2001: A Space Odyssey is a 4K/UHD Release possible? (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

Sorry It did have an intermission.

...and the most brilliant and cliff-hanger intermissions I have ever seen. 35mm prints that went into wide release dropped the intermission and pretty much ruined the intense suspense a lot of viewers had back in 1968 while buying their popcorn and hitting the rest rooms. I wonder whether Kubrick himself or his editors came up with that perfect break.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Although WB did finally release Kubrick's films in widescreen even though the director preferred 1.33:1, and EYES WIDE SHUT uncut. As David Mamet wrote, "Things Change."

Yes, but...I believe the entire 1:33:1 thing with Kubrick was about the fact that televisions were shaped like that and so he wanted his films to be protected for showings on TV. Later as televisions morphed to a rectangle and many people were using projectors to show pictures in their homes I believe Mr. Kubrick would have wanted to allow his films to be made available formatted to fit those options. Kubrick always being willing to do what was best to allow the best possible viewing of his pictures.

Also, I don't really think that "unmasking" the scenes in Eyes Wide Shut was altering his film because the film was shown without the masking in Europe. The masking was just a US thing.

I would not want any of the scenes or footage cut from Kubrick's films restored to the films themselves as I think that would be a travesty based on the fact Kubrick was very precise in what he put in and what he took out. I would only want to view these scenes separately just for let's say educational purposes.

 

[PMF]

Sorry, no matter what the format, I've always found this film to be boring.

Now there's an Odyssey Oddity, to say the least.

 

[Dick]

Yes, but...I believe the entire 1:33:1 thing with Kubrick was about the fact that televisions were shaped like that and so he wanted his films to be protected for showings on TV. Later as televisions morphed to a rectangle and many people were using projectors to show pictures in their homes I believe Mr. Kubrick would have wanted to allow his films to be made available formatted to fit those options. Kubrick always being willing to do what was best to allow the best possible viewing of his pictures.

Also, I don't really think that "unmasking" the scenes in Eyes Wide Shut was altering his film because the film was shown without the masking in Europe. The masking was just a US thing.

I would not want any of the scenes or footage cut from Kubrick's films restored to the films themselves as I think that would be a travesty based on the fact Kubrick was very precise in what he put in and what he took out. I would only want to view these scenes separately just for let's say educational purposes.

Agreed -- I wouldn't want this footage to be re-incorporated into the movies proper, but having it available as bonus material would be revealing.

 

[Paul Rossen]

Agreed -- I wouldn't want this footage to be re-incorporated into the movies proper, but having it available as bonus material would be revealing.

I would love to have the deleted scenes edited back into the film proper to view Kubrick's original take on the film. It could be done via branching with the cut version we all know.

Also, I would like to have the same branching with the original ending in The Shining which I did see on opening day.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

We saw '2001' in 1968 while in Paris .. it was on a huge Cinerama screen, curving right around us.
Fortunately, it wasn't dubbed and it was easy to ignore the subtitles .. still a wonderful cinematic event for us. And seeing it in Paris instead of Australia made it extra-special.

 

[deepscan]

I recall in 1981 seeing the original uncut 2001 at my local theatre. It was a reissued double feature with the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS special edition, playing at my local cinema with all the deleted scenes, obviously this was an original 1968 70MM print they used before Kubrick could get his editing hands on it. How this print managed to escape the chopping block was beyond me.

 

[haineshisway]

Although WB did finally release Kubrick's films in widescreen even though the director preferred 1.33:1, and EYES WIDE SHUT uncut. As David Mamet wrote, "Things Change."

This has been debunked so many times I'm surprised that some people still believe this.

 

[Dick]

This has been debunked so many times I'm surprised that some people still believe this.

There's an awful lot of information out there about so many things that one's head spins. Hard to tell what's the truth (sound familiar?). Even when trying to corroborate information, one might easily be finding material that corroborates a mere rumor! Too many "experts" out there. I'm actually glad it has been debunked, but from where did the reliable "truth" come from?

 

[Malcolm Bmoor]

Another possible Truth or Rumour about Mr Kubrick is that some films were issued in mono when almost everything else was stereo because he wanted the experience to be the same wherever they were shown. He didn't like First Run showings having better sound than local release as in those days the adoption of Dolby Stereo in cinemas was progressing slowly.

I don't know whether that also represents Woddy Allen's reasoning for his habit of making so many of his films in mono.

If what seems to most of us to be straightforward technical possibilities that increase viewing pleasure (widescreen and multitrack sound) are set in context with the general conduct of both of these directors I feel it becomes less about sensible technical decisions and more about 'unusual' behaviour.

 

[DP 70]

I have seen 2001 many times , I remember going to the Empire in London to see it in 70mm but they could not get a print so we had a 35mm
stereo optical copy , I have also seen it at the NFT in 70mm many times and at the ABC Shaftsbury Ave in 1977.
But the best was the 70mm print on the Cinerama screen using the D-150 lens in 6 Track Dolby SR at Bradford.
I have also seen the new 70mm Datasat print at the Prince Charles and the sound was really good.
I have screened the 2K DCP but I wont go into that one.

 

[Robert Harris]

I recall in 1981 seeing the original uncut 2001 at my local theatre. It was a reissued double feature with the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS special edition, playing at my local cinema with all the deleted scenes, obviously this was an original 1968 70MM print they used before Kubrick could get his editing hands on it. How this print managed to escape the chopping block was beyond me.

All 70mm prints in the US were recut at M-G-M in NY, with additional footage added. It would be extremely unusual for a preview print to have somehow survived unadapted.

 

[Alan Tully]

I have seen 2001 many times , I remember going to the Empire in London to see it in 70mm but they could not get a print so we had a 35mm

I saw it a few times at the Casino Cinerama, great experience. I saw it on the day it opened & can remember seeing Mick Jagger in the audience. Some friends dragged me to see it at the Empire some years later (never a favourite cinema of mine), but the print had faded to magenta. I have it on Blu-ray, but to be honest I'm not that bothered about seeing it these days.

 

[RolandL]

I saw it a few times at the Casino Cinerama, great experience. I saw it on the day it opened & can remember seeing Mick Jagger in the audience. Some friends dragged me to see it at the Empire some years later (never a favourite cinema of mine), but the print had faded to magenta. I have it on Blu-ray, but to be honest I'm not that bothered about seeing it these days.

Casino Cinerama theatre screen - for 3 panel Cinerama. I think it was replaced when 70mm Cinerama titles were shown.

 

[john a hunter]

All 70mm prints in the US were recut at M-G-M in NY, with additional footage added. It would be extremely unusual for a preview print to have somehow survived unadapted.

Kubrick reportedly ensured that the cut footage and negative was destroyed specifically to stop it being "added" at a later date.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Fortunately, we know the footage exists. It's at an underground vault facility (possibly in the Midwest, I believe) under the control of Warner (the film's current copyright holder).

Sadly, they're unlikely to do anything with it.

I think releasing this would be different from presenting deleted scenes from, say, Full Metal Jacket to randomly pick another example. This material was part of "2001" when it first premiered and was seen by a paying audience. I think Kubrick made the right call in removing the material, but I also think it can be shown without creating a moral crisis. It's not the same as footage where the actors and director knew it would never be seen; it's footage that's already been seen. It's just been a long time.

This is my all-time favorite movie. Any opportunity to see even another glimpse of the world in it would be the thrill of a lifetime to me.

 

[bugsy-pal]

I think releasing this would be different from presenting deleted scenes from, say, Full Metal Jacket to randomly pick another example. This material was part of "2001" when it first premiered and was seen by a paying audience. I think Kubrick made the right call in removing the material, but I also think it can be shown without creating a moral crisis. It's not the same as footage where the actors and director knew it would never be seen; it's footage that's already been seen. It's just been a long time.

This is my all-time favorite movie. Any opportunity to see even another glimpse of the world in it would be the thrill of a lifetime to me.

Totally agree with you there. It's also a great shame the Douglas Trumbull film about the making of 2001 was shelved. I saw him speak a few years ago and he's sharp as a tack. But guys like him, with such incredible experience, won't be around forever.

 

[Harry-N]

I've always had to have the latest and greatest format of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. When it was a theatrical-only movie back in the late '60s, I had to have the soundtrack album. Soundtracks were one of the only ways of owning a piece of a movie back then.

In the '70s, the movie ran on NBC and I remember taping the audio on my reel-to-reel tape recorder - one more step in the evolution of owning the movie in some form. If you want an experience, turn on 2001 and turn off your monitor, You'll soon learn just how visual this movie is!

I videotaped the film when it showed on HBO, and bought the pan'n'scan VHS tape when it became available ($39.95, I believe!). In the late 80s, I accidentally stumbled on a local public station showing the film in letterbox. My eyes were opened to the novelty of seeing the whole picture instead of just a center cut panning back and forth,

That's when I learned of LaserDiscs, and their higher resolution and their penchant for letterboxing widescreen movies. I had to have a player - and I had to have 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in that format. Criterion had at that point come out with two versions of the film, one was a giant CAV set with multiple discs and lots of extras, and the other was a CLV version on two discs with very few extras. The CAV set retailed for $125, and the CLV version was just $64.95. Since both were letterboxed, I optioned for the lower-end CLV as my initial entry into LaserDisc collection.

Once I discovered that I could *rent* the expensive CAV version from a local video store, I did just that, and got to sample all of the extras that were included, Attempting to preserve them for my own, I tried taping them to VHS. This worked OK for the stuff that was in movie format, but there were also hundreds of still-frame images of pages of scripts, screenplays, reviews, and just plain still production photographs. Those were accessed using a frame-forward feature on your player. I reasoned that by using the PLAY button, the player would cycle through those frames one at a time in rapid succession. My hope was that if I could capture those fast-playing frames on VHS, I could use my VHS player in still-frame mode to access the data.

Well, as you can guess, it all turned to mush on VHS and was very unwieldy at best. It wasn't too long until I realized that I had to have the movie on CAV format and saved up to buy it.

Today of course there are multiple editions on DVD and I even have two Blu-rays, one just of the film and one included in a Kubrick set.

I'll spring for whatever anyone comes up with for a 50th anniversary. I'm ready. Who do I give my money to?

 

[TJPC]

Isn't there a recording of the score that was written for the movie and replaced by classical music by Kubrick at the last moment? The composer (Alex North?) apparently did not know until the premier. I know I have a CD of it somewhere.

 

[Harry-N]

I bought that as soon as I saw it, then went home, cued up the CD and the DVD with the sound down and let it play through the DAwn Of Man sequence. It was an interesting experience.