A Few Words About A few words about...™ 2001: A Space Odyssey -- in BD & HD (1 Viewer)

[Dave H]

I watched the Blu-ray last night for the first time since it was released in 2007. While the transfer was considered very high quality in 2007, the standards have changed and the image looks too processed particularly with edge enhancement and filtering. The image also looks less detailed than one would think for a 70mm film. Hopefully, Warner will re-visit this title in the future with a new scan as they have done for Casablanca and going to for Gone with the Wind and Oz..

 

[Nelson Au]

I saw 2001 in 2001 projected on screen at the Castro theater. I particularly paid attention to details and color and imagery. As best as I can recall, I thought the blu-ray replicated that experience. Especially the early scenes with the apes, the painted backdrop was particularly visible on the print and I could see that on the blu ray. I thought the disc looked great! Especially the Blue Danube sequence as Dr. Floyd is traveling to the Moon, the shot of the Moon and the shuttle looked so crisp and with high contrast!
Next year is the 45th Anniversary of 2001, so perhaps Warner will do a box set and single release like they did for Casablanca. And improve the transfer. Perhaps Mr. Harris could chime in on what he thinks of the blu ray today.

 

[Doctorossi]

I would re-buy it as many times as they can manage to improve it (just as I have in the past).

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Doctorossi /t/263841/a-few-words-about-2001-a-space-odyssey-in-bd-hd/120#post_3972943
I would re-buy it as many times as they can manage to improve it (just as I have in the past).

I would too, i also enjoy 2010 and would have loved to have seen a movie based on the third book.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I would too, i also enjoy 2010 and would have loved to have seen a movie based on the third book.

But not the fourth? I think the plots of books 3 & 4 are so slight that they'd do well combined into one 3 hour or so piece...

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Besides, the intermission in 2001 is perfectly spaced for your next bong hit, or to drop acid, or mushrooms, or whatever. You can't expect a high to sustain itself for the whole movie.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Originally Posted by Moe Dickstein /t/263841/a-few-words-about-2001-a-space-odyssey-in-bd-hd/120#post_3973038
But not the fourth? I think the plots of books 3 & 4 are so slight that they'd do well combined into one 3 hour or so piece...

There was a fourth. ? I learnt something new today.

 

[Paul Rossen]

Saw "The Wild Bunch" at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester a few years ago, with the intermission (foreign cut?), and it elevates an already great movie to epic status, functioning as punctuation and emphasis. I really miss it on the DVD and Blu-Ray.
Todd

The Wild Bunch was a roadshow picture during it's original run-in the UK. THe full director's cut except I believe that it also had an overture...

 

[Moe Dickstein]

There was a fourth. ?   I learnt something new today.

Yep:
2001: A Space Odyssey
2010: Odyssey Two
2061: Odyssey Three
3001: The Final Odyssey

 

[Nelson Au]

The fourth book was a good read, though the solution for the ending was a bit predictable. Overall, I thought it was a good page turner!

 

[Lidenbrock]

I saw 2001 in 2001 projected on screen at the Castro theater. I particularly paid attention to details and color and imagery. As best as I can recall, I thought the blu-ray replicated that experience. Especially the early scenes with the apes, the painted backdrop was particularly visible on the print and I could see that on the blu ray. I thought the disc looked great! Especially the Blue Danube sequence as Dr. Floyd is traveling to the Moon, the shot of the Moon and the shuttle looked so crisp and with high contrast!
Next year is the 45th Anniversary of 2001, so perhaps Warner will do a box set and single release like they did for Casablanca. And improve the transfer. Perhaps Mr. Harris could chime in on what he thinks of the blu ray today.

The BD is very good considering that it was released in 2007. I scanned several 70mm frames at 8K some time ago and there´s indeed room for improvement.

 

[Dave H]

The BD is very good considering that it was released in 2007. I scanned several 70mm frames at 8K some time ago and there´s indeed room for improvement.

That is what I suspected. More than anything, the edge enhancement bugged me.

 

[Doctorossi]

I scanned several 70mm frames at 8K some time ago and there's indeed room for improvement.

Well, hurry up, man- scan the rest!

 

[Dr Griffin]

I watch this film about every 2 years for a little clarity on great cinema. This film, especially the last 5 minutes, absolutely unhinged cinema in 1968. I can only imagine the bewildering impact on 1968 audiences, that were, as RAH put it, part of the "before" crowd. Magnificent.

 

[RJ992]

I watch this film about every 2 years for a little clarity on great cinema. This film, especially the last 5 minutes, absolutely unhinged cinema in 1968. I can only imagine the bewildering impact on 1968 audiences, that were, as RAH put it, part of the "before" crowd. Magnificent.

Saw it opening week in Cinerama, NYC! My barely pubescent self seems to remember it had the 3-projector, curved screen presentation. I went with my grammar school class (a field trip set-up by a science teacher, to whom I shall ever be grateful for.). It remains to this day my most memorable and seminal time at the movies. Bewildered was an understatement...but surprisingly nearly everyone loved it. but no one understood it. We had to spend two classes trying to figure it out! With so many other SF conceits now played out in movies, 2001 is pretty obvious now, conceptually. Almost hard to believe it was ever otherwise...when terms like "stargate", "warp," etc. were virtually unknown.

Sadly, the biggest joke in 2001 is one that most audiences today don't get. The telephone charge that pops up after Dr Floyd calls Earth ($1.82) got the biggest laugh in the theater. Contemporary audiences think that's incredibly cheap. But the laughter came from the fact that $1.82 was considered an astronomical price for a phone call (which only cost a dime back then). Anyway, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

[haineshisway]

Your barely pubescent self, of course, remembers incorrectly. Though it carried the Cinerama logo, it, of course, was not three-projector EVER. The last two three-projector films were How The West Was Won and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm in the US. 2001 was a 65mm production and had nothing to do with true Cinerama.

 

[ROclockCK]

A still common misperception it seems. Although 65mm prints were rectified for projection on the deeply curved CINERAMA screen, it all 'came out of one hole'.

A bit of sidebar trivia: 2001 enjoyed one of the longest non-stop runs at the Glendale CINERAMA in Toronto, where I saw it almost bi-monthly until it finally left in '70...a full 127 weeks...2 years later! We never did get Ice Station Zebra in CINERAMA; 2001 just wouldn't let go of that screen.

A couple of the ads which appeared in newspapers during this remarkable run, often tying in with the various IRL moon shots during that period:

 

[Michel_Hafner]

The film is overdue for an 8K scan and a 4K restoration and DCP.

 

[Alan Tully]

I saw this on the day it opened (Thur.) at the Casino Cinerama, London, I'd bought the tickets about a month before. I recognised Mick Jagger in the audience & I had a better seat than he did (front, centre circle). The thing is, seeing it on that huge screen with the surround sound & such a stunning picture, was overwhelming, but seeing it at home, the magic's gone, & it just seems a very slow film, so I won't be buying any Blu-ray, just keep my memories.

 

[Mark-P]

A 6k scan, to the best of my knowledge, is not the way that Warner has been generally handling their 65s. Unless one is seeking to create additional digital preservation elements, it adds little toward the purpose of an HD release which may be harvested from a 35mm element.Large format scans are horrifically expensive.Whether they did a digital scan in this case is anyone's guess.RAH

Wow. Isn't it interesting how one's opinion can change in a mere seven years!