SPACE ODYSSEY
A collaborator recently referenced a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and I thought to myself: I haven’t seen that movie in a while. I decided to check in with it, and spent a few hours marinating in that unique cinematic enigma all over again.
The film often derives its power from what isn’t shown or explained; just as it offers a take on the (now defunct) theory of the “missing link” in human evolution, it often conceals the very essence of its own connective tissue in a way that seems a meditation on the mystery of human experience itself.
After this particular viewing I found myself hungry to know how exactly the film came to be, and I plunged down a rabbit hole trying to find out. I was particularly interested in the sound choices, of course, though I found little of interest online except for the usual discussion of music used in the film. Turning to my local library, I looked up everything I could find about the movie. The search led me to “Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece”.
We learn plenty in these pages about Kubrick and Clarke’s meeting and collaboration, of course. Various tangents touch on figures ranging from Carl Sagan to Wernher von Braun, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg as well. The story of the film’s inception, execution, and reception is far stranger and more circuitous than I ever would have thought.
Along the way, the accumulating anecdotes often— consistently, really— prove hilarious. The monolith, for example, was originally conceived as a twelve-foot transparent pyramid made out of Perspex (plexiglass). A design firm was contracted to create the massive object. But the designer in charge doubted that the requested shape was feasible, and suggested that the object be shaped “like a pack of cigarettes” instead. Kubrick agreed. The plexiglass monolith duly arrived on the soundstage in London. Everyone was disappointed with the results, and Kubrick casually instructed the crew to put it in storage. Sunk cost, at today's rates: $400,000.
Around the same time, NASA's Mariner 4 was due to fly past Mars. Kubrick was apparently so worried about the discovery of extraterrestrial life invalidating the plot of "2001" that he contracted Lloyd's of London to draft an insurance policy to protect his project if that eventuality came to pass.
And on and on it goes. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a comprehensive look at the making of “2001”. It was, indeed, rewarding to discover that Kubrick eventually had the voice talent put his feet up on a pillow while voicing HAL, in order to achieve the desired relaxed delivery. But my goodness, the rabbit hole goes so, so far deeper than that.
= = = = =