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From: rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: 2001
Message-ID: <219@ihlts.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Oct-83 13:14:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlts.219
Posted: Mon Oct 10 13:14:56 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Oct-83 20:28:28 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 29

Now let's get a few things straight about "2001:  A Space Odyssey."
The food in the tube slipped down A LITTLE because of surface tension.
This same effect was noticed long ago in the U.S. manned space missions.
Of course, in filming the scene one cannot cancel gravity which certainly
pulled the food down farther than it would have in microgravity.  So the
"technical error" is more one of degree than quality.  Perhaps they should
have used a much thicker "soup" and filmed the scene with the actor upside
down.

I seem to recall reading in "The Making of 2001" (by Agee??) that fans were
used in the moon landing scene both to push the dust up and to drop it down
so it would nearly follow the parabolic paths which particles on an airless
planet would.  In comparing that scene with films of actual Apollo moon
landings, I honestly believe that the former shows only minutely more
billowing of dust than the latter.  I think they did a fine job with this
scene.  Again, the "error" is one of degree, not quality.

And if you're looking for more "errors" you can forget the momentary exposure
of an unhelmeted astronaut to space.  Clarke covered his ass on that one.
I think it's a great movie.  It did not portray the future to be dull.
Rather, Clarke and Kubrick selected inane dialogue to emphasize the
"personality" of HAL.  How can the discovery that we are truly not alone be
considered dull?

I do like the (unforseeable, at the time) incongruity of the old Bell System
logo in the space station.  What if Pan Am folds or gets a new logo?

-- 
		Roger Noe		...ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe