Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Robert Beatty, Leonard Rossiter

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Summary: A highly evolved civilisation sets up mysterious monolithic objects on Earth, the Moon, and in orbit around Jupiter, which impart vital survival information to ancient man, and later signal man to travel deep into space. When man arrives on the great civilisation's planet he is reborn with immense powers of wisdom and strength.

A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission while hiding the truth from the public. Later, another team is sent to Jupiter in a ship controlled by the perfect HAL 9000 computer to further investigate the giant object--but something goes terribly wrong. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is a masterpiece of filmmaking. Director and coscreenwriter (with Arthur C. Clarke) Stanley Kubrick has created a visual and aural spectacle that stands as one of the greatest achievements ever put on celluloid. The film begins with the "Dawn of Man" segment, about the evolution of apes, and then ventures into the future, taking a look at what the world might be like in the first year of the 21st century. Kubrick's film is a triumph of technological storytelling, a marvel of stunning sets and a brilliant soundtrack with the power to overwhelm and mystify. Long dialogue-free scenes sparkle with indelible images and powerful orchestral music, culminating in an unforgettable, inscrutable tale of birth and rebirth, human evolution and artificial intelligence, the past and the future.

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Confirming that art and commerce can co-exist, 2001: A Space Odysseywas the biggest box-office hit of 1968, remains the greatest science fiction film yet made and is among the most revolutionary, challenging and debated work of the 20th century. It begins within a pre-historic age. A black monolith uplifts the intelligence of a group of apes on the African plains. The most famous edit in cinema introduces the 21st century, and after a second monolith is found on the moon a mission is launched to Jupiter. On the spacecraft are Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Poole (Gary Lockwood), along with the most famous computer in fiction, HAL. Their adventure will be, as per the original title, a "journey beyond the stars". Written by science fiction visionary Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, 2001elevated the SF film to entirely new levels, being rigorously constructed with a story on the most epic of scales. Four years in the making and filmed in 70 mm, the attention to detail is staggering and four decades later barely any aspect of the film looks dated, the visual richness and elegant pacing creating the sense of actually being in space more convincingly than any other film. A sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two(1984) followed, while Solaris(1972), Close Encounters of the Third Kind(1977), The Abyss(1989) and A.I.(2001) are all indebted to this absolute classic which towers monolithically over them all.

On the DVD: There is nothing but the original trailer which, given the status of the film and the existence of an excellent making-of documentary shown on Channel 4 in 2001, is particularly disappointing. Shortly before he died Kubrick supervised the restoration of the film and the production of new 70 mm prints for theatrical release in 2001. Fortunately the DVD has been taken from this material and transferred at the 70 mm ratio of 2.21-1. There is some slight cropping noticeable, but both anamorphically enhanced image and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (the film was originally released with a six-channel magnetic sound) are excellent, making this transfer infinitely preferable to previous video incarnations. --Gary S Dalkin

Aspect Ratio:	2.21 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Scene Access, Trailer
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish
Year:	1968
Release Date:	September 1, 2001
Runtime:	136 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	D 065000
Keywords:	Odyssey, General, Space, Wide, Screen, Fiction, Science, Horror, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Science Fiction