2001: A Space Odyssey

Continued...

Quotes & Stuff

HAL: I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

Saucerful of Secrets, by Nicholas Schaffner, pg. 142: Roger Waters, yet to balk at the sci-fi association, went so far as to say his 'greatest regret' was that they didn't do the score for 2001: A Space Odyssey -- parts of which, particularly in the long, mind-blowing hallucinatory sequence near the end, nonetheless sound remarkably Floydian...

Clarke, imagining the first words of his fictional psychotic computer, Hal (taken from Newsweek): Good morning, doctors. I have taken the liberty of removing Windows 95 from my hard drive.

Steve Dhuey: The Star Child symbolizes how each further encounter of a higher level of cosmic intelligence throws us back to relative infancy in comparison.

The 1968 Oscar for best makeup went to Planet of the Apes (1968). It is rumoured that 2001 missed out because judges were convinced that real apes were used, which was not the case.

In a technical paper written in 1945, Arthur C. Clarke originated the concept of communications satellites and, more importantly, described precisely how they would function - all a dozen years before the first Sputnik startled the world with its beeps. Readers of Clarkian glimpses into the future sometimes suspect he has a crystal ball that works.

Kubrick planned to have Alex North (who wrote the score for Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) write a musical score especially for the film. During filming, Kubrick played classical music on the set to create the right mood. Delighted with the effect, he decided to use classical music in the finished product. North's score has subsequently been released as "Alex North's 2001" (Varese/Sarabande 5400).

Generally panned by critics when previewed. Kubrick subsequently cut 20 minutes for its public release, but still failed to win over the film critics.

HAL's voice was originally going to be performed by Martin Balsam, but Kubrick decided that he sounded too emotional. Douglas Rain got the role, and never visited the set.

According to Douglas Trumbull, the total footage shot was some 200 times the final length of the film.

2001 originally received poor reviews. Joe Gelmis was the first critic to admit his mistake and state in print that he had judged a masterpiece too hastily. His re-evaluation set off a stampede of good re-reviews. The rest, as they say, is history.