2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Director: Stanley Kubrick Run Time: 149 min. Rating: G Release Year: 1968
Starring: Daniel Richter, Douglas Rain, Gary Lockwood, Keir Dullea, William Sylvester
Country: United Kingdom, United States
Language: English, Russian, French
Presented on 70mm film on June 26, 2021 as part of Science on Screen, a national initiative made possible through a grant by the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
“Alone among science-fiction movies, “2001″ is not concerned with thrilling us, but with inspiring our awe.”
About the film:
2001: A Space Odyssey is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made. It deals with the themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life. Known for its scientifically accurate depiction of space flight, the film won an Academy Award for its groundbreaking special effects and was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1991.
Dr. Dave Bowman and other astronauts are sent on a mission to discover the origin of a mysterious monolith discovered beneath the Lunar surface. As the team heads toward Jupiter, their ship’s computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behavior, leading to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time.
About the filmmaker:
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer, frequently cited as one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history. With his strict control over details and penchant for working from books, he crafted masterpieces in radically different genres, including Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Full Metal Jacket.
Determined to make a different kind of sci-fi film, Kubrick worked on the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey with prominent science fiction author and futurist Arthur C. Clarke.
“If you understand ‘2001’ completely, we’ve failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered.”
– Arthur C. Clarke
Learn more about Kubrick and his films at kubrick.life, and read about how 2001 was made in Dan Chiasson’s 2018 article for The New Yorker.
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