The Douglas Trumball Show...

Rating: 10/10 (13 September 2014)

I cite Douglas Trumball (though he was only One of MANY) because HE has gone on to great fame because of what he did in 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY- AND because neither HIS name nor the names of any of the other visual fx technicians who worked on the movie are listed as they SHOULD be- as co-directors. (Would 2001 be the classic it is without those fx...?) Still, although it was Trumball and company who actually played the tune, it was Kubrick who conducted the orchestra. (Six of one, half dozen of the other...?) Storywise, 2001 leaves gaping holes big enough to house a million Monoliths. Why, for instance, did the aliens give Man his very first WEAPON instead of a tool that might make for a far brighter future (the wheel, say)? And was there just ONE Monolith, or THREE? Was the Monolith on Earth the same one that was later discovered on the Moon (or the one that appears at the end of the movie)? The entire Moon sequence could've been cut without adversely affecting the narrative in any way, but I must confess a fondness for The Blue Danube Waltz. Was HAL sabotaged by the aliens to somehow TEST Man's worthiness to make it to The Next Evolutionary Step? 2001 leaves a lot of questions unanswered (I saw it TWICE in theaters, hoping to pick up on details the second time around that I'd missed during my first go, but no such luck). The greatest success, early on, seems to have been with the very "stoners" who would make Tolkein's books runaway hits, but there are STILL a lot of unanswered questions.