30 Day Movie Challenge...
Aug. 31st, 2020 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2020-09-01 01:30 am (UTC)https://youtu.be/oR_e9y-bka0
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Date: 2020-09-01 12:50 pm (UTC)Although, my brother and his wife kind of did that to my niece when she was 13 - they took her to the NY Philarmonic's concert of it.
My parents thrust it on us via VCR at the ages of 11 and 14, I think. It doesn't work as well on the small screen - I think (although never really seen it on the big one.)
Oh, you might appreciate...https://vimeo.com/446927270
My brother is convinced it's about the Holocaust and the American Indian Genocide - specifically the music. I don't see it myself...
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Date: 2020-09-01 01:57 pm (UTC)Hee.
No, just the opposite. It blew my widdle mind. It was a stepping stone from comic books to more adult science fiction.
As for the meaning of 2001:
For me, it's simple.
It's about finding our place in the universe.
We start out as simple hominids, driven by tribal instinct. The monolith takes us to the next level--the use of tools to shape our surroundings.
(The monolith--is it God? Aliens? The invisible force of evolution? Who knows? It is black and impenetrable and infinite...)
The next stage is evolving beyond our tools, ready to explore the universe as part of its cosmic fabric, not separated from it by proxies like HAL. When Bowman deactivates HAL, he is ready to take the next step. The monolith takes him to a safe comfortable environment where he can complete his transformation.
The Starchild is born and the journey begins.
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Date: 2020-09-01 02:38 pm (UTC)I saw it as a young adult, and thought it was too heavy handed and too symbolic at the same time; like a lot of art films of the time. I thought the opening didn't quite make its point, the middle with HAL worked well and the ending obviously lost a lot of people. Congratulations to your nine-year-old self for understanding it!
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Date: 2020-09-01 02:55 pm (UTC)I have 2001 on DVR, with a preview commentary by Ben Mankiewicz and Brad Bird (director of "The Incredibles"). We're planning to sit our 11 year old for a movie night. Hope he likes it.
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Date: 2020-09-01 03:46 pm (UTC)For its time 2001 is an amazing film, mind-blowing. It blew my parents minds. My brother and I saw it on television, and after Star Wars, Close Encounters, ET, and right before 2010. We'd been to the Star Trek films, and seen Battlestar Galatica on television.
My mother pointed this out to me recently, when I discovered a co-worker had never seen it. She said, of course not. It's dated. So much of the special effects - are well kind of cheesy now. (Think about it, we have a rudimentary space station now.) It's no longer-mind blowing like it was then. Also, we know the science in it doesn't work and The Martian has come out.
Then again, my brother disagrees with her - and considers it amazing and the best sci-fi film ever and he foisted it on his daughter at the age of 11 or 10..so you are in good company. (Personally? I prefer Blade Runner...more entertaining.)
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Date: 2020-09-01 03:40 pm (UTC)We start out as simple hominids, driven by tribal instinct. The monolith takes us to the next level--the use of tools to shape our surroundings.
(The monolith--is it God? Aliens? The invisible force of evolution? Who knows? It is black and impenetrable and infinite...)
The next stage is evolving beyond our tools, ready to explore the universe as part of its cosmic fabric, not separated from it by proxies like HAL. When Bowman deactivates HAL, he is ready to take the next step. The monolith takes him to a safe comfortable environment where he can complete his transformation.
That was my take on it as well. I honestly don't know how my brother and sisinlaw got the Holocaust and the Genocide of the American Indian from it.
It's a very stylistic/thematic film - but consider the director, who much like Terrence Malik is a stylistic director - more interested in style than substance or acting for that matter. Actors wanted to kill themselves after working with Kubrick. He had over 50 takes, often over 250 takes for every single scene. Now, for an actor? The best take is often the first one. By the 250th take...they are kind of phoning it in. (There was a very entertaining Q&A with Marsters and Brendan about Kubrick. Marsters - I'd love to do Clockwork Orange, but NOT with Stanley Kurbrick. Brendan - oh god, yes, Kubrick has like 250 some takes per scene, after that you never want to act again.)
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Date: 2020-09-01 04:08 pm (UTC)One or two takes tops.
Other directors treat the actor like one piece of the entire picture, no more important than the lighting or the furniture. Hitchcock and Kubrick were notorious for abusing their actors.
*********
I liked 2010. But for me, it didn't compare to the original. Where was the awe? The mystery? The sense of wonder? 2010 gave answers when I didn't really need answers.
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Date: 2020-09-01 05:05 pm (UTC)2001 never did much for me. It's one of those films, along with Citizan Kane, and Malik's films...that people quote as being amazing, the best ever, and top of the game - and I'm thinking...eh. Okay. I was bored. But okay.
Hitchcock was more into characterization, dialogue and plot than Kubrick. His characters have a bit more depth, and he didn't do as many takes. He may have been a bit of an ass, but he had nothing on Kubrick in regards to torture of actors - Kubrick was in a class all his own. Kubrick cared most about the look of the film, with theme second, plot, character last. Often Kubrick's characters are one-dimensional - objects to push forward a theme or visual. Both Stephen King and Anthony Burgess hated Kubrick's adaptations because they felt Kubrick didn't care about the characters and lost the point of their stories as a result.
That said, I appreciate Kubrick's visionary abilities. (I admittedly prefer Kubrick's Shining to King's and his Clockwork Orange is amazing, and in my opinion his best film). His visuals are amazing, but often repetitive and kind of redundant - "Eyes Wide Shut" is a good example of self-indulgence, as is the ending of The Shining, which is a brilliant film but a flawed one. 2001 similar issues - lots of style over substance, lots of self-indulgence, allowing the audience to bring their own interpretation. And the special effects are awesome - if you are seeing that film first on the big screen. It's ground-breaking, mind-blowing, and awesome if you are seeing it for the first time in the 1960s. Not so much in the 1980s.
You're reaction to 2001, was mine to Star Wars - I was about 9 or 10 years of age when I saw Star Wars, prior to that, I saw sci-fi as horror films with scary monsters. And few strong women. Star Wars blew my mind.
(I didn't see 2001 until four years later and on TV. I was underwhelmed.)
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Date: 2020-09-01 05:32 pm (UTC)My reaction at 17 was "Nice! Nostalgic fun, like the old Flash Gordon movie serials."
My reaction at 9 would have been:
"Whoa! COOOOL!"
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Date: 2020-09-02 02:58 am (UTC)Princess Leia amazed me. It was the first time we had a female heroine who could shoot a gun. Usually they were damsels. Also, no monsters. It was basically a space western with a bit of WWII movies thrown in.
So much is timing.
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Date: 2020-09-01 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 01:55 pm (UTC)I'd forgotten Michener had written the book. I binge read many of his later novels but not that one. I have seen the whole movie, now. It was quite tedious even for an adult. William Holden was one of my favorite actors for awhile (not so much now). But I think they needed someone more dynamic for the lead part. His soothing voice, just kind of made the movie drone on instead of pulling me in.
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Date: 2020-09-01 03:32 pm (UTC)William Holden was really good in Westerns, not so much War movies. Later Holden was better than early Holden. (See Peckinpah's Wild Bunch, where Holden plays the leader of the bunch). He played great anti-heroes.
It's the only book I was allowed to read by Michener for an English Lit credit in high school. We had to read approximately 1,000 to 2,000 pages, and we were not permitted to read thick novels like Atlas Shrugged, Centennial, etc for the credit. (It was 1984-85). So as a result, I read Anthem, Bridges of Toko Ri, Old Man and the Sea, etc. But at some point, my teacher that he didn't care if I read the long ones, since I was way over the minimum page limit allowed anyhow. Within the first month or two - I'd read over 2000 or more pages. (Once I figured out how to read - I read whatever I could get my hands on.)
I don't think I ever saw the movie. WAR films are hard to do well. Go too far one direction, and it's just a lot of meaningless fighting, go too far in the other, too much talking strategy. There's a lot of really boring war films out there.
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Date: 2020-09-01 04:02 am (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdV2tPJOPRY
There was one other possibility, but I can't recall the name for certain. I thought it might be Call of the Wild, but the IMdB doesn't show any late 50's, 1960's releases under that name. There were scenes in the snow, and there was a dog and/or wolf in it. I remember getting a bit upset and my parents calming me when it looked like the dog might have gotten hurt during one scene.
If any other geezers out there might know what this flick was, please clue me! There was a 1935 Call of the Wild, but I doubt it was that one, I think this was a new film at the time.
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Date: 2020-09-01 01:03 pm (UTC)Ah, I recently re-watched a 101 Dalmatians...it's kind of fun.
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Date: 2020-09-01 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 03:14 pm (UTC)https://youtu.be/osRX86BYsVg
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Date: 2020-09-01 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-01 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-04 06:54 pm (UTC)