jimc@haddock.UUCP (06/13/85)
> I saw 2001 the first week it was out in Pittsburgh. A group of > us went downtown to see it after school (gad that was a long time > ago). Not only was there an intermission, but a lot of the > sequences were longer, increasing the total length of the movie. > I also remember that I was one of the few who enjoyed it. Any > others out there who remember... "The Ultimate Trip"? Indeed I do. I saw it when it was out in one of its secondary runs, in the spring of 1971, to be precise. I was only eight years old, and I was passionately interested in the space program, as was typical of children at that time. The unfortunate thing was the movie scared the living daylights out of me. Particularly, it was the image of the Starchild, which Kubrick portrayed as an Earth-sized fetus that resembled Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea). I remember crying myself to sleep every night for a month, and I was still nervous about it for a few months after that. I had no idea then why I was so scared, and I still don't. Perhaps it was seeing something that appeared only vaguely human, yet knowing that such things exist and that I used to be one of them. However, I am only guessing -- I suppose I will never know. About three weeks ago, I went to a popular cinema in Brookline, MA, which specializes in older pictures (the Coolidge Corner Theatre, for all you Bostonians), and there I saw *2001* for the first time in fourteen years. Of course, the memory of my childhood trauma made me somewhat nervous, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the movie immensely. I read the book a couple of times while I was in college, and I have to say that the book is better, but there is nothing wrong with this picture at all. Yes, we, too, had an intermission, which I thought was a drag, because I was in no hurry to get up from this movie. My fiancee's comment was that it was a very elegant movie. What I respected about it was Kubrick's attention to physical realities at the expense of some cinematic thrills. When spaceships went whizzing across the lunar surface or into space, they didn't "roar" like they do in the sci-fi/fantasy flicks of the 70's and 80's. I thought the silence was far more engrossing than, say, what we saw in *2010*. Also, remember when HAL told Dave that he had read the lips of himself and colleague Frank Poole as they were discussing disconnecting HAL, and that for that reason, he would leave Dave in a very precarious position (which I won't divulge)? Bowman took that very stoically, whereas I would have pulled a complete "Richard Burton" and said something like, "Why, you slimy, conniving, silicon BASTARD!!!" I sure hope this movie remains respected until the year 2001 and far afterward. Jim Campbell ...!ihnp4!ima!haddock!jimc