Astounding Story

Rating: 10/10 (8 September 2005)

When I was growing up in the 1970s, I knew the future would like '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Everything would move slowly, with an elegance and grace. Spaceships would waltz around planets and space stations. Astronauts would bide their time patiently, waiting to get to their destination in sterile surroundings. Men really did land on the Moon the year after this was released, but the effects didn't look as good. When 'Star Wars' came along, it looked the same but made everything move ten times faster, whilst the crew weren't so averse to grease and dust. Somehow that didn't seem right.
It's a testament to the special effects of this film that it's only when I see the film now, in 2005, that I'm beginning to see where the effects begin and the backdrop ends. They are almost perfect. As I am exposed to more films, I get used to the CGI. It looks far too artificial. In 1968 they made do with model work and camera movement. It looks far, far better to me. Keep it simple, stupid. There's even some attempt at a steadicam-ish sort of shot on board the Discovery before steadicam got invented. The sound design is also excellent. For 10 minutes all we can hear is breathing and the sound of gasses whistling through tubes. The sound of life support in the silence of space. Possible the most tense sound imaginable as the rate your respiratory system matches that of Dave Bowman. The influence of the design lives on through sci-fi films to this day. Look at the graphics on the computer screens. Now think of 'Alien', 'Hitch-Hiker's' on the TV. Think of Darth Vader's heavy breathing.
Then there's the horror. The third section with HAL and the Discovery is some of the most tense film I know. I've already talked about the sound, but there are all the other nightmare touches. Empty space-suits hang like suits of armour in a haunted castle with added gas-mask creepiness. You're just waiting for them to move. Then there's pods looking like Cycloptic crabs. And of course at the centre there's unblinking, Orwellian eye of HAL. Seeing everything. The many long-held shots on that red glow are all that's needed for you to wonder just what he's thinking. You can see the turmoil going on behind the bulb. Beyond the Discovery there's an emphasis on violent death whether it be of apes, tapirs or sleeping scientists.
There's also a lot to think about. Philosophical questions about evolution, death and rebirth, change, artificial intelligence. I know there are theological debates on the film's position on evolution or creation. To my mind it's a half way house, not mentioning creation at all and suggesting some form of 'driven selection'. Are the black slabs gods or God? Or can any civilisation, sufficiently advanced, appear to us as gods or magical. The mystical, hallucinogenic final section is redolent of the era in which the film was made. It offers no easy explanation, but then if these beings are so advanced, do you think we'd understand them in the space of twenty minutes?
This film has so much, and I love it more every time I see it. I'm astounded it was made in 1968. I still want the future to be a zero-G ballet in orbit. I'm waiting for another film to match this in its vision.