Subject: Retrospective: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

From: Dennis Schwartz <[email-masked]>
Date: 24 Aug 1999 16:33:24 GMT

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (director: Stanley Kubrick; writers:Arthur C.
Clarke/Stanley Kubrick, from Clarke's "The Sentinel''; cinematographer:
John Alcott /Geoffrey Unsworth; special effects: Douglas Trumbull; cast:
Keir Dullea (David Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole),William
Sylvester (Dr. Heywood Floyd), Daniel Richter (Moonwatcher), Leonard
Rossiter (Smyslov), Margaret Tyzack (Elena), Robert Beatty (Dr.
Halvorsen), Sean Sullivan (Michaels), Douglas Rain (HAL 9000), Alan
Gifford (Poole's Father), Frank Miller (Mission Controller), Ed Bishop
(Lunar shuttle captain), UK-1968)

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is a meditative quest, an inspirational sci-fi
film that defies its genre in scope and attitude, it is a film of
tremendous visual impact and innovation. This was done before Star Wars
and at time when sci-fi films were were mostly low-budget productions.
It is Kubrick's masterpiece. A film that encourages our contemplation of
every scene, as each was carefully and intelligently shot with that in
mind, as it is only through our own effort can we come away with an
understanding of the film. It opens in darkness 4 million years ago with
the title "The Dawn of Man," showing the apes learning how to destroy
and how to create in order to stay alive (they use bones to make both
weapons and tools), and it ends in a bright light, a vision of evolving
consciousness as a black monolith is discovered and explored on Jupiter
by the mission astronauts, who will have found life outside the earth in
the form of a star child, who is hermetically sealed in a bedroom
outside of Jupiter.

The film is about the future 33 years from when the film was released,
which would be in 2001. The anticipation of computers and robots as
being a daily part of life is assumed, as the error free series 9000
computer, named Hal (Douglas Rain, Hal's voice), engages the scientists
in conversation and is programed to carry out every detail of the
mission to Jupiter. Hal is even programed with human emotions, but we
are not certain if these emotions are genuine.

The subplot shows a conflict that develops between Hal and the
spaceship's crew, David Bowman (Keir) and Frank Poole (Lockwood), when
Hal is accused by ground control of making a mistake about a
malfunctioning object aboard the ship and the crew secretly decides to
disconnect Hal, which he discovers because he ingeniously reads their
lips, even though they took every precaution not to be detected in the
pod they entered. This has been interpreted by many, that Kubrick has
made a pessimistic film about the inevitable conflict with man and his
machines, but it just might be that what he is saying, is we better not
rely completely on machines, no matter how infallible they may appear to
be.

The first half-hour of the film is filled with splendid silence, showing
the apes doing their destructive thing, and it takes about an hour into
the film before the plot starts to develop, as the infamous bone is
thrown into the air by the ape and the scene slowly dissolves into one
showing a space shuttle, as we zoom into a space terminal and hear our
first words in the film. It is as if the baton is passed to the higher
order of beings, saying we got you so far, can you take us all the way
home, across the finish line of evolution.

The tedious pace of the film has a hypnotic affect, contrasting the
primitive beastiality of our ancestors with the polite deceptions of our
future relatives. The Johann Strauss waltz "Blue Danube,'' which
accompanies the docking of the space shuttle and the space station, is
deliberately slow, and thereby offers no resistance to the non-action
taking place on screen. While Richard Strauss' "Thus Spake Zarathustra",
provided energy and vitality to the space flight and became the film's
very popular signature theme.

The ease and comfort of life in the high tech world is magnified by the
somnolence of space travel and the high tech inventions, such as a
telephone call made with a crystal clear video of Dr. Floyd's
(Sylvester) young girl he is saying happy birthday to, and other
creature comforts, such as a gravity free toilet. All this presents a
rather rosy picture of what high tech can do for us; that is, if we play
our cards right and don't do something stupid, like blow up the world.

Dr. Heywood Floyd is played to a tee by William Sylvester, as the
consumate politically savvy scientist leader, on a secret mission to the
moon's lunar crater Tycho, unable to reveal the mission's real purpose,
as he hides his purpose under a cover up story that there is an epidemic
on one of the sub stations. His casual conversation with foreign
scientists in the terminal lobby before his flight to the moon, is
polite and guarded, rational to a fault.

What Kubrick pays most attention to, is the spacecraft's design and the
terminal's details, as they are shown as if they were placed under a
microscope and examined by us to see if we can pick up any faults in
them.

On the moon, man is confronted with strong radio signals, indicating
that there is a monolith on Jupiter, which is the same kind of monolith
the apes confronted; and, as the first monolith led to the discovery of
tools, so the second leads to the spaceship Discovery, as man has raised
his consciousness and is even in partnership with the artificial
intelligence of HAL 9000. Therefore, Dr. Floyd is now anxious to see
what the future will bring with the discovery of the new monolith on
Jupiter.

Life onboard the Discovery is routine. The three scientists are left in
hibernation, monitored by Hal, and the two crew members who are awake,
fill their time with exercises, video telephone calls, maintenance
checks and chess games with HAL. As they heed what Dr. Floyd warns,"This
mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it, by
telling you before hand what it is about.'' Not fully knowing what the
mission is, only Hal knows that, yet they are led to believe that this
mission might hold answers for them in man's evolvement, that might make
it the most important scientific investigation ever. That science is
held up as the finder of our truths, was never more ably said. And that
politicians hold our freedom in their hands, is exemplified by the
courteous but controlling Dr. Floyd, who prefers secrecy to openess, and
is one step away from being a dictator telling us what to think.

The most humanly dramatic moment of the film, is when Hal pleads for his
life as the astronaut disconnects him. He is more human than the
astronauts, who have become like the machines they work with. Hal
touchingly sings a song called 'Daisy," that his inventor taught him,
which has some affect on the crew but is the most human gesture of the
entire film. His death, caused when he fails to please his human masters
anymore and refused to obey them, comes about because of his arrogance
and pride. Kubrick seems to be delivering a sound message to
politicians, scientists and theologians, alike.

Next comes the psychedelic light and sound show, apropos for the
mind-expansion movement of the '60s; it is a sequence that was stunning
to behold, stoned or straight, as we view the astronaut, Dave Bowman,
traveling through a wormhole, probably,  into another dimension and see
him as he discovers a well-decorated bedroom suite, eventually staying
there and growing old, quietly eating his meals, and in the the presence
of the star child. The aliens who created this environment are not
shown, as the film ends very mysteriously, which has been a source of
lots of commentary, and has inspired meanings-- from it's all rubbish--
to-- something divine has happened.

This film, ultimately, is about the need mankind has to transcend his
limited thinking and move into dimensions that are greater than his
narrow aims. It is not a pessimistic film, as some have suggested,
neither is it an optimistic film; it is a film based on self-discovery
and intellect and contemplation. It is one of the great original works
of cinema, maybe even the best; it is a film that is not even a bit
dated as I view it once again in 1999, still awed by the spectacle and
mystery of it.

REVIEWED ON 8/15/99       GRADE: A+

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

http://www.sover.net/~ozus

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