The most striking and faustian experience about what keeps the universe together

Rating: 10/10 (20 March 2003)

I was 12 when I first saw this masterpiece on German television. There somehow was the weird feeling how one can use the famous blue danube waltz to comment an extended spaceship docking sequence.It is obvious that for younger audiences this film is no stuff;especially not for lovers of the bruckheimerian bumm- bumm flics.But for those, who want to take a tour to the darker realms of intelligence ,this stunning picture is highly recommended. The story isn`t just that crucial as it was often mentioned out. It describes a magnificient circular motion from the "Dawn of Man" to the glorious perfection of mankind, which is also devine. In the center, there we have a struggle for live beetween an astronaut(i.e.Mankind)and the computer HAL(i.e.the representation of all technical devices we`ve developed in history).HAL is ,notwithstanding a computer,the only real character in the film; that focuses something of the bitterweetness of maestro Kubrick`s perspective of the human race.I think it means that we as beings just have not reach all the fulfilment of our opportunities.The story with us is not over yet.Classical music lovers will surely praise the use of modern avantgarde scores to push the dramatical impact and to undermine some things on the screen.One of the most metaphysical culminations of cinema history we have at the end, when the astronaut has an encounter with the unknown, supernatural power; it conducts our "hero" to the frontiers of consciousness. 10 stars of 10.