We Now Return You to Your Regularly-Scheduled Program

[chris_gerrib]

So, my planned Monday post (prior to Bin Laden's departure from this veil of tears) was going to be about 1960s movies. My planned Tuesday post was going to be about my recent jury duty in DuPage county. Today's post will address both those topics.

2001, A Space Odyssey and 1960s Movies

Over the weekend, I watched an uncut version of 2001, A Space Odyssey. I hadn't seen the movie in its entirety for years. What struck me the most was how slow the movie was. Even basic "get from point A to B" scenes seemed to move at a (to a modern viewer) glacial pace.

Now, in that particular movie, some of the slowness was due to a desire to show the then-new eye candy of space travel. But, and I've talked about this previously, back in the 1960s and 1970s, movie-makers were more willing to take their time in setting up scenes. You'll see that a lot in all sorts of movies from that era.

Lastly, I found it amusing to see how many of the corporate logos had aged (badly) since the movie's release. For example, AT & T's bell logo on a phone booth, and Pan Am's logo on a spaceship, or the Howard Johnson's (!) logo on the space station restaurant.

Jury Duty

In DuPage county, we have a "one jury or one day" system. If you don't get on a jury by the end of the day, you're done. I managed to miss getting called, but somewhat narrowly. After sitting in the jury lounge until 2 PM (think "mid-priced doctor's office waiting room") and finishing my book, 30 of us were called for six-person jury.

The case was a DUI, and based on the defense's questions, the defense had no case and was just going to pound the table. Now, forcing the police to prove even slam-dunk cases is a valid and important task. It's not one I'm interested in. Fortunately, after questioning 11 jurors, they got a panel, and I got to go home.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I showed 2001 to my students a few years ago, followed by 20101. Among other things, it was a great example of how movies have changes in the interim!

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

I can understand how people find 2001 slow, but to be honest, I never found it that way. The film is just so rich in visual detail that there is always something going on if you are paying attention, and there is not a wasted shot in the whole running time. There is nothing that could be cut that would not make it an inferior film.

If you want slow sci-fi, you should check out the excellent Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. He directed the original Solaris. The Soviet censors continually accused him of intentionally trying to bore them.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

I grant that the pictures are pretty, it's just that, by modern standards, they stay on the screen for a long time.

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

I think that says something said about modern standards then.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

It does. And I'm not making a value judgment either way. "Different" is not equal to "better" or "worse" - it's just "different."