"2001: a Space Odyssey" Review

                Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: a Space Odyssey is a film that makes more sense if you have read the book… Or at least that’s what I’m assuming since I have not read the book and did not understand this movie. That isn’t to say it’s a bad movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good movie either. Honestly I have a love/hate relationship with this particular film. In terms of keeping me entertained, it wasn’t very good, but in terms of lulling me into a false sense of security then surprising me witless it is a master.

The plot of 2001: a Space Odyssey is more than a little difficult to explain. The film begins at the dawn of man with a group of apes slowly evolving. Suddenly, a large, black rectangle, later called a monolith, appears in front of the apes’ cave. The apes gather around it in curiosity and begin touching it. Soon we cut to several thousand years into the future. The monolith has been discovered buried on the moon, which has now been colonized by the human race. Here we find Doctor Floyd, the chairman of the National Counsel of Astronautics, on his way to study the monolith. We are given a bit of exposition about how the story of the monolith is being covered up by a story of an epidemic because the government does not think the public is ready to know about extraterrestrial life. Later, Doctor Floyd goes with a team to investigate the monolith. However, as the group gathers in front of the strange structure for a group picture, a high pitched sound emanated from the monolith, causing everyone to clutch their heads before we cut once again, this time to eighteen months later. An expedition of five men and one artificially intelligent computer, called HAL, are headed on a mission to Jupiter. However, when the only two crew members on the ship who are not in hibernation, David and Frank, become concerned about HAL’s behavior and consider disconnecting him, HAL goes berserk and kills all of the crew members except for David, who eventually succeeds in disconnecting HAL. Once HAL has been disconnected, David is shown a prerecorded video stating the true purpose of the mission: the monolith has been sending a signal to Jupiter and the crew was being sent to investigate it. Finally, David reaches Jupiter where he finds another monolith orbiting the planet. He gets into his pod to investigate, but is pulled into a trippy montage for several minutes until his pod finally lands in a fancy room where David sees an older version of himself watching himself. That David sees an older version of himself eating dinner. That David sees another, older David lying in bed. The monolith appears in the center of the room and the David lying on the bed reaches his hand out toward it. Suddenly, David has been turned into a giant fetus. Fetus-David then floats alongside the Earth, seemingly gazing at it for the rest of eternity.

While completely confusing plot-wise and a bit slow paced, this movie does a lot of fantastic things including its interesting camera angles and its use of sound and pacing to build up the film’s most important moments.

                One of the most interesting choices that Kubrick made in regard to 2001: a Space Odyssey was his use of odd angles to showcase the film’s actions. With the majority of the film taking place in outer space, there are ample opportunities for things to be shown at odd angles and still have it fit within the context of the story. During Doctor Floyd’s first scene we see a flight attendant wearing special shoes that allow her to walk along the floor of the ship, despite there being no gravity. It is later revealed that this same technology can allow one to walk on any surface when we see another flight attendant deliver a tray of sip-able food to the pilots of the ship by first walking up the side of the wall, across the ceiling, then down the opposite wall to enter the pilots cabin upside down (or potentially right side up depending on how you look at it). Between the use of these shoes and the lack of the use of said shoes, we are able to witness some rather intriguing shots. Suddenly, shots at completely askew angles are commonplace and upside downs shots are not out of the ordinary. In my opinion, the scene in which this technique is best used takes place on the spaceship bound for Jupiter. At a long shot we see one of the members of the crew jogging along the side of the walls of a circular room. The camera then moves behind him for a tracking shot. The man is now right side up and, as he runs, we watch the room move around him. The best description I can give of this scene would be a first person view of running behind someone on a giant hamster that has cryogenic sleep chambers and computer terminals along the sides of it.

The next interesting use of camera angles was the various point-of-view shots that were used. The most interesting use of these shots is when we see the world through HAL’s eye (he only has one). HAL sees David and Frank through a round, distorted lens and usually from a slightly low angle shot. By the time we see things from HAL’s point of view, it has already been communicated that he may possess both the abilities to think and to feel. Perhaps HAL’s distorted view represents his distorted view of humanity.

                While 2001: a Space Odyssey’s camera angles are rather impressive, it is its ability to build up to important moments in the film that truly shines. When I stated earlier that this film is slow, I wasn’t exaggerating. This film is slow from beginning to end. In fact, when I first started the movie, I was treated to nothing but a black screen and music for several straight minutes. I actually began to worry that my PS2 turned DVD player was broken, so I hit the fast forward button until I finally saw the logo of the film’s production company. Finally, we come to the film’s title screen, accompanied by 2001’s most iconic score from its soundtrack. With each crash of the cymbals another element of the opening credits appears as the music builds up to the title screen. Once the title screen has faded, we are treated to the completely digetic sounds of the aforementioned Dawn of Man. From here we are introduced to the next technique used for build up: pacing. The number one technique accredited to 2001’s painfully slow pacing is the montage. Throughout the film there are countless montages and music is used very sparsely. While annoying at times, used together these two elements are used to invoke surprise in the viewer. For instance, Frank going out to replace part of the ship to test HAL’s prediction that it would fail in seventy-two hours is shown via an incredibly slow montage, during which the only sound that can be heard is the sound of Frank’s breathing. This scene goes on for several minutes, making the viewer think that it will be exactly the same as all of the other montages up to this point. Then, out of the blue, everything goes completely silent, grabbing the audience’s attention as we are shown a series of shots with the camera getting closer and closer to HAL before we see him sever Frank’s oxygen cord then cast him off into space to die. Throughout 2001: a Space Odyssey these slow, silent moments build up to all the most important parts of the film.

                Although 2001: a Space Odyssey is an extremely confusing and tedious film, it did employ some incredibly unique techniques that were enjoyable to watch. While your mind may be spinning, your eyes will be pleased a vast majority of the time by the diverse and unusual camera angles used and you will be caught off guard several times due to the constant build up caused by a combination of pacing through the use of montages and through the use of sound. I can’t recommend this film from an entertainment standpoint as I was bored a majority of the time I watched it, but I do highly recommend it if you enjoy thinking about how a film was made and why the director chose to employ certain techniques.