(Movie) 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey is the Academy Award winning science fiction movie directed and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. The movie was released in 1968, the same year as Planet of the Apes, and is considered to be one of the all-time classic movies of its genre. The film screenplay was co-written with renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke who also wrote the novel at the same time. In 2007 the American Film Institute designated it as #15 on their all-time 100 Greatest Films. Their website introduces the movie with the following praise:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a landmark, science fiction classic - and probably the best science-fiction film of all time about exploration of the unknown. It was released, coincidentally, at the height of the space race between the USSR and the US. It appeared at the same time as NASA's exploratory Apollo Project with manned Earth orbiting missions - a prelude to orbiting and landing on the Moon with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. And it prophetically showed the enduring influence that computers would have in our daily lives.
Director Stanley Kubrick's work is a profound, visionary and astounding film (a mysterious Rorschach film-blot) and a tremendous visual experience. This epic film contained more spectacular imagery (about what space looked like) and special effects than verbal dialogue. Viewers are left to experience the non-verbal, mystical vastness of the film, and to subjectively reach into their own subconscious and into the film's pure imagery to speculate about its meaning. Many consider the masterpiece bewildering, boring, slow-moving or annoying, but are still inspired by its story of how man is dwarfed by technology and space.
More information from AFI can be found here.
Special Effects, Make-up, and Costumes Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (or Oscars), it only won the award in the category of Best Special Visual Effects. Some critics feel that the film was generally snubbed by the Academy as it was not even among the nominations for best picture. There is also some Hollywood lore that the Academy failed to recognize that the apes portrayed in the opening 'Dawn of Man' sequence were actually costumed actors mixed with two young chimpanzees, but in fact there was not yet an award for best make-up; John Chambers received a special honorary award that year for Planet of the Apes. [1]. Stuart Freeborn was the make-up artist mostly responsible for designing the ape costumes and make-up.[2] He later developed the characters Chewbacca and Yoda for the Star Wars films. Dan Richter, a mime that choreographed the ape sequences and portrayed the main ape character known as 'Moonwatcher,' wrote an autobiographical memoir of his experience on the set entitled "Moonwatcher's Memoir." [3]
Sasquatch significance Perhaps more deservedly than Planet of the Apes, '2001' has long been associated with sasquatch because of its ape costumes and make-up. Unlike the characters in Planet of the Apes, the apes in '2001' wore no human clothes and were thus full body costumes. Many skeptics have countered the argument that the figure in the Patterson-Gimlin film was beyond Hollywood's capabilities by pointing out the sophisticated ape costumes from '2001.' Moreover, these costumes were being used at the exact time that Patterson film was shot, albeit on a sound stage in England. While the Patterson figure does not generally resemble the apes from 2001, there is little debate that the costumes from the movie were "state-of-the-art" and the ape characters were more convincing than any previously portrayed in movies.
