2008 Woodie Awards
Film Underground Presents: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Cade Harstedt
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Arts & Living
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2001: A Space Odyssey has the distinction of being, even today, an unusually original film. Although some of its plot points (such as artificial intelligence gone awry) have become commonplace story concepts, the film's narrative structure and portrayal of space travel remain unique when compared to other movies about outer space. In addition to that, it seems director Stanley Kubrick worked hard to instill the film with a grand sense of wonder. Though I confess to never having been chucked into zero gravity by enough explosives to blow the top off Mount Kilimanjaro, I submit to readers that Kubrick effectively captures the awe-inspiring experience of exploring the infinite void -- or at least sparks viewers' imagination to ponder the possibilities therein. 2001 serves as a reminder of a vast universe beyond the blue sheet of sky, a vast universe that crushes the flimsy filament of our atmosphere under the weight of its great nothing. 2001 forces you to confront the implications of your minuscule island of existence in the expanse of infinity. This idea, this film, both frightens and excites me.
I mentioned the narrative structure of the film, something I consider to be one of 2001's most compelling features. Switching across time and space from character to character, event to event, with seemingly no connection between them makes for wonderfully freeing and enthralling cinema. It starts at the beginning --the very beginning --"The Dawn of Man" to be exact, and following one of the farthest flash-forwards in movie history (of over at least 2001 years), the plot meanders to a scientist in a shuttle en route to the moon to investigate a mysterious discovery. This discovery is what ties the multiple segments of the film together, the discovery being a large, black, rectangular slab of something called a "monolith" that emits an ever-intensifying chorus of "oooooooh's." Earlier in the film, we see a similar object on prehistoric planet Earth as an object of reverence for our furry ancestors. The discovery of a "monolith" on the moon is the impetus for the third part of the film, the centerpiece, which focuses on the Jupiter Mission shuttle and attempts to sabotage it by the famously malevolent computer entity named HAL 9000. I will not describe where the movie goes after that. But rest assured, it is a strange, psychedelic journey.
I mentioned the narrative structure of the film, something I consider to be one of 2001's most compelling features. Switching across time and space from character to character, event to event, with seemingly no connection between them makes for wonderfully freeing and enthralling cinema. It starts at the beginning --the very beginning --"The Dawn of Man" to be exact, and following one of the farthest flash-forwards in movie history (of over at least 2001 years), the plot meanders to a scientist in a shuttle en route to the moon to investigate a mysterious discovery. This discovery is what ties the multiple segments of the film together, the discovery being a large, black, rectangular slab of something called a "monolith" that emits an ever-intensifying chorus of "oooooooh's." Earlier in the film, we see a similar object on prehistoric planet Earth as an object of reverence for our furry ancestors. The discovery of a "monolith" on the moon is the impetus for the third part of the film, the centerpiece, which focuses on the Jupiter Mission shuttle and attempts to sabotage it by the famously malevolent computer entity named HAL 9000. I will not describe where the movie goes after that. But rest assured, it is a strange, psychedelic journey.
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