If you know me well, then you will most certainly know that I have been a big Stanley Kubrick aficionado for at least 4 years now. His obsessive attention to detail, his painstaking labour in the art of motion pictures and his subversive nature in telling stories is simply a delight for me to see and hear. And I, for one, have never seen such a bonding of craft and workmanship in any body of work than I have in his films. Kubrick always delved into different genres, and in doing so, constantly shocked and surprised every one of his viewers. As Steven Spielberg stated in his "Look Back at Stanley" interview, Kubrick had this "fail safe button" where it is always impossible to turn off a Kubrick film. A subjective statement though it may be, I have always found a lot of truth with that. And the resonance of that truth couldn't be any truer than with his Sci-Fi epic that I will be reviewing today. His most important film will always be 2001: A Space Odyssey.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a film that was crafted with so much effort and love that each scene always elicits so many smiles from me. It was also a film I disliked when I first seen it. I knew of the greatness that it yielded since all subsequent Sci-Fi films (like Star Trek and Star Wars) were influenced monumentally by it (George Lucas even commented in the extras that he had wanted to make a film that would match the scale of 2001. And as the Star Wars films retain many references to their predecessors, it's no surprise that it took some conventions from that film) and it changed the form of conventional storytelling as we know it. But I was meandering through the film at first rather than embracing it. The Dawn of Man was very slow for me, and the Jupiter mission failed to interest me. But after that first viewing of the film, there was a compulsion to watch it again. The images of the Ships and Pods in Space as they slowly circulate was so jawdropping and enticing that I realised that this film was simply a completely different experience to any other film that I had ever seen. It wasn't a film that was inherently bad on any level. But it was certainly new territory for me, being a novice to Kubrick and films of the 50's and 60's. As repeated viewings commenced, I slowly realised that the film would become one of my top 20 favourite films of all time (and it was even my favourite film for a short while).
I decided to properly deconstruct this film now since I went to see the HD re-release that Glasgow Film Theatre are hosting from the 28th of November to the 4th of December. And it made me love the film even more. If you were ever tentative about seeing the film due to length, a lack of dialogue or for its ambiguous riddles that are littered throughout, then I seriously recommend watching it on the big screen. The opening with the eclipse as it gets highlighted by the sun was grandiose and it spellbound me throughout. I found that each scene on the big screen had the most minute of details such as being able to see people in colossal ships and even in the miniatures. You get this incredible depth of field as you travel through space. You feel the most tangible of details as you look at the Lunar surface from afar. There's a greater sense of progression by seeing it from afar because it doesn't make you feel lost in Space with the the people as they try to locate the mysterious Monolith. You feel like you are part of that quest as the camera angles, impeccable sound design and laboriously made sets give you the entire ambience of where our discovery takes us. And all of this ambience is aided by an incredible collection of classical music stemming from such artists like Johan Strauss and Legeti. There is many reasons why classical music, on a subconscious and psychological level, really appeals to me. But this film and Amadeus really embed these kinds of compositions in my head. Ligeti's powerful music emanates throughout the Jupiter mission section of the film, and it does a great job of establishing the base of each ship and planet. It is the epitome of Space Ballet to subconsciously tune you into the film's mood.
The film (for me) is broken up into 4 sections. The first section involves the Dawn of Man and how apes behaved in their own territory and the entire beauty of life back then. The second section involves the Jupiter mission that introduces Dr. Floyd who is secretly trying to find the Monolith buried under the Lunar surface. As the Monolith takes over, we then get the third section which establishes one of the most amazing characters of all time, HAL 9000. The third section involves the quest with Dave and Frank as they try and find the Monolith. As their resistance to the mission grows, HAL becomes increasingly more unstable in his decision making and as he controls the ship they are on, tries to cause havoc anyway he can. And the fourth section is the Monolith carrying us through this loopy trip into the complete unknown. Kubrick had collaborated with Douglas Trumbull (one of the people who helped out with the special effects) and in doing so, used a Pan and Scan effect that created trippy colours. Each region was mountainous, grainy and full of reflections. The images of Dave in this room as he ages within the scene is strange but never out of place. It is more proof of Kubrick's unconventional storytelling techniques and while the ambiguity of it may turn some off, it only heightened my interest of the entire film.
The film's pacing in these sections slows down and picks up speed at the right times. It allows you to embrace the Dawn of Man, while showing you their savage ways, their methods for foraging and how they treat eachother. The Jupiter section slows down the most, but it treats you to an effective musical composition and it slowly gets you accustomed to each fleeting ship and floating planet as we go on the voyage. It displays the beauty of cinema in its lighting and mystery. We always see what Dr. Floyd and his crew see, and we get just as beguiled by it as the others do. By the time we reached discovery, the third sections kicks in, leaving us clueless still. I love that because it makes the Monolith a plot device throughout the entire film, and keeps us waiting for what will happen next, which a lot of great directors are aware of. The third section is my favourite in the film because we get to see the simple days that go by with Dave, Frank and Hal here. The vertical shafts as you see Frank exercising, the sketching done by Dave and even virtual chess with Hal. And as it goes on, you can see Dave and Frank becoming more robotic in their processes, while Hal becomes more and more human as he begins to suspect their worries in carrying out this dangerous mission. Hal adds a completely different nuance since up to that point, the film had no real proper threat in it, outside of the Monolith. And it really shows a disturbing possibility that machinery will take over humanity. In a consumer world, where we all use phones, computers and tablets, it's safe to say we already rely on technology more than we may think. This film and "A Clockwork Orange" are definitely Kubrick's most realistic films in many ways, even with their surreal elements.
The fourth section is so memorable, and yet still shocking everytime you see it. We really get to the same emotional point that Dave does in abandoning all logic. What I love about this section is thinking what is out there and the possibility of deities way beyond. It makes you think as well as feel and the ending is so open-ended and feels a lot more like an introduction than an ending.
Overall, after watching it again at the GFT with amazing quality control, polish and detail, I can safely say that this film gets better and better the more I watch it. The documentary feel of the Dawn of Man complimented by amazing photography of each set, incredible direction that keeps us in a loop as we go on the quest, the shocking reality of Hal as a machine, the amazing collection of Classical music, the visual effects, especially near the end, and minute details hidden in space and within each interior, 2001 will always rank as my second favourite Kubrick film (behind Barry Lyndon) and one of my top 20 films of all time. Apart from some clothing decisions which date the film ever so slightly, the entire production has aged extremely well. My only real issues with the film would be that some of the acting is stilted, the apes look a little bit fake and some of the scenes where the pods float look a little out of place. But apart from that, it is a film that will transport you into its world.
