Space Odyssey by Michael Benton
Taste is a strange beast. I know a lot of the things I like now all started with my parents. They showed me some great films, some great TV. They got me into some brilliant books. They played me the first songs I ever heard. Then, at a certain point, you start to pull away from their tastes. Or I did, anyway. I wanted to fit in with other people. I wanted to like what they liked. That expands your taste even more. In some cases, I eventually ended up introducing my parents to things they might have missed by themselves. Or, in other words, that’s how my dad ended up becoming a bigger Radiohead fan than me. My mum, not so much.
One film my dad couldn’t wait to show me was Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was his favourite film. Over the years, a few other ones came close. The Big Lebowski. The Shawshank Redemption. City of Lost Children. Not that one of them ever managed to push 2001 off that glorious top spot.
He saw it at the cinema somewhere around twenty two times. Then there were the umpteen times he watched it at home. Many a new TV and speaker set up was tried out with the stargate sequence. He would also take a new format version down to my aunt’s house, when my parents went to visit them for a week. Him and Kubrick would always give their large projector screens and surround sound something to think about.
The first time Dad saw 2001 at the cinema, he went with an uncle who left the cinema declaring it was a load of old rubbish. The last time Dad went to see it on the big screen, I took him to an Imax, thinking this should be the ultimate experience him. And it probably would’ve been if the chap sitting beside us hadn’t declared that, to really see the movie how Kubrick intended it, you needed to see it with a full orchestra.
Sadly, we never got around to that. Dad died last January and, slowly but surely, we’ve been sorting through his things. As you can imagine, there were a large number of 2001 related objects on those shelves. VHS, DVD, Blu Ray and 4K copies. Soundtracks. Books. There were a lot of books. From the original, small paperback released on the making of the movie, to Arthur C Clarke’s novelisation, to numerous hardback, large format books on the making of and the art of the movie.
In amongst them, I found Space Odyssey by Michael Benson. I’d bought the book for Dad a couple of Christmases ago, but it looked like he’d never got around to reading it. I set it on a pile of his books which travelled back to our house. Then, after reading quite a lot of fiction recently, I found myself fancying a change in reading material. Don’t ask me why, but something about Benson’s book called to me.
His way of explaining the story of the conception and production of the movie is absolutely brilliant. It’s told in a natural, conversational style. It has something of Tom Wolfe about it. Except, of course, Benson wasn’t there when Kubrick and Clarke started to wonder if it was possible to make a science fiction film that didn’t feel like a B movie.
Thankfully, Benson has clearly done his homework. He follows the progress of the idea from a couple of letters between the story’s creators through to huge moments in the production of the movie. He’s allowing you to stand in those rooms and listen to these brilliant people as they slowly work out how to make a film that is going to change not just the genre of sci fi but the spectacle of blockbuster cinema forever. You learn just who came up with what plot points and the complicated deal Arthur C Clarke had to endure when it came to releasing his novelisation only after Kubrick had approved it. Regardless of how badly Clarke needed the money at the time.
The other thing I learnt, even though I’d heard a lot of stories about the troubles involved with capturing Kubrick’s vision, is that the story of 2001 is worthy of being told in its own right. The level of game changing creativity, dangerous stunt work, intellectual chess and money troubles are absolutely unbelievable at times. This all, in itself, could make a brilliant film.
As you follow the birth of a cinematic milestone, there are moments when you feel like Stanley Kubrick might’ve been the most open-minded genius to ever shamble through the corridors of cinema, looking for ideas that interested him. At other times, he reveals himself to be one of the shrewdest and most seemingly ego driven directors you could ever have the misfortune to meet.
Space Odyssey is well worth reading. It might be a little too involved if you’re not a fan of the movie or moviemaking in general but, if you fit into either of those categories, then I would highly recommend it. It gives you a fascinating insight into how Kubrick and Clarke worked together and, in some cases, glimpses of scenes Kubrick decided weren’t necessary to tell the story. Let alone the trouble he had in getting the production started with a couple of dialogue heavy scenes after so much prep on the world he was building.
You’ll see how the FX team grew to meet the challenges of a film that was being made with an ever changing script. You’ll also get to hear some wild stories about stuntmen only being given one safety wire and no safety net to pretend they were in zero gravity. Plus you’ll get to here how a mime artist became an ape man whilst struggling with both addiction and a big, angry cat. The director who was watching that scene, by the way, kept himself safe in a cage.
Michael Benson’s fascinating book will also, I should warn you, leave you wanting to watch 2001 all over again. As far as I’m concerned, the high twenties is still the score to beat, thanks to a man who’s still managing to recommend books to me even after he’s been gone from my life for over a year.