Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2658 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-03
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 136 minutes

Special Features
Commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, 1966 Interview with Stanley Kubrick,2001: The Making of a Myth (Channel 4 documentary). Contains five features that explore: The Legacy of 2001, Kubrick’s view of the future, Special Effects and early conceptual artwork, Space and beyond, and the Theatrical trailer

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

SLEEP INDUCING
This slow, boring at times, movie is a classic. It gets played on my dvd player during bouts of insomnia or drunkeness or when i smokeweed. It has a Terrence Malick feel to it in my opinion; it is a visual tone poem much like Malick movies eg Days of Heaven where there is little dialogue. 2001: A Space Odyssey has barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 145-minute film.


Regarding the plot, we move across centuries, from the birth of man with apes fighting it out to sociopathic Computer Hal taking a crew to Jupiter in a quest to understand a mysterious black monolith that may hold the key to God. Phew.


It also follows the adventures of a few astronauts in space and their motivations to mature and reflect on the situation in which they find themselves. The anti-hero is the malfunctioning super computer HAL900 ("I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it.), but ultimately this movie is about Keir Dullea's Bowman who is reborn in a strange but comforting home environmet after enduring a hypnotic, if not hallucinogenic kaleidoscope of images on his journey to Jupiter. The definitive Kubrick movie is his best work and is also the high point of science fiction cinema. This is simply one of the greatest movies ever made.
Dr BeeClarke 10/10.

In space no one can hear you...
I saw this when it came out. In Cinerama I believe. I was 8. Even today the special effects have not been bettered. The technology predictions are only now coming true eg small camcorders and flat screen TVs. Oh, and it is still the only space film that respects the laws of physics. There is no air in space. No air = no noise. No whoosh, no bang, no nothing. Brilliant. It is a Space Opera. Beautiful on a big, big screen.

A Milestone for Cinema
One needs reminding him/herself that this movie was filmed prior to the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing. Thers is the Orbital station, the lunar station and spaceshifts ( with IBM computer navigation screens with 3D graphics, the AI system HAL ( named after one letter prior to I.B.M.) , playing chess, watching, thinking, killing and ultimately begging for its existence, the Alien's Monolith and the absolutley visually stunning trip inside it and the last few minutes ( Dave's rebirth ) making this ( in my opinion ) a true masterpiece and a milestone for cinema.

Not that far off from the Lost Worlds of 2001 book, the idea of an Alien intelligence guiding our evolution is without doubt breathtaking and surely has references to religion and philoshophy and is portrayed in the movie. On the other hand the evolution of technology and the birth of AI and logial probable consequences are also portrayed in a chilling fashion. Cryogenic sleep/space travel, telephones with handsfree and live video are also portrayed making this surely a rather ' way ahead of its time ' movie in 1968. The Blue Ray version does justice to the stunning visual effects and its a movie/ BR disc worth having