Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is timeless

Rating: Null/10 (19 May 2002)

When you consider how many comments there are on IMDb alone, it's apparent that 2001 A Space Odyssey is the greatest sci-fi/art film of all time. 33 years later, people are still talking about. Of course there are some works of art that have hyped themselves to being the "in" thing to see in order to prove your intelligence. But I don't believe 2001 is one of those. For me the message is simple: man will never completely understand his destiny, and, especially, man will never completely understand the universe. There are other great images and metaphors in the film. For most of the film we see people as astronauts living in a technical, cold, sterile environment. Then, HAL, the super-computer with artificial intelligence (a very advanced concept for 1968) suffers a nervous breakdown. Then there is a battle of wits between HAL and Dave who must shut down HAL's higher functions. Is this a metaphor for the struggle we face now and in the future to preserve our humanity in spite of attempts to control our lives through technology? Whatever the answer is, I enjoy watching this film on DVD with as big a TV as possible and lots of high quality sound. Of course, it would be nice to see it where it belongs: on the big screen, but I will settle for the DVD.