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In December, 1968, my friend Alan Dyer and I took the bus from St Boniface to St James, west of Winnipeg, to the Kings Theatre, to see 2001 : A Space Odyssey. Fifteen years old at the time, I was captivated beyond words at the sites and sounds on the screen. The awe and astonishment I felt that day has never left me - 2001 remains my favorite all-time film to this day.

2001 opens with "The Dawn of Man", an 18-minute segment in which the black monolith first appears to the man-apes, putting the idea of murder into their heads. It features the legendary edit of the man-ape, Moonwatcher, tossing into the air the bone he has just used to complete the first homicide in history. As it falls, 2001 jumps to the end of the 20th century - a "fast forward" of perhaps some four million years in 1/24th of a second.

When the Internet Movie Database came into existence, I used it from time to time to search actors and actresses who had appeared in favorite movies of mine. In the case of 2001, the actor who played Moonwatcher, Dan Richter (or Daniel Richter, as he is credited in the film), never appeared in another movie, according to the IMDb. Imagine my surprise when I learned that Richter had written a book about his experiences making that famous sequence, a book called Moonwatcher's Memoir - A Diary of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Richter begins his compelling story on October 24th, 1966, and ends it on October 16th, 1967. In between he offers much detail, from his first meeting with Stanley Kubrick, through to the packing of his belongings after his work is completed, as he wonders whether or not 2001: A Space Odyssey will be a success.

The book is rich in information and rife with anecdotes. To write the book, Richter worked from notes and a journal he kept while filming, his memory, and interviews with surviving cast and crew members. Richter opens the book with the story of how he was hired as choreographer for the Dawn of Man sequence. He advises us of how, from the outset, Kubrick envisioned the players. He told Richter:

"Dan, they can't look like men in monkey suits."

Richter describes himself at the time as "a 28-year-old starving mime teacher and editor of an avant-garde poetry review." By the end of his interview with Kubrick, during which he demonstrates mime work and "form walks", he is offered the position of choreographer for the sequence.

I have watched 2001 over 25 times, and regarding certain scenes, I would wonder, "how did they do that?" For example, the scene in which the leopard attacks one of the man-apes always looked too real to me to be, well, improvised. How do you improvise with a leopard? It turns out that the leopard was indeed trained to mimic an attack. His trainer was a man named Terry Duggan, and Richter explains that the scene was shot three times: the first take, nothing happened, the leopard being too scared or confused to move. In the second take, the leopard jumped from above into the space between Duggan (in costume as a man-ape) and Richter, standing a few feet away (also in costume, as Moonwatcher), and started to approach Richter - Duggan, seeing this, tackled the leopard. In the third take, the leopard jumps on Duggan, and is the take we see in the movie. It is this kind of detail Richter provides in the book that I found captivating and fascinating.

Richter notes that he was a heroin and cocaine addict during his work on 2001, something he kept from Kubrick during the first few months of filming. (His wife was an addict as well.) However, he was a "registered addict", receiving drugs under a government program to help users deal with their addictions. That he is honest about this aspect of his life, and chooses to reveal it to the reader, adds a measure of humanity to the work.

From start to finish, this is a compelling and revealing work. Richter's writing is compact and concise. Little space is wasted with information that is not relevant to the story of how the Dawn of Man sequence was created and filmed. Conversations are reconstructed and presented to the reader. We learn how the other actors were hired and trained, how the costumes were designed and built, how the scenes were filmed on set in the studio (only one scene was filmed outside the studio, and that was only 200 yards away!), and how Richter coordinated so much of the production. He reveals how difficult it was for him to release people who had been working closely with him, when it was determined that their services were no longer needed by Kubrick. Seemingly trivial information instead comes across as rich detail: Richter describes the problem with the man-ape suits overheating, and how small hoses were be used to allow the actors to breathe by keeping the man-ape jaws open. Compressed air had to be blown down the suits to keep the actors cool.

In the scene in which the leopard lies with its paws on the zebra, above the man-apes' cave dwelling, he reveals why the leopard's eyes shine so brightly, as if reflecting light from elsewhere (which it was doing, actually!)

One piece of information in the book I found almost personally embarrassing, confirming that I had interpreted a crucial scene incorrectly for the past 35 years! Recall the sequence during which the tribe of man-apes at the waterhole is chased away by the approaching tribe. I always believed that it was Moonwatcher and his pals at the waterhole who were the ones intimidated into leaving, and that once having learned how to kill with bones, they return to the waterhole to exact a bit of revenge on the opposing tribe (led by a man-ape named One Ear.) Well, I was wrong - it's the other way around. It's Moonwatcher who chased away his neighbours, and when he comes back a second time, he's armed and dangerous. Dan, thank you for clearing that one up for me.

There is one detail, or piece of information, that Richter leaves out of the book: how were the voices done? The man-apes' vocal sounds were loud, piercing and very strong - too strong in my estimation to be voiced by actors. I may be wrong, but I found nothing in the book that discusses how the voices were created. After Moonwatcher and crew chase away the other tribe, the last shot in that scene shows him turning around, facing the direction of the retreating tribe. He opens his mouth and emits a powerful, piercing growl in their direction. Was that Richter's voice? I want to know.

Richter also supplies the reader with a number of great photographs and some of his production notes, including script excerpts and body measurement charts. Of course, the book wouldn't be complete without his observations about Stanley Kubrick, and while sparse at best, what he offers comfirms what so many have said about Kubrick, which is that, in so many words, he always marched to his own drummer. Richter writes:

"Stanley is different from other men. In working with him and becoming his friend, I have come to realize that I cannot judge him by the measure I apply to other men and women. What would be compulsion in other men is singled-mindedness in Stanley. Most of us function in society, however rebellious or hermitlike we are. It is as if Stanley lives by different rules that are his own. He is not necessarily a rebel or an outsider. He has a down-to-earth and easy sense of humor. You can as easily discuss a sporting event as Wittgenstein with him. Yet Stanley has a quality of otherness, or a genius following his own path. Stanley never ever seems to react in a way to anything except as his unique self. Stanley is totally unpredictable in that he sees things in a new and unique way, like an avatar or spirit bringing a new vision that is so unique it forms a new reality for us. It is as if the perceived world, because of his very presence, changes its nature forever. And because of this, we can never go back."

According to the book, Richter wrote this passage on September 5th, 1967, some 7 months before 2001 opened, in 1968. Perhaps he uses the word "unique" a few too many times, yet it's a word that applies to 2001 in spades. In the context of 2001, Richter's description of Kubrick was prescient at best.

For fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Stanley Kubrick, this is a must read, a keeper. Film historians interested in how this famous sequence was created, produced and executed, it is required reading. As a member of the former group, I am grateful to Dan Richter for having written this book and bringing me closer to the movie that will forever be my all-time favorite.

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Posted by: randy at November 18, 2025 08:10 PM