This is not the first time I've seen this movie, but it is the first time I stayed awake through the whole thing. Let's face it, Kubrick is in love with himself and his own work and refuses to edit. I can think of at least an hour of footage that could have been cut from this movie without affecting its story or its impact except for the better. I mean, once you see primitive ape/man figure out how to use his first tool, do we really need to see gobbets of meat hanging from his jaws? Did the panning through space need to be quite so slow? And what about that psychedelic trip near the end? THAT could have been at least two minutes shorter.
For knitters, this is a dream movie. You can get a lot done through these interminably long glamor shots, and I even knitted through the intro, intermission, and exit music. Yes, the blu-ray version includes the blank, black screens played in theaters with a provided classical score.
Zero reaction counts, unless you count the OMG moment I had when I realized the actor who played Frank was the same actor in the original Star Trek episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". His voice was bugging me from the beginning, and then I made the connection to the character Gary Mitchell. You know, typecast, because he has a background in space acting.
Overall, I give this a three out of five stars. I really, really should ding it more as a movie because of his long-windedness, but since it's such a good movie to craft to, I'll be generous. Single disc blu-ray transfer here, but it's also available in a blu-ray Kubrick triple feature pack that includes "A Clockwork Orange" (once Rick Springfield's favorite movie) and "The Shining", which even Stephen King detested. Allegedly. Add it to your collection if you're ready to see what the sixties thought the future would be like, puffy-helmeted stewardesses and all.
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