There are many people who think 2001 is about the afterlife, or how nothing really matters. We're now 18 years past 2001, we've never been to Jupiter, and the enigmatic ending of the movie still haunts the generations who watch it. The ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey Explained Dave, blown away by their existence, sees himself age in mere moments, goes on a color trail, dies, and is reborn as a star child. Dave manages to survive, stumbles onto Jupiter, and encounters a species of highly advanced beings who try to give him the comforts of the good life. At the 41st annual Academy Awards, the film did not receive a nomination for Best Picture, even though Kubrick was nominated for Best Director he lost to Carol Reed for Oliver! 2001 won one Oscar for Best Visual Effects.īut it had an ending that people still talk about today.Īfter Dave and his crew head from the moon to Jupiter to investigate some mysterious monoliths, their computer system, HAL, takes over the ship. Both North’s atmospheric score and this celebratory single stand on their own musical terms, revealed years after their creation and both of them give clues to the complex creative interactions that Kubrick’s films distilled.When 2001 was released, The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael, for one, called it “monumentally unimaginative” but now we see Kubrick’s masterwork and one of the most significant films of the 20th century. It exudes the spirit of the time of its creation in New York. The composer Dan Jones, founder of Wave Theory Records, said: “Attempting to write any music for Kubrick would be a daunting task, as Alex North – and now we discover Mike Kaplan – were both to discover. “With a visual narrative that jumped millennia, the 161-minute epic contained only 22 minutes of dialogue.” After a two-hour discussion about the film, they shook hands and a long friendship began. “We were confronted with a metaphysical drama encompassing evolution, reincarnation, the beauty of space, the terror of science and the mystery of mankind that required critics and audiences to surrender to its unique rhythms,” Kaplan explained. Kaplan first met Kubrick in 1968 in a projection booth, where the director was told that the team promoting 2001 were having a hard time working out how to sell it to audiences. Stanley Kubrick (far left) on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey Another composer, Alex North, also wrote a score for 2001, but Kubrick ultimately went for a classical work, Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. The two friends never discussed the song again, although they continued to work together closely on A Clockwork Orange. Although the great director liked the title, he said he could not imagine it becoming a hit. He wanted to emulate the success of the quirky hit MacArthur Park, featuring Richard Harris, but when he played it to Kubrick the tinny reproduction on a portable machine did it no favours. We also wanted to instil curiosity among audiences who had not yet seen what was becoming a cultural phenomenon,” Kaplan has explained. “The intent was to capture the different responses 2001 was generating from audiences and the media, the many levels of interpretation and appreciation, from its hypnotic visuals to its metaphysical illuminations. Why don’t you write something?” he said, according to Kaplan.Īfter moonlighting on his day job to compose the song, Kaplan had it professionally mixed and sung by folk performer Naomi Gardner. The publicist was challenged to write the song, 2001: A Garden of Personal Mirrors, during a meeting with Kubrick and MGM records after they had all listened to the demo tape of another song that had been intended to help promote the film.ĭeclining to use the downbeat tune, Kubrick turned to Kaplan, who he knew wrote music and who he felt understood his film: “I hear you write music. But it is great to hear it being played.” “I know it doesn’t sound like anything else, and I am not sure how I managed to work it out,” said Kaplan, 77. Photograph: Carolyn Contino/BEI/REX/Shutterstock Mike Kaplan, who wrote the ‘lost’ track for 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the actor Malcolm McDowell, who starred in Kubrick’s 1972 film A Clockwork Orange.
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