The Sentinel by Arthur C. Clarke

3 Stars

As part of my Kubrick Oktoberfest, I read The Sentinel to compare it to 2001: A Space Odyssey. And this is why short stories make the most satisfying movies; they give indelible frameworks from which the director/screenwriter/crew can embellish, provide a variation on a theme if you will. Clarke cowrote the screenplay with Kubrick. I prefer adaptations that are changelings and not mimics, and Kubrick did a brilliant montage from Clarke's inspiration.

The Sentinel is the discovery of an extraordinary object found on the lunar surface. It is the perfect opening for existential questions and Kubrick takes a fantastical tangent. I heartily agree with the most obvious difference, the change in the object's shape between the story and the movie, adroitly sidesteps hackneyed speculation and focuses the viewers' attention of where Kubrick wants you to look not irrelevancies.

Much shorter than I expected. I feel rating this might be unfair because I came to this after seeing the movie, which is a much more expansive narrative, but I admire the springboard that it provided.