Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Essential Cinema - 30




2010: The Year We Make Contact

ACTORS:
Roy Scheider
John Lithgow
Helen Mirren
Bob Balaban
Keir Dullea
Douglas Rain

DIRECTOR
Peter Hyams

SCREENPLAY
Arthur C. Clarke
Peter Hyams

CINEMATOGRAPHER
Peter Hyams




SYNOPSIS
A joint Russian / U.S. mission returns to Jupiter to try and determine what happened to the first mission sent there 9 years earlier. The fate of the first mission is unknown and the mysteries it was sent to solve remain unanswered.





CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER
Wrapping up the loose ends and learning to overcome our differences in order to work together. There are things in the universe much larger than the petty differences that divide us. A wake up call for humanity to stop fighting and play nice.





PROS AND CONS
First of all, you can't talk about this film without discussing the film that came before it. Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" is a landmark in cinema. It redefined the concept of science fiction and pushed the envelope of film making way past its limits. In that regard, this film does not measure up. It cant, but it is a worthy effort.





I always heard that you had to read the book to really understand "2001: A Space Odyssey". After seeing it 4 or 5 times, I finally read the book and they were right. What I thought I knew about the first film finally came into sharp focus after reading Arthur C. Clarke's book. Clarke went on to write several follow up books to "2001: A Space Odyssey". This film is based on one of those books.





This film is a bit dated because, like the original, the future didn't turn out the way we thought it would. As the film opens, the Soviet Union and the United States are on the brink of war. Something that never happened with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 90s. I recall being disappointed when Pan-American Airlines went out of business, because one of my dreams of seeing a real spaceliner with the Pan-Am logo from the first film was never going to be realized. Such was the power of the vision that Kubrick gave us with "2001: A Space Odyssey".





The premise of this film is logical. We go back to figure out what happened to Astronaut Bowman and the HAL-9000, not to mention figuring out what the huge monolith was. The story telling and the visuals are all up to par in this film, although the film is a bit more formulaic as opposed to the stark and calculating story telling of "2001: A Space Odyssey".





In the end, the astronauts get to witness the act of cosmic reproduction on a planetary scale and in so doing, learn that we are very small in relation to the big picture. So small in fact, that they understand we are just parasites in a vast living universe. This film tends to serve as a reminder, that on an evolutionary scale, we are only at the beginning and have long, long way to go.





This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection which can be viewed here.

4 comments:

  1. I'm a huge Kubrick fan, but 2001 is one of my least favorite of his films BECAUSE you need to read the book to truly get it. A film fails for me in that regard.

    As for 2010, I think it failed in large part because of the first film...it's importance and all that. On it's own, it's really not all that bad. Peter Hyams, however, has forgotten how to make a good film. See "A Sound of Thunder". Ick!

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  2. Earl, I agree with you on the fact that to truely understand 2001, you need to read the book. However, after reading it, there was no way that any film maker was going to be able to transfer what was in the book to screen. It was just a bit over the edge. Kubrick did the best he could considering. 2001 was ground breaking because of it depiction of space and scope, nothing like it had ever been done before. It took science fiction way beyond realism and actually put you there.

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  3. and THATS exactly why i never cared for 2001. Without reading the book, its mostly a pretty boring and confusing story.

    now 2010, i honestly barely remember. I saw it in the theatre, quite drunk. All i remember is some russian dude always saying "Piece of pie" instead of "piece of cake"

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  4. i'm totally putting this in my netflix queueueueue.

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