Journey Beyond the Stars

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2001)

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is one of the most exploratory and daring science fiction films ever made and one of the best overall films made in the latter part of the 20th century. The combined vision of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, basing the screenplay on Clarke's novel, created a visual and aural masterpiece closer to realism than any science fiction film that preceded it. The film was released in 1968, at a time of political and social upheaval: while the Apollo space program headed closer and closer to the moon, young men were being drafted into Vietnam and the voices of college students around the country began to be heard.
2001 was (and perhaps always will be) unlike any other science fiction film. It begins with a rendition of Richard Strauss' `Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra)' slowly building up as the opening credits appear during a lunar eclipse (as each sphere overshadows the one preceding it). For the next seventeen or so minutes, we are introduced to `The Dawn of Man.' A group of apes struggle to survive in a rough African landscape. (It should be noted that humans portray these apes, so realistically that it seems like we are watching a documentary on the Discovery Channel.) The apes live in a waterhole; the only source of water for miles, the waterhole is the apes' paradise. This then becomes the locale for conflict between two groups of apes. The main ape (called `Moon-Watcher' in the novel) unleashes his `discovery' (bone as weapon) on a member of the other group. Soon we are introduced to the monolith, a mysterious huge black rectangular slab that will serve as a link between the four parts of the film.
In one of the most famous jump cuts in cinema history, Moon-Watcher hurls the bone into the air; it rises and turns slowly, transforming into a bone-shaped satellite. This sudden evolution, from ape to man, will remind us of the bone, and will introduce us to the next `discovery' of man: technology. Like the bone, the satellite is both a tool and a weapon; the data collected by satellites can easily be used for destructive purposes.
In the second part of the film, `4 Million Years Later,' we meet the first `actor' in William Sylvester, who portrays an intentionally bland Dr. Heywood Floyd. Floyd is more politician than scientist, as he dismisses rumors (brought up by Russian scientists) of an epidemic outbreak at the lunar Clavius Base. This part of the film portrays lengthy scenes of Floyd's ship docking, first at the wheel-shaped space station, then on the lunar surface. Within, life is made up of politicians and scientists within white walls, mechanical doors, and bright lights. Outer space, meanwhile, is silent and black. And breathtakingly beautiful.
The lifelessness of the human characters in 2001 is intentional, because WHAT WE SEE is the true star of the film. In the `Jupiter Mission-18 Months Later' sequence of the film, we meet the bone-shaped spaceship Discovery, a representation of man's achievements in technology; two astronauts, Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr. Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), both of whom man the ship while the other three astronauts are in hibernation; and perhaps one of the most memorable characters in film, the HAL 9000 supercomputer (voiced by Douglas Rain), a living computer (to us, a red glassy eye) that has the ability to think on its own, and thus can make its own decisions. The Discovery depicts man's life in outer space, more so than the second part of the film: a place for exercise (Frank jogging), leisure (Frank playing chess, Dave drawing sketches), and research (the various work the astronauts do on the ship). HAL 9000 can be both a tool (serving as the protector of Discovery) and a weapon (eliminating those interfering with the mission, which we will soon discover). The film offers a lot of emotion in the character of HAL 9000. HAL is the central character of this part of the film. As a computer, he cannot repress his emotions for the sake of the mission (as Dave and Frank do, having been trained in the space program). Only when a vital component of the communication system seems to fail does HAL discover his own imperfection, and the mission is ultimately jeopardized. A revelation into the purpose of the Jupiter mission (and a revelation into the purpose of the monolith) leads us to one of the most stunning, fascinating sequences caught on film, as Dave descends from the spaceship Discovery and enters Jupiter's atmosphere in the final part of the film, `Jupiter-And Beyond the Infinite.'
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY can be a major disappointment, especially now that we have reached it but are not traveling to the moon during summer vacation. Clarke used the year not because he felt we would be excavating monoliths on the moon by the year 2001, but because it's symbolic, it IS the year of the new millennium, the year that will continue for us the life begun in evolution. We will one day realize the effects of 2001 the film, and when that occurs, life to us would seem very ordinary.