A Movie You Truly Feel Inside of

Rating: 10/10 (24 April 2018)

While watching a film, you get the most out of it by truly feeling immersed. You don't just want to watch events happening on a screen and think it's amusing or cool, but you really want to feel in. Feeling in is one of the most groundbreaking qualities of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. From his unique cinematography style to the use of music, you truly feel immersed watching this film. After watching this film, Strauss's Blue Danube cannot be listened to without associating it with this film. The same applies to Also sprach Zarathustra, which almost seems it was made to be in this work.
2001 truly uses every element a perfect film needs. From the first scene, The Dawn of Man, one of the most brilliant film transitions of all time can be found, the transition of a bone to a spaceship. These both are symbols of the evolution of man, from the original tool, to the revolutionary spaceship. The way Kubrick makes time so important is extraordinary completely inspecting and digging into major philosophical questions, like "What is mankind?" and "Why are we here?" One of the other reasons I applaud Kubrick for, is he doesn't even know the answers. Or at least, he chooses not to share them saying:
"They are the areas I prefer not to discuss because they are highly subjective and will differ from viewer to viewer. In this sense, the film becomes anything the viewer sees in it. If the film stirs the emotions and penetrates the subconscious of the viewer, if it stimulates, however inchoately, his mythological and religious yearnings and impulses, then it has succeeded."
Stanley Kubrick in an interview with Joseph Gelmis
Many messages can be taken from the film, but all of them have some sort of a missing piece. That missing piece can be the question as to what the monolith is, or what a baby in space is, but do we really need to know? As Stanley Kubrick was a genius, maybe he prefers us having some sort of a missing piece. 2001 clearly is making some sort of a statement about the greed of modern humanity, always feeling to know everything. We evolve from being dumb apes who bow down to what we don't know, to overconfident astronauts that feel the need to take a picture with our confusing findings. Maybe the fact that we are confused is attempting to make a large philosophical realization about the fact that not knowing is okay. Or maybe it's just to make a good film. But either way, 2001 can still be greatly appreciated as one of the most complex, immersive, and even almost perfect film creations of all time.