2001: A Space Odyssey
STANLEY KUBRICK, 1968
5 STARS OUT OF 5
The art of invoking awe was mastered in the middle to late 1960’s, where Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick decided to come together to make possibly the greatest many things of all time: genre film (science-fiction), modernist art film, and by far “the greatest trip”. Maybe the greatest film, period. As I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey again, as my marathon with the Sight & Sound list is coming to a close, I couldn’t help but feel it’s just probably better than anything on the list or off it. Daring to put together that ape scene at the top, using the monolith to nudge us toward using tools, eating meat, conquering our area, and evolving into what would become us, it’s a got a strength and belief in a vision you don’t see 1 of every 500 films. Those shots with the mimes and other actors portraying the evolutionary charade was incredible in its dedication to vision and execution. It really messes with me because it’s as if the monolith had given them the secret to evolving and dominating, which leads to a lot of the plights we have today. And that’s just the first (something like) 15 minutes of the film!
All the space stations and installations are intricately conceived and look and feel real. The furniture looks straight from today’s IKEA catalog. Even though the background might reveal themselves a little, all the whirling ships and stations look undeniably real, and the balletic movement to the music of Richard Strauss is simply wonderful. Toying with physics led to some fun tricks with flight attendants putting together meals in one axis, and have to walk to another, with their sticky shoes on, to enter the cockpit and feed their pilots. The camera tends to stay back a little during some of these, sitting behind the character, to show the stewardesses on a shuttle or the astronauts preparing to go out as they move slowly, from one ring to the next, going toward the hole, their next assignment or adventure, or death. This is all to establish the brave new world of space and the next evolutionary stage of humankind.
To cull the ultimate meaning from the film, especially the final act - which is one massive psychedelic trip - has been attempted by many, but I think is still open to interpretations for a long time to come. I’m not the biggest on trying to figure out what something means specifically or concretely, I like mystery and believe in the power of abstract thought. Therefore, the following is enough for me: The universe is enormous and ever-expanding, and our ability to measure it all is quite limited , so we can’t properly inquire as to the totality of the universe, only use certain inferences. Thus, speculation over the reality of existence has its shortcomings. That doesn’t mean I think it’s all relative and every interpretation is equal, no, evolution and gravity, for example, are real. However, there is room to imagine and speculate on the concept of being, whether we’re all alone, and what the implications of another, more advanced lifeform existing and intervening in our little world might look like. That’s where Kubrick and Clarke stepped in with this speculative and highly imaginative space film. They portray alien lifeform in such an unexpected way to move away from what is a more human-centric expectation of the humanoid alien. That element right there begs for us to reconsider the paradigm on which we interpret reality. Not only does this open us to modernism, it may also open us up to a more charitable view of each other, as it begs us to question the nature of reality and how each of us are just acting on our perceptions day by day. This is reinforced by the death of HAL, the murderous AI. Hearing him say, “I’m scared,” repeatedly at the end, then sing to us as his consciousness fades away is incredibly sad and frightening. If we can feel that sadness for him despite what he had just done, we should be able to extend that to anyone in this strange place where everything is possible, and yet all we have is us. That’s about as far as I go in interpreting the film, at least out loud where people can hear or read me. There are volumes written on this beast, and both the book written to provide a basis for the film as well as Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubric, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece are high on my to-read list.
2001 is simply riveting. It’s interesting how divisive it was upon release, and how it’s now canonized and highly recognized as Kubrick’s best. My Kubrick marathon in the early 2010’s was the first extended marathon I had ever attempted, and my mind was blown with nearly every feature, so to say this one film is definitely the finest of all that greatness is kind of overwhelming to think about. Yet, when something is such a massive work, I think the best you can do is sit back and soak it in. If you can enter the slow, evocative rhythms of 2001 and get caught up, your mind will be blown. Every time.