Customer Reviews

2001: Filming the Future

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Stanley Kubrick, God rest his soul, is my favorite director, and "2001: A Space Odyssey" is my favorite film of all time. For many years the definitive tome about this movie was "The Making of Kubrick's 2001" by Jerome Agel, but that book, alas, has been LONG out of print. It's a real pity, too, since that humble paperback boasted an excellent 96-page photo insert! Get that book back in print!

"2001: Filming the Future" is actually the very first item I ever purchased from Amazon, and it's a tribute to Amazon that I was able to get the book at all. I first learned about this book about 5 years ago from an ad in a science fiction anthology magazine, but I couldn't seem to find it in any bookstore. I tried special ordering it through my local WaldenBooks, yet every time I checked to see if my order was in (over many months), they told me it hadn't arrived. You can imagine my frustration.

Well, about this time I began hearing more and more about an online bookseller called Amazon.com, and seeing how I had only recently begun exploring the World Wide Web, I decided to visit Amazon's website and see if they might have the book available. Much to my delight they DID, so I ordered it online with my credit card, and the book was in my hands in less than a week. Thanks, Amazon!

Anyway, Piers Bizony's "2001: Filming the Future" is a handsome, lushly illustrated, large-format paperback book that belongs on the coffee table of any fan of Stanley Kubrick. There are all sorts of stills from the film and the sets, outtakes, rare production artwork, and plenty of details about how Kubrick went about making this groundbreaking movie as well as how it was received. The final chapter of this excellent book is a reflection on how things have changed since 1969, when "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released; it's a sobering, even depressing essay about how changing military, political, and cultural priorities crippled our sense of wonder about space exploration. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Piers Bizony's great work in putting the pieces together of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. Probably one of the most complex look at any film that I have come across in full detail. The book is in large format with slick pages and color photos everywhere to give you a behind the camera view of the work being accomplished. This book is highly reccomended for film students, movie lovers and Stanley Kubrick fans.

I searched for about 8 years for a book: Jerome Agel's "the making of Kubrick's 2001" and finally found 3 copies in a used books store in my own city.

I always tought that this book was the only one on the making of 2001. I was wrong, the book written by Mr. Bizony is excellent and very well documented. A suberb work of research written by a man who truly loves this movie. Agel's book is superior to this one only because it is part of history and out of print since (more or less) 1970.

In 30 years, mr Bizony's work will also be an historic work.

There have been plenty of books about Kubrick's amazing science fiction work, but Piers Bizony is the first to really do the film justice. You get a sense of what filming this movie was like, with insight to the many ingenious tricks Kubrick employed to achieve the effects. You can't help but appreciate what 2001 achieves, given the absence of computer generated special effects you see saturating sci-fi movies today. The film feels very real, because many large scale props (some life size) were used.

Kubrick was quite the eccentric. His thirst for accuracy was insatiable. His protectionist ideals inspired him to have all of the props destroyed at the end of filming (despite this, props were remade for 2010... it was a shame he destroyed those original artifacts of sci-fi movie history). Ingenious man, difficult to work for but certainly appreciated. Bizony shows you a taste of that in various respects. He also reveals details about the collaboration between Clarke and Kubrick that add significantly to the back story of making this film.

But aside from the useful information, the photography is delightful. There are a number of common photos, but plenty of ones you may never have seen before, including rare publicity shots. The behind the scenes shots alone make the book worth having. If there were any recommendations I could make, it would have been to use a larger format book. Also, I never saw one offered in hardcover--there definitely should have been that option.

Unfortunately, this book is now out of print. But you can still find it used in the Amazon marketplace. I bought this from an Amazon seller and I am pleased with the condition it came in for the purchase price. Don't pay some absurdly high price for a mint condition example tagged as a "rare collectible"... these do become frequently available second hand in excellent condition at prices usually matching the original MSRP.

Sadly, both Clarke and Kubrick have now passed on. But the results of their amazing collaboration live on!

I'm in full agreement with the review posted by the person from Easton, PA. This is a great book, that has high quality images from the movie, and fascinating details on the culmination of creative talent that worked on the production. Why they didn't come out with a hard cover version, I can't understand. Also, a larger format would have had a much better impact (and worth the expense). But for $16, you can't go wrong getting it.

Although Jerome Agel wrote a book called "The Making of Kubrick's 2001" back in 1970 [long out of print] that collection of essays can't hold a candle to this beautifully illustrated and informative work. Each aspect of the creation of this film is discussed with color frames from the film, and pictures of the sets and special effects set ups. The book also includes all of the famous MacCall advertising paintings, and several paintings of the spacecraft done specially for it. The book also contains interesting information on working with the obsessive Kubrick [who, of course, did not provide any personal input, although many others who were involved in the project did] and an analysis of how the real future turned out to be [dissapointingly] different than the Kubrick's still compelling vision.

Much has been made about how Stanley Kubrick's vision of the future in the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" didn't come to pass. But this film highlights mankind's dependance on computers and seems to even foreshadow the Y2K problem with the breakdown of "Hal." Bizony covers every facit of the filmmaking process and even goes into why Kubrick's masterpiece still enjoys an enormous following 30 years after it was made. This is the hallmark film that put the "special" in special effects and gave depth to the shallow film genre of science fiction, which to this day still seems unable to rise above its Saturday afternoon matinee origins. Kubrick reached new heights with "2001" and no one has successfully been able to surmount the standard set by this unusual and wonderful film.