Right OK its time for another review and this is a rather different one from a lot of the Hollywood films I have covered in the past and it harks back quite far to the late 1960s (1968 to be exact) as this post will be on the sci-fi classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by Stanely Kubrick. So let's gear up and give this one a look.....
So the story begins with the "Dawn of man" when man was just an ape and the film begins with a group man-apes who discover a black monolith, which they touch cautiously. Soon after one of the apes (played by Daniel Richter) realises how to use a bone as a tool and a weapon as he smashes it into a collection of other bones and skulls lying around and later uses it to kill prey for food. Later on also a fight develops between two tribes of apes with one of the leaders being killed, the other tribe celebrate and their leader throws a bone into the air.
The film then cuts to the future where we see a shuttle dock in a space station, which onboard has Dr Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) who is on a mission to travel to the Clavius base, which is a US lunar outpost. Floyd on the station makes a video phone call to his daughter (Vivian Kubrick) and later meets with a Soviet scientist Elena (Margaret Tyzack) and her colleague Dr Smyslov (Leonard Rossiter). Smyslov asks Floyd some questions about what may be happening on the Clavius base as he has heard some strange rumours and wondered if an epedemic had broken out on the base but Floyd politely declines to make comment and that he is "not at liberty to discuss it". Arriving at Clavius, Floyd heads up a meeting where he reveals the epedemic was just a cover story and the real purpose of the mission was to investigate a recently found artefact, a Monolith just like the one from the start of the film. Floyd then travels with a team of men to the site of the artefact, which indeed appears to be the same black Monolith, but as the men line up to have their picture taken with it, the sun hits the Monolith and it emits a high pitched noise defeaning the men.
The story then moves 18 months forward where the US spacecraft, Jupiter one, is on a mission to go to Jupiter. The crew onboard consists of Dr David Bowman (Keir Duella) and Dr Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) and three other crewmembers who are in cryogenic sleep and the ship's operations are run by the ship's computer, HAL 9000 or "Hal" for short (voiced by Douglas Rain). Hal later asks Bowman about the secrecy and strange nature of their mission but he interrupts himself to report the failure of a device that controls the ship's main antennae. Bowman and Poole both then go and investigate the device outside the ship using an EVA pod they retrieve it and take it back inside and find nothing wrong it. Hal suggests they reinstall the device and see if it will fail. Bowman and Poole then contact mission control who concur that there is nothing wrong with the device and that the error lies with Hal, but Hal later suggests to the men that it was down to "human error". Bowman and Poole then decide to have a secret conversation in one of the EVA pods about their concerns over Hal's behaviour and now apparent unreliability, but they agree to replace the unit at Hal's suggestion. However if the unit does not fail then Bowman and Poole agree that they should disconnect Hal and continue the mission without him. However both men are unaware of the fact that Hal can view the men from outside the pod and reads their lips while they talk.
After this Bowman and Poole go outside to replace the unit by Hal suddenly severs Poole's oxygen supply, leaving him spinning helplessly into space. Hal also terminates the life support functions of the crewmembers in hibernation. Bowman then pilots the EVA pod to pick up Poole's body and he asks Hal to open the hangar bay doors but Hal suddenly refuses to allow him to enter the ship as he read their lips during the conversation and is not prepared to allow them to disconnect him. Bowman then let's go of Poole's body and attempts to enter the ship using the emergency airlock, which he does successfully. Bowman then with a helmet, proceeds to go to Hal's processor core and starts to disable his main functions with the computer becoming fearful and eventually its voice goes and at this point a pre-recorded video message plays showing Dr Floyd who announces the discovery of the Monolith and that it is emitting a high frequency signal at the planet Jupiter. And from here Bowman decides to travel to Jupiter and takes an EVA pod to investigate another black Monolith discovered in orbit around the planet, which takes him on an arduous journey after which on his arrival takes him somewhere he would never have expected......
Well there is not much doubt that 2001: A Spacey Odyssey remains one of the great landmark science fiction films of all time as it introduced future ideas and concepts some of which have indeed become a reality such as video conferencing as well as tablet technology which we clearly see Poole watching the video footage of his interview on what appears to be a tablet device. The film itself was based on a short story by Arthur C. Clarke called "The Sentinel" and he also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Kubrick. The film took two and a half years to make as principal photography began in late December of 1965 and the actors finally finishing in September 1967 and Kubrick finally completed the post production special effects shots for the film in March 1968 and the film itself was released in April 1968. Kubrick obviously at the time was influenced by the epic films of days past given the film's running time, its theatrical release was given the traditional "intermission" at the half-way mark of the film but here has been various versions and releases of the film ever since.
I won't go into the performances too much here but I will say a bit about the them and things are mostly pretty good, starting with Keir Duella who delivers a nicely subtle and understated performance as Dr Bowman. Duella has some good moments in the film such as the scene where Bowman is forced to enter the ship via the emergency airlock after Hal refuses to allow him back onboard and Bowman proceeds to go and disconnect Hal's main processor functions. And in the scene Bowman appears to become a bit distraught by the fact that Hal's functions are closing down and as Hal asks him in a slurred voice if he would like to sing a song, Bowman anxiously says "Yes I'd like to hear it, Hal. Sing it to me!". Duella also shows that Bowman is a very diplomatic character as well as he refuses to take sides and remains on the fence even over whether Hal has any genuine emotions when asked during his interview. And Bowman says in his interview "Well, he acts like he has genuine emotions. Of course he is programmed that way so it makes it easier for us to talk to him. But as to whether he has any real feelings is something I don't think anyone can truthfully answer".
Gary Lockwood also does a fine job with his role as the more cynical Dr Poole who is more intent on deactivating Hal and he ends up paying the consequences for it. Lockwood's best scene comes when Poole voices his concerns over Hal's reliability with Bowman and Bowman says to him of Hal "You know of course he's right about the 9000 series having a perfect operational record. They do." and Poole says "Unfortunately that sounds a little like famous last words". And Poole continues with his concerns by saying "Look Dave I can't put my finger on it but I sense something strange about him" and how they may have no choice by to disconnect Hal "There isn't a single aspect of ship operations that isn't under his control. If he were proven to be malfunctioning I wouldn't see how we would any choice by disconnection".
William Sylvester also provides a solid turn as Dr Heywood Floyd who embarks on the secret mission to Clavius to investigate the black Monolith. Sylvester also has a good scene where Floyd meets with his Soviet scientist friend and her colleague Dr Smyslov who is rather inquisitive and wants to know what is behind the secrecy on Clavius. And when Smyslov challenges Floyd and asks him to confirm if an epedemic has broken out on Clavius, Floyd quietly and politely says to Smyslov "I'm sorry, Dr Smyslov, but I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to discuss it". And in the same sequence onboard the space station we see Floyd chat to his young daughter, who in fact was in reality Kubrick's real life daughter, Vivian.
And lastly Douglas Rain provides the standout performance in the film as the voice of Hal, the computer onboard the Jupiter one, which goes a little haywire. Rain's calm and neutral delivery is perfect for the role and he couldn't have played the part any better than here, and despite Hal's apparently benign nature you sense there is something creepy and sinister about him (or it). Rain's best moments include the scene where Bowman tries to enter the ship again and Hal refuses to allow him onboard. And Hal says in the scene "Dave, although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move." and as Bowman says he will try and enter through the emergency airlock, Hal says "Without your space helmet, Dave? You're going to find that rather difficult". And as Bowman protests and asks to open the doors again, Hal calmly says "Dave this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye". And later as Bowman enters the ship and starts to disconnect Hal, Rain delivers the famous lines "Dave... stop.... stop.... my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it." Its a rather bizzare scene in itself and despite what Hal has done you can't help but feel strangely sympathetic for the computer as it starts to break down.
Moving onto the director, Stanley Kubrick has done a superb here with 2001 and like all his films he took full creative control and command of every aspect of the picture itself. Kubrick even though he paces the film very slowly at times (almost too slow!) he also still allows the viewer to be engrossed by the film's story. Kubrick skilfully employs the use of some creative shots such as in the scene where we see the ape throw the bone into the air and it cuts to the future where we see the space satelitte fall through the vaccum of space. Kubrick also brilliantly uses some hand held camera work, particularly in the scene where the camera follows Bowman as he climbs his way up to Hal's processor core. Another great scene that shows Kubrick's unique visual style is where we see Poole do a run around the ship's oval shaped centrifuge as the camera follows him around effectively doing a 360 (or is it just 180???).
And it also goes without saying that visually the film is still absolutely stunning and it still holds up incredibly well to this day thanks to its brilliant special effects model work by Douglas Trumbull and Kubrick's production team, which won Kubrick his only Academy award for the film's visual effects. The visual effects scenes that stand out include the opening scene in the future where we see the largely circular space station spin around the Earth and the shuttle that has Floyd onboard approach it and there is perfect symmetry where the ship spins out of shot just as Johann Strauss's "The Blue Danube" finishes. Then there is Bowman's last journey to beyond the infinite in which he is dazzled by a display of multi-colours and a strange array of shapes as he travels.
The film also features a memorable soundtrack as Kubrick chose some great classical tracks to add to the film's atmosphere that include the aforementioned "Blue Danube". The tracks include the memorable use of Richard Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathrustra" which opens the film with its distinctive shot of the sun coming up over a planet which is presumably Earth, "Gayane's Adagio" from the Gayane ballet suite by Aram Kachaturian used during the introduction of Poole and Bowman on the Discovery. And lastly Kubrick used some more modern compositions by the Hungarian composer, Gyorgy Ligeti one of which was "Atmospheres" which are used during the scene where Floyd and the others arrive on the site of the Monolith and also when Bowman travels beyond the infinite.
As for flaws...... well even though it is an incredible and seminal film, it has to be said that at times 2001 can be a spectacularly boring one as well as the film's pacing quite often is reduced to snail crawl and almost every movement in the film is undertaken at a painstakingly slow rate, regardless of the fact these people are in deep space. This is well noted in the scene where the flight stewardess onboard the shuttle walks at a painfully slow rate through the deck and also spends forever walking upside down until she enters the shuttle's cockpit (and just why is it upside down anyway???). So while its hard not to appreciate the film's visual splendour it also has the power to put you to sleep as well during its long space scenes, particularly in the scene where the space docks at the lunar base on Clavius it simply takes forever! You could almost imagine it was like you are playing a video game and waiting on an incredibly long loading time between scenes!
Another issue I have with the film is that it does leave one or two untied plot strands especially at the end of the scene where Floyd and the others arrive at the site of the unearthed Monolith and all of a sudden it emits a loud high pitched noise, which appears to deafen the men. And I always thought from this that the men eventually died at the site and the point of Discovery one's mission was to follow up and find out what happened there. But as you see at the end of the scene where Bowman deactivates Hal, Floyd appears on a pre-recorded video message saying about the Monolith and that it is emitting the loud signal at Jupiter, which certainly indicates that he didn't die and that the men somehow did manage to safely get away from the site. But again this just isn't clearly explained and Kubrick leaves things on a pretty ambiguous note here for you to just guess what has happened.
And the same can also be said for the film's ending, and just what happened to Bowman??? Did the journey take him so long that he really was an old man by the time he arrived??? (Well guess so by the looks of him!). Then there is the question as to how Bowman can see another version of himself from the future (presumably) have dinner one minute and the next suddenly lying on his deathbed pointing at the Monolith, which then makes him reborn as a baby (floating in space in a bubble!). From this you can only guess that the Monolith has strange powers to influence and even create new life and that Bowman was reborn as a result of the Monolith's analysis of his mortality, giving him a chance to be reborn and start again. So if that is the case can we assume that bubble that the newborn Bowman is infact a means of transport for the baby to arrive safely on Earth??? And will the Earth still be populated below???? Well I'd imagine the answer to the last one is yes. But again Kubrick has you scratching your head at the end and its an ending which is entirely left open to intepretation.
And last of all there was one silly plot point worth noting in the film which comes in the scene where Bowman and Poole get into one of the pods so they can talk privately about HAL without the computer overhearing them. In the scene Bowman asks HAL to rotate the pod to let them in but after they step inside the pod, Bowman asks HAL to rotate the pod again so that way the window view of the pod is accessible to HAL. But why do that???? Because if Bowman didn't ask HAL to rotate the pod, the pod would facing AWAY from HAL anyway and the computer would not be able to have any line of sight in regards to see their lips move! Which of course would have left the computer none the wiser about what they were planning to do. But of course the characters didn't think that far ahead that at this point are dealing with a comptuer that has a serious screw or ten loose! Again its nothing major but its just a plot niggle I thought I would raise all the same.
But all that aside 2001: A Spacey Odyssey is still a remarkable sci-fi epic which despite any of its flaws is still very much worth watching and it remains one of Kubrick's most visually stunning and innovative films.
And with that I shall bid yee all goodnight!
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