Live Life Team
As a card-carrying Generation Y (at least, I think that’s what we’re called now), I have to admit that I’ve never seen “2001: A Space Odyssey” in one sitting. I mention my age because I know two main characteristics of my peer-group: (1) the TV raised us, and (2) we have short attention spans. Perhaps the first impacted the second. In any case, the generation of adults in 1968 was likely more equipped for a two-and-a half-hour epic with no dialogue.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the film. I recognize the impact it’s had on special effects and how it’s influenced sci-fi films. I just can’t watch it without dozing off. Which is cool with me. It’s soothing, especially the classical music. I put the film on in the background as I do other things.
Film buffs may be shocked by reading this, but not nearly as much as the classical musicians of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. I imagine Mozart composing “Don Giovanni” and cringing that his audience couldn’t handle a four-hour opera. Kubrick must have felt the same way when everyone in the industry walked out on test screenings of “2001.” Perhaps if those test screenings had been done at the producer’s home while actors and producers folded clothes or constructed a bookshelf from IKEA, then the reviews would have been more favourable.
Nevertheless, the film – which UH critic Simon Booth calls a blend of science, technology, philosophy, and the art of film making – is consistently ranked high on lists of best films. But that doesn’t mean we have to watch it all at one time.
