A pioneering work of art

Rating: 10/10 (15 March 2013)

Arthur C. Clarke once said, "If you understand '2001' completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered." And boy does this movie evoke thought! This is definitely one my favourite all time movies and one I feel deserves to be rated higher than what it is right now.
2001ASO tracks certain events spread across time which are connected by mysterious appearances of a monolith. The movie is constituted of three different sequences: A look at early apes and some breakthrough moments in their evolution, Briefing at a space station and hushing up of a discovery on Moon, A manned spacecraft on course to Jupiter and the events on-board.
Stanley Kubrick is a true visionary and his 2001ASO is a seminal work of art that paves way for more awe-inspiring works over the years in the Sci-Fi genre. For two and a half hours, Clarke and Kubrick manage to keep the viewer enraptured and in awe of the magical confluence of classical music and surrealist imagery on screen. The cinematography is brilliant (No wonder people were convinced of the Fake Moon Landing conspiracy theory) and visual effects in the movie are a treat for the senses,one that deserve to be appreciated all the more for the time this movie was made in.
The space station scenes with bright closed spaces and high contrast sofas are very reminiscent of some of his other works, notably the Clockwork Orange. The credit for the amazing foresight and technological innovations shown in the movie must go to Arthur C. Clarke's vision. The space food, zero gravity toilet and other machines on board the spacecrafts are catered to with absolute attention to detail.
Perhaps nobody uses music better in his movies than Kubrick and the use of the Blue Danube and Thus Spake Zarathustra help give a transcendental feel to the movie. The Blue Danube sequence is an exquisite one with the majestic soundtrack adding to every bit of it. In between, he makes you experience vicariously the eerie and haunting silence of space that keeps you on the edge of the seat. You get an idea of how lonely and insignificant one is in the vast nothingness. The breathing in the spacesuit being that one sign of life that keeps you hooked to what happens next. The movie does not feel rushed at any point and it's the music that plays the most important part in capturing the stillness in such an artistic manner. The dialogue, simple at all times, is engaging. The ominous "foolproof and incapable of error" declaration and the iconic "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that" produce the effects of anticipation and shock ever so naturally.
Finally, to the phantasmal (most fitting word) wormhole sequence and the ambiguous ending. While one can think of any number of interpretations, the one common element that probably connects them is a realization of the human race being on the edge of what is a vast ocean of knowledge that awaits us. We are just an insignificant and tiny part of the universe and the ending leaves us dreaming of the infinite possibilities that explain our existence in the larger scheme of things. There is no specific function that the monolith points to. It is the sum of all the uncertainties and the mysterious phenomenon that we fail to fathom. It leaves us wanting to explore and charter into the unknown. We have advanced till this stage and learnt of where we stand, it is now time to take the next huge leap.
Forever indebted to Stanley Kubrick for giving us this pioneering masterpiece of his.