Mythological Documentary

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2005)

**warning contains spoilers** In 2001: A Space Odyssey humanity has become so completely mechanized that computers are more human then people. There are still some comic elements  the scientist posing for a conventional tourist picture against the moon monolith, Major Poole burning his surprisingly still sensitive flesh on a totally computerized meal  but this is not a satire. Society has gone too far for that. Our civilization has come to an end, turned flat and weary and stale. There is no energy, no purpose, no creative intelligence. Each individual is merely a bored, faceless cog in a technological system. Kubrick conceived this film as a "mythological documentary," a modern legend of the origin and future of humankind. It is both realistic as a photo-essay and imaginary as a fable. It is essentially a religious movie. Replacing the traditional God of world religions is a cosmic intelligence that influences human evolution at certain pivotal moments. When the ape has evolved as far as it can as an instinctual animal, the first monolith appears, giving the power of creative intelligence that produces the tool-weapon. When that tool has been sophisticated as far as the human mind can conceive-the dramatic cut from the bone thrown into the air to the spaceship resembling it symbolizes this development-the monolith appears again to force humanity on to the next stage. Major Bowman, lacking character and personality as he is, still retains enough feeling to try to rescue his colleague, enough ingenuity to reenter the spaceship after he has been locked out, and enough dedication and courage to continue on his journey, to be chosen as the new human being. On the trip to Jupiter he transcends space, and once arrived there, he transcends time, watching himself age in minutes. As he dies, the monolith appears, he reaches out to it in greeting and gratitude, and is reborn into a creature that transcends his previous humanity. The change from human to Star Child is as drastic as from ape to human: the Star Child will continue our evolution with a radically new intelligence.