Alternate Versions
Most current video versions contain the 139-minute general release version plus the original overture, entr'acte, and exit music from the roadshow version.
Some versions have title cards on-screen during the Overture and Entr'acte sections, while other versions omit these titles and simply play the music over a black screen.
The original theatrical release had György Ligeti's "Atmospheres" set to a black screen for roughly 8 to 10 minutes before the movie began, and Johann Strauß's "The Blue Danube" long after the end credits set to a black screen. This overture and exit music survived the premiere edits mentioned above. For a long while, revivals and all television and cable broadcasts would cut both, starting directly at the beginning of the credits and ending immediately after the end credits, but current revivals in such places as the Film Forum in New York City and cable channels such as the Sundance Channel, Bravo, the Independent Channel, and PBS have been restoring the pre- and post-movie music.
The DVD version from MGM omits a few seconds of dialogue from the scene in which Dave is attempting to re-enter the Discovery through the pod bay doors. Dave asks several times, "Do you read me, HAL?" In the original release, HAL answers, "Affirmative, Dave. I read you." In the DVD version, HAL only answers "Affirmative, Dave," although the English subtitles still contains "I read you." The DVD release from Warner Bros. corrects this and HAL's full line of dialogue is heard.
The film originally premiered at 160 minutes. After the premiere, director 'Stanley Kubrick' removed about 19 minutes' worth of scenes and made a few changes:
- Some shots from the "Dawn of Man" sequence were removed and a new scene was inserted where an ape pauses with the bone it is about to use as a tool. The new scene was a low-angle shot of the monolith, done in order to portray and clarify the connection between the man-ape using the tool and the monolith.
- Some shots of Frank Poole jogging in the centrifuge were removed.
- An entire sequence of several shots in which Dave Bowman searches for the replacement antenna part in storage was removed.
- A scene where HAL severs radio communication between the "Discovery" and Poole's pod before killing him was removed. This scene explains a line that stayed in the film in which Bowman addresses HAL on the subject.
- Some shots of Poole's space walk before he is killed were removed.
