Landmark cinema

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2006)

With 2001, legendary film director Stanley Kubrick managed to craft a visual tone poem on the screen with little regard for usual film-making conventions like a detailed plot of fully-developed characters. The film is a total visceral experience, and is a motion picture that demands full submission on the part of the viewer. This film will not meet the audience half-way, and it demands that viewers totally shut off their logic and become wrapped up in tone and atmosphere. If a viewer is unwilling or unable to let go of their conscious thoughts in such a manner, then 2001 may prove to be a disappointing and frustrating experience.
The storyline, as it is, is about the divisions among man and animal, and it poses the question of what will happen if technology is the next step in the evolutionary ladder of intelligence. The theme of the film is not defined so much in terms of dialogue, however, as much as it is in visual representation and aura. The film is awash with stunning set pieces and visual effects, many of which remain much more effective than the hastily-done, two-dimensional CGI effects of today. No other film has ever made the thought of drifting into orbit look and feel more beautiful than 2001, which makes the danger that emerges in the films final third even more effectively jarring.
The film really challenges the viewer in its final minutes when it makes the sudden switch from expertly-crafted space adventure and into the realm of metaphysical spiritual commentary. This maneuver is both very bold and audacious, but it comes together flawlessly as the picture builds to a spin-tingling denouncement. It is the relative scientific accuracy of the bulk of the film that this last great leap into the unknown so disorienting, but this is precisely what leaves the non-analytical viewer grappling with such deep issues and self-reflection. In the end, 2001 is as much a full-fledged experience as it is a film, which something that all great art strives to achieve.
Incredibly, given it's nearly art house pedigree, 2001 proved to be a major success with mainstream film audiences. The year of 1968 was a competitive year in Hollywood with ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), BULLITT (1968), ROMEO AND JUILET (1968) and another sci-fi blockbuster PLANET OF THE APES (1968) all vying for dominance at the box office. Impressively, 2001 ended up becoming the second-highest grossing film of the year (the smash musical FUNNY GIRL was the year's top grosser, by the way), earning an estimated $56 million in the US alone (a huge sum in the late-sixties). This is at least one example where a complex, intelligent film did not go unnoticed by the mainstream public at the time of its release.