2001: A Space Odyssey - Definitive version on DVD?

Has a definitive transfer of this film been made to DVD? I recall one version coming out a couple of years ago but I thought I read somewhere that maybe it wasn't "just exactly perfect". Any help is appreciated.
Chris

 

http://www.filmfax.com/reviews/discflix/2001_a_space_odyssey.html

This is the best round-up review but it's not wholly up to date. I used to own the current "Kubrick Collection" DVD but it was awful. I think every version on DVD -- and there've been a lot -- has been problematic. Such a shame.

 

I am the proud owner of 2 DVD copies of "2001". It was one of the first DVD's I puchased and I couldn't wait to play it. It was quite a let down. The sound was very muddy and very little separation of the stereo left and right tracks. A few years later I purchased the Digitally Restored and Remasterd version. It was much better. I'm happy now, but my wife still can't understand why I had to buy 2 !

 

I have 2 Apollo 13's and 2 Brotherhood Of The Wolf's.

Gotta have the DTS and Dolby Digital versions.

 

I believe what little supplemental material there was on the first is missing from the newer release, reason enough for 2. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the original transfer, both MGM & WB, has the Bowman photo on the cover, where the restored print has the space station painting, true?

Mark

 

True.

 

I recently saw a comparison somewhere on the web (couldn't tell you where) of the two versions on DVD (the earlier MGM/Warner version and the current one). There were some telling closeups which demonstrated the heavy-handed use of edge enhancement on the earlier DVD. I also believe the earlier disc might have been taken from an inferior print.

I have the current DVD (region 4 PAL), and I think it is very nice. Perhaps it could be better, but it's the best I've seen this film (since I saw it in the cinema when I was about 9 years old!). Reports I've read suggest it is better than the laserdisc versions, including Criterion. The only downer is that there are no extras on teh current DVD to speak of.

 

I don't want to seem obstreperous, but this is the DVD I couldn't stand and sold off. I've been looking at "2001" on many screens and many TVs for a long time -- about twenty-five years -- and the color values looked all wrong to me. The review I linked to above talks about the differences and thinks the Criterion Laserdisc was the best, in that respect. Unfortunately we can't expect Criterion to get the rights to issue a DVD.

 

I used to own the old 2001 MGM DVD and it did have an 8 page booklet, plus a nice short Q&A press conference with Arthur C. Clarke from '68. These little extras were nice but the transfer was dog meat. It also was missing a few dialog cues ("Open the pod bay doors Hal", etc.). I feel that Warner sadly could've done a lot more with this title. I had the original Kubrick set (I was one of the suckers who bought it but luckily sold it for the new one) and I felt they could've done a lot of "special" things with the new set but they didn't. Thankfully the transfers are mucho better but why on earth couldn't they include the mono mixes...............


Todd

 

I have both the earlier disc and the 16:9 enhanced version. The latter is superior in resolution. As to fidelity to color values, I can't say, since the last time I saw it in a theater was when it first came out.

Another difference on the new disc is that the menu is not animated the way it was on the first disc.

John K.

 

Fred, I've never seen the earlier DVD, nor the Criterion laserdisc, so you may well be right about the colour being off. Still, from what I've seen on the web, the earlier DVD was rather washed out and dirty, and that edge enhancement looked pretty bad. I'm sure the current version could be better - perhaps one day we'll see something like a superbit version taken from a pristine print. Or perhaps in a few years we'll see it on HD-DVD..... hopefully that would really do the film justice.

 

I remember reading somewhere that a Kubrick approved remastered and expanded version of the film was supposed to shown in theaters in 2001. Anyone know what became of this?

Chris

 

I took a film class up to D.C.'s Cineplex Odeon Uptown to see it in the spring of 2001. The COP is a single-screen flagship cinema with a huge curved screen and 70mm projection capability--which was put to great use that night.

No home video format will ever be able to do justice to that movie, IMO, but the newest DVD looks pretty close to what I saw in the theatre in terms of overall tonality.

 

Wow - could someone tell us how the latest cinematically released version has been expanded? Did kubrick add any extra stuff?

I saw 2001 on one of those huge curved screens in the 60s - what an experience. It blew my little mind.

 

It's a mind-blower, all right.

The restored 2001 is a new print and a remastered soundtrack, but the film itself is the standard release that Kubrick settled on after he did some more editing following the premiere.

 

Agreed on all counts. I'm also very happy that Barry Lyndon's new transfer improves so dramatically on the abysmal first DVD (though that wouldn't be hard). I keep the first BL DVD on hand to demonstrate to neophytes what bad MPEG-2 encoding looks like.

 

I feel that the definitive version of 2001 has got to be the Creative Design art release. It's the same transfer as the Latest Stanley Kubrick collection DVD but it comes with some great stuff...a reproduction of the original 1968 poster, a frame of film, and the soundtrack on CD. Plus a little book with the history of the movie. It is a bit more pricey ($60.00 or something like that) but it is definately worth it, if you like supplements. This box kinda reminds me of the old laserdisc days where you got a whole lotta extra stuff (and not just documentaries and trailers and commentaries which I love) It's a cool set to have and a limited run too so I don't know if it's still avaliable.

 

I went to that theatre to see it that year too, Gardo! I was disappointed -- I don't think they used the correct anamorphic lens on the projector, since the curved screen -- at the outer left and right sides -- was distorting the shapes of people's bodies & heads, and the many important "straight lines" (monolith!) in this movie.

 

Sorry to hear that, Fred. I saw the 70mm print at the Music Box in Chicago. Screen's kind of small, so you have to sit pretty close (and all the seats toward the front are a little uncomfortable with little leg room). Discomfort aside, it was a great experience. The picture was absolutely gorgeous. It's only the second film I've ever seen projected in 70mm, the other being Lawrence of Arabia.

 

I've never seen that curved screen not distort the shapes of things on the sides of the frame. In fact, I'm not sure they even have a lens to counteract the distortion. The idea as I understand it is to accept the tradeoff of some distortion at the edges for the increased sense of depth and dimensionality in the middle. If I had my druthers, I'd have also seen the movie on a flat screen that big, since while the curved-screen-effect is neat it is, as you say, a distortion.

That said, I must also say that the increased sense of depth was so overwhelming in that film that I didn't find the distortion at all distracting.

 

Hey--I just realized that this round-up is the one written for Filmfax magazine by my good friend Wes Holt, a true 2001 expert and a great guy. I've told him about this forum and for all I know he's lurked here a couple of times, but I'll definitely get him on the horn here and have him update his findings to include the newest DVD. He'd be a great asset to the Forum.

 

I saw the film when it first came out in a Cinerama-outfitted theater with huge curved screen. There was an Intermission, and a printed programme had been distributed (which I did not keep!) to leaf through. Huge red curtains slowly shifted, film projected through it, as the Intermission approached. Woo!!