h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I love the 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' but would not go out of my way to watch the film again.

Alji

I went and got the £30 quid limited edition box set dvd thingy and in all the bumpf that comes with it - it says the music was used in 2001 was designed to be only the temporary tracks to use over the rushes and pre-production footage which would later be surplanted for a soundtrack to eb composed by Alan North.

It goes on to discuss how it became apparent over time that the 'temporary' tracks were getting to be more permenant.

Firstly they distinguished the film from it's own genre as standard sci-fi and on a more practical notethey tie into this idea that the events are very visual. (The booklet notes elsewhere that the final screenplay for the film contains less that 40mins of actual dialogue!) which further emphasises the sense that events are unfolding to which the main protagonists are bound up in but contribute very little directly to. The story as it is told is done in a very pictoral fashion - you only have to recall some of the stunning model work and interior sets to realise that image is very important in this film.

The significance of the music is in part telling the story.
The "Blue Danube" becomes synonimous with the free-fall weightlessness of space in the film and there is also the choral choir of the monolith composed by Gyorgy Ligeti the multi-layered sound is present in the film amid the tumult of the apes and when bowman flies toward Jupiter and the final monoliths.

However, it is 'Thus spake Zarathustra' that everyone remembers.
The guide book says: "zarathustra accompanies the film's key moments of planetary alignment and intellectual propulsion...johann strauss' 'blue danube' was already popular in 1968 - not so Richard Strauss or 'zarathrustra'. It's name comes from the philosopher Nietzche's parable of the super-man (brownie points for anyone who can guess why Kubrick probably chose this as his theme for the movie then..) and it has been forever associated in the popular mind with revelation and stellar spectacle. "

I'm itchin' to watch it again now.

*Also goes to dig out her special edition and 'ooh' and 'aah' at her film cel*

As I remember it, the pre-human wilderness was shown, in silence, from _six_ different angles, each of which was given enough time for all of them put together. That's not the fault of my attention span, that's overdoing it. Beyond the third angle, and about a minute and a half, it was no longer atmospheric but tedious and detrimental to the flow of the film.

well I might agree under normal circumstances but we've already said that the film's pace is slow in preparation and meticulous in exaction. Besides Kubrick's a fan of long opening shots - recall the slow-pan over the mountains in the drive to the motel in The Shining. That's not always the case of course...in Full metal jacket it's 7 or 8 guy's getting their heads shaved - but that has significance for that film in that it's a shedding of their past - where they are going is Hell and back (starting with the drill instructor, R. Lee. Ermy) anything they once were, is left behind on the barber's floor. (and in the case of Private Pile, in a small heap on the back of the cistern! )

I still flinch when I see that scene...

"What's you malfuction private pile? Did mommy and daddy not give you enough attention when you were a -

*BLAM*



I still think the worst part is the guys getting sniped to death and with an effort of strength manages to raise a finger in the direction of the hidden asailant before getting gunned down again. *ururuh* - sends shivers down me spine.

I still think they could cut out the middle 50% or more of each and every non-dialogue (or pre-dialogue grunting) scene and make the film better. It would be an interesting experiment to try cutting it extensively and seeing whether what's left is actually at all popular with an audience who have never seen the film before.

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2001 is perfect the way it is - any shorter and you'd never get it, too long and your bum would start to lose all feeling....Kubrick got his timing spot on IMHO.

I think as Juste Bob is ably demonstrating Kubrick's timing may have been a little off if it's detracting to those who come to the film fresh - even so, I wouldn't chnage it!

Agreed!

It's also about time I found someone on h2g2 I can talk Kubrick with....but now I have to log off!

Whenever people said that Kubrick was controversial, I always thought that meant that he was popular with young people but not with fussy old prudes. Now I see that it's the other way around! Present company excepted, of course, and it would have been different when the film came out in the 60s.

huh? was that mine...off to check e-mail see if I've ben told why...

no i think that was you ford. c'mon own up - what did you do!!?

I'm sure I read that before it was hidden and it was so innoccuous (sp?) that I've forgotten what it was!

yeah - mee too.

apparently everyone's a critic - even the moderators.

*waves*

I still get the feeling that accidental ing happens more regularly than one might think.

Well iof it weren't me and it weren't you - that leaves just Fords , and I guess we find out exactly what went missing in the morning...

I think they sometimes do it just to make boring threads look a little more interesting...