The Big Picture
Despite a career spanning five decades and numerous iconic movies, Stanley Kubrick only received a single Oscar, which came in the category of Best Visual Special Effects for
2001: A Space Odyssey
.
2001: A Space Odyssey
changed ideas of what science fiction and cinema can accomplish, exploring high-concept topics like evolution, human nature, and artificial intelligence in a timely and timeless way.
Kubrick’s use of practical effects in
2001: A Space Odyssey
was groundbreaking, with the film featuring lifelike ape costumes, immense spacecraft sets, and an unforgettable black hole sequence created without digital assistance.
One might expect that by the time Stanley Kubrick passed away in 1999, his list of accolades would be stacked with Academy Award wins for best picture, directing, screenplays, and cinematography. However, despite a career spanning five decades and some of the most iconic movies of the twentieth century, Kubrick only received a single Oscar. And though he was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards throughout his life — including three for Best Picture and four for Best Director — his sole win came in a well deserved, but nonetheless anomalous category.
2001: A Space Odyssey could be considered Kubrick’s magnum opus. The 1968 cerebral space epic changed ideas of not just what science fiction can do, but what cinema as a whole might accomplish. An unconventional story told at a deliberate pace on a cosmic scale, 2001: A Space Odyssey explores a range of high-concept topics like evolution, human nature, and artificial intelligence in ways that are both timely and timeless.
The film’s greatest feats, however, may be in its visual effects. With scenes spanning from prehistoric times to a not-too-distant future, all of 2001 feels sublimely out of this world, but nonetheless authentic. From lifelike ape costumes, to immense spacecraft sets, to an unforgettable black hole sequence, 2001: A Space Odyssey offered special effects leagues ahead of its time. The look of the film holds up to this day, and so it’s fitting that Kubrick received the Oscar for Best Visual Special Effects at the 41st Academy Awards in 1969.
2001: A Space Odyssey
After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Release Date April 2, 1968
Director Stanley Kubrick
Cast Keir Dullea , Gary Lockwood , William Sylvester , Daniel Richter , Leonard Rossiter , Margaret Tyzack
Runtime 141
Studio Warner Bros.
How Did Stanley Kubrick Make ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Look So Unique?
Even today, fans, critics, and film scholars scratch their heads at 2001’s true meaning. However, the movie’s mysteries begin far closer to its surface, as many continue to puzzle themselves over the mere production, questioning how Kubrick managed to craft something so immaculate. Made in the 1960s, 2001: A Space Odyssey preceded convincing CGI, and thus used practical effects for most of its visuals. The giant spaceships, floating astronauts, and harrowing black hole were all made without digital assistance.
Because of this, there are a plethora of stories and trivia about how Kubrick — along with the film’s crew — managed to pull off such a convincing film through grand cinematic illusion. Books like Michael Benson’s Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece and Piers Bizony’s 2001: Filming The Future and The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ reveal just a few of the tricks. The floating pencil, for example, was stuck to glass before the camera with a double-sided piece of tape; the apes were played by mimes able to act in unconventional postures; and actors could walk on ceilings thanks to giant rotating sets.
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The black hole (or “Star Gate”) sequence was an award-worthy technical achievement in and of itself, and very well could have held its own as a mind-bending short film. To achieve the illusion of entering into the reality-sucking abyss, Kubrick worked with legendary special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull to create an unprecedented visual experience. Trumbull developed the cinematographic technique known as slit-scan photography, where he filmed a rotating sheet of metal at high exposure and then shined colors behind it for the effect of multicolored lights stretching out towards the lens. The result makes us feel like we are looking through the eyes of the astronaut David Bowman (Keir Dullea) as he falls deeper and deeper into the infinite unknown.
Mysteries and Legends in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’s Persistent Legacy
All of that may be confusing, and it should be. After all, Kubrick was pushing boundaries and Trumbull would go on to spearhead special effects in other visual extravaganzas like Close Encounters With The Third Kind, Blade Runner, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The innovation that went into the film is beyond what most viewers — or even experienced filmmakers — might be able to fully grasp. In fact, 2001: A Space Odyssey’s effects were so convincing that some even claim Kubrick used the same techniques to help NASA stage the moon landing the following year.
To make 2001’s legacy even more befuddling, Kubrick allegedly destroyed all the sets after the film was complete, for fear that MGM might reuse them on inferior projects, or that they might end up auctioned off as cheap artifacts. Like a magician, Kubrick didn’t want his greatest tricks revealed, and much less degraded. According to Far Out Magazine,Kubrick destroyed miniatures, props, blueprints, and even unused footage from the film. While most of the information regarding this post-production purge is mere speculation, the prospect of any lost information or artifacts related to 2001: A Space Odyssey just adds to the film’s rich behind-the-scenes lore.
2001: A Space Odyssey thus deserved its Academy Award for Best Visual Special Effects — although it does seem odd that Kubrick didn’t share the honor with Trumbull. In 2014, Trumbull told The Hollywood Reporter that “There was a certain level of inappropriateness to (Kubrick) taking that Oscar. But the tragic aspect of it for me is it’s the only Oscar Stanley Kubrick ever won. He was an incredibly gifted director and should have gotten something for directing and writing and what his real strength was — not special effects.” The accusation only thickens the movie’s mysterious, legendary status.
The Oscars Stanley Kubrick Didn’t Win (But Probably Should’ve)
While one cannot definitively say whether or not the 2001: A Space Odyssey accolade rightfully belonged to Kubrick, Trumbull, or both, we can certainly agree with Trumbull that Kubrick deserved a few more Oscars across his career. When one considers his other nominations, and the competition he lost to, it seems clear that he was snubbed. For 2001, he lost Best Director to Carol Reed for Oliver!; in 1965, Dr. Strangelove lost Best Adapted Screenplay to Becket; and in 1988, Full Metal Jacket lost in that same category to The Last Emperor. Meanwhile, other Kubrick classics like The Killing, Paths of Glory, and Eyes Wide Shut were entirely shunned at the Oscars, and in 1981, The Shining was receiving Razzie nominations while Ordinary People walked away with best picture.
None of these winners are bad films by any stretch, but they hardly hold a candle to Kubrick’s corresponding cinematic contributions. One cannot help but feel like the Academy was perpetually and woefully overlooking one of Hollywood’s best and brightest artists. At the very least, though, he got the Award where it definitely counted — earning a gold statue for his black monolith.
2001: A Space Odyssey is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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