e-Pulsar - Jun

e-Pulsar Jun - Jul 98

ONE NIGHT IN L.A.

By Don Davis

An invited multitude converged on Beverly Hills on April 29th, where the American Film institute hosted a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of the movie "2001 - A Space Odyssey." We were to see a special viewing of the film after listening to a discussion by a distinguished panel. Many people active in space matters were gathered there as well as journalists, noisy photographers, and many others whose lives have been touched by the greatest science fiction film ever made. Andrew Chaikin not only brought the event together, he also hosted a panel which included Bill Anders - Apollo 8 astronaut, and Tom Hanks - actor and producer instrumental in realizing the ongoing series based on Chaikin's book From The Earth To The Moon. Other panel members included Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood (Dave Bowman and Frank Poole in 2001), Joan Horvath of JPL, who works on designs for Europa probes, and Dr. David Stork, an artificial intelligence guru. Sir Arthur C. Clarke was part of the panel from Sri Lanka once technical problems were overcome, using a phone to speak to us while his grinning image appeared via the Internet.

Many of the 2001 veterans were apparently in touch lately, with Arthur getting his share of correspondence! Referring mostly to notes he had gathered for the 25th anniversary events, Clarke recalled Alexi Leonov saying after seeing the film that he felt that he had been in space twice (which he actually accomplished later during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project). Arthur spoke about Europa, especially mentioning one photo (PIA 01092) which contains a strikingly straight fissure. The panel discussion went all over the place, filling in tidbits of the history of the late sixties film project as well as subsequent feedback the actors experienced through the years.
piao1092
NASA Photo: PIAO1092

Bill Anders saw 2001 at its premier and carried the Bonestellian lunar scenes of the film in his mind, only to be disappointed some 7 months later at the real Moon's textural monotony! (Chesley told me he once was in discussions about working the film, but it didn't work out. His words to me were, "They probably said 'That old bastard, he'll probably pick up a paintbrush and drop dead!'" At least one of the moonbus travel exterior scenes, which were 'forced perspective' models, was almost certainly based on 'Conquest of Space' paintings!)

Gary Lockwood recalled a shot where he was strapped into the centrifuge Discovery set, nearly upside down, spooning out some food goo, when a glop of green food left his fork and suddenly gave away what direction 'down' really was! (CUT!!!) Lockwood also mentioned his experience in touring to promote the film, only to be dismayed at the initial bad reviews the film received at the time. Dullea's recollections included his anxiety in being dropped two stories with only a piano wire saving him from dropping on the massive camera, for the emergency airlock shot.

Among the last sequences Dullea appears in is the 'dinner' scene, as he eats in a very echoy Louis XIV style room. Breaking the glass was Dullea's idea, allowing a change of his posture before he reacts to hearing himself breathing in bed, Kubrick agreed it made the scene work better! After a great discussion, there was a screening of what was billed as a 'pristine' 70 mm print of the film. Alas, pristine it was not, but except for near the ends of the reels the print was overall quite good, with only one splice obvious. There seems to be no such thing as a pristine print of the film in existence, except possibly the archival stashes Turner Films and Kubrick possess.

Some changes were noticeable from my memories of seeing 70 mm prints some 45 times in the years they were fresh. Besides the print damage, some of the reels were more magenta than they should be, particularly evident in some scenes where Bowman is doing his EVA, where his blood red suit went magenta. The blacks were a bit faded as well. Both are signs of aging modern film stocks, hopefully when new prints are struck from the archival negative material this will be corrected. It may be this film needs restoring as was done with 'Laurence Of Arabia' if the negative has gone bad - a distinct possibility!

Despite the ravages of time, most of the print was just as I remembered. The distinctive old Ektachrome colors were evident in some of the projected 8x10 transparencies used as backdrops in the 'Dawn of Man' scenes (first use of 'Scotchlite' reflective screens for front projected backgrounds), the sharp crisp spacecraft and stars (70 mm really shows stars nicely!) and the ultraviolet purples in the aerial desert footage near the end. Dave Bowman's helmeted face reflecting the many Lucite wafers inside the red interior of HAL as the last words in the film are spoken, displayed the delicious visual interplay between magenta and orange red lighting across this famous image from the film.

I've got to say it was incredible to see this masterpiece with not only the two main actors (Daniel Richter, who played the australopithecine hero in the 'Dawn of Man' sequence was also there) but with numerous big time fans of the film, including several space artists! Among those I saw there were Don Dixon, Carter Emmart (drove over a day in his *art car* to be there) Chris Butler, Joel Hagen, Joy Day, and Aldo Spadoni.

After the film, we milled about and talked, and I got to touch the red space helmet Dave forgot to put on, one of a very few artifacts from the film to survive Kubrick's dastardly destruction of the models. Most of the attending artists and Andy ate a late dinner at Cantor's Deli and talked mostly about what we had seen that night. This was indeed a grand space occasion!