Very memorable - but puzzling and limited.

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2005)

A space mission aims to discover the meaning of transmission from the moon.
How many lines have been written about this film? More importantly how many finished in question marks? Because this is a film that prefers to ask questions rather than answering them. The cinema of the imperfect, if you will.
You can imagine the confusion this film must have created on release (in 1968) and it is easy to see why many didn't like it and many more stayed away. Indeed I only half like it - having actually seen it twice.
Kubrick did a lot of his own cinematography and while he listened to others they rarely changed his mind. He was a film dictator, but like many great art dictators we should be grateful because other collaborators would have only left the mark of mediocrity.
Do we criticise Beethoven for not collaborating with fellow composers or decry that Dylan didn't write in collaboration with a journeyman?
(I would put Kubrick up with both of the above as an artist. As a man I wouldn't rate him higher than a junkyard dog.)
This film may have the greatest span of time of any movie, but it is very limited. Space is a boring place says this film. Long, drawn out, nothing much of interest happens. What is interesting is man and machine - and maybe what they will find out. Although we get a lot a drum roll and very little fireworks.
The classic music and the visuals are bombast that probably look fantastic on the big screen, but look a little silly on the small. To deafen and to blind are actually without skill and are little more than a carnival stunt.
What I like about this film is that it fights emotions rather than plays upon it. Death matters little and the whole feel is cold and frigid. It hardly leads one to want to go in to space (as millions would like) nor put your life in the hands of machines.
The sets are stunning and stand up well today, even after so much has happened to make space exploration a reality. Indeed the dwarf the humans and lead Keir Dullea is a lesson in non acting anyway.
Every generation of film fan will see this film at least once, so there is nothing left for us to fight for, but I prefer films with a bit more of a story and less of feeling of self-importance based on spending vast amounts on the sets.