A truly landmark achievement

Rating: 10/10 (29 March 2010)

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the great examples of cinematic art. Images and sound are combined faultlessly to tell a story that is simultaneously very simple and extremely abstract. Although there are some enormous concepts at the heart of this movie, equally important is how aesthetically and aurally beautiful it all is.
The film opens with the epic sound of Richard Strauss's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which heralds the alignment of the planets in the solar system in a single unbroken line. This unique stellar occurrence signals the first interaction of the mysterious extra-terrestrial beings with the inhabitants of planet Earth. This is the Dawn of Man. The moment at which an alien hand subtly interacts with the primitive life on our planet and sets a seed that will ultimately lead them on the way to technological advancement and through that to an understanding of the universe that will prepare them for the next level of evolution. The way in which these mysterious beings kick-start this human advancement is simplicity itself. They plant a giant black rectangular monolith in their midst. This completely unnatural edifice has a curious effect on the primitive creatures who encounter it. The appearance of the razor sharp lines and perfect symmetry of the dimensions, along with the strange feeling of touching its un-naturally flat surface has an odd effect on these ape-men. It is a trigger. It is the first time these primitive minds have been forced to experience an abstract thought. The very exposure to something so alien and unnatural forces them to start viewing their world in a slightly different way, firstly leading to the use of bones as weaponry. Soon these meek creatures are the masters of their land and on their way to complete dominance of their planet.
The natural result of this process is technological advancement and this leap forward is illustrated with one of the most audacious edits in film history when the first man made tool – a bone – is inter-cut with an example of a highly complex human construction: a spaceship. The point has been made that high-level human technological advancement has resulted as a direct consequence of the first encounter with the mysterious black monolith. At this point it becomes clear that Kubrick is using music very specifically. As we watch the space-transporter float through space and dock with the revolving space-station the music that soundtracks this is Johann Strauss's The Blue Danube. This beautiful, complex piece of classical music indicates aurally the advancement of man too, in terms of high artistic cultural achievement. This is in direct contrast to the avant-garde music that plays whenever the alien presence is felt. This mysterious experimental wall of sound perfectly invokes an alien intelligence. It builds up to a crescendo every time the monolith appears; climaxing unforgettably in the trip through the star-gate. This music simply represents alien interaction.
It has to be said at this point too that the design work used for both the exterior and interior of the spacecrafts in 2001 is exemplary and frankly has not aged in the 40 years plus since the film's initial release; a remarkable fact considering the advances in special effects. There is something still undeniably beautiful and fantastic about how the hardware is presented in this film. This leads on to another of the key themes – what happens when man-made technology becomes so advanced that it starts to develop its own consciousness. When HAL decides to take over the mission to Jupiter in an icily cold and deadly way, this question is posed directly. And the answer is that mankind has to be very careful with technology, as the results could be deadly. In the same way as Man is shaped by the aliens, HAL is created by Man, and, similarly, it has a propensity to murder if the situation requires it.
After the man vs. technology segment the film enters its final act. This is the famous star gate sequence where the final surviving astronaut, Dave Bowman, arrives at Jupiter just at the moment that the planets align once again in a straight line. A third black monolith satellite then opens the star gate and Bowman travels through in a visually spectacular sequence. Via this trip Bowman gains an acute understanding of the formation of the universe, the creation of stars and galaxies. He is then transported into a version of our world created by the aliens; in here he quickly grows older and older until he dies and is reborn as the star-child. Through him man has been taken to the next level of existence.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a masterpiece of cinema. It is one of the very few films that can claim to be pure science fiction. Its dramatics are sparse and its pace is slow. But it needs this deliberate pace to accentuate its scope. It makes you feel the vastness and loneliness of space and the mysteries it conceals. And it openly invites you to immerse yourself in the beauty of it all. It's a crowning achievement in showing what cinema can be as a pure art-form. This is certainly not a film for everyone, its themes are so big that it lacks the human touch that some may feel is important. For me this is not a concern as by immersing myself in this film I am able to truly feel the mysterious nature of our solar system and the universe in general, and as well as being a visual tour-de-force, it always leaves me with questions and not just answers. And I like that.