I was seated in the balcony of a packed Windsor Cinerama Theater on the first
night of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY's lengthy run in Houston in 1968. Starting with
DESTINATION MOON in 1950. I had seen practically every sf flick to grace
Houston's big downtown and small neighborhood screens. The good -- DAY THE
EARTH STOOD STILL, FORBIDDEN PLANET and THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD --, the
bad -- BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, KILLERS FROM SPACE and REPTILICUS -- and the
ugly -- PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, MISSILE TO THE MOON and TEENAGERS FROM OUTER
SPACE.
As audience, 2001 caught us all offguard. It was long, visually impressive and
both jolting and perplexing. It's soundtrack was eerily spartan and devoid of
the theramin-type electronic effects that had become cliche' for the genre. An
avid science-fiction reader as well, I sat mesmerized, happy to finally see
that here was a epic space adventure flavored with realities which we had come
to know from films of NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. Naturally, in
1968, the movie made for many great conversations over pie and coffee following
each of the four times I saw it on its initial run at The Windsor.
Due to the success of 2001, movies like SILENT RUNNING and the television
series -- SPACE: 1999 for one -- adopted the austere design of Kubrick's
classic.
STAR WARS and the advancement of CGI spfx changed all of that. Today, many of
our science-fiction films seem like episodes of SPACE PATROL or THE OUTER
LIMITS with better soundtracks and eye-dazzling effects. As the years have
passed, 2001 has fallen in my film favorites. It is too demanding and
laboriously long to just slip into the DVD player end "enjoy" on a damp evening
on the comfy couch with crackling fireplace. Some might even find it "boring."
You either like 2001 or you don't. I do, but less so than when I first viewed
it. Others fall into the camp of the audience member seated next to me in that
packed theater in 1968. After the movie ended and the lights came up, a silence
had fallen over the confused crowd. After a pregnant pause, my next seat
neighbor broke the quiet with his comment, "What the hell was that??!!"
Earl Blair
CAPTAIN BIJOU
www.captainbijou.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Edwards
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011 6:18 AM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] My Friend Say 2001 is a "snorefest"
Yes, but you READ SF.
Over the years it has struck me that most people who dislike this film do so
because they don't "get it."
There's actually nothing to "get" but plenty to read into it, just like SF
literature, if one has a mind to.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ari Richards
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011 9:49 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] My Friend Say 2001 is a "snorefest"
I have a good friend, whose taste I usually agree with, and he also HATES
2001.
Actually its a shame more people don't hate it, cos then I could afford a
nice poser for this WONDERFUL film.
Ari
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: bqjansen <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sat, 5 March, 2011 9:17:17 PM
Subject: Re: [MOPO] My Friend Say 2001 is a "snorefest"
Let me chip in to say that 2001 not only is a snorefest and that you either
have to be very lazy to not stand up and leave the cinema/room or too old and
creaky, but also that you have to be visually challenged to enjoy the ludicrous
posters of ET-embryo's or boring spaceships.
Wim
Op 5 mrt 2011, om 11:08 heeft Richard Halegua Comic Art het volgende
geschreven:
Freeman.. email me privately and I'll tell you who he is
At 01:46 AM 3/5/2011, Sean Linkenback wrote:
Don't keep us in suspense Rich - tell us who it is so Freeman can call
him a "slime-ball, scum sucking, poop sniffing, warp minded, yeast infected,
snot-nosed, yellow bellied, cold-blooded bullying jack-ass"
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Halegua Comic Art
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011 4:38 AM
Subject: [MOPO] My Friend Say 2001 is a "snorefest"
yeah so I'm doing my usual thing (working on posters) when I get an
email from one of my very best friends in the world and this email is titles
"snorefest" and his email proceeds to tell me "just watched one of the
boringest movies ever - 2001"
of course I told him he makes me sick and that he isn't worthy of
breathing air above ground if he doesn't think 2001 isn't one of the best
movies of all time (because it is)
well we banter back and forth and he points to these reviews by other
obvious idiots
http://movie2s.com/movie/18364968/2001:_a_space_odyssey.html
I once again tell him how retarded he is and he says "it needs more
lasers and explosions. if the spaceships could transform into robots it would
be much cooler"
Now I don't want to embarrass my buddy, especially because he is a
member of MoPo, so I don't want to mention my buddy's name (Sean), because I
don't want my buddy (Sean) to get nasty emails from people telling him what a
lowbrow movie viewer he must be. It's too bad my buddy (Sean) can't see how
intellectually stimulating 2001 is (as are the rest of Kubrick's films - each
one is a gem).
But to each his own, so I'm not going to mention my buddy's name
(it's Sean), but I just wanted you folks to know there actually is someone in
our group that doesn't get this film.
Hey Sean.. I mean, Hey Buddy, should I get you a copy of the Last
Airbender for Christmas??
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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