[ExI] squeeze the classics

Dan TheBookMan danust2012 at gmail.com
Mon Jun 6 18:56:47 UTC 2016


On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Darin Sunley <dsunley at gmail.com> wrote:
> I watched 2001: a Space Odyssey last year. While the pacing /is/ slow
> (both due to its mid-60's heritage and the fact that,

I don't think it was the time or the "heritage" per se. There were more
action-driven space adventure SF films released back then and before then.
Kubrick seems to be referencing and critiquing some of them. For instance,
a standard scene in space SF films is the ship entering the meteor field --
usually completely unawares until the stuff is right on top of them. When
the Discovery One passes through the asteroid belt, you can see two
asteroids far from the ship hardly moving and not menacing anything. I
believe that was Kubrick's twist of the typical meteor field scene.

> even on top of that,
> Kubrick was trying to make an artistic statement about the tedium and
> isolation of deep space travel),

I agree. See my comment on the asteroid field above. :) I think this was
more Kubrick's sensibility than the 01960s sensibility. Also, sticking to
the same scene, in the Star Wars series, passing through an asteroid belt
is more like the earlier SF films -- really exciting with menacing giant
space rocks tumbling around ready to destroy any spaceship reckless enough
to venture near them.

> I found it to be an extremely economically
> designed film. Every single shot accomplished something to drive the
> plot or the emotional balance of the film, and there is very little fat
to be
> cut, as far as I could tell.

I believe some stuff could've been cut, but I don't think it would be much.
So, we're probably mostly in agreement here. :)

Regards,

Dan
  My latest Kindle book, "The Late Mr. Gurlitt," is free today PDT from:
http://mybook.to/Gurlitt
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