"2001: A Space Odyssey" is an experience in itself

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2002)

I find it interesting that I was able to see "2001: A Space Odyssey" on the year the film is referring to.Those who saw it on the year it was first released---1968---must have felt both excited and apprehensive about what would really become of us by the start of the new millennium;while those who viewed it on the envisioned year itself will have the benefit of being able to assess "right away" the validity and credibility of the film's prognosis, though the thrill of having to become aware of a very distant visualized future slowly creeping upon you might be somehow diminished.
Now, what's "2001" all about? Oopss, I may have asked the wrong question, for it could have been "How does it feel watching '2001'?" instead. For "2001" isn't really a film, but an experience---you don't just watch it, you live through it.True, the film has incorporated all the familiar elements of a science-fiction genre---a space mission to Jupiter, a team of astronauts being "heartlessly" manned by an omniscient and omnipresent computer named HAL (of the 9000 series), the mission suffering a major setback which leads to the "life-system" of HAL being ultimately cut off, the two remaining astronauts (Frank Poole and Dave Bowman) having to settle finally in Jupiter, with one of them evolving into a "new" species of a "higher" order---but to limit "2001" to such nominal categories is to deintensify the "high" one may get from viewing the film.One just has to move along with its visual symphony.
Which brings me to the film's distinctive quality that sets it apart from all the other films of the same mold (see, for example, Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," Roger Vadim's "Barbarella," Jim Sharman's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show").And that is, the use of some well-known classical pieces, which are charmingly and upliftingly made part of the narrative.My favorite is the part where the space station "waltzes" in the galaxy, being accompanied by Johann Strauss' "An der schönen blauen Donau." Ahhh, one would wish that the film never comes to its end (it runs for almost two-and-a-half hours, but that seems not enough).