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2001 - A Space Odyssey on DVD (1968)

2001 - A Space Odyssey cover art
Play 2001 - A Space Odyssey trailer
Average rating: 72%
13154121119720
3.5
from 6,901 members
 
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Robert Beatty, Leonard Rossiter
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Studio: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Run time: 136 mins
Certificate: U
Collections: 100 must-see movies
User collections: Top 5, Some Interesting films to watch when there's nothing else to do and you have time to actually enjoy them., Films considered the greatest ever!, UNMISSABLE FILMS, something for everyone, Top 10 of all time, My random 100 or so, brain teasers, Thigh smacking Psychological films, The greatest films ever
Genres: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Languages: English
Dubbed: German
Hearing-impaired: English, German
Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish
Released: 01/09/2001
Also Available on: Also Available on: BLU-RAY Also Available on: DIGITAL Also Available on: HD-DVD

Brief synopsis of 2001 - A Space Odyssey

A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission while hiding the truth from the public. Later, another team is sent to Jupiter in a ship controlled by the perfect HAL 9000 computer to further investigate the giant object--but something goes terribly wrong. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is a masterpiece of filmmaking. Director and coscreenwriter (with Arthur C. Clarke) Stanley Kubrick has created a visual and aural spectacle that stands as one of the greatest achievements ever put on celluloid. The film begins with the "Dawn of Man" segment, about the evolution of apes, and then ventures into the future, taking a look at what the world might be like in the first year of the 21st century. Kubrick's film is a triumph of technological storytelling, a marvel of stunning sets and a brilliant soundtrack with the power to overwhelm and mystify. Long dialogue-free scenes sparkle with indelible images and powerful orchestral music, culminating in an unforgettable, inscrutable tale of birth and rebirth, human evolution and artificial intelligence, the past and the future.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 5 stars out of 5 Radio Times

This seminal sci-fi work from Stanley Kubrick is now considered by many to be less a supreme piece of cinema than an interesting, innovative product of the 1960s. But the memorable celluloid images still strongly resonate, such as the giant, vulnerable foetus floating through space and the tribe of apes painfully putting two and two together. It is Kubrick's haunting, stylised combination of music and visuals that gives 2001 its eerie, mesmerising quality, but even its most devoted disciples are hard pressed to tell you what it's actually about, and, as a slice of philosophy on how we all got started and where we ultimately go, the movie has little credence. However, it's a must-see if you never have, even though its visual impact is seriously hampered by the small screen.

Rating of 4 stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

A lengthy montage of brilliant model work and obscure symbolism, this curiosity slowly gathered commercial momentum and came to be cherished by those who used it as a trip without LSD.

Total Film

"...A significant landmark in the history of cinema. It's also, as the original posters proclaimed, 'the ultimate trip'..." -- 5 out of 5 stars

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsThe 1984 of films

A customer from Acton, London , 16/11/2003

A fundamental film. The computer HAL (one letter removed from IBM) is the villain, and is masterfully chilling. Very much ahead of its time and one of those films that it is a cultural necessity to see.

  26 out of 41 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsBirth, Death, Re-birth.....geddit ??

The Goose from England , 17/04/2004

This film is simply a masterpiece.

Any film that can explain evolution of man.....death of man....and rebirth of a new species in little over 2 hours deserves 5 stars.

C'mon even a film as poor and insignificant as Pearl Harbour lasts 3 hours........3 looooong hours.

Go to http://www.kubrick2001.com/2001. html

for a layman's guide.

  18 out of 26 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsTHE ONLY REALISTIC SPACE FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN

CyberDan from London, England , 09/12/2004

This DVD of 2001 has been done from a virgin print and cannot be faulted in terms of picture quality. This version is full length time-wise, but the original side screen images for the Cinerama are not present anywhere on this disc. I have heard they have been lost.

The most noticable thing about this film is it's so true to life. The spaceships are graceful and slow to alter course...... just like the real thing. You do not hear the sound of the engines as there is no sound in the vacuum of outer space.

Even the journey part of the film is supremely realistic in that it is long and tedious.

All this realism helps to get the audience into the same frame of mind that the astronaut will be in when the final climax occurs, and makes it far more dramatic than it would be otherwise

Once you have seen this film you will never forget it.

  15 out of 18 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsGreat visuals and music

Arun from Liverpool, UK , 30/04/2005

Its a tad slow and sometimes theres no sound at various situations. The story is not your usual protagonist, a problem and its solution. The canvas is quite literally huge and the timescale is beyond human imagination.

Stanley Kubrick captivates the viewers.

Its sad to see today in 2005 that we havent reached where we might have reached in 2001 as predicted long back

  11 out of 12 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 1 starsA long, long film

Ben from Cirencester , 19/12/2005

What a pile of pants. I'm not going to jump on the whole 'best film since sliced bread' bandwagon just because it was done by Stanley Kubrick - this film had me bored rigid. The computer takes over; great. That's it. Story told. Plus the first 20 mins or so were .... well, just bonkers. Sorry, but it was rubbish. I almost didn't finish watching it, but kept thinking it might get better. It didn't.

  12 out of 20 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsIconic but confusing

Bransby from Middlesex , 03/09/2004

How many iconic cinematic moments can you cram into one film? I doubt if Kubrick foresaw that a cartoon about a certain disfunctional, yellow, American family would be parodying it decades later, but there are very good reasons for this film becoming an icon of cinematic history.

For me it was the little touches in sound that were so fascinating. It's a refreshing change to watch a sci-fi film that actually portrays sound in space accurately, i.e., there is none. His use of classical music is just as interesting as his use of silence, and all contributes to an astonishingly captivating experience. The film is very slow by modern sci-fi standards and so it's a testament to Kubrick's skill, and Clarke's writing that their film is able to involve and grip the audience, even at the most uneventful moments.

It draws you in, until you feel you're not sitting in front of a TV watching something someone has made, but that you're experiencing something truly momentous.

Some of the visuals are a little dated now, but the film is so captivating that at the time you don't really notice.

The only part of the film that I didn't really enjoy was the infinite and beyond chapter, it lost me completely. I understand that you're probably not meant to really understand what is happening as such, but after the total enthrallment of the preceding chapters, it's a bit of a cold shower emotionally, and I felt, a disappointing end to an otherwise truly exceptional film.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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