Friday 9 November 2012

The Making of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey






By coincidence I watched the movie again a week ago and for the first time I understood the story. Previously I've been so blown away by the visual feast I've lost the plot.

Fred Ordway is in this documentary and even though Rachel Maddow doesn't know the connection between Apollo 11 photography's use of front screen projection to imitate landscapes and one of NASA's lead project managers spending as much time with Kubrick in London as NASA in Houston, we'll let it slide that she gets her reality from media talking points. Maddow is dangerously ill informed and more often silent on the big global issues like a perpetual war machine that has opened up fronts in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Djibouti and more since Obama came to office. We all like a bit fiction from time to time.

I really enjoyed watching 2001 Space Odyssey again. I find lavish praise creepy but Kubrick's method of problem solving should be discussed much much more. He always saw challenges as problem solving that needs a strategy, creativity and rule breaking.