From the Queue: '2001: A Space Odyssey'

by Brian Kesler

I have a bit of a problem. I tend to overfill my netflix queue. I go through movie after movie hitting, "add to queue" and before I know it, I've got ... let's see ... right now I'm at 219 films lined up to be mailed out to me. And that, mind you, is after sorting through and discarding a hefty portion. I love classic movies and it's become easier than ever to find many of the films I love through netflix. It's simple, inexpensive, and rather enjoyable.

This week's film is '2001: A Space Odyssey.' This will make the third time I've seen the film, and it gets more omnipotent with each viewing. In fact, Kubrick's definitive science fiction film is among the few movies that I refuse to consider opposing opinions over. It is brilliant. The end. Dislike it if you will. Scorn it if you must. Defile it and call its director a hack. Whatever suits you. But you can not refute its genius.

'2001' had an unconventional start. Kubrick, hot off his success with 'Dr. Strangelove,' knew the plot was too cold, sporadic, and avant-garde for a studio executive to take a screenplay seriously. So, he hired famed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark to pen a novel and used it to sell the premise, and gain a big budget to boot. This was a brilliant strategy. A book, even with such an unusual premise, is still dependent on narrative which, in the case of this particular novel, muddles the episodic, cold nature of the piece and makes it seem quite a bit more traditional. The film takes the novel's narrative, shreds it, and dispatches it into the vacuum of space. Who else but Kubrick would have the gall to retain no dialogue for the first thirty minutes of the film? Rock Hudson famously walked out of the premiere during the man-ape sequences, saying, "Will someone tell me what the hell this is about?"

There are certain shots and editing techniques in the film that have become immortal, including the most ambitious cut-to of all time in which a man-ape throws a bone into the air, the camera follows it, and then starkly cuts-to a satellite in space. Within the first thirty minutes, we have the infamous monolith in the desert, the discovery of tools by man-ape accompanied by Strauss' Sprach Zarathustra (which has become almost known exclusively as the theme for the film), and what I like to call the "space ballet" sequence which runs about ten minutes and continues later on for another ten or fifteen minutes. In the second half of the film we have the famous shots of Hal, the oft-quoted line, "Open the pod-bay doors, Hal," the unsettling sequence of Dave dismantling the computer, the acid trip of a worm hole sequence, and the greatest closing scene to any movie I've ever watched - in which Dave sees himself grow old and die, evolves into the star child, and floats back to earth to save mankind.

'2001' is known as being a visual film (Geoffrey Unsworth's demanding photography to thank), but Kubrick's use of music and Winston Ryder's sound editing create the tone and atmosphere. Kubrick was a nut for authenticity, and Ryder establishes it to great effect (with the help of editor Ray Lovejoy), especially in the sequence when Dave must find a way to get back into the shuttle from his pod without a space helmet. The scene runs entirely without music. Ryder brilliantly creates stark and interesting sound choices by having the shots outside of the pod almost completely silent - to capture the emptiness of space - and the shots within the pod bursting with interesting beeps and bloops and alarms and radars, so that as we cut back and forth, we feel as though we are in two very different environments. As Dave all but explodes from his pod directly into the space shuttle, we see smoke, we see Dave screaming, we see him bouncing off the walls from the zero gravity, but there is absolutely no music and no sound. The complete silence is not only authentic per Kubrick, but it makes the shot intriguing and innovative.  

The film was released in 1968, which was a changing year for Hollywood. In 1965, 'The Sound of Music' became the biggest box office success of its time. In 1968, the same director, same producer, and Julie Andrews released 'Star' and it flopped wildly. America had changed, the political atmosphere was shifting. The turn-a-blind-eye philosophy had come to a close and the youth of America demanded more openness and honesty. 'Sound of Music,' 'My Fair Lady,' and 'Mary Poppins,' were the last of big Hollywood pictures. Movies became chock-full of intellectualism, liberalism, hippies, youth, drugs, sex. 'The Graduate' had a soundtrack completely made up of cerebral pop music. 'Easy Rider' had no story. The rules were being bent. '2001: A Space Odyssey' came along right at the beginning of the film revolution. The critics were dumbfounded. They didn't understand it. It had long sequences and drawn-out shots with no dialogue and no music. Its characters didn't seem to have emotion. It was far too unusual. They had never seen anything like it. I still have never seen anything like it, and that is why the film has held its own for so many years. It established Kubrick as movie buffs know and love him today. It was the first film of the Kubrick canon, so to speak (Dr. Strangelove is technically first, but doesn't utilize the visual style Kubrick became famous for). It undoubtedly inspired many of the shots and music choices for 'A Clockwork Orange,' as well as 'The Shining.' And yet, it stands entirely apart from those films. I will be so bold as to say that it is the most ambitious American film ever made.

Among parodies, '2001' takes the cake. Besides 'Star Wars' and 'The Godfather,' I've never seen a film more referenced in music, television, cartoons, youtube, and other movies. I'm often one of the few who catches and appreciates them. Let's face it, '2001' is a movie for movie people. Kubrick, as George Lucas said, is a "filmmaker's filmmaker." He was constantly looking for new ways to push the envelope and do things never thought possible. He was in search of immortality. He told his colleague, Steven Spielberg, that he wanted to "change the form." Spielberg told him he already did with '2001.' And while that form was dismissed for the more commercial form of 'Star Wars' and 'Jaws,' it is a movie that will never dissipate. It will always remain with those who've seen it as one of the most unique and fulfilling experiences in movie history.