re: 2001: A Space Odyssey turned 50 this week

quote:

---

This is a movie that I wish I could see for the first time, everytime.

---

I saw it twice for the first time, sort of.

My parents took me to see it when it was released (I was seven). There was a booklet on sale at the theater with photos from the movie, I still can't believe that my parents bought it. My dad and his friends tried to work out the meaning of the film. My godfather came up with the idea of the obelisk representing God... that sort of gave them something they could understand.

2001 came out a month after Planet of the Apes, so my mind was blown twice over those two months. PotA actually had a bigger impact on me.

I didn't see 2001 again until I was in college and had read the book and its sequel. Watching it on VHS on a tiny TV was a bad idea. I'd talked some friends into watching it with me and they didn't get much out of it. But I had great memories of the experience of seeing the film in the theater, if not of the plot. And after reading the book, it was a great second "first" viewing.

The one thing that was burned into my memory from the first viewing in '68 was that HAL could read lips. I remembered that clearly. I was familiar with the Robot on Lost in Space and the Computer from Star Trek... but HAL was a different thing altogether. His human voice and resourcefulness really disturbed me.