The ultimate science fiction film

Rating: 9/10 (12 March 2002)

Modern movie-going audiences could be forgiven for not understanding or comprehending "2001: A Space Odyssey." Most of today's film fans were weaned on "Star Wars" or John Hughes-style teen romantic comedies. To them a good film is something with a decent soundtrack, an easy-to-follow narrative and some hunky or sexy actors and actresses. Film as purely entertainment. Nothing more. If they want art, they'll go to an art gallery.
Am I being too harsh? I don't think so. It takes a special kind of film fan to appreciate a movie of such awe-inspiring breadth. Thankfully there are also plenty of audiences that see "2001" in that way. For some it's a bore, for others it is one of the greatest films ever made.
The term masterpiece' is bandied around too often these days. Any run of the mill Hollywood fluff is labelled a masterpiece, despite being just slightly above the cut. But `2001' is one of the true masterpieces of cinema and is not likely to be matched again. Stanley Kubrick's films are often too deep for even the most intuitive of minds, and "2001" is no exception. For me personally this is his best work  planned but unstructured, powerful but ambiguous. Genius is the word that most often comes to mind.
Look at the climate of the world when "2001" was released. Modern western society was changing dramatically thanks to the influence of modern music, fashion and psychedelic drugs. The generation gap was wider than ever before and this in some part led to the huge difference in opinion between critics and the young audience upon the film's release. Critics hated it, youths loved it.
More than thirty years on "2001" holds a different kind of meaning. I do not believe it resembles a psychedelic experience, but more so what the vastness of space and the incomprehensibility of alien and intergalactic experiences may actually be like. The lack of strong narrative is a side note  often our own lives are put off kilter by our experiences. Life does not always read like a perfect story, and "2001" could be an allegory to life itself. "2001" presents so many could be's' that trying to figure out a reasoned and solid explanation for the film takes out much of its enjoyment. Its ambiguity is its strength and determining its story is part of the fun of working it out. So where do you begin?
Well the film opens with its rousing score: Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, now commonly known as the 2001 theme'. We are introduced to The Dawn of Man'  a time when man was simply an ape, living a gruff existence of berries and fruit. All other animals are his equal and he shuffles around at day, living in fear at night. One day the apes encounter an alien black monolith, which, in time with an aligning of the earth, sun and moon, begins to change and evolve the creatures. The apes learn to use animal bones as tools of destruction. Now meat-eating carnivores, mans ancestors are armed. While they have evolved, they have also set the path for man's ultimate destruction of himself.
A jump cut of thousands of years takes us to modern man  flying through space in a cylindrical spaceship. Not content with his earthy boundaries, man has launched himself beyond his home planet. After an impressive display of special effects (which purposefully move in a slow motion), we are introduced to Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester). Floyd is a scientist visiting the moon after a black monolith, identical to the one in the opening act, has been found on its surface. With its radio signal pointing towards Jupiter, a mission to locate its origins is launched.
A huge spaceship Discovery' is sent out to Jupiter. Its crew includes five scientists, two who man the ship and three that are in frozen hibernation. The two men in control are Dr David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood). They are joined by a super-computer', the talking and intuitive HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain). HAL controls most of the ship's operations and we are often left questioning the reasoning for the inclusion of the five crew.
The interior of the Discovery' is beautifully created, with its Ferris wheel control room, in which Dave and Frank walk upside down (this was created with the use of a permanently moving cylinder). HAL is resembled as nothing more than a red light  yet we see it as an eye. HAL has a personality, and his development as a character is amazingly intriguing.

When things start to go wrong on the Discovery', the film's tempo does not change. The sense of helplessness in the vastness of space grows and grows and Dave is faced with the ultimate dilemma near the film's close. To avoid spoiling the end for those of you who have not seen it, I shall say nothing more than it is nothing like you have ever seen. Man's evolution is realised in a form no one could have predicted when they first witness this film.
Kubrick's control is evident right throughout the movie and every long, drawn out shot can be appreciated as part of the director's intentions to display the huge breadth of space. Even the sets, which seem dated now in the world of CGI, work with ease, especially the red' room that Dave enters near the film's conclusion. This film is scary on a spiritual level  it questions man's ultimate goal of continual growth and learning.
The music compositions in the film are almost entirely all classical pieces. Gyorgy Ligeti's utterly terrifying Monolith' theme is one viewers will always remember. The trip to Infinity is a memorable piece of the mind-bending cinema and the special effects, while slightly plastic-looking are still impressive.
The film closes with more questions than when it began. Viewers will find they ask questions about it forever: what does it all mean? Who sent the monolith? What happens to Dave? It goes beyond our comprehension, but we relish in the challenge of trying to work it out. "2001: A Space Odyssey" is not just a film, it is an experience. It challenges everything we've previously considered in film and also in life. It is the ultimate science-fiction film and one that will continue to change the opinions and lives of cinemagoers for many years to come.