Digital List Price: | $23.99 |
Kindle Price: | $2.99 Save $21.00 (88%) |
Sold by: | Amazon.com Services LLC |
Your Memberships & Subscriptions
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece Kindle Edition
Fifty years ago a strikingly original film had its premiere. Still acclaimed as one of the most remarkable and important motion pictures ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted the first contacts between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence. The movie was the product of a singular collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke. Fresh off the success of his cold war satire Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick wanted to make the first truly first-rate science fiction film. Drawing from Clarke’s ideas and with one of the author’s short stories as the initial inspiration, their bold vision benefited from pioneering special effects that still look extraordinary today, even in an age of computer-generated images.
In Space Odyssey, author, artist, and award-winning filmmaker Michael Benson “delivers expert inside stuff” (San Francisco Chronicle) from his extensive research of Kubrick’s and Clarke’s archives. He has had the cooperation of Kubrick’s widow, Christiane, and interviewed most of the key people still alive who worked on the film. Drawing also from other previously unpublished interviews, Space Odyssey provides a 360-degree view of the film from its genesis to its legacy, including many previously untold stories. And it features dozens of photos from the making of the film, most never previously published.
“At last! The dense, intense, detailed, and authoritative saga of the making of the greatest motion picture I’ve ever seen…Michael Benson has done the Cosmos a great service” (Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks).
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateApril 3, 2018
- File size85585 KB
Customers who bought this item also bought
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Over the years, so much has been written about 2001 and its creation that I thought we knew all that there was to know. And then, I received a copy of Michael Benson’s lively, exciting and exhaustively researched book, which further expands our understanding of what is truly one of the greatest films ever made." (Martin Scorsese )
“Michael Benson’s Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece is a masterpiece about a masterpiece—a passionately written, impeccably researched book about a great director’s pushing himself, his cast and crew beyond safety or sanity in a relentless quest for a non-verbal vision of the transcendent future of both space and film itself.”
(Scott Eyman, author of John Wayne: The Life and Legend and Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart )
“Despite the attention Benson lavishes on the humans—Kubrick and Clarke—HAL-9000 would have been proud of this smart, fluent, and meticulously researched account of the making of a sci-fi classic.” (Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood )
“A fascinating, detail-rich account of the long slog to make the science-fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. . . . [An] endlessly interesting narrative. Essential for students of film history, to say nothing of Kubrick's most successful movie.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“If Kubrick’s masterpiece was a remarkable voyage into the future, Michael Benson’s book is a delightful voyage back in time. For those of us inspired by the film, this book provides a delicious peek into landmark collaboration of two creative geniuses and the lasting gift they provided for all of us.” (Lawrence M. Krauss, Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, and author of The Physics of Star Trek, A Universe from Nothing, and The Greatest Story Ever Told.. So Far )
“A new and remarkably comprehensive look at the complex relationship between the two men whose collaboration led to one of the greatest films of all time. . . . This story about the making of 2001 is as compelling and eye-opening as the film itself.” (Booklist (starred review))
"[An] engrossing, immersive examination of the long path to Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's masterpiece. . . . The pair's fraught but hugely successful relationship forms the backdrop of this astonishing tale of obsessive genius at work." (Ben Dickinson The New York Times Book Review)
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Product details
- ASIN : B074ZP9S44
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (April 3, 2018)
- Publication date : April 3, 2018
- Language : English
- File size : 85585 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 513 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,077 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
This movie has been one of my favorites since I first saw it. It’s enduring power and vision is undeniable. It still speaks to me 30 years since I was first introduced to it and many of its predictions for the future hold up exceedingly well. I was naturally intrigued by the idea of a new book documenting the story of how it came to be. I’m happy to report that Michael Benson’s “Space Odyssey” does not disappoint. He has assembled a thoroughly researched and engaging story of this important film’s birth process.
There’s a lot to know about this film and its two central protagonists, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clark. Kubrick, fresh off of his success with “Dr. Strangelove,” was in a position to write his own ticket and work on whatever struck his fancy. He had the backing of MGM, one of the most powerful studios in Hollywood. His fancy in 1964 was nothing other than to make the first believably realistic science fiction film. This was uncharted territory since, up to that point, science fiction on film had largely been kid’s stuff full of actors in silly looking costumes. To reach his goal, he was eventually connected to Arthur Clarke, the world’s best known serious science fiction author. Deciding that none of Clarke’s existing works were suitable to the project, they formed a partnership to craft a new story using bits of Clarke’s work but largely inventing a completely new story, the details of which would not fully solidify for years…many coming only during the filming stage itself.
What follows over the next 400-plus pages is a tale of a genius perfectionist, his sometimes uneasy alliance with Clarke, and the methods—often invented from whole cloth—to push the boundaries of what was visually possible in the mid 1960s. It’s a fascinating story of how Genius creates. It’s not easy, many talented people are pushed to the emotional brink of what they can bear. Some are even ruined by the experience. “Space Odyssey” makes it clear that great works of art are never simply “made.” They are tortuously birthed through struggle and pain. Their existence is made possible only through the unique vision of the creative genius—and what he’s able to extract from others whom he guides in creating the final product.
It may seem as if I’m casually deploying the word “genius” here, but Benson makes a clear case for the appropriateness of its use. The majority of the visual effects artists and cinematographers who worked to make Kubrick’s vision a reality (and there were many) are profligate in their application of the word to their collaborator and director.
If you have an interest in 2001 or film history in general, this is the book for you.
There is a lot of attention to the very slow and very painful evolution of the "Dawn of Man" sequence that opens the film. It's clear that without the artistry of Dan Richter and the genius of Stuart Freeborn, this sequence would have been a laughable disaster. Instead it evokes sheer awe and wonder, and ends with the single most famous jump-cut in all cinema history to date. The other very, very painful sequence was the final "beyond the infinite" act, in which Dave Bowman enters a stargate, sees wonders, winds up in a kind of zoo, and eventually dies, to be resurrected as a superhuman of unguessable powers and potential.
Readers will be dismayed at the account of Kubrick's cruel treatment of his co-author, the very vulnerable Arthur C. Clarke, who tended to accept every decision made by Kubrick, even when it severely limited Clarke's ability to recover suitable payment for his labors. His similar exploitation of the labors of other members of his staff of creators (for example Stuart Freeborn) makes clear that this was SOP for Kubrick.
As a director, Kubrick never had a "hit" and never won an Academy Award (other than one for "special effects") but essentially every living and active director considers Kubrick to be one of the greatest film directors who ever lived. His prep-time was so extended for most of his films that he made comparatively few. But 2001 now appears on nearly every informed list of the best 5 or 10 films ever made.
Now for the bad side: this is a very, very unattractively designed volume. The photos in the text are small and dark, and generally are hardly more than grey-black, rectangular blobs on the paper. A selection of color stills is more interesting, but still fails to give much of an impression of the totally overwhelming visual impact of the film, especially as seen on a large screen in 70 mm format.
There will be many more books on 2001, because of its importance in the history of film making, but this one is quite valuable, overall.
Top reviews from other countries
Enviado en el plazo, rápido y sin problemas.
Ja! Kaufen!