A cinema masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2011)

The music.....the visuals.......the underlying themes. Stanley Kubrick hits a grand slam with 2001: A Space Odyssey. The very prospect of predicting man's future terrifies most authors/producers into paralysis, but Kubrick gives us fluid motion of sights and sounds, woven into a science fiction tale.
I mean how many film-makers have the guts to furnish their creations with long bouts of classical music? Good old Stan does this WHILE showing us futuristic technological innovations that blow our minds open. Such a contrast between something as ancient and immovable as classical music, and another thing as eye-blinkingly modern and progressive as technology -- it's sheer genius. The epicness of the music fits with the grandeur of the colossal planets/ships/stars/etc. displayed. The spectacle of lights was an ethereal experience -- I truly thought I had been crosslisted with Picasso and Beethoven.
Then the portrayal of humans. It seems they were mostly stoic and austere, which posits an interesting belief of Kubrick's regarding man's future. He obviously took the oft-ridden road (like George Orwell) of saying that man was to become a less social creature while developing his species, that his emotions would wane as his technological savviness sharpened. Though there is some poignant content, when Dr. Floyd (William Sylvester) talks to his daughter about buying her a birthday present. This itself is contrasted against the coldness of the robotic, calculating world, when the cost of the phone call is displayed on the same screen in plain font reading "$1.70".
And Hal...what a fabulous idea he was. The age-old rivalry of man and machine. But here it's perfected. The moment I heard Hal's voice I knew he was in the movie to disturb me. It's a perfectly trustworthy voice on the exterior, but there's something about that frozen red eye that just pierces into your soul. You know you can't trust an entity that supposedly knows all and "never commits errors". It's easy to hate Hal once he has terminated the hibernating astronauts and jettisoned Frank to his death, but then he also shoulders Dave. Dave is fortunate to get back into the ship, and in proceeding to shut down Hal we really feel the pro-human spirit peaking. Hal's pleads for forgiveness make him ever more detestable a villain -- believing that he can be excused from essential murder is textbook amorality.
Showing the apes at the beginning of the film breathes evolutionary theory into our minds immediately -- the education of these apes to defeat enemies and exploit weapons undoubtedly yields the eventual human being. The black monolith is a remarkable symbol; appearing in the several random places in which it does...leaves the viewer searching for its meaning. And its meaning is anybody's conclusion to draw for themselves. It seems divine, in my opinion.......an apparent link between earth and sky. And then Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) at the end, landing himself in a random place and time. Finding older versions of himself. The multiverse theory.....time travel.....reincarnation....it all comes to mind here. The eldest version of Dave becomes a fetus which stares down the Earth as the film closes. Kubrick is playing God.