1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- 2001: A Space Odyssey

#506- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, Douglas Rain
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick


Plot Summary: The U.S. spacecraft Discovery One is bound on a mission to Jupiter, a mission that is being kept under wraps by everyone including the crew members. While three of the explorers are in cryogenic sleep, Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole explore space with their ship's computer HAL 9000. HAL has artificial intelligence that leaves him incapable of error. But when he starts to show some signs of potential error, Bowman and Poole discuss the possibilities of disconnecting HAL. Little do they know that HAL is listening in on their conversation, and plans to get rid of the members of the Discover One.


I'll be honest here, when I said I wanted to do a retrospective on Stanley Kubrick's career, I was excited to cover pretty much every film except for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I had seen this film only one other time and it was a year ago for my Studies in Film course. The first time I watched it, I did not understand it at all and had difficulty finding why so many moviegoers love this film and consider it one of Kubrick's best. After watching it a second time, I have a slightly different approach to it. I believe that it is a great film for the moviegoer to look at, but if visual effects are not your thing then you will be bored out of your mind. This film is 2 1/2 hours of mostly silence and music with little to no dialogue, some of the most groundbreaking special effects you will ever see, and has a beginning and ending that will have audiences asking themselves "What the heck did I just see?" So let's talk about some of the good and bad qualities of 2001: A Space Odyssey and see if it's a must watch or a skip.

Some might believe it's weird for me to bring up the visual effects first, but believe me Kubrick knows he's putting his best foot forward in this department. There are WAY too many groundbreaking effects to list. Just look at that one spaceship. That's a practical effect ladies and gentlemen. And also factor in that this is nearly 10 years before Star Wars. Kubrick's efforts were well rewarded with an Academy Award for best Visual Effects, which was the only Oscar Kubrick ever won in his lifetime (which may be one of the biggest travesties on the part of the Academy). Needless to say, these effects still hold up to this day, and if he was going to walk away with an Academy Award, this one is more than well deserved.

Music also plays a crucial part in this film. There are three in particular I wanted to focus on. The film opens and closes to "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. To have this song bookend the film adds a bit of gravitas to the already epic scope of the movie, and plus I love the song already cause it's the theme song for Ric Flair (WOOOO!). Another iconic piece of music attached is "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss II, which really sets the mood for a grand space opera. It's a fun little tune to include in your film's score because it is not only known by arguably every music lover in the world, but it also fits appropriately for the setting. "Lux Aterna" by György Ligeti on the other hand may not be universally recognized, but it definitely adds a lot to the film's eerie tone. It adds so much atmosphere and creates such an uneasiness in the viewer that it perfectly foreshadows some of the mystery and suspense to come.

Douglas Rain voices the iconic HAL 9000 computer program. Everyone in the world knows how this story is supposed to work. HAL has artificial intelligence, programmed to simulate human emotions and not falter to error. When he is accused of having an error he gets emotional and retaliates in defense by trying to kill everything in his path. WOW. Ultron eat your heart out, you need an army, and he needs to have just one eye to accomplish all this. His style is so sleek and functional that it looks like a realistic futuristic piece of technology, and that voice is so soothing, yet so terrifying that it really immortalized himself as one of the scariest film characters in history.

This is a space movie right? So where are the astronauts? They are presented in two generic characters known as Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, played by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood respectively. It might be unfair to call these two generic, but that's because the visuals are so appealing, and HAL is so complex of a character, that the humans all feel like an afterthought. Of the two, Bowman is the one we spend the most time, so he gets developed only a tad more. We see him act courageous, but we still don't know much about who he is and why we should care about him getting out of there alive. That's a bit of a problem with your main protagonist in a 2 1/2 hour runtime. We want to be able to root for Dave and Frank, and that's not to say we end up rooting for HAL, but your victims need to be as serviceable as your antagonist. HAL is memorable, the astronauts are not.

A casual complaint many moviegoers have for 2001: A Space Odyssey is that it is boring. And, after watching it with my 5 college suitemates, I can absolutely guarantee we were bored out of our minds. But at least it was pretty to look at. Also, there are a lot of confusing questions regarding the scenes. Without giving everything away, I will ask the biggest questions with word association. Cavemen? Monolith? Bone? Colorful screensaver? Old age? Giant baby? Wait...GIANT BABY?!?!?! WHAT THE CRAP!?!?! That's our response to this film in a nutshell. Had they shaved off an entire hour with the build up to space, and maybe the cavemen sequence and did a film about the main plotline with the astronauts and HAL. All I can say is at least the film is a technical and visual masterpiece, because the plot is a confusing and boring arrangement of scenes open to our own interpretations. That's all good and all, but even I'm not gonna tackle the debate on what the crap the giant baby is supposed to mean.


Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I'm very conflicted on 2001: A Space Odyssey. On the one hand, I can absolutely see how it's a visual masterpiece and one of Kubrick's most beloved films. On the other hand, I can also agree that it is an absolute bore to sit through and not everyone is going to have the same level of appreciation. So then, I must go down the middle. If you're a casual movie fan, you can feel free to either skip this one entirely or rent it once and try to make it through without napping. If you are an absolute movie buff and fan of Kubrick, however, this one is should be included in your collection.

2001: A Space Odyssey and movie images are copyrighted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer