Think Things Over.

Rating: 10/10 (19 May 2016)

What are we? It's a strange question at first and not the kind you usually ask. Yet people like Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman asked this question numerous times in their careers. They posed it with humility and reason, never making up answers, and assuming that everything that science had come up with was wrong. In an interview where Feynman was asked about the certainty pertaining to the scientific method, he expressed his view, being that of a Cartesian, and how he would rather be filled with doubt, than to have answers that could possibly be wrong. Its noble and it entails the integrity of a curious mind who believes in the beauty of investigating and discovering, rather than basing your conclusion on little or no evidence. 2001: A Space Odyssey does not provide answers, but it gives us insights into what the human race is, posing even greater questions to the potential we hold as self-conscious beings. 2001 is significantly different from the usual science fiction film. Although it poses the usual question's pertaining to the uniqueness of our species, the existence of God, and the direction we are heading in our progressivism, it rarely goes beyond a few simple lines of dialogue. The few characters, mostly being astronauts and a few Hominids, utter very few words as the story progresses from the dawn of humankind, to the evolutionary stage of space exploration. But then again, it's those very moments that simply play out as naturalistic as possible that truly define the story, as the images of objects floating in space, with "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" playing in the background that we truly come to be in sync with the spirit of the film. This spirit is mysterious, and although we still don't understand what it is, or where it came from. But the search becomes all the more invigorating as we challenge both our intellectual and explorative capacities, thus gaining a greater understanding of the human spirit. When human kind was still developing, our awareness was at a minimal state of ambiguity, never truly grasping the significance of any particular action, relying purely on instinct. A scene where a group of Hominids stumble upon a monolith, shows them react with wild and almost chaotic rage at the sight. Not too long after, they learn to kill enemy combatants for land. As our ancestor raises the bone and begins to shatter various bones on the ground, the shot is given a particular focus as it entails the essence of discovery in the most primitive standards. When at the peaking point of our development, we are more casually reliant on ungodly technological advances, endowing them with their own conscious awareness that merely gives greater reason to ponder the definition of intelligence. The Hal 9000, an artificial intelligence unit claims its inability to commit error, already symbolizing the very arrogance that defines our own self-indulged obligation to intellectual superiority. Hal's devotion to intelligence although admirable, is clouded with pride to the degree that it mirrors our own fear of death and failure in the face of the inevitable. Human beings, although the most intelligent creatures known so far, classify themselves as intelligent. Yet, with what little we still don't know about the Universe, there could be life elsewhere in the Universe, probably vastly more intelligent than we are. Our modern day Carl Sagan, or Stephen Hawking, as daunting as their intellects are to the average individual, could merely pose as amateurs to intelligent alien life, depending on their own conception of intelligence. The discussion to intelligence is central to the theme of this film, for it pertains with our own approach towards our ever growing desire to ascend and evolve. The film's episodic pattern of storytelling introduces a black monolith in each chapter. There are some speculations regarding these monoliths, and at times they drive the characters, be it the hominids, or the astronauts to further questioning their origins. The beliefs are focused around the notion of an extraterrestrial species. Their intentions, although never clear, are more viewed in the concepts of overseers to the universe. With 2001, being based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel of the same name, the origin of the multiple Monolith's gives little if any detail to their conception, Only the fact that they are of nonhuman origin, that there is some understanding of their descent, but little of their purpose. 2001: A Space Odyssey is something to wonder, for it is the sort of film that although gives very little answers, it raises the kinds of questions which have driven us from the jungles of Africa to the infinite realm of Space, in our quest for knowledge and understanding. Stanley Kubrick's vision of the human capacity for knowledge is an enlightening and extraordinary attempt as his classic space epic, through long shots of the soundless and weightless space, combined with J Strauss's "On the Beautiful Blue Danube", there comes a more poetic feeling of the beautiful and mysterious Cosmos we still hope to understand in our gradual evolutionary development. 2001 is a landmark of discovery, and even inspiring to the degree that it is spiritual and Godly in its essence. When touching on God, I don't mean a sentient being outside the universe, but more towards Arthur C. Clarke's definition, which pertains towards knowledge and the path that encompasses its essence as human kind still strives with the enthusiasm that drives the very curiosity that define people like Richard Feynman in their quest for understanding. Feynman once said, "When you doubt and ask, it gets a little harder to believe", and although this clarifies the difficult journey humanity embarks on every day when learning, it's the first and necessary step to arriving at a more honorable degree of knowledge.