After a strange black monolith has been discovered on the moon, the Discovery One, a ship manned by five men and one supercomputer, is sent to Jupiter to discover what exactly it means. During the journey, the HAL 9000 (Douglas Rain) and his human counterparts, Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), find themselves at odds with one another. While the mission is too important to abandon, the reality is that it may be too dangerous. Some of the world's greatest minds have at it. This is 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Let’s get this right out in the open: the first time I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey was more than a decade ago in a literature into film class in college. I remember hating it, incapable of coming to terms with why the world was so enamored by Writer-Director Stanley Kubrick’s creation. Now I’m thirty-two, much more versed in the world of cinema, and far more capable of understanding and appreciating the nuances of filmmaking. With that being said, I still don’t like this film. I found myself bored out of my mind, begging for it to end, and struggling to understand why people choose to watch it over and over again. This is not to say that I hate the film, because that’s not quite the case anymore–and I most certainly understand why people appreciate the film; but it’s simply not my cup of tea.
Cinematically, I get why people love 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I most certainly appreciate this aspect of the film. There are moments strewn throughout this film that are far beyond anything that I believed possible in 1968. The film is broken up into four parts, and in the second part, as the crew lands on the moon and analyzes the monolith I was enamored by what Kubrick and his Director of Photography Geoffrey Unsworth were able to bring to life. There were shots here that looked better than most of what is produced in modern cinema–and I was floored. It’s these moments, I’m sure, that keep bringing people back to 2001: A Space Odyssey–that allow them to see the beauty in this film and consider it one of the best ever. The film never relents in this regard, always finding ways to excel in the realm of cinematography, creating beautiful, picturesque visuals that transcend the entirety of the film.
In terms of sound, 2001: A Space Odyssey is just as appealing as the visuals. Not a second goes by that sound doesn’t play a prominent role in the film. There are moments when the audio is a bit wonky, failing to deliver as I believe this team had hoped, but the majority of the film leans heavily on the sound effects, score, and soundtrack (due, in large part, to the fact that there is minimal dialogue in this film). Just about everyone has heard the song Also sprach Zarathustra by Herbert von Karajan, even if they don’t know it. The boisterous and passion-filled song erupts at the start of the film, and viewers are pulled into the film–one of the few times that I felt the film really reached out and touched me. Whether it’s this song (or a number of other similar songs), the riveting score, or the accessible sound effects, 2001: A Space Odyssey is always looking to connect with its viewers in this way. This aspect of the film falters from time to time–but overall it does its job, often stimulating viewers just enough to keep them from fading.
The practical and special effects were far ahead of their time, and Kubrick did things that were unthinkable in the 1960’s. We’re talking nearly ten years before the groundbreaking Star Wars trilogy began, and there are moments in 2001: A Space Odyssey that surpass even that. I’ve talked about how visually appealing aspects of this film can be, but not enough can be said about how Kubrick and his team were able to transport viewers to a distant land, one that could only be drawn up at NASA or constructed in the minds of scientists. 2001: A Space Odyssey is otherworldly in nearly every sense of the word, and the special effects help to solidify this notion, to create a world so different from our own (with inklings of the world as we know it, enough that viewers are able to connect to some of the characters every now and again).
I’ve contradicted myself dozens of times throughout the course of this review. As I said to start, I don’t like this film and I found myself terribly bored almost from the moment I began watching. Two and a half hours later I found myself frustrated for having sat through the film (for a second time) and wasted part of my day. 2001: A Space Odyssey is not a film that I like, but it’s a film that I respect. Kubrick did so much to inspire a culture in cinema going forward (with obvious inspiration for films like Star War: Episode IV - A New Hope, Aliens, and more). In terms of visuals and audio, 2001: A Space Odyssey is stunning, helping to keep the narrative afloat. I’ll likely never watch this film again, but the reality is that it, in more ways than one, has had a profound effect on my life as a person and a cinephile–and I have to say thank you for that.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Written by Stanley Kubrick & Arthur C. Clarke.
Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Douglas Rain, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
