Glorious presentation, but please read the book first!

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2001)

Another reviewer wrote, "I have no idea what Kubrick was trying to say at the end." Well, as I said, please read the book first. Clarke points out that the novel and the script were developed simultaneously, influencing each other's development. The book was supposed to be released several months before the film, but scheduling glitches delayed it until several months AFTER the film's release. This confused many viewers, unfortunately. HAL's psychosis and Bowman's apotheosis are nicely explained by Clarke, but Kubrick's version left some of us hanging.
That reviewer also said, "Pity their predictions of the year 2001 were not more accurate in some respects (Video phones are commonplace, a base on the Moon, Jupiter having a solid surface, the survival of Pan-Am, etc.)." Well, there was great HOPE in 1968 that the space program and its ancillary developments would still be going strong in 2001. Politics and poorly executed public relations were to blame for the current reality. Jupiter was never mentioned as having a solid surface, though, in the film or the book. Bowman attempted to land on a MOON of Jupiter (Saturn, in the book).