Review for 2010 The Year We Make Contact (UK)

Introduction

So here we are, 2010, and it's a perfect opportunity to see if life has imitated art. Disappointingly, there are no space ships travelling to Jupiter, and there weren't any back in 2001 either. There are no wheel shaped space stations orbiting Earth, no settlements on the moon, and no regular Pan-Am flights there. No Pan-Am at all actually, and there are certainly no psychopathic talking computers. I am utterly disappointed in humanity at this stage, and am ready to give up the whole thing as a lost cause. I'll give the world one more chance. Five years, you have five years to give me hoverboards, flying cars, and Mr Fusion, or I'm going to start suing people, just see if I don't.


Actually it was one aspect of the modern age that finally prompted me to buy this DVD, technological obsolescence. I had been carefully nursing a preciously preserved videotape recording of 2010 for the past fifteen odd years, and it was only the death of my video recorder, and the refusal of the replacement combi unit to transfer that tape to DVD-R that made me give in and shell out the hefty sum of £2.99. And you know something, the next time it's on Film 4, I'm going to record the film again and burn it onto disc…


In 1999, a mysterious black monolith was discovered on the moon, which when examined broadcast a powerful signal to Jupiter. The already scheduled Discovery mission was re-tasked and a scientific team was despatched. When the vessel arrived in Jupiter orbit in 2001, the computer HAL malfunctioned, killing the science crew in suspended animation, and co-pilot Frank Poole, before being deactivated by pilot Dave Bowman. Bowman discovered a significantly larger monolith in Jupiter orbit, but vanished when he went to investigate it further. His last transmission, "My God, it's full of stars!" Nine years on, the then director of exploration Heywood Floyd is now a teacher at a university, where his current Russian counterpart approaches him. The Russians are launching a mission on the Alexei Leonov to investigate just what happened with the Discovery mission. The Americans have planned their own Discovery II mission, but the Russians will get their first. With tensions high, and Cold War brinkmanship the order of the day, co-operation seems unlikely, but something odd is happening to Discovery's orbit between Jupiter and Io, and suddenly time is of the essence. Three Americans are allowed to travel with the Russians as observers, the designer of Discovery Walter Curnow, HAL's creator Dr Chandra, and Floyd himself. But the spirit of peaceful exploration in space may not last long as the Earth inches ever closer to its final war. What no one realises is that "Something is going to happen, something wonderful!"

The Disc

And the number one reason why I'm waiting for another TV broadcast is… It's a letterbox transfer, and a pretty unimpressive one at that. The 2.35:1 image is quite obviously low in resolution and detail, but it also suffers from print damage, some grain and the colours are a little faded. It's a crying shame as the effects work is really impressive in this film; the model shots and planetscapes work really well, while the futuristic sets have a nice, lived in feel.


Audio wise you have a choice of DD 5.1 English, French and Italian, along with several subtitle tracks (including HOH English and Italian). Made in 1984, 2010 certainly wasn't a multi-channel audio extravaganza, and what we have here is a reworked stereo track. There is a nice bit of ambience, and the effects come across well, but the dialogue is pretty centralised, and it's also a little muddy as well. It doesn't lack for clarity, but it isn't quite as dynamic as it should be. Note that if like me you have to watch this film zoomed in on a widescreen set, you can forget about the subtitles, as they'll vanish off the bottom of the screen.

Conclusion

Hard sci-fi isn't exactly an abundant commodity in cinema, where so often fantastic elements are introduced, or intelligence is sacrificed for expedience and colourful whiz-bangs. The majority of audiences who go to see a sci-fi movie now prefer to do so without having their grey matter overly taxed. It's far too common for sci-fi concepts to become secondary to familiar movie tropes, Minority Report is a chase movie/thriller, Total Recall is an Arnie movie, in fact a lot of good sci-fi becomes an Arnie movie. The smart, thought provoking, hard sci-fi rarely breaks out of its niche, it may become a cult classic like Donnie Darko, or it may just appeal to limited audiences like Solaris, but for sci-fi of that sort to become a break-out hit takes something special. Blade Runner had it, 2001 most certainly had it. It's sequel, 2010 didn't, which is a shame, as I by far prefer 2010 to the Kubrick film. In fact, it's one of my favourite hard sci-fi movies of all.


I've always found 2001 to be cold, impersonal, clinical, emphasising machines over mankind, and revelling in its visuals ahead of delivering a gripping narrative. I felt the same about the novel (minus the visuals of course), and I actually prefer a story with a more humanist angle to it, some meaty characters to get my teeth into. 2010 has this in excess, yet also maintains a tight grip on the sci-fi concepts that drive it, never sacrificing depth of intelligence for quick thrills or cheap entertainment. And once again, I feel the same about the novel. 2010: The Year We Make Contact is a great sci-fi movie, intelligent, smart and thought provoking, and at the same time it's a taut, tense Cold War thriller, yet it approaches both these aspects from a character perspective, making it a very personal and appealing story.


Roy Scheider was great in all he did, and his Heywood Floyd is light years away from the 2001 incarnation, personable, witty and charismatic. He has a personal stake in finding out what happened to the Discovery mission, as he was responsible for it in the first place. He has to come to terms with leaving his family for months, outweighed by his need for absolution, and he also has to balance the demands of the US government, with the need to cooperate and function with his country's enemies. Then there is Chandra, who created HAL, and who sees the computer's failure as his own. He is invested in finding out what went wrong, but in terms of personality, he's more like his computers than human. The fish out of water engineer Walter Curnow supplies the human aspect. He is there because the Discovery was his baby, but as patently becomes clear, he builds spaceships more than he flies in them. He also strikes up a great friendship with the Russian EVA specialist Max. It's interesting to see the different degrees to which the crew meshes, both as the mission continues, and as the tensions on Earth increase.


That's what makes this film stand out more than its prequel, and probably also that, which dates it the most, the Cold War posturing. It's a sign of the times of course, back in 1984 the world was poised on its own brink, and a lot of the media of the time reflects that. No doubt it's a sign of the budget of course, but it's also very effective in that the focus remains on the ship for much of the time, and that the stand off between the USA and the USSR happens off screen. We don't need to see blockades, and missiles, presidential addresses and protests to understand the gravity of the situation, the uneasiness that develops between the Americans and the Russians aboard the Alexei Leonov is more than enough to get that across. Besides, I'm a child of the Cold War, and I still lap Cold War thrillers like this up, with nuclear brinkmanship and the impending end of the world always more interesting, because we came so close in real life.


The Cold War, hard sci-fi, character based storytelling; this is the perfect sci-fi movie for me… well except for the sound in space faux pas, which really isn't necessary. However, this DVD is just too long in the tooth now. In fact it was long in the tooth the day it was released. The letterbox picture just doesn't do the film justice, and there's no convenient anamorphic version that you can import either. It is an ideal reason to upgrade to Blu-ray, although the Blu-ray hasn't been released in the UK as yet. You'll have to import, although it does look as if as a Warners disc, it is compatible with all regions, but don't quote me on that.