Creation and consequences

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2000)

Wow, what a film!
This amazing work is so broad in scope, so deft in detail, so unique in philosophical depth, it must be considered one of the great masterpieces of cinema.
The movie is primarily concerned with creation and consequences. One usually connects the creation of tools, from primitive weapons to sophisticated technological, with absolute progress. Kubrick, with characteristic attention and intelligence, scrutinizes this reductionist view. For Kubrick, creation and destruction are not polar opposites but paradigms that are delicately interconnected. Kubrick's prologue to 2001 advances the supposition that invention and creation oftentimes do not have benevolent results. The bone becomes weapon becomes spacecraft in an attempt to link creation to violence to technology. Kubrick's presentation is not dogmatic: As an artist, he understands the need and human-defining quality of creation and invention.
He is also concerned with the plight of the individual in a culture that concerns itself with creating and knowing. 2001 is a tragedy as important and visceral as Oepipus or King Lear. When one insists on knowing without restraint, the revelation may be too much to bare. In the space gate scene we are shown the fear of such a revelation.
Alienation provides a major theme throughout the film. Birthdays are celebrated over the phone. Silence marks many scenes. HAL's eerie voice is that last we hear. The primitive battle, the interrogation, the debriefing, all present violent, awkward, empty, human interaction.
Though marked by its cynicism, 2001 is equally hopeful. Human invention leads to violence and alienation but also to great art (the movie itself).