Douglas Rain, Voice of HAL 9000 In '2001: A Space Odyssey,' Dies At 90 (hollywoodreporter.com) 53
schwit1 shares a report from The Hollywood Reporter: Douglas Rain, the veteran Canadian stage actor who provided the soft and gentle voice of the rogue HAL 9000 computer for Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel, has died. He was 90. The first drafts of the 2001 script had HAL being voiced by a woman and was called Athena; afterward, it was decided that the computer should sound more like a man. Nigel Davenport, Martin Balsam and others were tried out -- and ruled out -- before and during filming of the 1968 sci-fi thriller.
"Well, we had some difficulty deciding exactly what HAL should sound like, and Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American, whereas Rain had the kind of bland mid-Atlantic accent we felt was right for the part,' Kubrick told Newsday film critic Joseph Gelmis in an interview for the 1970 book The Film Director as Superstar. Kubrick told Rain that he had made the computer "too emotional and too human." So, in late 1967, the actor flew to New York City and spent a day and a half -- about 9 1/2 hours in all -- to voice HAL. As reported on the blog 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Rain "did the recordings with his bare feet resting on a pillow, in order to maintain the required relaxed tone."
"Well, we had some difficulty deciding exactly what HAL should sound like, and Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American, whereas Rain had the kind of bland mid-Atlantic accent we felt was right for the part,' Kubrick told Newsday film critic Joseph Gelmis in an interview for the 1970 book The Film Director as Superstar. Kubrick told Rain that he had made the computer "too emotional and too human." So, in late 1967, the actor flew to New York City and spent a day and a half -- about 9 1/2 hours in all -- to voice HAL. As reported on the blog 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Rain "did the recordings with his bare feet resting on a pillow, in order to maintain the required relaxed tone."
Dr. Chandra... (Score:2)
Will I dream? :(
RIP
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Apparently Rain had the habit of tapping his feet while recording the voice of HAL. No matter what they did the mics would pick it up but, rather than saying "Mr. Rain, you must stop it with the tapping", Kubrick had the pillow placed on the floor and Rain could tap his bare feet as much as he liked.
HAL (Score:5, Interesting)
I think one of the underrated aspects of this movie is how it was dealing with Human and Machine evolution at the same time. HAL was the only one on the mission with the security clearance to know what the mission was really about. Secret's aren't really good for anyone.
R.I.P Mr Rain.
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This movie was a seriously suboptimal experience. Long boring among other things.
Perhaps it just reflects what is already inside.
Would anyone bother watching it more than once?
Only if you enjoy art.
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I have to admit: I only watched it three or four times.
The sequel however, I could not stand at all.
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The sequel was a good adventure movie, if you can ignore it stomping on the original by giving a prosaic, non-monolith reason for Hal going crazy. Wtf was Clarke thinking?
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I think it's because Clarke was always more about characters and plot, and Kubrick was about imagery, themes, and symbolism.
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I have to admit: I only watched it three or four times.
Considering that English is not your first language and that the books have far more detail than the movie I think you've done pretty well appreciating it.
The sequel however, I could not stand at all.
I don't think Clarke wanted it to be a movie. Having read the book it fit into the story, however 2061: Odyssey Three [wikipedia.org] and 3001: The Final Odyssey [wikipedia.org] take the story further in unexpected and interesting ways. Well worth a read.
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The first time I watched it in German.
The last time definitely in english on Youtube. But I don't find it at the moment. Thanks for the hints, I have read a few of his shorter books in english on a trip through Greece 20 years ago.
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Citizen Kane is much older and not nearly as boring. This is specifically a problem with Late 60s / early 70s movies, especially sci-fi.
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This movie was a seriously suboptimal experience. Long boring among other things. Would anyone bother watching it more than once?
Go back to /tv/, cuck.
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Well, true it's no Geostorm...
I saw 2001 when I was a young shaver and I definitely felt it dragged on a bit. I watched it again a few years ago (about 30 years after the first viewing) and it was like I'd never really *seen* it at all. Such an incredible piece of work! I have more patience these days. Get off my lawn, I guess.
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His voice was also perfect for that character. So exquisitely calm and confident. He sounded like modern machine generated speech, synthetic emotion that you are not quite sure isn't just projection.
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I think his voice was a little hypnotic.
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Apparently neither are apostrophes.
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Apparently neither are apostrophes.
I was tired and possibly drunk.
Woah (Score:2)
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But we never found out if SAL 9000 dreamed.
I can hear it now (Score:5, Funny)
- Open the pearly gates, saint Peter!
- I am sorry, Douglas, I cannot do that.
Disclaimer: I assume God; has sense of humor; your mileage may vary.
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Must have; he created everyone in Washington DC.
I guess the AE-35 unit has finally failed. (Score:2)
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I hope the unit dreams.
Scary Stuff (Score:1)
Douglas Rain is responsible for one of the scariest moments in movie history. Just imagine, you're millions of Km from home, you've put total trust in a computer, and you've just asked it to open the door.
"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that"
Priceless. Aged eight this movie turned me into a space geek and I've been one ever since.
Rest in peace Douglas.
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+""I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that"
Priceless. Aged eight this movie turned me into a space geek and I've been one ever since."
Indeed.And it ruined me for star-wars, where thee were sounds in space.
RIP (Score:3)
The contrast between the soothing voice and the sinister behavior was the most frightening thing about the movie.
Bit of trivia (Score:5, Interesting)
Adam Balsam, the actor’s son, told me that “Kubrick had him record it very realistically and humanly, complete with crying during the scene when HAL’s memory is being removed.” Then the director changed his mind. “We had some difficulty deciding exactly what HAL should sound like, and Marty just sounded a little bit too colloquially American,” Kubrick said in the 1969 interview. Mr. Rain recalls Kubrick telling him, “I’m having trouble with what I’ve got in the can. Would you play the computer?” Kubrick had heard Mr. Rain’s voice in the 1960 documentary “Universe,” a film he watched at least 95 times, according to the actor. “I think he’s perfect,” Kubrick wrote to a colleague in a letter preserved in the director’s archive. “The voice is neither patronizing, nor is it intimidating, nor is it pompous, overly dramatic or actorish. Despite this, it is interesting.”
In December 1967, Kubrick and Mr. Rain met at a recording studio at the MGM lot in Borehamwood, outside London. The rest is movie history.
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Another great article with details on this was from earlier this year in the NY Times [nytimes.com]:
Martin Balsam did the original HAL voice (Score:2)
I can see that the neutral Canadian accent was a better choice but I do wonder what Balsam's performance was like. When actors are yanked I believe it's the rule that they don't comment but I do wonder if any of Balsam's work on the film survives.
IBM (Score:2)
I've always appreciated that if you increment each letter of HAL by one, you get IBM.