2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY  (1968)  ****

Reviewed 1998

2001: A Space Odyssey is a milestone film for a number of reasons. First, it is one of the most original experiences in cinema now and then. As the saying goes, it has been much imitated but never duplicated. No other film is like it, and no other director had or has simultaneously the talent and the means to make such a film. Certainly today, Lucas, Spielberg, and Cameron, all of whom were influenced by the film, have the means to undertake the enterprise, but none have quite the vision of a Stanley Kubrick.

2001 is also one of the very few science fiction movies which actually deals with space travel with a fair amount of realism. Spacecrafts spin with centrifugal force to establish gravity; traveling to Jupiter is a trip that takes many months; to conserve resources for such a trip, most of the crew is put into cryogenic freeze, etc.

Few commercially successful American films have the ability to challenge the viewer as 2001 does. (Granted, if 2001 came out today, it would be a box office failure.) The film asks for great commitment on the part of the viewer for meaning construction. To fully appreciate 2001, one cannot be a passive viewer, but must actively interpret the film text.

The story is not as enigmatic as many believe. The story begins the "the dawn of man" sequence. A group of apes come upon an alien monolith, which instigates a step in their evolution. One of the apes, Moonwatcher, touches the monolith and learns how to use tools, namely a bone with which he uses to kill a member of a competing tribe. In perhaps the most famous edit in cinematic history, Moonwatcher tosses the bone into the sky and it becomes an orbiting nuclear weapon (another tool of death) in space thousands of years later.

Dr. Heywood Floyd travels to a space station and then a moon base in a long segment presenting the viewer with how tools/technology have changed humankind. Very notable is a scene in which Floyd must read the instructions on the use of a zero gravity toilet. Technology has removed what used to be a natural instinctual bodily function from the natural and the instinctual. Though humans create technology, technology integrates with and tranforms humanity. We find that the space station is a conglomeration of corporations like Howard Johnsons and Pan Am and that we still have rival tribes (the Russians) who try to find out what Floyd is up to. (On a note of trivia, Floyd's daughter in the film is played by Kubrick's real life daughter.)

The alien intelligence behind the monolith has placed one on the moon. Humankind's unearthing of the monolith is an indication that humans have sufficiently evolved to engage in space travel. When Floyd touches the monolith, it sends a signal in the direction of Jupiter. Unknowing astronauts Bowman and Poole are sent to investigate in the spaceship Discovery. The Discovery is run by supercomputer HAL 9000, which makes an error diagnosing a piece of equipment. Unable to trust HAL's reliability, Bowman and Poole decide to shut HAL down. In a clever scene, HAL lip-reads their plan and revolts, killing Poole. The one-eyed HAL is the Cyclops in Kubrick's Odyssey and has also become another of humanity's killing tools. Bowman disconnects HAL in a scene that finds the machine more human than its makers. Bowman singlemindedly removes HAL's circuits as HAL pleads for its life and mind. As Bowman disconnects HAL, he discovers his real mission, to investigate the monolith.

Bowman ventures out in a small craft toward a giant monolith orbiting Jupiter. It pushes him "beyond the infinite," beyond time and space. With Bowman not being able to comprehend his experiences, the alien intelligence places Bowman into a "constructed" space and time he can grasp. From thence, he is reborn as the Starchild, the next evolutionary step in humanity.

This ending has some great irony when taken in the context of Kubrick's other work. Kubrick's major theme throughout most of his career has been dehumanization with technology as abettor. From the military complex leading to insanity in Dr. Strangelove to Alex's coercion by the Ludovico treatment in A Clockwork Orange to the marine training in Full Metal Jacket, Kubrick has always shown how human constructs, institutions, and technology remove our humanity. Is it any different with 2001: A Space Odyssey? The alien intelligence has evolved humanity before only for humans to become more efficient killers.  What does that say for the next evolutionary step? (Note: I am not taking into account of how the much more literal 2010 resolves the story.)