Search - 2001: A Space Odyssey [Widescreen] on DVD

MPAA Rating: G Content Advisory: Mild Violence, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1968 DVD Release: 08/25/1998 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 19 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 6 Genres: Science Fiction, Space Adventure, Psychological Sci-Fi See Also: 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2001: A Space Odyssey [Widescreen], 2001: A Space Odyssey [Special Edition Collector's Box], 2001: A Space Odyssey [Special Edition], 2001: A Space Odyssey [HD DVD], 2001: A Space Odyssey [Blu-ray], 2001: A Space Odyssey

A mind-bending sci-fi symphony, Stanley Kubrick's landmark 1968 epic pushed the limits of narrative and special effects toward a meditation on technology and humanity. Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story -The Sentinel, Kubrick and Clarke's screenplay is structured in four movements. At the "Dawn of Man," a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith alien to their surroundings. To the strains of Strauss's 1896 Also sprach Zarathustra, a hominid invents the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. As the hominid tosses the bone in the air, Kubrick cuts to a 21st century spacecraft hovering over the Earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development. U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As the sun's rays strike the stone, however, it emits a piercing, deafening sound that fills the investigators' headphones and stops them in their path.

Cutting ahead 18 months, impassive astronauts David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) head toward Jupiter on the spaceship Discovery, their only company three hibernating astronauts and the vocal, man-made HAL 9000 computer running the entire ship. When the all-too-human HAL malfunctions, however, he tries to murder the astronauts to cover his error, forcing Bowman to defend himself the only way he can. Free of HAL, and finally informed of the voyage's purpose by a recording from Floyd, Bowman journeys to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," through the psychedelic slit-scan star-gate to an 18th century room, and the completion of the monolith's evolutionary mission.

With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent over two years meticulously creating the most "realistic" depictions of outer space ever seen, greatly advancing cinematic technology for a story expressing grave doubts about technology itself. Despite some initial critical reservations that it was too long and too dull, 2001 became one of the most popular films of 1968, underlining the generation gap between young moviegoers who wanted to see something new and challenging and oldsters who "didn't get it." Provocatively billed as "the ultimate trip," 2001 quickly caught on with a counterculture youth audience open to a contemplative (i.e. chemically enhanced) viewing experience of a film suggesting that the way to enlightenment was to free one's mind of the U.S. military-industrial-technological complex. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Keir Dullea - Bowman
Gary Lockwood - Poole
William Sylvester - Dr. Heywood Floyd
Daniel Richter - Moonwatcher, the Man-Ape
Douglas Rain - HAL 9000

A cinematic milestone, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey finally works on the small screen thanks to MGM's DVD release. Since Kubrick envisioned the film as a feast for the senses, the real attraction here is the beautiful widescreen transfer and the new Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Since 2001: A Space Odyssey is about visuals and music as much as astronauts and mysterious monoliths, it is a pleasure to report that this edition looks and sounds great. Normally, the booklets that are included with DVDs are worthless, but the short eight-pager included here is surprisingly full of information on the making of the movie. The booklet quotes Kubrick as saying that viewers are "free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film." This DVD edition of 2001: A Space Odyssey finally lets viewers speculate on the same visually rich film that was first shown in movie theaters in 1968. Besides trailers, the only real extra feature is an interesting old interview with co-screenwriter Arthur C. Clarke. ~ Nick Dedina, All Movie Guide