2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
“I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it…” Tonight, as guest host of TCM’s The Essentials, Brad Bird, director of both Ratatouille and Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol, discusses and presents this 1968 masterwork by Stanley Kubrick. I’ve seen 2001: A Space Odyssey dozens of times, easily, and it always captivates me from the start. Two fun facts this time around: One, the man-apes in 2001 weren’t awarded Oscars because, even in those pre-CGI days, the voters didn’t think there were humans beneath all that fur. And two, the color-filtered tour through the stargate at the end, with its scenes of flying over (and under, thanks to the mind-blowing split-screen), was footage filmed for, and recycled from, the B-52 under-the-radar bombing run in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, Or… How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. So enjoy 2001, all the more…