Scratches in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Osyssey
☛ Detail of a snapshot from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (UK/USA, 1968) showing a bright scratch across the “COM” computer display. Warner 2007 Blu-ray edition @01:31:13
There is a set of scratches in 2001: A Space Odyssey that are not on the film, but in the film. They were filmed during production, in 1965 or 1966, visible at the same moments and locations within the frame in most copies of the movie, from VHS and Blu-ray releases to 70 mm and IMAX prints. It remains unknown if they were visible during the film’s premiere in April 1968.
Animated snapshots of the set of scratches are shown above. They are not the only scratches visible in the movie, but by far are the easiest to spot. They flash by the dark purple “COM” label on one of the EVA pod’s many computer screens. These scratches did not appear on a specific release of the film. Rather, they occurred on one of the many 16 mm loops of celluloid film used in rear projection to fill the computer screens with a variety of readouts. The scratches were part of the set pieces, filmed during production. This makes it possible to observe the same set of scratches at the same moments and in the same position within the frame in various editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In fact, they should be visible on all available copies, with two notable exceptions. This specific set of scratches is absent from versions of the movie where the sides of the film were cropped to fit television screens. Indeed, they only occur when the “COM” computer display is positioned on the far right side of the 2.20:1 frame. They are also absent from later editions of the film where they may have been digitally erased or cleaned. Their absence alone is not a proof of digital cleaning, but it represents a likely and partly supported explanation.
