2001 - A Space Odyssey (DVD)

Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) is a story told in four acts, taking place in four different scenarios revolving around the continual reappearance of an alien and eerie black monolith throughout human history. This is hard-core cerebral science fiction from back in the days when cerebral sci-fi and banal or instant gratification action sci-fi were completely separate entities.

We begin with the first act: ...
...savage apes in the daily routine they go through. Chasing away pests, indulging in territorial roaring matches with rival packs of apes, getting picked off by tigers and other predators. This is an image of homo-sapiens before they came to dominate the planet and the food chain.

Each violent encounter is portrayed as a completely natural occurance. But then one morning the apes have a visitor. An ominous black monolith, about 8 feet ... more

Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) is a story told in four acts, taking place in four different scenarios revolving around the continual reappearance of an alien and eerie black monolith throughout human history. This is hard-core cerebral science fiction from back in the days when cerebral sci-fi and banal or instant gratification action sci-fi were completely separate entities.

We begin with the first act: "The Dawn of Man", where we follow a pack of savage apes in the daily routine they go through. Chasing away pests, indulging in territorial roaring matches with rival packs of apes, getting picked off by tigers and other predators. This is an image of homo-sapiens before they came to dominate the planet and the food chain.

Each violent encounter is portrayed as a completely natural occurance. But then one morning the apes have a visitor. An ominous black monolith, about 8 feet tall. It is with them, completely static, but the apes and us can just sense it is alive and possessing incredible intelligence- but we don't know whether its intentions are hostile or not.

From there all the following three acts take place in the 21st century, and indeed none of them actually take place on Earth. Act Two takes place just within the Earth's gravitational influence- on orbiting space stations, on the moonbases. The model work is superb and even today looks virtually faultless- perhaps even more reaslistic looking than your CGI fare of today's flicks- in-fact throughout the film our disbelief is totally suspended. We watch these rotating structures and the docking of space craft to the rhythmic and orchestral music of Strauss, we see Space ships and stations in orbit of Earth moving slowly together. A beautiful, if prolongued scene that really adds to the film's hypnotic quality.

This act is seen through the eyes of Dr. Heywood Floyd who is called in on a sensitive archaeological discovery on the moon which could indicate the existence of alien life. There's a strong air of serenity that surounds him, beautiful stewardesses with dazzling personalities, very polite company. As he speaks to the head of a Russian moonbase (played by a young Leonard Rossiter), who is enquiring about the blackout on the moonbase and completely in the dark about the phenomenon, it becomes clear that despite peaceful relations, the Americans and Russians are still highly suspicious and distrusting of each other. But as fellow guests to a dinner table they retain civilised and polite conversation and courtesy- emphasising how far man has come from the violent ape savages we saw a few minutes ago.

By Act Three "The Discovery Mission", we have skipped forward 18 months in the hunt for this alien mystery. We are now following the USS Discovery craft in its long flight towards Jupiter. Now we see this story through the eyes of the two crewmen, Frank and David. This is no longer Heywood Floyd's story, emphasising the idea of limited individual perspective of humans versus the more telepathic and omnipotent alien and machine intelligences. Like with Heywood Floyd, we see touches of characterisation to the men that cut under the straight laces- Frank exercises and recieves a video message from his parents on his birthday, David passes the time by drawing sketches of the ship's interior or playing chess with the onboard AI computer Hal 9000.

But despite this, our view of the characters is not allowed to become too intimate, even in very human moments of death or family contact. There's a certain camera distance from the characters that makes it feel cold. Compared to the highly populated and colourful space stations seen in act two, by comparison this is extremely lonely, isolated, grey and clinical. The music is more melancholy and minimally used, often preferring the deafening silence and void of outer space. It's a homesick feel- that the further away you get from Earth the more depressed, isolated, vulnerable and generally more unnatural you become. There is even the absence of the earlier upbeat classical music which normally serves as a reminder of our heritage and history- like all trace of Earth and organic nature has gone- now it is the artificial which sustains us. All of this feeding an eerie sense of technophobia concerning the two crewmen's unease with the computer Hal.

Just like Heywood Floyd's antagonism with the Russian scientists, its a discreet distrust hidden by politeness, however it is forced into the open because of being forced to co-exist with Hal and being unable to leave the ship. Hal is all seeing and omnipresent on the ship, the computer is caught in virtually every camera frame and the crewmen are allowed no privacy. Furthermore his manner is creepy and sinister with a calm, cold and condescending voice and precise words.

In a sense what we see in this technophobia is a linkage to the scenes of primal man- savage, chaotic and survivalist. That throughout human existence, man has tried to strive for peace and harmony and perfection. Now it has achieved that in a technologically advanced and strictly civilised age, and in the creation of Hal- the perfect computer which is flawless in intelligence and performance and has never malfunctioned. But man feels unnatural in this equilibrium, perfectionist state and can't define himself through chaos or violence. The paranoia about Hal is the obvious leap of that unease as it is in our nature to not accept perfection, to seek flaws that define the eternally flawed universe. This returning spirit of human survivalism brings back the distressing reality of death to the screen and some truly nightmarish images that had been out of the serene picture throughout so much of the space voyage scenes.

After an interesting "Intermission" moment, strategically placed after a suspenseful cliffhanger we finish off the last of the third act and go on to Act Four- "Jupiter, and Beyond the Infinite". I like how each act has its own distinct feel and musical score and this is the most surreal -like the first act there is no dialogue and the story is told with images alone- as we, along with David, enter some kind of stargate or portal or some form of fold in reality. We are then dazzled by corridors of colours and images of creation and non-linear events and leaps, and the kind of metaphysical and domestic hallucinagenic imagery that feels straight out of a Roman Polanski film, including the broken glass-shattered reality imagery. All of this surrealist visions of a new world and a new reality concluding a science fiction film so remarkable that cinema will probably never ever make another film like it.

I will be honest and say that this film on one level is boring and tedius and almost static in places and it requires a hell of a lot of patience to get through it all. There is hardly anything in the way of action or flashy images in the film. Having said that there is a mind-blowing cut from Act One to Act Two. Most of the camera frames are very static and contemplative. There are long sections where there is no dialogue at all- the entirety of the first and last act and the long exterior sequences in the middle acts.

At its best it is relaxing and anesthetising. The fact that it keeps the images clinically clean helps as well to keep the viewer in an ease of mind- there's none of the usual sordidness that characterises most other Kubrick films from "Spartacus" to "Lolita" and "Clockwork Orange". There's none of the Roman-era killing fields, decomposing corpses in bathtubs, predatory sexuality, Nazi-salutes, rapes or tortures or Vietnam war horrors or even any malicious bullying. There's a pervading calmness to the film, which allows for suspense and creepiness but never allows it to descend into panic or rage.

This perhaps the most realistic science fiction movie in realising a totally non-anthropomorphic, non-vocal alien lifeform. Through the realistic images of primal man and airlocks and the deadening silence of outer space, the tedium of time consuming tasks depicted in nulling detail, coupled with sophisticated and eloquently pronounced dialogue, the film feels fiercely intellectually aware in a way few other films do. Intellectually aware but which is never sound-bited or made to seem posessing all the right quips for every necessary moment and eventuality in the way modern cinema generally is. It does not depict omnipotent knowledge, it is self-conscious about the unturned pages and internal mistakes and misconclusions of human collectivised knowledge. That there is more out there to learn- knowledge that could shatter and revolutionise our own current perceptions, facts and ideas.

The film is wholely, powerfully and uniquely optimistic and just captures me in its positive view of the future of man, giving me hope that one day we will get our act together and become civilised and there'll be no more wars- throughout its length it continually shows progress, human fear and curiosity provoking dareing behaviour and revolutionary acts, whether the frightened apes gradually dareing to touch the monolith which has appeared before them, or Hal dareing to break his programming and the many things the astronauts do which place them in mortal danger.

There is much reason to recommend enduring the film's tedium. There's mystery and a whole jigsaw puzzle to its separated acts. all the acts are polished and clear yet they seem unconnected to one another in specifics, though there are thematic linkages of existentialism, human nature of fear, curiosity, self-control and self-realisation and all the contradictions and mysteries within us and around us, in exploration, restriction and homesickness, learning and development thresholds that provide much pleasure to mull over. Things aren't quite spelled out and when its all over you're left to make up your own conclusions of the pervading and growing and unending mystery of it all. It's a fantastic food for thought movie for those with the perseverence for it.

Also recommended: Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris" (1972) another 5-star film.
 

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