Silly arguments

[LewisM]

Got into quite a heated argument with a mate over the main score for 2001: A Space Odyssey. He swore black and blue it is Dvořák‘s “New World Symphony”. He insisted vehemently...Wagered me a 6 pack. I played him Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” on my Spotify playlist :lol:

A 6 pack to me sealed his ignominy :)

[xelasnave]

You should not take advantage of someone who is wrong.
Alex

[LewisM]

The winnings were shared by all...

[gary]

I would not have collected the beer but would have double downed.

In the orbiting space station, we are told something has been found.
What is it and where can it be collected?

[Saturnine]

I did have the sound track album ( can't find it at the moment ) but from memory, the opening scenes were to Also Sprach Zarathustra. The scene flying ! up to the space station was set to The Blue Danube, that is still etched in my mind from over 50 years ago. Also on the track, my favourite was/is the haunting Adagio from Amal Katchaturians Gayane Ballet Suite, plus much more of course.

[Saturnine]

The Obelisk in the lunar crater Clavius !

[LewisM]

Tycho crater actually, Clavius was the lunar base

[gary]

Sorry Jeff, no cigar. :)

Over the PA in the orbital Hilton Hotel, we are told a blue lady's cashmere
sweater has been found and can be claimed from the manager's desk.

P.S.

Long before iTunes, DVD's and VHS, I must confess to have paid to go and see the movie over 50 times
in the cinema alone.

[Saturnine]

Damn, my memory is shot. Think it is about time to watch the film again.
Thanks for the corrections, how could I have forgotten about the blue cashmere sweater and mixing up Tycho and Clavius craters.

[Hans Tucker]

I got into many an argument regarding the song Danke Schoen which appears in Ferris Buellers Day Off .. I stated that it was a guy that sang that song but no … other were certain it was a female. It earned me $20.

[sharpiel]

Weren't you both a lawyer and a real estate agent at various times in your career Alex? :D

[LewisM]

OOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!! Les...watch out :lol:


(I was THINKING the same)

[JA]

Hi Hans,
Yes that was Wayne Newton, probably made a lifetime career singing it and others in Las Vegas. The best is his uptempo live version of Danke Schoen. He was an incredible showman. BTW he looks a little like The Don.

Best
JA


https://youtu.be/LRPILZS1hc8

[Sunfish]

Kubrick was a genius.
More puzzles Gary!
Spacequiz.

[gary]

Hi Ray,

:)

On the way from the orbiting space station to the Moon, whilst their lone
passenger sleeps, one of the stewardesses is watching a wide screen TV for
entertainment.

What is she watching?

Bonus point for your interpretation of its symbolic significance. :)

[LewisM]

Here's a harder one - what is written on the Stewardess' shoes? :)

[gary]

Too easy. :) The stewardesses all work for Pan Am. They are Grip Shoes.
Velcro on the bottom.

[gary]

Apple tried to bring about an injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab,
claiming Samsung had slavishly copied the iPad.

In court, as evidence by way of prior art, Samsung showed
scenes in 2001 of the astronauts aboard Discovery using tablet
computers, including watching a BBC interview with themselves.

The tablets in 2001 are branded with the name of what company?

[Startrek]

I absolutely love this movie but .......
One of many many technical faults in the movie
“Sound does not transmit in the vacuum of Space” so why are the astronauts trying to block their ears when standing near the monolith ?? Or is the alien monolith transmitting some spurious quelch signal in their communications headsets ?

Yeh I know it’s Science Fiction.....

Stanley Kubrick always leaves you wondering, pondering , guessing

Brilliant man !!

[LewisM]

IBM Dave...errr...Gary

[LewisM]

You cheated and watched the movie :)

[gary]

I assure you I did not. :)

First saw the film in 1968 and saw it 50 times just at the cinema alone.

Needs to be something harder (But not the maintenance instructions
for the explosive bolts).

[strongmanmike]

While not watched at the cinema...that's me with some episodes of Fawlty Towers :D

Mike

[gary]

Hi Martin,

It's coming through their radio headsets.

When HAL is being shutdown, Bowman is startled by a voice that
says, "Good day gentlemen".

A pre-recorded video by Heywood Floyd has been triggered.

He explains that for security reasons, it has only been known by HAL.
(We as the audience then realise HAL had been programmed to lie,
which is the possible reason for his breakdown)

Floyd explains that the first evidence of intelligent life off the Earth
has been discovered, buried on the Moon.

The last words spoken in the film are :-
"Except for a single, very powerful radio emission aimed at Jupiter,
the four-million year old black monolith has remained completely inert,
its origin and purpose - still a total mystery."

So the monolith has triggered a radio alarm once it was exposed to the
light of the Sun, which is telling the beings that built it that we are on
our way.

Kubrick knew full-well there is no sound in space and he uses that
to powerful effect several times in the film.

There is the wonderful juxtaposition of the sounds within the pod -
the pinging of the radar, the chimes and alarms of the onboard avionics
and the whooshing of the air circulation system inside, to the
absolutely silent exterior shots of the pod coming directly toward
the camera.

When we see the exterior shot of Bowman retrieving Frank's body with
the pod's arms, it is poignantly silent.

On the EVA's when we hear the astronauts breathing to retrieve and put
back the supposedly faulty AE-35 unit, it is the sound within the suits.

The most magnificent juxtaposition is the sounds of the various stages of
alarms when Bowman arms the explosive bolts. The exterior shot
from within the airlock shows the blast and his human cannonball
entry, sans-helmet. When he reaches for the latch and closes the door,
the sound of air comes rushing back.

[gary]

I have a working knowledge of lots of Kubrick trivia.

But good trivia has to have that "Oh, that's interesting", factor. :)
Well, at least for me anyway. :lol:

For example, the actor that played Julian, the muscle-man bodyguard for the
crippled author in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, is the same
actor that wore the Darth Vader costume and helmet in the Star Wars movies.

However, as everyone knows, the voice of Darth Vader was voice-acted
by James Earl Jones.

Now James Earl Jones happens to appear in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove
as bombardier Lt Lothar Zoggs onboard the B-52.

When the B-52 has been hit by a missile, the bomb-bay doors have been
rendered inoperative. When the aircraft's captain, Major Kong, orders
to "fire the explosive bolts", James Earl Jones reports "all the operating
circuits are dead, sir".

We then see explosive bolts used in 2001. When the pod door closes
in the pod bay, we see on the exterior of the door the warning and
maintenance instructions for the explosive bolts that Bowman will
later fire.


In Dr. Strangelove, messages to the aircraft have to be prefixed
with the right three-letter code and they are filtered by a piece of
equipment we see and that is referred to as the CRM-114 Discriminator.

In A Clockwork Orange, we see a closeup of the vial of the
behaviour conditioning drug Alex is being injected with. It is
Serum 114.

[doug mc]

Wow. People thought i was strange when i told them i had watched the movie13 times back in1968 to 1969 before it left the screens in Brisbane.

[gary]

Hi Doug,

That's really impressive just in the first year of release! :)

Decades later, whenever I re-watch it, I will often make some new connection
or derive some new supposition that I had not made before.

As for trivia, I enjoy any in particular that requires one to segue between
Kubrick films. :) That way one can fire-up one's associative memory
and do a brain dump. :lol:

So for example, if I were in the pub and someone asked the Also sprach
Zarathustra question, then most of us would answer Richard Strauss
but also be able to point out he was of no relation to Johann Strauss
who wrote The Blue Danube.

But if I were in the pub bet, I would likely then keep segueing indefinitely.

Someone mentioned the beautiful, melancholic, Gayne Ballet Suite
used in the opening sequences of when we first see and are non-board
Discovery. Now Khachaturian also wrote a ballet called Spartacus and
of course Kubrick directed the movie Spartacus (though it was not
'his' film) when we was hired by Kirk Douglas after Douglas had
sacked director Anthony Mann.

In the opening scene of Kubrick's Lolita, when James Mason
asks Peter Sellers whether he is Clare Quilty, Sellers drunken
character, adorned only in a bed sheet after a night of a
drunken orgy replies, "No, I'm Spartacus. You come to free the slaves?"

Douglas had hired Kubrick to direct Spartacus after Kubrick had previously
hired Douglas to star in Paths of Glory.

The name of the actress that plays the captured German girl at the end of Paths of Glory
that reduces the French soldiers to tears when she sings was Christiane
Harlan. Kubrick began to date her at the time, apparently to the chagrin of Kubrick's
fellow producer, James Harris.

Kubrick then goes onto marry Christiane and the two remained
together for Stanley's remaining life. A talented artist who paints in
vivid colors, we see many of Christiane's paintings adorning the walls in
Eyes Wide Shut and in a Clockwork Orange.

Christiane's brother, Jan Harlan, Stanley's brother-in-law, acted
as an executive producer and researcher on several of Stanley's films.

A copy of the 2001 soundtrack LP appears in the front of the rack of
a music shop in A Clockwork Orange where Alex picks up the two girls
with the phallic iceblocks. Legend has it that it was a real music shop
and the album just happened to be there.

When Alex takes the two girls back for the comedic threesome, the
soundtrack is a fast played version of the William Tell Overture played
on a Moog by then Walter Carlos.

Additional Carlos pieces are heard in the theatre used to condition
Alex, including a composition called Timesteps (the entire piece appears
on the album but only an excerpt is heard in the movie) and of course
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement, the conditioning
against which particularly distresses Beethoven aficionado Alex.

Walter Carlos of course later becomes Wendy and the opening theme
sequence of The Shining is being played by her.

One of the pieces of music in The Shining with the ethereal voices in
the background is by Ligeti and of course Ligeti pieces appear throughout
2001.

Originally Kubrick had commissioned composer Alex North, who had
written the music for Spartacus, to score the music for 2001, which he did.
During the editing of 2001, apparently Kubrick used The Blue Danube
as a fill-in during the editing process, but grew to like it so much that
it became the piece used. North was apparently disappointed his score
was never used.

One of Stanley's daughters, Vivian, scored some of the music on
Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. We see Vivian make a cameo in 2001
as Heywood Floyd's daughter that he refers to by the nickname of
"Squirt" when he phones her from the Bell Picturephone at the orbiting
Hilton. When Floyd asks her what she wants for her birthday (there
are many birthdays in 2001), she replies "a bushbaby" and apparently
a sequence was shot but never used of one of these tiny primates being
purchased at a futuristic Macy's store. The bushbaby reference obviously
has an evolutionary connection, the central theme of 2001.

[Scorpius51]

This, of course, relates to HALs’ name, if I recall - although thought to be accidental!

[gary]

Hi John,

Indeed accidental. and Arthur C. Clark said it was meant to be
an acronym for Heuristic ALgorithmic. :)

The actor that at one point was cast to do HAL's voice was Martin Balsam.
I can't imagine it, so I am glad Kubrick found Douglas Rain.

Actor Gary Lockwood who plays Frank tells the anecdote that during
production, Stanley had his first assistant Director, Derek Cracknell,
read HAL's lines so the other actors could then have their parts filmed
when interacting with HAL. Kubrick said he would change the voice
during post production.

Well apparently Cracknell had a thick cockney accent which made this
super-intelligent computer sound hilarious so the actors did well not
to laugh.

Little wonder Red Dwarf chose "Holly". :lol:

[dikman]

The story goes that it was deliberate, H comes before I, A before B and L before M. I hardly think that would be accidental.

[gary]

One of the people Kubrick hired for 2001 as a scientific consultant
was Frederick Ordway III. You see his name in the credits.

Ordway had joined the American Rocket Society as a teenager during the
war and worked for pioneer rocket engine maker Reaction Motors, Inc.
(I was given a wonderful book last year, America's First Rocket
Company: Reaction Motors, Inc by Frank winter - recommended) and went on
to join the NASA Manned Space flight Center in Huntsville.

An avid science fiction reader, he was a friend of Arthur C Clarke, and he
moved with his family to England for the production of 2001.

He went to painstaking amount of effort to consult with a large range
of companies, including IBM, Boeing, General Dynamics, Grumman,
Westinghouse, Bell Telephone, Honeywell on what their vision of the
future might look like. The manufacturers were apparently all to happy
to provide enormous amounts of material and concepts, partly in the
hope of getting free placements. So for example we see the Westinghouse
branded hot food dispensers and the IBM avionics and tablet computers,
none of which existed but Kubrick's production crew would mock up from
concept art.

NASA was also consulted and of course astronauts loved Velcro, so we see
things like the Grip Shoes.

Deke Slayton and George Mueller, who headed the NASA Office of Manned
Space Flight, visited the production set and upon seeing how much material
Kubrick and Ordway had amassed christened the place "NASA East".

Anyway, a lot of the authentic look of the film owes much to Fred Ordway
being instructed to make all the spacecraft and technology look plausible.

Unfortunately Ordway passed away a few years ago but he wrote
several books including on working on 2001 and gave presentations
to film and science buffs.

One of the fabulous photos Ordway would show is the one I attached
below during the filming of 2001. Imagine the conversation you could
have with this bunch of guys!

[Scorpius51]

Yep, a little too much of a coincidence!

A great film, though. Probably about time to dust off the DVD.

[LewisM]

My - now moved - Canadian neighbour was named Hal. I would always greet him with Open the pod bay doors Hal. Being a strict, devout Christian, he'd never seen the movie, and though I did explain, was met with a stare. I did well to avoid a being usurped and forced to listen to his daily Psalms readings.


He loved looking through my telescope, so long as his wife didn't find out

[doug mc]

Kubrick was a master with the camera. All his films are beautiful to watch. Many years later i got a dvd copy of Barry Linden. Blown away of the beauty of each shot in that film. Replaced all my Kubrick films with Blu-ray versions. At 16 years of age, after owning the soundtrack to 2001, i got musically coverted to classical. Needless to say the film had a profound influence on me. Still love it. It will remain more than just a film, a work of art.

[dikman]

Yep, this thread has got me thinking the same thing.:) The docking with the space station, the moon landing and travelling across the moon are just beautiful to watch, quite mesmerising. The soundtrack is certainly a critical part to setting the mood in these sequences. A while ago I finished reading the books (at last) but found #3 just a little bit weird.

And while film #2 is quite different in context I still enjoy it because of the way it carries on the mystery of the Monument.

[gary]

Hi Doug,

That's wonderful. I bet we could talk for hours. :thumbsup:

2001 also had a profound influence on me. If I had to choose a single
film worthy of being permanently showed at the Louvre, it would it.

Below is a link to a 30 second video of Vivian Kubrick showing off one of the
famous Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 lenses used for the candlelit
sequences in Barry Lyndon.

NASA had originally commissioned Zeiss to build ten of them for
the Apollo project to photograph the far side of the Moon. NASA
originally purchased seven, Kubrick acquired three ($$$) and
Zeiss kept one.

He had a technician machine parts of one of his Mitchell cameras so
it would fit because the rear element had to get within 4mm of the film
plane.

Even after pushing the film stock, the depth of field was something like
40mm so they set up a measurement system using a video camera so the
cinematographer could keep tabs that the actors would be in focus.

Video :-
https://youtu.be/dVF1zoyQJHY

Article from American Cinematographer on the modifications made to
the Mitchell camera to use the lenses :-
http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/sk/ac/len/page1.htm?LMCL=JjM76k

[AndyG]

The Enterprise Refit in space dock scene from The Motion Picture does it for me. That scene shattered my youngster's presumption that "Classical music is just for old people". Scenes like this are literally porn for nerds - one doesn't expect others can often appreciate it. You can tell from that scene the Enterprise was Kirk's Wife...

[LewisM]

3 Science Fiction films define my youth and into adult:
1. Alien
2. Forbidden Planet
3. 2001

[RB]

Figures.

:lol:

[LewisM]

Priceless Andrew!

My wife still won’t let me lock her in our space suit wardrobe in knickers and crop top...:eyepop: