on the employer. In the novel, the monoliths are "alerts" seeded across the galaxy to broadcast a signal when a species reached an evolutionary milestone.
Typically, this is the type of movie that if I was watching with someone like yourself and were talking, I would have to ask you to leave the room. But in this case, especially since it is so genuine to see your heartfelt perspective, and also because I have seen so many times, I can sit and enjoy seeing your reactions to every moment. Keep up the great work. It would be nice to see your reaction to however many great movies you haven't yet seen.
Thanks so much, I appreciate this comment. I promise if we were in the same room, I’d be watching quietly. The only time I talk during films is when I’m making these, and I do TRY to talk at strategic points. 🤣 I’m excited to keep watching great movies I’ve missed.
Some of theories that surrounded this object called the monolith. Were that it was observing our evolution and guiding our evolution. It's dimensions were stated as 1 x 4 x 9.
Someone forgot to tell you to drop acid 3/4 into the movie. Makes much more sense after that. (nods) Watch, Sleeper. Also 60s futuristic, but amusing. Oh, and Tommy, if you haven't seen it. And Yellow Submarine. Look, just embrace the 60s groove and find out why it's cool to be far out. ;-) Peace, man. Loved taking the rocket trip with you. Still catching up.
I GREATLY appreciate you doing this film. It's open to a tremendous amount of interpretation, but in general I've always thought it was supposed to represent the story of humanity's next step up the evolutionary ladder. So, 4 million years ago the monoliths are planted on earth and the moon and the one of the moons of Jupiter. The monolith serves as a catalyst for kicking off new stages of evolution, where in the past the evolutionary step is tool discovery, and in the present day of the movie the evolutionary step is a human consciousness discovery of taking the step of awareness of the size and scale and complexity of the universe, and that we are not alone, and at the end we basically get the "starchild" who is the new human with the new awareness.
I believe the idea behind burying the monolith on the moon was the ensure that the peoples of Earth would have to pool their efforts and work together in order to uncover it, so it says something about us to see that instead of that, we instead shrouded it in secrecy from the other nations and almost tried to claim it as our own (from the standpoint of the American effort to uncover it and photograph the initial discovery as an American endeavor). Just like how the Neanderthals, upon first discovering tools, immediately went to fighting each other for power and dominance.
@@CasualNerdReactions That is what makes Science Fiction so amazing. You can explore the deepest of question, but giving it that otherworldly twist allows you to be introspective without getting so personally identifiable that it becomes off-putting. You can even talk about race and politics without mentioning any Human races or modern political parties, but make it just close enough that you can understand and ask yourself the tough questions without aversion.
@@k1productions87 The aliens wanted to know when humans had progressed to the point of elementary space travel, so they places a device activated by light underground so that when it was dug up and light fell on it, it would "go off" and signal the monolith at Jupiter that humans were coming soon and phase 2 could begin.
Your perplexity is understandable. In brief: some alien species found a group of our hominid ancestors, four million years ago, and engaged in an experiment to see whether it was possible to turn them into an intelligent race able to engage in space travel. They used four tools: The "teacher" on Earth that first suggested reasoning to the hominids, the "transmitter" on the Moon that would only awaken when it was uncovered (it was activated by sunlight), and the "stargate" that would send the first human subject to the more advanced laboratory where he would be converted (first by using up his human body) into, well, a baby god.
It's always really, really strange to see the face to face video in this, and realize when it came out that was just pie-in-the-sky technology. I never really expected stuff like Zoom, and cell phones, to actually be a part of my life back when I first saw this film.
I saw this in a Cinerama theater in 1968. Science Fiction movies had been regarded as Grade B or lower "creature features." Stanley Kubrick raised the bar for SF productions beyond the moon, long before Apollo 11. The actors playing "Early Men" weren't seen as such by the AMPAS folks, which is a shame. I recall reading/hearing about the "Killer Ape," taking down herbivores with a heavy bone in college, but seeing it on the screen was epic! 11:00 There used to be a "Monolith" standing next to the University of Hawaii Chemistry building that emitted a low hum. Did you notice that the HAL 9000 computer on "Discovery One" had more personality than astronauts Poole or Bowman? As for "The Trip" Dave Bowman took, the book described it as a FTL Star Gate to a distant system.
I saw this first run in 1968 in the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood where the screen wraps around 180 degrees. Absolutely blew my teenage mind. My kid sister was with me and when they fast forwarded from apes to satellite, my sister yelled: "A space movie? I hate space movies!" Cracked up the entire audience. Now that you have seen the movie, read the book, esp the end. It is intentionally vague, but the book will explain a little better. The lack of dialog throughout is deliberate so the viewer can fill in the gaps instead of having the movie TELL you. This is the biggest flaw of the sequel, 2010, which you should now watch. "What did I just watch?" was everyone's reaction at the end. The last note is a church organ, so Dave is the Redeemer.
WELL, this movie wasn't what I expected! What a crazy journey from the dawn of man to...whatever that ending was! 🤣 Loved all the classical music! What are your thoughts on 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Kubrick loves ambiguity in his movies. I was lucky enough to sell a 35mm Camera to the great man here in the UK in my retail says, albeit over the telephone. We took the chance to ask him what the end of 2001 actually means and his reply was: "Sit down, take whatever stimulants you choose to partake in, and watch the movie. Whatever the ending means to you, that's what I wanted for you..."
BTW you should watch the sequel 2010 at some point. It's nowhere near as an experience as 2001 but it's still a good movie. I'm glad you appreciated the period that this was made. It's a year before we actually set foot on the moon for real but Kubrick nailed the look. You can see why the tinfoil hat brigade believe he helped take the landings !
One of the greatest films ever made! Practically all alone on its own level.
I feel, like a lot of people, your instincts are right-on. It’s a lot to process, and I think in many ways, we’re meant to feel as out-on-a-limb as Dave trying to comprehend a super-intelligence.
At each stage of man’s development, there’s a war, and whoever experiences the monolith gets to move forward - first the two proto-human tribes over the watering hole, then later the Russians vs The Americans and the cover story to hide the monolith. Then once that alarm sends the signal to Jupiter, the final battle over who’s going to advance is between mankind and A.I..
HAL 9000 almost wins, but Dave dismantles him and gets to meet the intelligence who created the monolith and sent us the breadcrumbs. But it’s a little like, ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’, because for Dave there’s no conversation or explanation. He’s a fish in a tank. He is kept comfortable and fed, in an uncanny habitat, where time has no meaning, until he’s dead and reborn.
2010 explains why HAL did what it did.
I love EVERYTHING about THIS flick. It's virtually impeccable in every sense.
The opening music (which recurs throughout the film, and closes the film as well) is more than a hundred years old, "Also sprach Zarathustra" by German composer Richard Strauss. The piece that plays throughout the space docking sequence is "The Blue Danube", an even older composition, written in 1866 by the great Johann Strauss (no relation) and is perhaps the most famous waltz ever written. The other pieces in the film are by contemporaneous composers, but are taken from existing works: the "sound" of the monolith is from modernist composer Gyorgy Ligeti, whose work appears throughout the movie and is utterly crucial to 2001's cinematic effect.
Kubrick originally intended on creating a full score for the film (meaning, music written specifically for the film itself), even hiring a composer who actually wrote pieces for 2001, but thought the classical and modern pieces he and his designers used for "filler" tracks worked so much better. So technically, this film has no score, only a soundtrack.
Oh wow! I had no idea. That’s amazing. They clearly made the right call, although I am so curious to hear the original score now and compare.
@@CasualNerdReactions
'Also sprach Zarathustra' is used in countless other films as a reference to this film - It's even in 'Toy Story' lol
Yes I have listened to the Music that was composed for the film and my lord I am so happy Kubrick chose to go with the classical pieces! The composed score was terrible!
@@geraldnormandeau4144 That reminds me of Sir William Walton's proposed soundtrack for "The Battle of Britain." His "The War In The Air" is the sole surviving piece, but Ron Goodwin's "Aces High/The Luftwaffe March" makes this movie iconic.
@@Otokichi786 Dang It's been sooo long since I watched that one. I'm going to have to find it again ant take a listen to the soundtracks. Thanks!
"I totally believe that pen is floating in the air."
And I'm going to tell you how they did it! 😎
Fun Fact: Stanley Kubrick worked for several months with effects technicians to come up with a convincing effect for the floating pen in the shuttle sequence. After trying many different techniques, without success, Kubrick decided to simply use a pen that was adhered (using newly invented double-sided tape) to a sheet of glass and suspended in front of the camera. In fact, the shuttle attendant can be seen to "pull" the pen off the glass when she takes hold of it.
That’s amazing!! So simple, yet so effective.
Ahhhhh!!! You RUINED it! I'll never see it the same way again!
@@dandaintac388 👍🏻😂
@@dandaintac388 👍🏻😂
My first viewing was very much like your "wtf is this tripfest" sort of idea. I understood that the monolith (the black cuboid thing they touch) basically triggered human evolution.
What you may have missed is that, the monolith triggers evolution in general.
When Dave went to Jupiter, he essentially evolved into what's known in 2001 realms as the "Star Child". Basically he evolved beyond the understanding of time and space (which is why he was able to see other versions of himself), opening up new views of the universe.
Basically, Ape touches stone, ape makes tools, ape conquers world, ape conquers solar system, ape touches stone, ape conquers universe.
Yes, there is an alien life form involved.
The book, which Arthur C Clarke, one of the greats of the era, wrote at the same time he wrote the screenplay, is clearest where the film is most obscure. Aliens went looking through the galaxy for someone to talk to, because they were lonely. They kept finding potential for intelligence and left the monoliths to encourage the potential's evolution. So it for example teaches tool use, and Clarke explains in detail what each tool does and how it affected our evolution..
The monolith on the moon was a solar-powered alarm, given a HUGE magnetic signature so if intelligent life from Earth went to the moon, they would find it - looking for that is how you find Iron-ore deposits - and dig it up. When the sun shone on it that triggered the alarm. It also recorded Earth transmissions and sent it on to the Jupiter monolith, which in turn sent it to the alien's homeworld. That is what the room Astronaught Bowman's pod lands in is from, it is a copy of a high-class Paris hotel room from a soap opera. They wanted him as comfortable as possible while they tested him, and transformed him to the next stage of human evolution.
See the sequel movie for some clarification, but don't expect a movie like this. it is actually perfectly straightforward. Honest.
The song is by Strauss. Vienna Waltz. The movie was filmed before the moon landing.
Whaaaaa?!!! "2001"?! I'm dropping everything to watch this. I had no idea you were doing this one! I must say: there are three movies I NEVER send people blind into, and this is one of them! I'm laughing at your comment below, lol. "Whatever that ending is". I had a New Year's Eve party once that went on for 3 days! lol. And through the whole thing, I had "2001" on (with the sound off). And people were definitely "under the influence", so people would camp out by the TV sometimes just to zone out, lol. Anyways.....on the 3rd day of the party, it was pretty much down to about ten of us....and someone said "What IS this movie?!" Others chimed in with a similar sentiment. I said "I'll show it to you now! It's considered one of the greats!". I put it on......and when the closing credits came up, 10 people said in perfect unison....."What the f***?!!!!" LOL.
Ok, going to watch this NOW! Cancelling EVERYTHING. I don't even mind if you hate it! Just for the effects alone, I'm psyched to see your reaction to them. 1968!!!!! This movie isn't about a space trip.....it IS a space trip! PS: The same day this opened (nationwide), the original "Planet Of The Apes" opened, which is outstanding. 'twas the year of the ape in cinema! lol
I had the same reaction you did.
You're going to have a breakdown in72 hours
The Monolith isn't made of metal, it's full of stars.
You got that right! LOL! (2010: The Year We Made Contact)
My God
That music is The Blue Danube. These space scenes are what come in my mind whenever i hear it.
2001 was really intended to be seen on a gigantic Cinerama screen in 70mm, at least at certain theaters back then. With a really good sound system. But yes Kubrick intended it
as the "Ultimate Trip" backwards in time and forwards into the future and it's supposed put you there with the astronauts etc. and Dave as he travels through the "Stargate." I saw
it in theaters as a kid in 1975 and then in 2001 in NYC in a proper theater, and it was 70mm, and it just was fantastic. Can only really be appreciated properly that way.
The theme song sound so contemporary it was actually written in 1896.
zubrick was a stickler for details the instruction for the zero gravity toilet are real.
HAL(IBM)sings daisy because it was the first song a computer sang.a
IBM 7094
I thought of a few other comments to make. First of all, Arthur C Clarke did write a book version of the story. But rather than the movie being based on the book, the two were developed in parallel, with feedback in both directions. Despite this, there are some big differences, the most major being that in the book, the destination was Saturn, not Jupiter. Also, Bowman never tried to retrieve Poole, who was clearly dead. Instead, HAL tried to kill him by evacuating the atmosphere from the ship. But in the sequel "2010," he matched these details with the original movie rather than the book, no doubt because he hoped that it would be turned into a movie. 😊
Another detail was that the Russian that Heywood Floyd chatted with on the space station was called Moisevich, not Smyslov. So clearly it was supposed to be the same guy as in the beginning of "2010."
Clarke is famous for writing a paper all the way back in 1945, explaining about the geostationary orbit and how valuable that would be for communications satellites. And he never misses an opportunity to educate the reader about orbital mechanics. In "2001," he wrote about the "gravity assist" where Discovery used Jupiter's gravity to fling itself towards Saturn. Years later, the Voyager probes would use this precise maneuver in real life. And in "2010," he explained about Lagrange points. Just now, that is being used for the James Webb telescope.
The classical piece of music you were hearing, yes it was definitely written before the movie score, was Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II
To quote some of your reaction lines at the end:
"What is happening?" "I don't understand" "Huh?" "What?” "I have no words"
That's pretty much the reaction everyone has
Great reactions! Exactly what we said/did while watching this incredible movie in the theater. I had to laugh at your reactions, saying, "That what we said!"
No, you pretty much nailed it as far as interpretation goes.
It’s always entertaining watching viewers taking in the final 20 or so minutes of this movie. It always results in a ‘mind blown’ look on their faces and comments along the lines of “what did I just watch?”
I can’t imagine any other reaction 🤣
It's such a pleasure to watch somebody who is really able to get into this movie.
1:21 "..... beautiful"
the tremble in your voice when you spoke that word
that is why i like reaction videos
This film shows two stages in human evolution - both triggered by aliens. The aliens were the gardeners of intelligence throughout the cosmos - the aliens often supported and nurtured intelligence, but sometimes they also weeded. In the past, Humanity was dying out. The African savannah was becoming a desert, and man was preyed upon by leopards. Man was not able to effectively hunt. The monolith makers saved man - by affecting man’s minds, the monolith gave humanity technology, the ability to use tools ( such as the tapir jawbone). With tools, man conquered the predators, other tribes, and even space. Thousands of years in the future, man was again in danger of dying out. Technology had been taken as far as it could go, with self-aware computers and orbiting nuclear bombs. Man had become bored with space travel - that is why the human dialogue is so bland ( discussing a child’s birthday, talking about ham and turkey sandwiches, etc.). Technology was a dead end - man was in danger of being killed by orbiting bombs, killer computers, and just boredom. The monolith aliens had left an alarm - a monolith buried on the moon which sent a signal when man reached the moon and uncovered it and the moon monolith was struck by sunlight. The monolith aliens took Bowman through a stargate and transformed Bowman into a post-technological creature, who had new horizons to explore.
Damn! I wish I had post-technological creatures!
"The monolith aliens took Bowman through a stargate and transformed Bowman into a post-technological creature" Huh? In the book they put him in a human zoo cell - that was the environment in which he grew old in the movie's end
@@foljs5858 Bowman was transformed into the Star Child, both in the movie and the book. In the book, the Star Child waves his hands and destroys all the orbiting nuclear missile satellites because “he preferred a cleaner sky.”
@@foljs5858 in the room, that was just a phase. He died (in this familiar human environment) and was reborn after as some kind of a god.
@@foljs5858 as i always have looked as it, it was death -> rebirth to spacebabby ("post-technological creature"), but I don't know what the official "lore" is
The movie predates the Moon Landing by a year, and considering that it took a total of four years to make, I'd say the Moon Landing didn't have much of an impact on it.
It also didn't have much impact upon the Moon Landing, as the strategy for reaching the moon was decided upon in 1962, two years before the movie production would have began. So both developed essentially in isolation from each other.
The funny thing is, even though the classic and iconic film 2001 has no impact upon the space program,... it would be a relatively little known film from a year later called "Marooned" that would have a big impact on it, and spur not only the ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project) mission, forming the beginnings of cooperation between American and Russian space agencies, but also set the precedent for rescue mission contingencies through the rest of the Apollo program (its too bad the Space Shuttle didn't have such rescue options)
I didn’t watch this movie for the first time until the pandemic, and it absolutely blew my mind in every way. It’s astounding, especially considering it was released before the actual moon landing and nearly a decade before the first Star Wars film. It truly was ahead of its time, but the fact that it still holds up so well TODAY is just amazing to me.
It's really amazing that Stanley Kubrick (or was it Arthur C. Clarke?) knew what the Moon would look like (rounded hills rather than jagged peaks) despite not having any close-up photos of the actual lunar surface to refer to. AFAIK, until this groundbreaking movie came out, no other artist ever got this aspect correct. Unfortunately, he didn't depict the Earth quite so well at the end of the movie. It's way too pale. At least he added clouds - though without cloud patterns.
It's brilliant. Kubrick made his operatic movie an unforgettable experience. Dealing with a lot of topics that are still today fascinating and intriguing. Existence, survival, evolution and our still big mistery, the meaning and true nature of life, the what, how and when is/was/become.
The movie convinced me that the aliens that had planted the monoliths and took over HAL were a malevolent force intent on eliminating humans and take over earth.
@H b.34 LOL. You could be missing the point of the film, but maybe people are just too used to faster paced action these days vs 1968. Kubrick's idea was to provoke more questions for the intellect than it answered and let the audience sit & think. But, I do skip over the apes now whenever i watch it now.
@@billolsen4360I do not believe that the aliens took over HAL. What happened with HAL was due to human error, just as “he” stated. The scientists who invented HAL did not include any measures that would have prevented “him” from killing the humans onboard. They just told “him” to complete the mission at all costs. HAL killed them so that he would not be disconnected, enabling “him” to complete his task.
Operatic movie? No opera here
This movie was so far ahead of its time, its crazy. Some bits of production design aside (like the bright red chairs onboard the Space Station) it has aged amazingly well too, in my opinion. The Sets and Effects still look great.
As a sidenote, this is the first of only a handful of sci-fi-films to bother with the simple fact that _there is no sound in space._ In this movie, all you can hear is either what the astronauts themselves are hearing (their own breathing, mostly) or nothing at all. And this makes large chunks of "2001" incredibly eerie.
I agree! I did NOT expect this movie to look as great as it did. Definitely felt ahead of its time.
@@CasualNerdReactions I can only think of 2 other films that followed this physical quality of the vacuum of space: "Gravity" and "Serenity."
About those "bright red chairs"...
BTW, to consider the movie as reality (for the moment), those large magenta chairs aboard the space station didn't have to take up much room when they were carried up there. It would be far more economical to simply pack them as vinyl balloons and pre-shaped fabric covers packed in small, light boxes (one chair per box). Once aboard the station, all that would be needed would be to fit each balloon into its proper place in the cover (only 4-5 needed per chair) and then inflate them with some of the station's air. Presto! Light but comfortable chairs! So what if they look weird? It wouldn't be very practical to lug big heavy chairs up into space. Doing it this way would be much more sensible.
Ok, so the ending (which I"m sure everyone will be writing about): Kubrick hardly ever talked about it, it's up to what YOU see in it....and I thought you "got it" really well, actually. But here's it in a nutshell, the way most of us "understand" it. Dave is transported (people call it a Stargate) by the monolith to basically like a human zoo where he lives the rest of his life, alone. On his deathbed, the monolith appears and he is reborn, a superhuman, the next advance in mankind. Is he really a big infant, floating next to the Earth? Is it symbolic? I don't know. Is the monolith alien intelligence? Is it GOD? Both? Like "Close Encounters" this movie is about the unknowable mysteries of the universe.....and of existence itself!/ The pace of the movie is very deliberate, obviously. His next movie, "A Clockwork Orange", is as fast as this one is slow. / And lastly: this came out in '68, the height of the youth culture of the period, and LSD was very much the intoxicant of the day, so people would see it over and over again on acid, and is definitely a reason the movie was a "hit", lol. Different times! :P (That said: my grandfather LOVED it. My uncle loves it, and he doesn't do any inebrients, so.....I could be wrong.)
I always enjoy your comments! Appreciate all the detail and the personal touches! Thank you.
@@CasualNerdReactions Just found your channel and since the comment above mentioned Clockwork Orange, you should check it out. It's my favorite Kubrick. If you can get past the mostly unpleasant first 45 minutes, I think you'll find the remaining hour and a half will give you plenty to think about.
Why did Dave look much older in his space suit the moment he arrived?
This movie is art.
It forces the audience to THINK and come up with their own conclusions (unlike most modern movies that treat their audience like stupid children).
I really is art, Venus of Willendorf, Lascaux Neolithic cave paintings, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony level art. If we ever construct our own monolith, a copy of this film should be archived within it.
Actually, it's like most current movies are made by stupid children for other stupid children. I just saw "Dune" though and I was mesmerized. But I also loved the David Lynch movie.
Yes, it's meant as an audio visual experience meant to be seen on a large screen with loud sound that excites your senses including your brain. It makes you think about where man came from and where we're going, artifical intelligence of HAL-9000 which might end up killing humanity, and the meaning of life and other intelligence in the universe. The viewer is meant to let this experience wash over them in silence so unfortunately a reaction video where a person is rambling ruins the experience.
@@Scary__fun Watch the movie. This is a reaction video, that's how it's supposed to be.
@@altaclippermost Zoomers couldn’t sit through this. It’s not fast paced enough. I grew up in the 80s and 90s on mostly classic movies and some of the better paced movies from my childhood like My Girl and Roger Rabbit. I can’t stand how fast these movies are. There’s no time for storytelling. I’m a writer and it annoys me. You very rarely see a movie where 2 people just sit and talk for more than 30 seconds. 12 Angry Men is one of my favourite movies because it’s just 12 guys in a room talking, with the camera moving closer and closer to their faces. I have ADHD, but apparently it’s not as bad as most kids these days. I enjoyed the Bourne movies and Run Lola Run as a novelty, but I don’t want every movie to be like that, with no pacing and CGI replacing stunts and real filmmaking. I grew up on British television in Canada and it was nothing like American sitcoms. I can’t watch that crap. I need good storytelling.
I love how NASA calm they are finding out their computer is in error.
Floyd's daughter on the Picturephone was Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian.
Watching this in an IMAX theater was the best movie going experience I've ever had, especially that ending, I didn't blink during that whole part
That's really the way Kubrick intended people to see this movie. 70mm or as big a screen as possible and the best possible sound, although back in 1968 they didn't
have the full multichannel audio that they do now, of course. These days the movie sounds and looks better than ever.
Hey Chris. This movie and music was dazzling in the theaters back in 1968 and beyond! I was 13 when my dad and I saw 2001 when it opened in 1968. @ 3:24 Notice the pre-human was looking at the monolith intently just before picking up that bone-club. In the book the monolith was projecting imagery into the brain of that creature to show him what to do with it, as well as a myriad of other images the creature did not understand at first, until needed later. The creature didn't stumble across it but was "told" by the monolith how to use it. Notice back at the pond scene the ones with the newly discovered bone tool/weapons where standing more upright to use them better. @ 4:40 The music is "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss from 1866. @ 5:24 When the price for the picturephone call appeared, that got a chuckle from the audience because of how EXPENSIVE that phone call was, for the time in 1968! LOL! My dad whispered to me "With prices like that, they won't be making too many phone calls from outer space!". Little did we know! LOL! BTW, the little girl was Kubrick's daughter, Vivian. @ 7:13 What you're saying right there Chris is spot-on, exactly why this movie was so impactful in '68 and beyond. 2001 was the "state-of-the-art" in effects then, and ever after influenced and enhanced special effects, story telling and budgets in scifi movies. And as far as moon landings affecting the movie, it's really the other way around. The moon efforts were well underway for a good 7 years at NASA, in the news a lot, so It's likely Kubrick, Clarke and others knew the timing of this movie was perfect. @ 11:25 In the book, the high-pitch signal began at the exact moment the first sliver of sunlight hit the top of the monolith that had not seen sunlight for over 4 million years. It was the smaller monolith letting the giant one around Jupiter know that humans finally have dug it up, and will be visiting Jupiter soon. @ 13:20 Would love to discuss the AI topic with you! @ 31:02 I suggest watching 2001 again, soon without distraction at least one more time then do its sequel "2010: The Year We Made Contact" (1984) made a long 16 years later! We 2001 fans assumed a sequel would come since the ending begs for a sequel, and around the 80s we had given up on it. But what a sequel, and one you need to do a react video on. And it's a great story where you'll get a LOT of those "question marks" answered! One fun thing to do is look out for the two Arthur C. Clarke and the one Stanley Kubrick cameos in 2010. Listening to your summary at the end, I think you GOT the movie, the basic understanding about the alien monolith's influence, computer going haywire for some unknown reason, etc, but baffled over the star child at the end. I suggest you not research it though, as you might get spoilers screwing up your 2010 experience. Research it all after 2010 if you wish, and there's a video of Kubrick discussing the ending, but wait until 2010. So it won't be a shock to you, the same Dr. Floyd character is in 2010 but played by an actor you'll recognize from Jaws. I figured you'd like this timeless classic 2001. I've read all four of Clarke's books on the saga, 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001: The Final Odyssey, and the books have much more detail, so check them out someday. This was an enjoyable reaction, glad you liked it and will look for your 2010 video. ✌️😎
So much great information, thank you! I had no idea there was a sequel until these comments. Definitely will have to watch it one day.
First saw it in the Cooper Theater in Lincoln Nebraska. The movie house was a magical experience in itself, built in 1958, a round building designed for Cinerama so the screen was severely curved, inside dark reddish curtains & walls & very good acoustics. The architecture contributed much to enjoying an escapist movie like 2001.
Bell Labs in 1961 made an IBM 7094 computer sing the song "Daisy Bell". It is the earliest known computer synthesized voice recording. Arthur C. Clarke heard the song, he was so impressed he decided to make his HAL 9000 computer sing the same song in this film.
2001 was released more than a year before the 1969 moon shot landing. All the colors at the end is Dave going through a stargate. If you've ever seen Stargate SG-1 it's a different representation of going through a stargate in space. At the beginning the ape/man throws the bone into the air and it instantly morphs into an orbiting weapons platform. Even after that many eons man is still in the Dawn of Man, our technology may have advanced but we are still the wild animals on the ancient plain that kill each other. Only by evolving into a new life form, the starchild at the end, can we advance.
Imagine it's 1968 with none of the references you were reminded of in existence. Space movies had men in rubber suits as monsters, Forbidden Planet was the most esoteric sci fi to date and it was ten years old. Take a look at pre 1960 scifi and you'll see the quantum leap that this movie took. My high school friends and i watched the premier of this film on an 80 foot wide curved theater screen. I'll just say that when we came out of the theater we were basically speechless something like you must have felt. A stunning viewing experience.
That’s incredible! Really a significant part of history. One day I’ll see some of those films and have an even greater appreciation for how ground breaking this one is.
You really need to see 2010: The Year We Make Contact to get the answers to your questions
2001: A Space Odyssey is a beautiful but trippy movie. After seeing it a few times, I finally decided that the end was the monolith taking him, maybe us, to the next level of evolution, like it did with the monkeys. He's looking back at Earth and maybe about to impart his new knowledge with us?
The trouble with 2010 is that it does try to answer this movie's endlessly provocative mysteries in the most mundane ways.
I love 2010. I even prefer it over 2001. I know it isnt as grand. But I prefer the characters and narrative there. 2010 is a great movie (I really love the books too).
Wow. So deep and original.
Yes, I agree!
@@porflepopnecker4376 Yes indeed
I loved your very intent and often perceptive reaction to this movie. The first watch is just the beginning of trying to understand it, something that will continue to compel and intrigue no matter how many times you might rewatch it.
I’m glad to know that it isn’t meant to be easily digestible. 🤣 thank you for watching!
You are reacting the same way I reacted when I first saw this movie when it first came out on the big Cinerama screen. I was ultimately baffled and yet experienced some kind of overwhelming sensation of transcendence emotionally intellectually spiritually that I'm still unable to fully express in ordinary words.
That "scary" piece of music that plays when the Monolith is first interacting with the human apes and later with the humans on the Moon, is from "Requiem" by György Ligeti, specifically the piece called "Kyrie". It's a really fascinating piece of music and it's definitely a mixture of something very beautiful but very scary at the same time. Definitely worth checking out. :)
5:13, this is Stanley Kubrick's daughter, Vivienne, whom directed the Shining behind the scenes documentary.
Since the monoliths were placed 4 million years ago, I think the hominids (ape-like) were Australopithecus, early ancestors of Homo sapiens. They were the ones who transitioned from eating insects and plants to meat. I’m no anthropologist, but I have read a bit about them.
If you get the opportunity, read the novel, it is really a great read!
Agreed! I loved the reflections of Moon-watcher, the first of the altered proto- humans
Saw this in 1968 at the age of 16 by myself, walking in cold. Don’t usually comment, but your response brought back some of the original wonder. Thanks. Kubrick was a genius, a word to be used circumspectly. In this case it applies. Think WHEN this was made. An indelible experience. Thanks for opening yourself up to it.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I agree, I always had ideas about this little movie from the sixties. No, this is an Incredible accomplishment!! Genius absolutely applies.
This is my favorite sci fi movie. I love Kubrick more than any other director. Unfortunately, that is a cliche lol. I hope you enjoy it. Tucking in.
Important note: My first watch of a Kubrick film is never near as rewarding as my subsequent viewings. You can never get everything out of his movies in one viewing.
Agreed!
This is a great movie and I can’t wait to rewatch! I’m sure there’s plenty more to get when I can just watch it as well.
Movies are very expensive to make and studios often dumb down their content so they attract the largest possible audience.Sometimes it's good to feel lost when watching a film because it can stimulates thought and perhaps thinking about it afterwards. Kubrick is a brave film maker because he credits his audience with enough intelligence not to have all meaning spoon-fed to them.
Great, great reaction, thank you, and I think most of your instinctive interpretations are right on the money 😃 10 quick random thoughts:
1) The SFX _still_ look amazing 50 years later
2) An actual soundtrack was commissioned, the classical music was a temp track that Kubrick used for editing, but decided to keep
3) Sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact has a far more conventional narrative, but is far better than it has any right to be and is worth watching
4) "HAL" is alphabetically 1 letter down from "IBM" - _coincidence?!_
5) Bell Telephone company actually designed the "picturephone" used on the space station...
6) ... and the little girl asks for a telephone for her birthday - exactly the gift a girl of that age would ask for these days!
7) Another good bit of fortune-telling is the big "iPad" the astronaut Frank is watching while eating lunch on the Discovery...
8) ... and the newsreader he's watching is actual BBC newsreader Kenneth Kendall
9) The "star child" we see at the end is a model, but Kubrick also shot footage of a real baby, Sarah Cracknell, who became the singer for the band Saint Etienne (her father was one of the film crew)
10) I'd recommend anyone should see this on a big screen - I saw a 70mm presentation a few years back, which also included musical overture and entr'acte sequences to build up the atmosphere - fantastic!
So much great facts! I would love to see the 70mm presentation! That sounds really amazing. Thanks for your comment.
I saw this at the UC Theater in Berkeley, California. Huge old art-house theater that played a different double feature every day. Rocky Horror on Saturday nights, (midnight), animation festivals, that kind of place. Saw all the old James Bond films, Laurel and Hardy, Pink Panther, Woody Allen, Monty Python, Woodstock, Pink Floyd at Pompeii, The Song Remains the Same, on and on. It still stands, now it hosts live music. People for sure took psychedelics for this film.
I have no doubt that they did!
The Monolith represented "KNOWLEDGE" like in the bible with the "Tree of Good and Evil". We saw the apes who learned how to conquer arise to dominion. Then 4 million years later we saw a Human become a de facto "god" in an embryo when that same monolith was discovered again, so the monolith seems to have put forth jumps in evolution. Yes, it is very weird, LOL.
Thank you again for a great, thoughtful reaction to a film that has had generations of viewers scratching their heads, even as they were soaking up the awe, wonder and mystery presented in this film. Your final analysis, unsurprisingly, is spot on based on the usual interpretations by viewers, as well as the novel written by Arthur C. Clarke simultaneously with the screenplay. One thing I did not mention in my earlier comments to you was that Kubrick originally used this music in the film as a temporary score, while Alex North was composing an original soundtrack for it. The score is interesting and can be heard on CD and TH-cam, but sounds nowhere near as timeless and powerful as the classical music he ended up using. I'm not a fan of dissonant music in general, but Ligeti's cacophonous music for the monolith and the "stargate" sequence are now favorite listens.
Thank YOU David for suggesting it!
Oh wow! I need to check out the original sound track and try to imagine what that would have been like. I’m sure they made the right choice using the music they did. Astounding.
@@CasualNerdReactions there's a beautiful re-recording of it supervised and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith.
That little girl in the chat phone is Kubrick's daughter. She grew up and is a film maker herself and also did a film about her father.
And the conversation she was having was an actual one with her dad I believe.
That’s so wonderful! After I watch more of his films it would be Interesting to see the one she did about him.
Well, she did the makings of for The Shining and Full Metal Jacket, I don't think she did a film about her father, unless you count those. She is mainly known these days for being a Scientologist (which made her estranged from the Kubrick family), conspiracy theorist, neo-fascist and anti-vaxxer. It's so weird to see cute kids growing up to be like that...
You are the first person I've seen that get the "instant intelligence when exposed to the thing"-thing.
Also, this was made for a _massive_ screen.
I think every movie would is better on the big screen, but certain parts of this movie should be mandatory. Other parts I’m terrified to see on the big screen 🤣
@@CasualNerdReactions no, i don't mean just big. This was made for and with 70mm film and iirc 6 channel sound. On a proper cinemascope or cinerama screen this movie would literally sourround you. You would be _in_ it. Nowadays kids watch it on their 6" phone screen and think it is boring
There is a sequel, but...like the books, I think I prefer the first movie without all the big questions answered.
There is a fascinating you tube upload of someone examining the meaning of the diamond shapes during the Infinity sequence.
I completely agree.
2010 was definitely more of a modern conventional movie experience rather than an artsy film experience. But it appeals a bit more toward me from the standpoint of characters rather than just the world, as well as focusing more on the actual space travel aspect rather than it just being the setting.
For me, 2010 is just pedestrian, pedantic, run-of-the-mill pulp sci-fi, hardly a fitting follow-up to such a boundlessly thought-provoking classic.
@@porflepopnecker4376 In its case, its the story you're watching for, not the "experience"
Quite the opposite of 2001, which is all experience, but no real "story"
The sequel could have been written by Shirley MacLaine's guru, not much in the way of exploratory thought.
Your reaction is entirely appropriate and pretty much universal. I was twelve years old in 1968 and saw it in the theater the week it was released. Some fifty-plus years and a hundred or so viewings later I have my own ideas yet I'm still asking your same fundamental questions. Which is the point, I believe. Kubrick was the Dante/Michaelangelo of the last half-millennium.
Funny that you describe this film as "An acid trip" since it was not successful on it's original release but hippies loved watching it on LSD during the later rereleases.
Omg i can only imagine what that just be like!!
Interesting point that shows how much thought went into this film: the reason that stars can be seen in the Discovery scenes, as well as that the pods carry headlights is because out by Jupiter the sunlight is much fainter, about the same as moonlight in Earth's sky.
The Discovery is always lit from behind it's tail, for the same reason; they are moving away from the Sun all the time.
When the pods come over the nose-ball of the Discovery into sunlight, they also repeat the film's first image of the Sun - Earth - Moon sunrise, the moon / sunrise over the monolith the monkeymen see and the later Earthrise / Sunrise over the monolith on the moon the spacemen see.
This happens again later, close to Jupiter, but in a more complicated way, with all of Jupiter's moons lined up.
A series of Dawns for Mankind.
This movie needs to be seen Several times. I first watched it back in 1968 when I was 8 years old. It blew my mind.
You’re not alone in your confusion. Many people walked out of the theater in the middle of the film in frustration and even anger.
Beautifully done movie with no actual plot and an insanely ambiguous ending. I read the book back in 1980 thinking it would make it more clear, but it did the opposite.
Anyone that says they ‘get it’ really don’t.
I believe at the premiere, Rock Hudson walked out shouting “can anyone tell me what the hell this movie is about?!!”
Nonetheless, it is an amazing technical spectacle that ushered in the modern era of sci-fi filmmaking.
PS: the beautiful standard classical music pieces were originally put in as just a “place holder” until the score could be written and recorded, but Kubrick decided to keep them in the final cut. 😉
BTW, to consider the movie as reality (for the moment), those large magenta chairs aboard the space station didn't have to take up much room when they were carried up there. It would be far more economical to simply pack them as vinyl balloons and pre-shaped fabric covers packed in small, light boxes (one chair per box). Once aboard the station, all that would be needed would be to fit each balloon into its proper place in the cover (only 4-5 needed per chair) and then inflate them with some of the station's air. Presto! Light but comfortable chairs!
The two classic pieces in the beginning is "Also sprach Zarathustra" ('Thus Spake Zarathustra') by Richard Strauss, and "An der schönen blauen Donau" ('The Blue Danube') by Johann Strauss the Younger.
One of the all-time great directors.
Now imagine it on a huge screen that more than fills your vision, a year before anyone landed on the moon. And you almost can grasp the impact.
I saw this on the big screen when it first came out in 1968 (I was 6), and as a child that age, I wasn't too concerned about interpreting a grown-up movie. But I remembered the primitive man scenes, the stewardess with the tray being inverted, HAL cutting the umbilical, and the psychedelic sequence. I didn't see the movie again until it came out on DVD. I recently got to watch it on the big screen again. It was the premier feature at the re-opening of one of our classic movie theatres. My main take away from seeing it in the theatre again was noticing how silent the film is for long stretches. You really don't notice that when you're watching it at home. I could hear the other audience members breathing, and their every movement made a sound.
When you said, "I can't wait to figure out ... what... these visuals represent," I said, out loud, "Good luck with that."
🤣I laughed at myself when editing cause that didn’t work out haha. It’s so interesting watching movies with other people, especially movies like this. Really get an idea of peoples movie theater habits. Sometimes for the worse.
My thoughts? That I'm hoping that during my lifetime, another piece of art will come along that will come even close to being the experience of this movie. Really enjoyed your reactions!
Great choice friend, I've seen this movie every decade for 40 yrs and still ask questions and have no definite answers, it's absolutely part of it's genius
I love this! 👏👏
There is even a sequel called 2010: The Year We Make Contact, released in 1984, and it was not directed by Kubrick, but Peter Hyams stepped in as director, writer and producer
In one of the sequel books Frank Poole's body gets found floating in space and they actually revive him. I think that was 3001.
I wish you didn't tell me that. That is so lame.
Yes, this is a masterpiece and not for everyone. It is a slow paced movie with several long scenes without dialogue. The effects are fantastic. You need to see the sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact with Roy Scheider. Nice reaction 👍
I love the idea that a movie can simultaneous be a masterpiece and not be for everyone. Great thought. I do plan to watch the sequel at some point soon (ish)
i saw this in the theatre the year it came out(or just after) at age 9. with my dad. who was a scientist, and kinetic artist using colored light. this is part of my childhood. my favorite film. and will always be my favorite film. and one day, it will come true shomewhow. . we will transcend and join the universe. this was the feeling at the time, all around. a precursor, a premonition of our future. at least thats what i believe.
Hey man! This is one of my favorite Sci Fi movies! It was nominated for 4 Oscars:
Best Director
Best Visual Effects
Best Production Design
Best Screenplay.
It won Best Visual Effects. It received mixed reviews upon release and even actor Rock Hudson, 10 minutes before the movie was over, walked out of the theater, and said: "Could someone please tell me what the hell that was all about!?" Lol! The movie is based on the short story called The Sentinel, written by Arthur C. Clarke.
Well deserved nominations and win!
in Arther C. Clark's novel, in the narrative when the Discovery passed Europa several pictures were taken of the surface, and in one picture there was a single black dot in the center. When Voyager 2 made its flyby more than a decade later, images transmitted back showed the icy surface of Europa... with a single black dot in the center, just as Clark described it! Carl Sagan sent Clark a copy of the image with the note: "Thinking of you."
That scene took place on Iapetus, a moon of Saturn, and was called the Eye of Iapetus (or Japetus as Clark referred to it).
Yeah, the novel took place at Saturn, but the movie elected to change this to Jupiter simply because Saturn's rings would have been too difficult to convincingly pull off on film in the same way. And since then, Clarke retconned his story to where Odyssey Two would take place at Jupiter like in the film, rather than Saturn like in the original book.
That is astonishing. It leaves me to wonder how they pulled all of this off with such accurate detail.
@@trineandjames thanks for the correction 👍
I saw this film 14 times in Cinerama, as a 14/15 year old. I could not get enough. Never saw anything like this in my life. Own several copies in different media. Why I was amours with the film 'Interstellar' so much. Can't stop watching it. It's actually an homage to THIS film in every sence of the word. Sooooo many easter eggs. You must watch and compare for your watchers.
I definitely can’t wait to rewatch interstellar after watching this film.
I love watching people watch this for the first time. Yes it was intended to leave you asking questions for a long time. How the monoliths push human evolution is much of the core but most is explained in the sequel 2010
Hope to watch 2010 soon.
To explain what's happening in the first part of this movie (the apeman part): Moonwatcher and his group (tribe?) are chased away from their precious waterhole by a more aggressive group. Then one day the Monolith arrives and Moonwatcher and group are afraid (but fascinated) by its otherworldliness. Later, he is inspired (somehow) to consider the bones of the nearby animals (including themselves) in a new light. He makes the connection between the bones and internal anatomy and figures out that by using the bones, his group may be able to gain an edge. He proves this to himself by using a heavy thigh bone to smash other bones. He then arms his group with more bones and his group uses them to kill and eat the nearby protohorses, thereby adding much-needed protein to his group's diet. Now much stronger, Moonwatcher and group take back their waterhole, killing the leader of the other group to demonstrate their dominance. Moonwatcher celebrates their victory (in which it can be assumed that he will teach all his future offspring the value of hand weapons) and the scene jumpcuts into scenes of orbiting nuclear weapon platforms (old weapons to new weapons). Brilliant!
Great reaction!! Your feelings often aligned with mine. I like that you wanted to sit with it for a bit too even if you felt the urge to look up stuff about it. I think people really need to see movies and TV can be art and not just mainstream entertainment.
(I say this last part because I am frankly alarmed at how many respond with *fury* when they have to think or decide how they feel about something they watch. Recently especially.)
Each time the monolith appeared represented a great evolutionary step for "mankind".
I recently got done re-reading 2001, and reading 2010, 2061, and 3001. In the "Dawn on Man" in the book, the main character, Moonwatcher, is developed a lot more. And the panther(?) or whatever it is -- is a MUCH bigger part of the story. It regularly picks up a kinsman every couple of days. When Moonwatcher first thinks to move a scavenged antelope(?) kill up to his high-cliffside cave, the panther follows the blood that evening. However Moonwatcher and one of his mates desperate to protect their offspring fight back until the panther flees in confusion, as nothing had ever fought back somewhat effectively before. Moonwatcher's cave was further up on the cliff than the panther had ever gone before, and in fleeing, misjudged its leaping elevation and fell to its death. Moonwatcher affixes the beast's head to his bone club to confront the "Others" at the water hole.
watching this on the uhd bluray while coming up on shrooms was a rollercoaster, that whole soundtrack was a trip itself and Hal made me question if an AI really controls the universe lmao. Sent me into some insane but also amazing visuals for the rest of my trip. solid movie and amazing it was made in 1968. Kubrick is a legend
Good reaction. The soundtrack for 2001 was my very first LP Album - 13th birthday present. I believe the unused score composed by Alex North is available online but I think Kubrick made the right call going with classical pieces.
4:52, to make the pen float like that, they used paper thin plastic as well as using tape to have it stick to the plastic.
The opening theme is a classical piece. Thus Spake Zarathustra by Richard Strauss (1896)
Intrigue is what it’s all about.. Both monoliths appear at the same time, one in front of the apemen, and one buried on the moon.. The apemen, IMO, are intrigued by the unnatural appearance of the monolith.. The smoothness and right angles and corners.. And that makes them think in a different way, sparking a divergent evolution.. The 2nd monolith can only be found once were capable of leaving the atmosphere and traveling in space..
So yes, an unseen hand is guiding these events, and they don’t seem to mind it taking 4 million years to shake out..
Special Effects wizard Douglas Trumbull created effects that had never been used before in any movie . 9 years later he would work on another masterpiece called Star Wars.
He never worked on Star Wars, but he did Close Encounters and Blade runner among others. John Duster did the original Star Wars.
The greatest space film of all time
If you are going to watch this you NEED to follow up with 2010 the year we make contact. It answers a ton of questions.
I watched the extended version in a theater. Four hours, with an intermission. This movie ranks #1 on my list.
Hal didnt have more to say when being murdered because he was literally losing his consciousness/intelligence bit by bit. He kept repeating "I can feel it" because the pain and sadness, but limited vocab/processing power only allowed him such. Then as the astronaut keeps disconnecting, he reverts to a non conscious robot saying preset things such as that song.
Ooooh, I just noticed the outro music. Some very nice piano jazz.
Yes! I like the jazz vibes. It’s hard finding something I like so I’ll probably keep it around a while.
@13:24 You SHOULD to be afraid. It's coming...you don't 'feel' it now, but it's started. Really enjoyed your experience of the film.
11:24 - For that shock moment alone your reaction is already worth watching.
I am really appreciating your reaction to this ultimate favourite movie for me. Thanks for taking me along. Gonna check out the rest of your video library.
That noise was terrible though. Glad you enjoyed the reaction. This is a phenomenal movie to has a favorite. Thanks for watching.
"Like AN ACID TRIP!"
This was very popular with the stoner crowd for several years after it came out. Especially for the ending. Some theaters would have this as a every night midnight showing and there was a SF theater as late as the mid 70's that only showed this.
That’s amazing! I wish movies could still have that kind of impact today.
"Tales of the Vienna Woods"
Skinny Puppy's "Rabies" sampled the audio from this film with magnificent results.
In response to some of your remarks on some of the more peripheral aspects of HAL's personality, well, it depends on the employer.
In the novel, the monoliths are "alerts" seeded across the galaxy to broadcast a signal when a species reached an evolutionary milestone.
All the opening scenes were filmed on sound stages at MGM
Typically, this is the type of movie that if I was watching with someone like yourself and were talking, I would have to ask you to leave the room. But in this case, especially since it is so genuine to see your heartfelt perspective, and also because I have seen so many times, I can sit and enjoy seeing your reactions to every moment.
Keep up the great work. It would be nice to see your reaction to however many great movies you haven't yet seen.
Thanks so much, I appreciate this comment. I promise if we were in the same room, I’d be watching quietly. The only time I talk during films is when I’m making these, and I do TRY to talk at strategic points. 🤣 I’m excited to keep watching great movies I’ve missed.
Some of theories that surrounded this object called the monolith. Were that it was observing our evolution and guiding our evolution. It's dimensions were stated as 1 x 4 x 9.
One of my most enjoyable watches for such an 'unconventional' film. Thanks for the upload!
Someone forgot to tell you to drop acid 3/4 into the movie. Makes much more sense after that. (nods) Watch, Sleeper. Also 60s futuristic, but amusing. Oh, and Tommy, if you haven't seen it. And Yellow Submarine. Look, just embrace the 60s groove and find out why it's cool to be far out. ;-) Peace, man. Loved taking the rocket trip with you. Still catching up.
I GREATLY appreciate you doing this film. It's open to a tremendous amount of interpretation, but in general I've always thought it was supposed to represent the story of humanity's next step up the evolutionary ladder. So, 4 million years ago the monoliths are planted on earth and the moon and the one of the moons of Jupiter. The monolith serves as a catalyst for kicking off new stages of evolution, where in the past the evolutionary step is tool discovery, and in the present day of the movie the evolutionary step is a human consciousness discovery of taking the step of awareness of the size and scale and complexity of the universe, and that we are not alone, and at the end we basically get the "starchild" who is the new human with the new awareness.
I believe the idea behind burying the monolith on the moon was the ensure that the peoples of Earth would have to pool their efforts and work together in order to uncover it, so it says something about us to see that instead of that, we instead shrouded it in secrecy from the other nations and almost tried to claim it as our own (from the standpoint of the American effort to uncover it and photograph the initial discovery as an American endeavor).
Just like how the Neanderthals, upon first discovering tools, immediately went to fighting each other for power and dominance.
Absolutely fascinating! I love how transcendent these ideas are.
@@CasualNerdReactions That is what makes Science Fiction so amazing. You can explore the deepest of question, but giving it that otherworldly twist allows you to be introspective without getting so personally identifiable that it becomes off-putting.
You can even talk about race and politics without mentioning any Human races or modern political parties, but make it just close enough that you can understand and ask yourself the tough questions without aversion.
@@k1productions87 The aliens wanted to know when humans had progressed to the point of elementary space travel, so they places a device activated by light underground so that when it was dug up and light fell on it, it would "go off" and signal the monolith at Jupiter that humans were coming soon and phase 2 could begin.
Your perplexity is understandable. In brief: some alien species found a group of our hominid ancestors, four million years ago, and engaged in an experiment to see whether it was possible to turn them into an intelligent race able to engage in space travel. They used four tools: The "teacher" on Earth that first suggested reasoning to the hominids, the "transmitter" on the Moon that would only awaken when it was uncovered (it was activated by sunlight), and the "stargate" that would send the first human subject to the more advanced laboratory where he would be converted (first by using up his human body) into, well, a baby god.
It's always really, really strange to see the face to face video in this, and realize when it came out that was just pie-in-the-sky technology. I never really expected stuff like Zoom, and cell phones, to actually be a part of my life back when I first saw this film.
I remember when I was a kid watching the Jetsons how wild the video calls were. Definitely a different experience watching it today.
I saw this in a Cinerama theater in 1968. Science Fiction movies had been regarded as Grade B or lower "creature features." Stanley Kubrick raised the bar for SF productions beyond the moon, long before Apollo 11. The actors playing "Early Men" weren't seen as such by the AMPAS folks, which is a shame. I recall reading/hearing about the "Killer Ape," taking down herbivores with a heavy bone in college, but seeing it on the screen was epic! 11:00 There used to be a "Monolith" standing next to the University of Hawaii Chemistry building that emitted a low hum. Did you notice that the HAL 9000 computer on "Discovery One" had more personality than astronauts Poole or Bowman? As for "The Trip" Dave Bowman took, the book described it as a FTL Star Gate to a distant system.
I think we are all grateful this movie pushed the genre to new heights! Really incredible.
I saw this first run in 1968 in the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood where the screen wraps around 180 degrees. Absolutely blew my teenage mind. My kid sister was with me and when they fast forwarded from apes to satellite, my sister yelled: "A space movie? I hate space movies!" Cracked up the entire audience. Now that you have seen the movie, read the book, esp the end. It is intentionally vague, but the book will explain a little better. The lack of dialog throughout is deliberate so the viewer can fill in the gaps instead of having the movie TELL you. This is the biggest flaw of the sequel, 2010, which you should now watch. "What did I just watch?" was everyone's reaction at the end. The last note is a church organ, so Dave is the Redeemer.
I like how I can just watch movies here with you instead o searching them online