= 5 stars

Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Douglas Rain
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

I consider 2001: A Space Odyssey a perfect movie, in that there’s little question is represents exactly what Kubrick wanted us to see. Whether or not it’s a perfect film for the audience is another matter. But when viewed with an open mind and full attention, it comes across as a powerful and revolutionary film in terms of story, film techniques, and sound.

Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke penned an original novel in parallel and in collaboration with Kubrick. Much of this creative collaboration is detailed in the book Lost Worlds of 2001, which serves as a fascinating insight into the creative process. Kubrick efficiently acted as an uncompromising editor, tossing out plot elements and shaving things down to the essence of importance. One notable difference between the film and early story drafts is that both contain aliens, which in the film version, are wisely never shown. All we have is an enigmatic monolith, a perfect 1′ x 4′ x 9′ onyx slab representing the unknown. It appears four times: once 4 million years ago, again on the moon, next around Jupiter, and lastly in Dave Bowman’s bedroom. Each time it’s a cold, uncompromising imposition, a silent appearance which reveals nothing. The neutral monolith can be seen as a metaphor for “the unknowable” – perhaps even God. By avoiding a graphic depiction of an alien, the movie avoids the current special effects limitations of its time and therefore still feels futuristic today, despite dating from 1967.

2001 outlines the ascent of man as evolving beyond animals because the development of tools: our beloved technology. Brilliantly, Kubrick eliminates everything from this achievement 4 million years ago to the year 2001 with a masterful cut from a leg bone toss to a spaceship falling. We’re now in the year 2001, where the tools have become so complex that man is completely dependent on them.

One of these tools is the HAL 9000 supercomputer (voiced by Douglas Rain) that maintains the spaceship Discovery en route to Jupiter. HAL displays the film’s strongest character arc. Many have wondered exactly why HAL seemingly goes insane and murders the Discovery crew; the answer is made clear in the novel: it’s because he’s been put into a contradictory situation, told to hide information about the monolith from the crew for security reasons. HAL was told to lie, which contradicts his claim to fame of being a computer that never distorts information. The computer becomes trapped in its own attempts resolve this paradox and fears it will be shut down, or “killed.” After this realization, HAL decides it must kill the crew in order to preserve itself and complete the mission.

But a larger sense, the plot requires HAL to be destroyed. Mankind must be stripped of its tools, reducing us as represented by Dave Bowman to our original, animal helplessness. Eventually, Bowman survives HAL’s rampage and encounters a third monolith around Jupiter which takes mankind to the next stage of evolution.

My interpretation of the final bedroom scene with three Bowmans is likely my own, but I see it as a human learning to transcend space and time, hence the multiple “selves” he meets at different stages of his own life. To say this scene is confusing and unfathomable is part of its point – imagine the leap of comprehension for the original ape to using tools.

Film techniques are expertly used in 2001. Whenever the monolith exerts its transforming powers, there’s a quick visual reference to the alignment of planets and sun over the black slab. This same visual cue is repeated as one of the apes “discovers” the use of a bone as a club, on the moon, and in orbit around Jupiter.

Another repeated visual is a close up of the unblinking eye of HAL, which has a range of meaning depending its context. It begs us to imagine what HAL is thinking. HAL’s eye, combined with a silent, back and forth pan from Dave Bowman and Frank Poole talking conveys HAL’s ability to read lips. This revelation, crucial to the plot and what transpires next, is conveyed masterfully through the lack of sound, camera movement, and a cut to HAL’s watchful eye. Kubrick doesn’t have to explain anything more, he trusts that we can put two and two together, and knows exactly how much effort he needs to exert as a director to get his point across. It’s also amazing to consider that HAL, a character with no face or body parts that would be used to traditionally act, turns in the film’s most powerful performance just through sound alone.

Then there’s the huge influence of 2001 on science fiction movies. Star Wars borrows the opening shot of a Star Destroyer passing overhead, talking robots, the breathing of Darth Vader’s mask, and even the “beep-beep” of Luke’s X-Wing targeting computer.

Even today, well past the year when it was supposed to take place, 2001 still feels futuristic. All that dates it to the late sixties is a bit of modernist furniture on board the space station. The film’s futurism is also due to our own failings: it’s well into the 21st century, and we’re nowhere near building a base on the moon or creating self-aware computers. Until either of those things occur, 2001 will continue to remain a hopeful film of where we were, where we are, and where we still need to go.

IMDB: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Wikipedia: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Rotten Tomatoes: 2001: A Space Odyssey 95%

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Posted In: 5 Star Movies, Movies 5 stars, Douglas Rain, Gary Lockwood, Kier Dullea, Stanley Kubrick

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