2001: A Space Odyssey Film Review

Figure 1: 2001: A Space Odyssey Movie Poster

This reviews examines Stanley Kurbick's science fantasy, 2001: A Space Odyssey, a intellectual film about evolution. It begins with the beginning of time going billions of years back to the apes and no sign of humans. The story line is quite confusing but thats because Kubrick treats his audience with intelligence to figure it out unlike other films that explicitly show you everything you need to know. So during the time of the apes a black monolith appears, over time and alien intelligence buries this shrieking monolith which is later found by astronauts which sends them on mission Jupiter. Mission Jupiter has a team of five, three which are kept in hibernation and two to run the ship alongside Hal who leads the mission. As events unfold Hal starts acting up, the people in hibernation die, one of the two men is let go in space when Dave was suppose to save him and Dave ends up disconnecting Hal which Hal tries desperately to stop. Shortly after Dave gets space warped and sent into the future through some epileptic effects. When he emerges from his space craft to find himself in a strange room where there’s an older version of himself, the story continues as old Dave who then sees himself dying and in a very interesting ending we see Dave reborn in the cosmos as a giant foetus.

Kubrick uses well known music to tell you something important about that scene such as at the beginning when a monkey uses a bone as a weapon and a tool for the first time music is used to create drama in this key moment in evolution - the beginning of intelligence the aspect that separates humans from other species. Kubrick also uses the music to set the mood and enchant the audience with visual effects as well as audio effects like during the scene where we see one of the space crafts as it twirls in space - you feel the sensation of weightlessness. Roger Ebert points out in his review in 1997 about this scene "the space hardware moves slowly because it's keeping the tempo of the waltz." (Ebert, 1997).

The characters in this film are very distant and have little emotion, this is reflected in the camera shots, the audience are kept away from the characters unless we need to see their face for example when Dave unplugs Hal, he is destroying another conscience with no remorse. Also in these type of scenes there is never music being played which adds to the tension being built where as in other films they use music to create suspense. There’s amazing effects for 1968 such as the space crafts floating around in space and the space warp which to me looks like trippy bright colourful lights cross the matrix. 

Figure 2: Space Warp. Special Effects 1968.

Figure 3: Dave disconnecting Hal, with no emotion.

The best bit about this film is the ending, when Dave looks through the window of a bedroom and sees an elderly version of himself at a table, he then becomes this version of him self who looks over at and even older version of himself in bed and becomes this version also. We watch him die and is reborn in the cosmos. The transitions in this film are great, how Dave goes from looking at a version of himself to becoming that version of him self in addition to at the beginning with the monkeys, “Kubrick cuts from this most simple tool, a club, to a most complex one, a space ship. The prehistoric bone is thrown up into the air and becomes a shuttle rocket on its way to a space station.” (Ebert, 1968).

Figure 4: Bedroom scene where Dave dies.

Although the visual effects made the film enjoyable the plot let it down and lost my attention, the duration of the film is way too long despite the intermission, as a viewer watching this for the first time without knowledge of what the film was about, when all there was on the screen was monkeys prancing about although the shot was nice with one point perspective long shots of landscapes it failed to hold the viewer’s attention. As well as me Renata Adler criticised “But all this is the weakest side of a very complicated, languid movie—in which almost a half-hour passes before the first man appears and the first word is spoken, and an entire hour goes by before the plot even begins to declare itself.” (Adler, 1968).

Figure 5: Foetus in the cosmos.

Bibliography:

Adler, R. (1968).  

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9a04e6da1530ee3bbc4c53dfb2668383679ede

Ebert, R. (1997). http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-2001-a-space-odyssey-1968 

Ebert, R. (1968). http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/2001-the-monolith-and-the-message 

2001: A Space Odyssey. (1968). Directed and Produced by: Stanley Kurbick. Studio: Warner Home Video. 

Illustration List: 

Figure 1: Movie Poster. https://www.pinterest.com/lechero357/movies-2001-a-space-odyssey/

Figure 2: Space Warp. http://moviesandsongs365.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/movie-of-week-2001-space-odyssey-1968.html

Figure 3: Dave disconnecting Hal. https://www.pinterest.com/moricina/my-movies/

Figure 4: Bedroom scene where Dave dies. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/405675878910435774/

Figure 5: Foetus in the cosmos. http://trevorsviewonhollywood.weebly.com/views-on-hollywood/2001-a-space-odyssey-the-inner-life