Kubrick night from 8 on BBC2 tonight.2001 Space Odyesey followed by Paths of glory.Love Kubrick has he ever made a poor film ? Ok maybe Eyes Wide Shut.
Gave 2001 another try, having watched it when I was a student and been as best I remember distinctly underwhelmed. Have to say I wasn't much more whelmed this time round.
No narrative structure, no characters or character development, no real ideas involved, beyond schoolboy-level 'profundity': computer wins chess game - tick; computer appreciates artwork - tick; computer expresses emotions - tick...and so on. Other than that, interminable sections of low-level landscapes, posterised so's to be 'Jupiter' - unh-hunh - intercut with close ups of a human eye (also posterised, so's to be 'spacey') or model spacecraft manoeuvring around in the silence (heavy breathing optional).
Nope, I know it's a classic, and iconic, and all that, but I'm afraid I once again found it vacuous and -worst of all - just plain boring. Give me Barry Lyndon any day.