A Rude Awakening

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2006)

I saw 2001 back in 1968 at a theater in Philadelphia, shown as intended: in Cinerama. To see this movie any other way is like watching House of Wax without the 3D glasses. Still, in 70mm widescreen theaters it is still a visual feast. I can sum up this movie in one sentence: The greatest sci fi film ever made. No need to go into detail, by now just about everyone has seen this movie in one form or another. But it holds one giant disappointment for me. I so looked forward to the year 2001 after seeing this film. I had high hopes for the future and thought for sure we'd have a base on the moon. Instead 2001 turned out to be one of the darkest days in American history. And for that I was sadly disturbed. Hard to believe also that it's nearly 40 years since its release. I keep track of how many times I see a movie. If it's really good I count to 100 and stop counting after that. I have now exceeded 300 times, maybe more, and never grow tired of watching this epic. While Citizen Kane has to be the number one mundane movie of all time, 2001 is the number one sci fi film. Forry Ackerman hated it which doesn't make a bit of sense since he is the foremost fan of science fiction. The late great magazine Castle of Frankenstein couldn't lavish enough praise on it. It won an Oscar for visual effects, innovative at the time using computers in a way that was never done before. The beginning is enough to grab your attention, when the ape-man tosses the bone into the air and in a flash we're transported 4 million years into the future, into outer space. That scene will never been duplicated. Then the discovery of a monolith buried on the moon. The team sent to investigate says "It was purposely buried." The deafening transmission that came from the monolith aimed at the planet Jupiter and the amazing trip thru time and space as the lone astronaut enters the black rectangular box. In 2010 his last transmission was played back: "My God! It's full of stars!" Indeed. The ending still gives me chills and yes, it was open to the viewer's own interpretation. For me, seeing the birth of stars, the wonders of the universe, creation in space then Bowman seeing himself grow old and eventually die. His last act, to point at the black monolith as if to say "I understand". He died and is transformed into the Star Child. From there you can decide whatever you wish. It's all symbolic after all, a way of telling us the Earth needs a rebirth, a reawakening, a fresh start. The sequel 2010 explained this briefly at the end, when the Earth now had two suns and another monolith appears on one of Jupiter's moons. It's a continuous cycle taking us from ape to man and beyond, to the beginning of a new life cycle and hopefully a better understanding of our universe and ourselves. What more could you want from a movie??!!