We've slipped back.

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2001)

I was fortunate enough to see 2001 when I was 18, in 1968, many times at the Warner's Cinerama and the Hollywood Cinerama Dome. There is absolutely no comparison in watching this history making film on a television monitor, even on DVD, after seeing it the way it was meant to be seen. Kubrick and Clark were visionaries, yes, but even they couldn't foresee the demise of PanAm , the Bell System, and even Cinerama itself. It's a pity that if and when 2001 is revived, it won't be able to be shown the way it was truly meant to be experienced. Thus perhaps silencing its critics who find it tedious and boring, and not "action-packed" like the hokum that passes for science-fiction today. You cannot really attempt to capture the vastness and lonliness of space without a canvas like the Cinerama screen. Kubrick knew this. This film truly was ahead of its time. All other "Space Opera" epics are merely mannerist apings of this one true classic. Space boring? Yes. And Kubrick captured it the monotony of space travel perfectly. In its setting, space travel has been perfected; it is safe, predictable, and matter-of-fact. The edginess has been scrubbed away. That's why nothing much seems to happen much to the protagonists for much of the story. Many talk about the character of Dr. Floyd being perfunctory or unexciting. I find his character brilliiant. After working in the corporate ad agency world, and its world of corporate politics, for too many years, I find Dr. Floyd more remarkable upon each subsequent viewing; He has been chosen to visit the moon armed with top-secret information about what we've discovered there. He will not divulge this secret with pesky Russians who inquire as to the goings-on at the Clavius crater; he lives in the world of governmental and political duplicity...he is always "on the road" as any good company man would be, eschewing wife and family for "duty." His speeches are guarded, he says very little yet he is lauded as a great speaker by the people in the boardroom (who are encouraged to speak up by Dr. Floyd at the meeting but never do...sound familiar?...corporate insecurity is still a viable trait...even by 2001!). Dr. Floyd's matter-of-fact cat and mouse secrecy is one of the true delights of the film. Worth noting also is when the scientists "break training" and attempt to indulge in a bit of whimsy by having their picture taken tourist-style in front of their discovery. It is then when the Monolith emits its high-pitched tone thus ruining the perfect photo-op. But I digress. The Wonders of The Future have brought us the Multiplex Theater and the Small Screen. This movie was made to be seen in Cinerama. Beautiful, optically sharp. And Vast. And until its relentless critics can view it that way for themselves (which they just might find something akin to a religious experience), I'm afraid they just don't know what they're talking about.