The Great Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey

[Selk]

It is rare in the movies to have something that doesn't look, walk, talk or sound like anything else. You might say that of all of Stanley Kubrick's work and, for me, none encapsulates the spirit of his work like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I revisit this film every few years or so and every time, I notice something different. The film is so spare and so open and so uncluttered in its pacing and its narrative that we are free to interpret it any way we want.

There isn't a moment in this film that seems added for effect. Stylistically, this is one of the most nihilistic films ever made simply because it is so foreign to anything I've ever seen, sci-fi or otherwise. The dialogue, the sets, even space itself seems cold and distant. The humans who inhabit this film seem to have been drawn with a minimum of emotion or charisma. In Kubrick's case, I say that as a compliment. This is a film about human evolution, from out infancy to our ascension into a heavenly being and the tools that take us there.

2001: A Space Odyssey is a four-act play, each act representing a kind of step ladder that takes us to the next level. The first act is our infancy as apes. We are grunting hairless apes who eat and fight. Then the door-shaped monolith drops into our midst and we walk through it and ascend to the next level. The second takes us to the moon where the monolith is uncovered. That door points us in the direction of Jupiter. The third act allows us to see that we've created a machine that can do our thinking for us. It becomes sentient (just like the ape did) and acquires a sense of self-defense. That battle takes us to the fourth act, a journey to the stars and beyond our human bodies into the next phase of our evolution. We are reborn, in a sense, into a celestial womb to be reborn as a god-like creature who has no need for spaceships.

You can interpret the movie any way you want but, for me, I see the human as lab rats. We are looked over by some unseen creature who drops this monolith into our midst - like a rat in a cage - and sees if it can figure out what to do when it gets into the bigger cage. We are a celestial experiment, a scientific study to see if we can make sense of ourselves as human beings. What an incredible journey this movie takes. What imagination. What ideals. 2001 can be seen in a million different ways and none would probably be wrong.

[Andrew Forbes]

Dude, you're new, so a word of advice. Leave 2001 alone. There's... history there.

[Dimwitted]

OTOH the crisis has passed. There's only guests at the table now.

It's a masterwork, no question. It is the dividing line between SCIfi and sciFI. Part of it is because Kubrick's OCD and because our understanding had so greatly improved during the time. Taken in slices, it's still amazing how modern the overall look of 2001 one is. Ironically I just saw Moon this weekend and that looks like a sequel... something that was made 1-2 years after 2001 not something 45(!) years after the fact. Granted Duncan Jones made several concious descisions to make it look the way it did but even in the commentary he is referencing a timeline as "80's and 90's", not 1964.

When we actually get there ... soon I hope, I figure reality will look a lot like 2001 and not like Trek.

[Selk]

Dude, you're new, so a word of advice. Leave 2001 alone. There's... history there.

LOL! Sounds like a missed an extremely heated debate somewhere.

Taken in slices, it's still amazing how modern the overall look of 2001 one is.

I was looking at it the other night and I noticed how modern it all looks. Except for some obvious signs that this is the 60s, the special effects all look modern, not one minutes seems sloppy or dated.

[Attrage]

Maybe I should follow Andrew Forbes' advice above....but then, I've always had a knack for stirring up trouble and I can't leave this alone. 2001 is a real "love it or hate it" kind of movie. There doesnt appear to be anyone with an inbetween opinion. Personally, I love it. I love it's blend of sound and vision mostly. It's one of those films that wouldnt be made today (yeah I know that's another thread but bear with me) where there's long stretches of silence and sparse dialogue and a plot that meanders along not in any hurry whatsoever to get to the point or the next big set-piece. Every time I watch it I feel a strange sort of exhaustion at the end, not in a bad way, but sort of the way I feel after a long trip to somewhere strange and different, out of the old "comfort zone"...

[Paul Kile]

I have a great reverence for the movie, having first seen it in the Hollywood Pantages theater in 70mm with my Dad when I was 14. After years of watching bad sci-fi monster movies on TV, 2001: was the first time I saw true literary science fiction depicted on the big screen. The Pantages screening was the best way to see the movie. I still have a fond memory of the drive home, and Dad waxing poetic about the pairing of the Blue Danube Waltz as the Pan Am Space Clipper slowly approached and docked with the space station. You see, he was an airline pilot and I could see the light in his eyes as he looked toward the future of airline travel. Oh, to wish that Clarke had been right with that prediction!

The worst screening for me was seeing it projected on a bedsheet tacked to the wall of my college dorm dining hall, but the movie still was great even under those conditions! It's one of those films that leaves you feeling quite small , yet awestruck at the same time.

On the other hand, my wife (who is a fan of SF also) couldn't stand the movie. She saw it in the theater at a younger age, and couldn't figure out what that bunch of monkeys had to do with space travel. The film's pacing also puts her to sleep. Alas...

[Dan Mancini]

It's definitely a movie that demands that you give yourself over to its rhythms. I can understand why people find it dull, but I get hypnotized by it every time I put it on. I find it easily one of the most exquisitely beautiful motion pictures ever made...maybe the most beautiful.

[Steve T Power]

It's definitely a movie that demands that you give yourself over to its rhythms. I can understand why people find it dull, but I get hypnotized by it every time I put it on. I find it easily one of the most exquisitely beautiful motion pictures ever made...maybe the most beautiful.

You were on drugs though... right?

[Dan Mancini]

It's definitely a movie that demands that you give yourself over to its rhythms. I can understand why people find it dull, but I get hypnotized by it every time I put it on. I find it easily one of the most exquisitely beautiful motion pictures ever made...maybe the most beautiful.

You were on drugs though... right?

Prescription painkillers and muscle relaxers, but nothing illegal.

[Steve T Power]

It's definitely a movie that demands that you give yourself over to its rhythms. I can understand why people find it dull, but I get hypnotized by it every time I put it on. I find it easily one of the most exquisitely beautiful motion pictures ever made...maybe the most beautiful.

You were on drugs though... right?

Prescription painkillers and muscle relaxers, but nothing illegal.

Those are still drugs. And you sir, are no fun at all.

[Dan Mancini]

It's definitely a movie that demands that you give yourself over to its rhythms. I can understand why people find it dull, but I get hypnotized by it every time I put it on. I find it easily one of the most exquisitely beautiful motion pictures ever made...maybe the most beautiful.

You were on drugs though... right?

Prescription painkillers and muscle relaxers, but nothing illegal.

Those are still drugs. And you sir, are no fun at all.

By that logic, Elvis would be no fun at all, and we all know that's not true.