In honor of the work of the incomparable Arthur C. Clarke, I’d like to note a few things about the marvelous machines seen in the landmark film he and Stanley Kubrick so brilliantly conceived four decades ago. While Mr. Clarke’s unbridled optimism for the future of space travel was not entirely fulfilled by the foreseen date, this vision remains the most vivid and plausible such concept yet seen on screen. We’ll see it all in a few more years.
1. Artificial Gravity
For all their merits the spacecraft of Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien and countless lesser films created artificial gravity in their craft via unexplained and probably unrelizable means so their ships could be constructed more like architecture or aircraft than spacecraft.
2001 gave us a realistic vision of artificial gravity produced by centrifugal force– or there simply was none. No cop-out “gravity boots” either. These guys could float.
2. Technical Accuracy
This was the first film that dared to be both high art, yet seek to present it’s spacecraft, spacesuits, and other details as technically plausable as was known at the time. Kubrick hired NASA-experienced designers Harry H-K Lange and Frederick Ordway who, with input from dozens of real air and space contractors, achieved a higher level of movie spacecraft design believability than any film has bothered doing since. Boing, Honeywell, General Dynamics, General Electric, Grumman, RCA: The logos seen in this film are not just “product placement”, these were technical contributors.
3. Big Stuff in Space
This film was wildly optimistic about human off-world expansionism and even though we do not yet have 4+ gigantic double-wheeled space stations or a huge base on the moon, the concepts were sound and the idea that we will expand this way in time was wonderful to see. Wasteful war budgets and changing values have slowed space development, but the Kubrick/Clarke vision still inspires awe.
4. Confusing Aliens
Can an ant comprehend and automobile? Will the first aliens we meet just be like pointy-eared guys from some remote European country? I don’t think so. I think the confusion we all felt toward the end of “2001″ gave us a sample of what we may really experience when man first encounters an alien intelligence.
5. 21st Century Special Effects
2001: A Space Odyssey established the basis for all space special effects to come after it. The spacecraft were not all streamlined. There were no saucers. There were no traveling matte edges. Space looked like space. The Earth looked like the Earth. And it was all done with mid-century mostly mechanical technology.
6. Use of Big Screen Technology
“2001″ was one of the last films made using the 70mm version anamorphic version of the widescreen “Cinerama” process. This process used a much wider curved screen to allow the theater viewers to feel as if they were in the picture. In a way it was more involving than the common useage of IMAX for most commercial films today. Those films merely press your nose up to a wide, but flat screen. Cinerama brought you into it.
Posted: April 3rd, 2008 under Classic Machines, Movies / TV.
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