Back to the Future of Film

Space might be the final frontier, but it’s old hat for filmmakers. And though studios continue to release them at warp speed, space movies just aren’t the same these days. It used to take thousands of hours and intricate detail to create the infinite unknown on film. Now it takes...

By Sebastian del MÃ¡rmol

May 5, 2011

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Space might be the final frontier, but it’s old hat for filmmakers. And though studios continue to release them at warp speed, space movies just aren’t the same these days. It used to take thousands of hours and intricate detail to create the infinite unknown on film. Now it takes a few clicks of a mouse by some CGI nerd with a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome. We prefer labor-intensive flicks, such as Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 magnum opus, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The movie broke barriers beyond space as Kubrick and co-writer Arthur C. Clarke used innovative sound and special effects imagery to weave the story’s narrative. The first and last 20 minutes of the nearly two-and-a-half-hour film are sans dialogue. The result was a cinematic masterpiece generally considered one of the top ten movies of all time, if not the best. Somehow Kubrick kept the audience enthralled throughout the film’s four parts, including the revolutionary opening sequence depicting the dawn of man. The movie’s memorable soundtrack and stunning visual effects make it a natural for the 7,000-square-foot, open-air ExoStage at the New World Center. The screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey — part of the Soundscape Cinema Series — is Wednesday.
Wed., May 18, 8 p.m., 2011

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