re: 2001: A Space Odyssey turned 50 this week

Damn ... I remember like yesterday going to see that at the local drive-in with my girlfriend at the time. Had already read the book. Was fascinated at the thought of them turning it into a movie but was not disappointed.

Double feature, the earlier movie was The Wrecking Crew and I remember that so well for a few reasons. Sharon Tate was in that movie along with Tina Louis (Ginger on Gilligan's Island) and Chuck Norris.

The other reason was during intermission between the two movies everyone in the line to the concession stand was talking about either already having seen 2001 in a theater or, like my girlfriend and I, waiting to see it for a buck each at the drive-in. I'm talking summer of 1969. We had a cooler of beer in the back seat and she had made a brown paper bag of popcorn before we left her apartment. But we had to have some almonds and she had to use the ladies room and I'll never forget discussing the book with other people in that line.

I mean I remember that night like yesterday. They were running a race at the Columbia Motor Speedway that night and we had to roll the windows up to hear the speaker box over the noise from the race track and my '65 Fairlane did not have AC ... but we didn't care.

Damn simple times ... they were great. And the movies, both of them, were a lot of fun. Life was good.

It all begin to change the next week when Sharon Tate was murdered.

quote:

---

2001 is the greatest film ever made. That does not mean it is the most fun film ever made. It is pure art and has to be enjoyed as such. An incredibly deep and profound work that is still, even now, ahead of its time in some ways. I have seen it many times, and yet it never fails to leave me in awe.

---

But how does it's depth and profoundness compare to Dude Where's My Car?

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.