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Very interesting - good job. I'd only watched without sound at all with just the music laid over.
However, as much as I love North's score as music, I think Kubrick made all the right choices for the film he made, most especially playing almost all of The Dawn Of Man sans music, which makes total sense on just about every level. North's music takes away the mystery and quiet of, you know, the dawn of man. It's an extra layer that is harmful and not helpful.
As much as I like the docking music by North, what Kubrick does makes that entire sequence majestic and visually poetic.
Only the final two clips work at all, but they don't work as well as what Kubrick ultimately used. That said, I LOVE the music.
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Posted: |
Mar 3, 2010 - 11:35 PM
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By: |
ToneRow
(Member)
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Interesting, indeed, that these YouTube clips have accomplished what should have been done as an extra feature on home video disc.
Alex North typically underscores the psychological/emotional tensions that exist beneath the surface between characters in a film (such as in a stage-play to celluloid apaption).
Stanley Kubrick's "2001" does not showcase any such dramatic emotion or humans' volatile changes in moods. There is hardly any audience connection on a psychological level with the scenes either of primates or about humans, plus there are many scenes with no life at all.
To substitute for the absences of what we as an audience have come to expect within a film, North's music attempts to capture some intangible aspects about this film lurking beneath the surface - thus, causing the dis-connect between the visuals and his music score.
This is not the first time this criticism has been leveled at North's music; his scores for "The Bad Seed" and "Spartacus" are only but 2 examples of this sort of disconnection between visual and aural elements. It's almost as if Alex North (with "2001") has composed a work for concert hall because he could not envision any other approach. This may appeal to select individuals (like Graham Watt) who appreciate an artist doing his own thing regardless of how it fits into its intended vehicle, but most people would no doubt wonder about North's aims and/or goals if his score was retained in the final print of "2001".
I agree that silence is the best approach for "2001". A lot of my favorite films feature no score, such as Ingmar Bergman's "The Silence", Luis Bunuel's "Viridiana" & "Belle De Jour", or Sidney Lumet's "Fail-Safe" & "The Hill", etc.
However, I would prefer listening to North along with the visuals than Richard Strauss...
...now the next task for The Mutant would be to restore scenes of "2001" with Frank Cordell's rejected music! 
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Hello Petrox,
"Space Docking / Space Talk" is your masterpiece!
Cheers.
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Yes, great job, Mutant.
(In the last sequence in the moon bus, this is the first time I've noticed the goof of the guy pouring coffee for Floyd and the other guy out of a standard pitcher in a weightless environment.)
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The good news: Kubrick's use of already-existing music in "2001" is what introduced many of my generation to a love of classical music. The bad news: It also helped lead to the dumbing-down in today's overuse of already-existing music in place of original scores for movies.
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Posted: |
Mar 4, 2010 - 6:51 PM
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By: |
doc365a
(Member)
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I saw 2001 for the first time when it aired on HBO in the early 80's, so I was probably around the age of 13 or 14. Thanks to 2001, it took another 15 or so years for me realize that, yes, I did actually like The Blue Danube. It's a beautiful piece of music, but I just utterly despise it's use in 2001. Can't tell you why, but to this day I just do.
Also, not too long after the release of the Goldsmith conducted 2001, I tracked the film with North's cues on a VHS tape, and added new cues for other parts of the film. What a night and day difference: with that musical patchwork, it was the first time that I could watch 2001 and actually think that it wasn't too bad. That tape has long since disintegrated, but for those so inclined, you might try:
Elliot Goldenthal's Agnus Dei over the appearance of the Monolith on the moon
Goldsmith's On The Circuit for HAL's conversation Boman (The scene that lets slip that HAL may know more than he's telling)
Williams' The Abduction Of Barry (Arista edit) over the appearance of the Monolith at Jupiter...with that music, the scene is truly frightening and unsettling!
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Posted: |
Mar 5, 2010 - 4:10 AM
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By: |
Les Jepson
(Member)
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It’s very easy to become overawed by Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. In actual fact there is very little, if any, originality in its storyline. Most of it has been borrowed from or inspired by various other films and literary sources.
The “burglar alarm on the Moon” idea is from Clarke’s own short story, THE SENTINEL – no secret there. The “next stage in Man’s evolution” at the end can be traced back to various sources, not the least of which is Clarke’s excellent novel, CHILDHOOD’S END. The homicidal computer goes all the way back to Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN and its innumerable incarnations since. The astronaut being killed during an EVA trip to a radio dish halfway along the ship’s hull is from George Pal’s THE CONQUEST OF SPACE. And the most blatant lift is “aliens visit prehistoric Earth and ‘alter’ the intellects of the ape men” scenario – thanks to Nigel Kneale, the BBC, and Professor Quatermass.
What the film does have is astonishing visuals and technique, completely unsurpassed. The music is fine, except for the lack of any thematic unity, forcing Kubrick to keep replaying the same pieces several times. I could live without the “The Blue Danube”, a clunky sledgehammer compared to the Newtonian precision of North’s cue. And I think to have no score in the “Night Terrors” sequence was definitely an error of judgement, for the reason I gave above in an earlier post. It wouldn’t much matter whether North’s cue or another jab of Ligeti’s REQUIEM was used, but it does need musical help.
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Posted: |
Mar 5, 2010 - 8:33 AM
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By: |
Marko
(Member)
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Since I am among those who do not regard Kubrick's final choices to be the mark of any kind of cinematic genius (being as I think 2001 is one of the most overrated movies of all time), I for one welcome the chance to hear North's music restored in this fashion because having experimented with it this way before from the standpoint of synching the video to a CD playing in the background I saw right away that the music helped restore a sense of storytelling comprehension that I find totally lacking in all respects in the final version.
I agree, although we're probably in the minority.
Isn't it true that Jerry Goldsmith was so disgusted by how Kubrick treated North on 2001 that he refused to ever work with him? I think I read that someplace. Goldsmith also thought that Kubrick was artistically wrong with 2001, and that every film deserves an original score.
The latter quote is notoriously true, I read it too; it also makes the former implicit, though after 2001, Kubrick obviously had no more use or interest for traditional dramatic underscores such as the ones Goldsmith provided (he even looked down on contemporary film composers in a Michel Ciment interview from the '80s, thoroughly convinced nothing they can come up with could possibly compare with or match the «classics»...). Still, the thought of having had my two favorite artists in the medium actually collaborating, boggles the mind...
Mutant your work is peerless.
I believe John Williams also expressed similar feelings in the liner notes for the Varese recording.
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