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    Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
    Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
    Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
    Audiobook17 hours

    Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece

    Written by Michael Benson

    Narrated by Todd McLaren

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Regarded as a masterpiece today, 2001: A Space Odyssey received mixed reviews on its 1968 release. Despite the success of Dr. Strangelove, director Stanley Kubrick wasn't yet recognized as a great filmmaker, and 2001 was radically innovative, with little dialogue and no strong central character. Although some leading critics slammed the film as incomprehensible and self-indulgent, the public lined up to see it. 2001's resounding commercial success launched the genre of big-budget science fiction spectaculars. Such directors as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron have acknowledged its profound influence.

    Author Michael Benson explains how 2001 was made, telling the story primarily through the two people most responsible for the film, Kubrick and science fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke. Benson interviewed Clarke many times, and has also spoken at length with Kubrick's widow, Christiane; with visual effects supervisor Doug Trumbull; with Dan Richter, who played 2001's leading man-ape; and many others.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 26, 2018
    ISBN9781977383082
    Author

    Michael Benson

    Michael Benson works at the intersection of art and science. An artist, writer, and filmmaker, he’s a Fellow of the NY Institute of the Humanities and a past Visiting Scholar at the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Bits and Atoms. In addition to Space Odyssey he has written such books as Cosmigraphics: Picturing Space Through Time, a finalist for the Science and Technology award at the 2015 Los Angeles Times “Festival of Books.” Benson’s planetary landscape photography exhibitions have been shown internationally. He has contributed to many publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian, and Rolling Stone. Visit Michael-Benson.com.

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    Reviews for Space Odyssey

    4.5/5

    62 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this examination of how the movie was made, a lot!

      I’d only recommend to people who loved the movie and have seen it many times (like me) or else I guess major league film buffs.

      One great factoid, the little girl who communicates over a video link with her astronaut father Heywood Floyd in the middle section of the movie was Kubrick’s youngest daughter, Vivian.

      Actually there are a million great factoids in this extensively researched book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Such a truly enjoyable read! The author is clearly passionate about this movie and dives into a layer of depth that’s both unexpected and fascinating. While I always had an appreciation for this movie, it wasn’t until this book that I truly understood what a genius Kubrick was.

      Look forward to reading more by this author, as he brings beautiful stories to life.
    • 4/5
      An exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting, examination of what it took to make the film that set the bar for all future space adventures; besides creating a lot of the tricks and technology that went into making those films. What you read this for is to learn about how Kubrick and Clarke came to have a working relationship, Kubrick's creation of the armature on which to build his film, and the painstaking problem solving that went into making each scene work. It's all very impressive stuff. As for how it makes me feel about Kubrick, you can almost overlook the processes by which he edged contributors out of the lime light, so that the movie was his personal achievement; that no one worked harder on this film almost makes it seem just.
    • 5/5
      ... dah ... dah ... dah ... DAH DAH!! ...

      There, now that I've got that out of my system, we can talk about the book. Once he hits his stride, Michael Benson does an excellent job of telling all you need to know (and some things you probably never realized that you needed to know) about the making of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

      Like the movie, the book has its flaws and (hmmmm) its longeurs. Benson's attention to detail can occasionally become self-parodic; sometimes his word choice and phrasing can seem ... odd. But Benson has done a fantastic job of gathering together the people, where they are still with us, and the information, and has rendered it into a genuinely fascinating, and at times genuinely moving chronicle of the creative process, the making of a movie that is never anything less than challenging and ground-breaking -- and the genius of Stanley Kubrick.

      Benson teases out all sorts of fascinating factoids -- and creates the ghostly image of an alternate-reality version of a 2001 that might have been. The iconic use of classical music was a last minute decision by Kubrick, much to the distress of MGM, which had commissioned a composer for an original score. Right up the last minute, Arthur C. Clarke thought he was writing a voice-over explication of what was going on -- which Kubrick decided not to use. Actor Martin Balsam recorded HAL's lines, but Kubrick thought he made the rogue AI sound "too emotional."

      And there are wonderful soundbites -- some of Benson's own I have already transcribed into the quotes here on Goodreads. This one, from Colin Cantwell, who joined the production late on as special photographic effects supervisor, really captures some of the insights into Kubrick's techniques -- and his inspiration.

      He was dedicated to what he was creating, he was listening for it, finding where it was, continually trying to build it to this complete thing. That film is what Stanley is. And the great thing was, the "is-ing" of it -- the verb of doing it-- we all got sucked into that. How can this be done, and he excellence that had to be there. Everything had to have that excellence, or it couldn't happen at all.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant, detailed account of the making of Kubrick’s masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Many, many amazing anecdotes and stories from behind-the-scenes of this great movie. A must-read for fans of the film.
    • 4/5
      Firstly, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is one of the all time great films, groundbreaking in so many ways (and if you disagree I shall have to ask you to step outside...). So this will clearly colour my review.Benson’s book covers the whole production of the movie from the initial pondering of Kubrick in 1964 and first contact with Arthur C. Clarke through to the eventual release in late 1968. There is some discussion of the film’s impact, mainly concerned with early audience reaction, and a fairly cursory follow through to the eventual passing of both Kubrick and Clarke. The meat of the book concerns the development of the ideas and what was to pass for a script and a detailed look at how those ideas were translated into actual filmed scenes.The technical parts of the book are pretty good and there is lots of incidental detail that was new to me - the Young Generation dancers as apes? The focus is very much on the (very) young team of technicians that Kubrick hired to achieve his vision and the input they had in refining what that vision ultimately was. Surprisingly, Kubrick himself remains a quite distant figure in all this, floating in and out with a thumbs up or down (and we see that it was mostly down, pour encourager les autres) and handling lots of filmic admin that we never really see.A really good book that lifts the lid on exactly how such a great piece of art was made.
    • 5/5
      Stubb said it better, but I just am so stoked about this book I need to add my two cents: I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when it came out in 1968. I was 12 years old. I fell in love with it, and have always counted it as my favorite movie. I've read many books about it but this is the best one by far - by far! It is one of the most interesting, informative, best written books I've ever read -- not just about 2001 -- period. I thought (like Stubb) I knew a lot about 2001, but this book was a revelation. I even read the "Acknowledgements" with interest. How often do you do that?
    • 5/5
      2001: A Spacey Odyssey is regarded as one of the most influential and important movies ever made. It's only fitting that there is now a book that thoroughly examines the making of this landmark film. Michael Benson sweeps through everything from the pre-production meetings between Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick to the initial reception of the movie upon its release (which was highly negative in the beginning). The book is jam-packed with interview excerpts, stories, and photographs to help illustrate the massive, four-year undertaking that produced arguably the greatest science fiction movie of all-time. The incredible stories behind so many of the film's unforgettable scenes and sounds will thrill any film enthusiast. This is one of the best books I've ever read about the making of a movie, and it is fitting that it covers the movie that blew the doors wide open for science fiction, space, and the future possibilities for humankind.