Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9093 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-06-12
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 148 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
When Stanley Kubrick recruited Arthur C. Clarke to collaborate on "the proverbial intelligent science fiction film," it's a safe bet neither the maverick auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would virtually redefine the parameters of the cinema experience. A daring experiment in unconventional narrative inspired by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel," 2001 is a visual tone poem (barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history of human evolution. From the dawn-of-man discovery of crude but deadly tools in the film's opening sequence to the journey of the spaceship Discovery and metaphysical birth of the "star child" at film's end, Kubrick's vision is meticulous and precise. In keeping with the director's underlying theme of dehumanization by technology, the notorious, seemingly omniscient computer HAL 9000 has more warmth and personality than the human astronauts it supposedly is serving. (The director also leaves the meaning of the black, rectangular alien monoliths open for discussion.) This theme, in part, is what makes 2001 a film like no other, though dated now that its postmillennial space exploration has proven optimistic compared to reality. Still, the film is timelessly provocative in its pioneering exploration of inner- and outer-space consciousness. With spectacular, painstakingly authentic special effects that have stood the test of time, Kubrick's film is nothing less than a cinematic milestone--puzzling, provocative, and perfect. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.com
When Stanley Kubrick recruited Arthur C. Clarke to collaborate on "the proverbial intelligent science fiction film," it's a safe bet neither the maverick auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would virtually redefine the parameters of the cinema experience. A daring experiment in unconventional narrative inspired by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel," 2001 is a visual tone poem (barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history of human evolution. From the dawn-of-man discovery of crude but deadly tools in the film's opening sequence to the journey of the spaceship Discovery and metaphysical birth of the "star child" at film's end, Kubrick's vision is meticulous and precise. In keeping with the director's underlying theme of dehumanization by technology, the notorious, seemingly omniscient computer HAL 9000 has more warmth and personality than the human astronauts it supposedly is serving. (The director also leaves the meaning of the black, rectangular alien monoliths open for discussion.) This theme, in part, is what makes 2001 a film like no other, though dated now that its postmillennial space exploration has proven optimistic compared to reality. Still, the film is timelessly provocative in its pioneering exploration of inner- and outer-space consciousness. With spectacular, painstakingly authentic special effects that have stood the test of time, Kubrick's film is nothing less than a cinematic milestone--puzzling, provocative, and perfect. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

The best copy of 2001 Space Odyssey in Blu-ray....
Keep in mind how old this movie is and then sit back and be blown away of how good it looks on the new Blu-Ray format! If you've seen it before then this will give you another great reason to watch it again like never before. If you haven't seen it before it may be a little slow because back when the film was made they did not use a lot of ambient music and such to fill that uncomfortable scilence you sometimes get on the older movies. There seem to be more of those then I can remember on this film but it's still one of the greatest and inspired a lot of great now classics and newer films as well. If you have a good 1080p set and Blu-Ray player then sit back and drool....

Thankyou, Mr. Kubrick
Still a teenager when I first viewed "2001" at a tiny off-campus one screen theater....I recently bought the Bluray disc version....and viewed it on my 1080p Panasonic plasma screen....fantasically vivid in color and detail...simply amazing. It was as if I'd never seen the movie before. The extras are fascinating...watching with the commentary on gives you an insight into the making of the movie...but more importantly, gives you an appreciation...that Kubrick made this movie. Thankyou, Mr. Kubrick.

Mercury Rising
People jeer at media-created celebrities of today like Paris Hilton, but things were worse in the 1950s and 1960s when we were always hearing about the ASTRONAUTS. Stuffed down our throats, nobodies like Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper became household names, even though (and maybe because of the fact that) what we knew about them was tightly controlled and protected by layers of government secrecy and PR. Even their wives were sort of famous, though they never really took as celebrities, none of them, no matter how many insipid articles in McCalls or Good Housekeeping on "Annie Glenn's Favorite Mincemeat Surprise" or "Cooking with Tang." There was Jackie Kennedy, then there were the astronauts, a group of highly trained men we all fell for, and I think Kubrick must have too, for he bases his astronaut heroes on the media representations of the original "Mercury Seven" US astronauts, wed to the plot of Arthur C. Clarke's story "The Sentinel," so that there would be a twist and the astronauts would seem soulful compared to the flat significations of HAL their pet computer.

I assume that's why Kubrick selected some fairly colorless US actors to play their parts, although who knows, at the time Keir Dullea was regarded as a deep well of tangled and tragic emotions after starring in DAVID AND LISA and BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, but Gary Lockwood had nothing on his resume that would indicate any depth whatsoever, beyond his marriage to Stefanie Powers. Also in the cast, as Lockwood's mother, the swan song of wonderful Ann Gillis, once little Becky Thatcher in Selznick's version of TOM SAWYER, and also the voice of Faline, Bambi's love interest. She hadn't made a film in decades when Kubrick found her and cast her in this small but crucial role. She was the original LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE (1938) and her eternal sunny optimism is used ironically in the film. (Kubrick wanted the original Depression optimist, Shirley Temple, but her agents said no way was Temple going to re-locate for the required London filming.)

That said, the acting in 2001 is terribly underrated, and the movie should have been nominated for Oscars in several acting categories. MGM built on the tech savvy of FORBIDDEN PLANET, with its similar mix of electronic music, beefcake spacemen, and uppity robot voices, and came out a winner all around. Kubrick had worked with MGM before (on LOLITA), though Dr. STRANGELOVE was for Columbia. After 2001, Kubrick made a longterm pact with Warner Brothers which lasted until his death, but even though some love the photography of BARRY LYNDON I don't think he was ever able to match the tech credits of 2001 ever again. (In fact some of his later pictures look very studio-bound and TVlike.)