Last night I watched 2001 on my iPod--I'm sure Kubrick is spinning in his grave :) Regardless, it was still cool. Mind you, I didn't sit there staring at my 3.5 inch screen for three hours. It was on while I was working on a client's website. I forget what inspired me to watch it, but something a couple days ago reminded me of it, so I figured, why not?
Oh and being the completist that I am I had to watch 2010 today. Now, I know what I'm about to say is unpopular, but I have to say it: 2010 is a GOOD MOVIE!
Sure, it's no 2001, but it's got some nice things in it. It's dated, yeah, Russia can barely afford to fly an airplane through the air, let alone a spaceship to Jupiter. Still, taken on its own, it does all right as a standalone film. There are really nice character bits and the way they build up to the big mission back to Jupiter is pretty damn engrossing. There are parts of it that are "eh" and I wish that Peter Hyams, the director and fellow Syracuse grad, had managed to sneak in a bit of that Kubrikian commentary on the absurdity and duality of humanity, but I still enjoy the film whenever I watch it.
I do get a little frustrated when we find out it was the White House who gave orders that screwed HAL up instead of Floyd. I feel that a good opportunity to explore the corruption of man was missed right there. Like the lack of nudity in AI, I don't think Kubrick would have missed that chance to show a more critical view of a man in the position Floyd was in. Yes, I know Kubrick never did sequels, but I think he was short-sighted in that regard. Some stories are worth revisiting and the 2001 series is one of them.
Another thing that tweaked my head about both films was that Dr. Chandra, creator of the HAL-9000 computer didn't have a HAL-9000 in his office on Earth. In 2001 they refer to the track record of the HAL-9000 saying something like "no HAL-9000 has made a mistake or distorted information."
This gives us the idea that there are more than one HAL-9000. Yet, in 2010, just nine years later, Dr. Chandra has already moved on and has a SAL-9000 in his office. This is the part with the tweakage.
I'm listening to SAL talk and I get to wondering who the voice was. I'm usually pretty good at picking out voice over actors and this time I was pretty sure it was [http://www.lesliehouk.com/meg_foster/|the ice-blue-eyed woman] from They Live and the creepy three-part storyline on Quantum Leap, Meg Foster:
However, after a quick visit to IMDB, I discovered it was not--I was surprised, but not shocked, to learn that it was, in fact, Murphy Brown--[http://imdb.com/name/nm0000298/|Candice Bergen].
I know--bizarre, but not bad, casting. I wonder just how the hell she got that gig. Of course, once I discovered who provided the voice of SAL, the next question was obvious:
Who did the voice of HAL, anyway?
Turns out it was a guy called Douglas Rain and according to the website http://www.ArchivioKubrick.it this is what Rain looked like in his somewhat younger days (he was born in 1928, according to IMDB):
Seems like the face I'd expect HAL's voice to come from. :)
If you're a Kubrick fan check out that Italian site I linked to above. It's got some cool stuff despite the fact that most of it is in Italian. There's even an article on Kubrick's AI that Google translator mauls pretty badly. If anyone knows of a better translation please let me know.
Oh and whether you're a Kubrick fan or not, have a go at 2010 and try to think of it as its own movie. It's not fair to compare it to 2001 since well, Kubrick made 2001! Hyams is a perfectly reasonable filmmaker and I think he does a fine job telling the story of the return to Jupiter.
If you give it a try and still don't like it, then you're probably watching too much MTV. ;) Damn kids!
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