Transcends the boundaries of cinematic language; a true masterpiece

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2008)

Monkeys, spacemen, mysterious black sentinels, star gates, maniacal computer systems, spiritual metamorphosis, space stations twirling to the strains of Strauss; as the poster once stated, this is "the ultimate trip". Here we have a film that dares to present its audience with grand-gestures, enigmatic riddles and unanswerable questions. A film so grand in vision, ideology and sci-fi philosophising that film enthusiasts are still raving about its images of unprecedented genius more than thirty-five years after it was originally released. It is without question one of the classics of science-fiction cinema, and a possible contender for the greatest film ever made. Those who attempt to criticise can only make light of the meticulous pace, the 'cold' design, the unfathomable structure, and all the other deliberate touches that are employed in order to make us think and feel. Those who mock fail to appreciate the deeper questions that the film is asking, the ride we are taken on, and the feelings we are left with. Those who criticise also fail to realise that the pace, the visual iconography and the myriad of interpretations are the very elements that elevate the film to its current status within the lexicon of classic cinema.
Hyperbole perhaps, but here we see director Stanley Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clark clearly setting something of benchmark for how sci-fi and cinema could and should be combined in an intelligent, visual and philosophical manner; with the ruminations on such notions as the evolution of man, the space race, the colonisation of the moon, the advent to artificial intelligence, man's place in the cosmos, and really so much more all enlivening the scope and the emotional and theoretical sub-text of the film in relation to the grand design and imaginative special effects. To attempt to do justice to the film in 1000 words is complete madness. We can only begin to scratch the surface of Kubrick's meticulous use of visual symbolism - of which the opening jump cut is the most successfully realised - as millions of years of human evolution are compressed into one simple gesture. The ape becomes man and bone becomes a vessel, etc. We also have the fantastic use of classical music, creating a beautiful juxtaposition of old and new and the notion of time and the timeless all combined with a glorious atmosphere of slow, mechanical beauty, the likes of which we may never see again.
Besides the peerless vision and rich, metaphorical/philosophical interpretations presented by the plot and the themes that surround it, we are also given one of cinema's most endearing characters; in this instance, the more human than the human super-computer HAL 9000. His final breakdown and that achingly melancholic rendition of 'Daisy' is really one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the history of film, and no doubt a great inspiration to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the character of Marvin the paranoid android. With this in mind, it's easy to see how the legacy of the film will live on through the work that has been inspired by it, with everything from Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972), Silent Running (1972), Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain (1974), Dark Star (1974), A New Hope (1977), the Alien saga (1979-1998) and Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007) all taking some influences, be it visual or purely thematic. As magnificent as cinematic achievements go, there is none more magnificent as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); an absolute watershed in sci-fi exploration and Kubrick's greatest film alongside Barry Lyndon (1975).