2001 is Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece. Unlike Bullitt, released in the same year, the HD DVD transfer of this film is infalable. The soundtrack is offered in glorious TrueHD and the effect is stunning. Kubrick was a filmmaker who relied upon long visual sequences and strong audio to tell his story - not straight dialogue. (Let’s say he and Kevin Smith could not collaborate on a project). Accordingly, the HD format works really well for this movie. There are sequences of great visual detail mixed with great audio detail.

As the name implies, much of 2001 occurs in space … during, among all things, an odyssey. Space is a vacuum. Unlike the way its depicted in Star Wars, there is no sound in space. Kubrick stays true to this physical reality by keeping Ext. space scenes deathly silent. Such film techniques required Kubrick to focus on the visual details. This attention to detail creates a cornucopia of visual details. In HD it translates to gorgeousness and gorgosity.

The only downside HD brings to the visual aspects of this movie is that the special effects become more apparent. Like in King Kong, heightened resolution gives away some visual trickery. For instance, in the beginning of the movie, occurring about 3000 years before the rest of the movie, the blue screened background is apparent. Regardless, the impact of the movie easily overcomes this dated ‘defect’.

TrueHD is beautiful for this movie. Nothing more can be said - it is a beautiful audio mix.

The extra fetaures are very interesting and informative.

ILHDDVD Rating 4/5 (Great movie and a great HD DVD transfer)
Video/Image: 4/5 (a beautifully shot movie pays off 30 years later)
Audio: 4/5 (silence mixed with a talking computer - awesome)
recommended

Reader Ratings: (2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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