An intelligent masterpiece, victim of its own greatness ...

Rating: 8/10 (4 October 2010)

2001 is the perfect example of a movie I wanted -as a movie fan- to love but I couldn't, I didn't hate it either and I still consider HAL-9000's part as one of the most thrilling sequences from any Sci-Fi film.
A strange feeling inhabits me when I watch this film, I feel so alone that it's like it tunnels me into the deepest side of my soul, which is my innate condition as a mortal and my instinctive fear of death. The death scene in this movie is the greatest depiction of whatever death would look like, a hypnotically scary immensity of nothingness, that's what space is all about : death. 2001 is a movie about space, space as death, death as loneliness, and loneliness as our Human Condition.
There's no eating, no feeling, no loving, no caring in this films, even the 'little girl' sequence seems so 'badly done', I mean unlike Kubrick's usual work, these things that are so important for us, poor mortal souls, seem so futile and pointless in 2001, because space is death. But space is also synonym of escape and quest, quest for immortality by escaping our human condition, it's like the key of 'immortality' is our dehumanization, a dream impossible to reach, because the alternative of our mortality isn't depicted as being a machine, but being a God-like figure, like Dave, when he was "terminating" Hal-9000.
God created men in his own image like men created HAL, the most intelligent creature/creation after man, but HAL exploited his own intelligence to kill his own creator, like men use their powers to kill God by killing the spirit of God that lives in their hearts, the spirit of God being the emotions, the feelings, love, compassion, everything that separate us from animals. I've always considered the relationship between Dave and HAL as an allegory of our humanity, and that's what makes the movie so depressing and pessimistic, our humanity is characterized by our intelligence, a double-edged sword, and our feelings so useless (in Dave's situation) when compared to the cold and monolithic death, this duality, feelings and intelligence is what makes things happen whereas death is nothing but nothingness and immobility, and unfortunately, it's the only certitude (even the existence of God is debatable)
The movie is an invitation to contemplate a death-like world that would strongly remind us of our human condition, it's a quest for an unreachable immortality, because as powerful as we are, we can't become God, like HAL failed to become the only Master of the Vessel, becoming a machine is renouncing to our feelings, which is the key for self-destruction and annihilation of the humanity, and feelings are as useless as a drop of water in the desert of fate, Dave lived a long time but ultimately died. But as useless as feelings are and as dangerous as intelligence is, they're our most precious assets, what characterizes us the most as human, we can't become God, we can't become machines, we're only humans and our future is nothing less than our origins, our quest for immortality lead us to reconsider our conditions as mortal, but also highlights our miraculous condition as living creatures, life is a miracle, death implies life and vice versa, the beautiful shot of the fetus at the end invites us to forget about our individual death but think of us as an 'immortal' species, as an extraordinary civilization that reached immortality through intelligence combined with feelings : culture, ideas, arts, creations, beauty and Universality. The key of Immortality is Universality, to think of ourselves as humans, not as individuals since the Creator is the only immortal individuality, we can become God-like only as a collectivity, as the Humanity, Creator of its own Civilization.
The movie is a masterpiece, one of the most intelligent and probably the most universal films ever made, (why intelligent? because it makes so many points with a few dialogs and action) but it is victim of its own greatness because Kubrick couldn't make his point in a different way, he's a great director and found the right tone, and the perfect visuals ... that's why I felt bored so many times, Death is a hypnotically scary immensity of nothingness, the movie had a hypnotic beauty, was thrilling and scary during the HAL's sequence, was immense by its dimension, beauty and philosophical value and many times, there was just emptiness, nothing special happened, because that's the way it is, sometimes, nothing DOES happen and in death, nothing will ever happen. The point of the movie, was its strength and its strength was its weakness. There are so many beautiful shots in this film, so many stunning sequences, an incredible score, but it was impossible for the movie to be so universally intelligent and entertaining in the same time.
The Beauty of 2001 is like men's intelligence, a double edged sword, and its genius is as unreachable as immortality... all I can say is that I "get" it, but I can't get it.