2001

Whilst* flipping channels, I caught the tail end of '2001' tonight, and watched the credits go by. Ligeti's Atmospheres is from a recording by Ernest Bour; I missed the other two Ligeti credits. 'The Blue Danube' is BPO/Karajan; and the 'Also sprach Zarathustra' is ... uncredited. The recording is in fact the Decca VPO/Karajan recording of 1959. Decca allowed the recording to be used in the film, but absolutely forbade Kubrick from mentioning where it came from. How dumb was that?

I used loved the movie when it was new, but my goodness it seems like pretentious twaddle now.

Tony Movshon

* indicates British education

I agree that 2001 seems like 'pretentious twaddle' when one watches it on TV or video. It's meant to be seen on the big screen, preferably in 70mm. I had the pleasure of seeing it this way for it's '2001' re-release, and it's still a magnificent film. That re-release, BTW, drew decent box office despite the fact that it was given almost no publicity campaign at all.

Very dumb. The stupid kind of dumb, if you know what I mean. (Just my opinion.) If I would have had something to say in Decca's marketing branch, I would have insisted on a special Decca tie in release of Karajan's complete recording of 'Also Sprach Zarathustra', boldly stating 'as heard in the MGM motion picture '2001 - A Space Odyssee'', perhaps with 2001 related cover. Yep, that's what I would have done.

They missed out on the whole Burger King action figure market too!

I saw 2001 on the big screen when it came out. Seemed like pretentious twaddle even then.

It may be pretentious twaddle (I wouldn't know), but it's the only SF movie that I know of where sound actually doesn't carry in a vacuum.

: the recording to be used in the film, but absolutely forbade Kubrick from : mentioning where it came from. How dumb was that?

Not as dumb as you might think. When they rereleased the Bohm recording on their cheapo label (actually, I think it was London Treasury, which more or less amounts to the same thing), they added a label announcing 'Music featured in the movie 2001.' It took me a while (well, actually until someone on rmcr pointed out my error) to realize that the label meant exactly what it said: the *music* was featured in the movie even though it was a different performance.

And where gravity, and its absence, are treated properly and consistently.

:> It may be pretentious twaddle (I wouldn't know), but it's the only SF :> movie that I know of where sound actually doesn't carry in a vacuum.

: And where gravity, and its absence, are treated properly and consistently.

Except for a couple of bloopers due to their having filmed it on Earth.

IIRC, there was a London Stereo Treasury Series LP of Karajan's VPO Zarathustra that displayed a banner across the top ('As heard in 2001 Space Odyssey'. Does anyone else remember this LP?

Zarathustra as a Burger King action figure? That's a new and original concept.

Reminds me on some japanese concept of making Jesus as an action figure: Crucified Jesus turns into a Monster Robot crashing everyone on its way. They were crushed when told this won't fly in USA.