2001: A Space Odyssey [1968] [DVD]

It was with a certain trepidation that I put this, my first blu-ray disk, into my new Panasonic blu-ray player. "2001: a space odyssey" has been my favourite film for as long as I can remember, and I've owned copies on a variety of VHS tapes and DVDs.

The theme is just about as epic as it's possible to imagine: the evolution of man from ape through human to a completely new life form. It's a film which has sharply polarised views, with some people completely mystified or even bored by the presentation, whilst others are spellbound and deeply moved. Unsurprisingly, I am in the second category, and still find myself surprised that Kubrick managed to get a major motion picture company to finance such a bold and imaginative film.

The presentation on blu-ray is beyond my wildest dreams. I take the point of a previous viewer about the visible joins in the front-projection screens, which could no doubt have been digitally removed, but other than that the film is in appropriately pristine condition. I sat down to watch for a few minutes - just to check that the new blu-ray player was working - and found myself watching the whole way through to the end.

The special effects were always a highlight of the film, and they do not disappoint in this new transfer. My particular favourite comes at the end of the first section of The Blue Danube where the camera appears to sail straight through between the 'wheels' of the space station - absolutely marvellous!

This film easily holds its place amongst other great cinema masterworks; watch this blu-ray version and find out exactly why.

As has been reported this disc does have an FBI warning at the beginning but is otherwise a UK release. The packaging is for the UK. I love this film, have done for 35 years so I won't comment on the movie itself except to say that 95% of the visuals could have been made yesterday and that the story is fiercely intelligent. And so to the Blu-Ray disc:
The transfer is good. There are very few anomalies (and I don't mean Tycho Magnetic Anomalies), most of the anomalies that are present were built in, eg dirt on the rear projection screen in the Dawn of Man sequence. That brings me to my only real irritation with the film. If Stanley Kubrick was such a perfectionist (and he was) then why oh why did he allow the set designers to use a godawful backcloth screen to simulate the African terrain and sky? It's SO blaringly obvious that it's artificial because the viewer can see creases and imperfection in the fabric. It ruins the whole sequence. It was bad enough on DVD but with the extra resolution of Blu-ray it's just annoying. It's the one things that I wish someone would digitally correct.
After that all is well. Yes they got the Earth from space wrong (too washed out) but the SFX are stunningly good and look marvellous in HD. It amused me to read IBM-Tele-Pad on the Discovery crew's flat screen TV pads (whilst they're eating). There's a multitude of fine detail revealed: the ancillary rooms inside the lunar shuttle docking area reveal figures and screens that I'd not noticed before. The Star-Gate sequence looks a LOT better now. The finer detail and improved colour range of HD really adds some wow factor to it. I'm still not convinced by the colour filtered landscapes though: they could have tried harder there.
The audio is good. The soundtrack is good as it can be for a 40 year old film and despite being a little 'thin' is well within modern standards.
Frame judder is a slight problem as reported by another reviewer but I'm wondering whether that was a limitation of the original effects rather than the transfer to Blu-Ray because the same scenes in SD in the extras reveal the same judder.
The extras are many but none good. There's a very iffy Channel-4 documentary with some annoying talking heads discussing the film and various other small documentaries. None make the heart race. The best is a promotional film made for 'Look' Magazine in 1966 that was designed to interest potential advertisers in buying into a 'special' Space related supplement due to be published first quarter 68 on the back of the 2001 release. It shows some really interesting scenes of production, Kubrick on set etc and Clarke in the Grumman factory inspecting Lunar Modules.
There's something weird about this release. Amazon had a release date that has been a gone with no stock. The other Kubrick related releases appeared on time but not this one leading me to think there's been a production problem. It is possible to obtain a copy elsewhere and if you like 2001 it's worth doing so.

The greatest science-fiction film ever made.

You've seen it, you sort of know the plot: extra-terrestrial guidance, via ANCIENT MONOLITH, shapes Mankind in preparation for his next stage of evolution. For many, it's the quintessential love-it or hate-it experience.

And since we haven't been able to catch STANLEY KUBRICK's masterpiece in a cinema - much less a digitally-equipped one - for over thirty years, I'm assuming that you already possess a HIGH-DEFINITION WIDESCREEN TV, a PS3 (or similar) and want to know if this BLU-RAY edition of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY lives up to expectations, yes?

Well, it does. The picture is fantastic, the level of detail just incredible. THE DAWN OF MAN sequence has astonishing depth of field, which is all the more amazing when you discover that the skyscapes were in actuality stills, or plates, front-projected onto the backdrops of an outdoor studio near Shepherd's Bush. A place, or a moment, in 'pre-historic' 1968 where something ordinary became truly extraordinary.

As we reach outer space, and fractured bone becomes brushed metal, pinpoints of stars twinkle like never before, the exterior cladding of ships, satellites and moon shuttles rendered with similar clarity to allow us the ultimate space vehicle inspection tour. And isn't THE USS DISCOVERY the most beautifully designed ship of them all?

JUPITER AND BEYOND THE INFINITE is where we get to take the ultimate trip in every sense. This is where the high-definition image really earns its money, as far as I'm concerned, and it's the showcase moment let loose in all its glory, a sequence that had much the same effect when I saw it in 70mm Cinerama. Completely mind-blowing.

Soundwise, the film has a very centre-speaker feel but don't be put off too much by that. The dialogue is well placed and significantly superior in uncompressed 5.1 to the regular DVD, right down to the oft-present oxygen hiss in the EVA sequences or the infamous moment when DAVE BOWMAN literally pulls the plug on the "incapable of error" HAL 9000 series. I wonder whether Daisy would have had such a heartless response to his distortion of information?

Music is used sparingly but to brilliant effect. For example, STRAUSS's THE BLUE DANUBE and KHACHATURIAN's haunting GAYNE'S ADAGIO sound wonderful and complement perfectly their out-of-this-world setting (a quite audacious leap of faith on the director's part, incidentally, seeing as both pieces were only intended for use as guide tracks on the rough cut).

Whichever way you look at it, this REGION FREE BLU-RAY DISC is a stunning example of what the format stands for.

Did I also mention that the film's pretty good, too?

UNRESERVEDLY RECOMMENDED