Tripartite Tour de Force

Stanley Kubrick produced and directed 2001: A Space Odyssey. Besides being a tremendous advance in imagery and photography, I thought the theme of the movie was an interesting view on Cause and Effect.

I first saw 2001 in Cinerama, a wrap around wide screen presentation, when it was first run in Detroit in 1968. I admit when I first saw the film, I did not know what to make of it (I was 14). In 1993, I bought the 25th Anniversary Edition from MGM and have viewed it several times since. While the movie does not play as well on the small screen as at Cinerama, I have gained respect with each viewing and now consider it a profound, admirable piece of filmmaking, arguably Stanley Kubrick’s greatest achievement. Note, I did not say that Kubrick was a GREAT director, I feel he had three films that I take note of, Paths of Glory, Spartacus, and the film we are currently discussing. In fact, Kubrick disavowed Spartacus and had nothing good to say about it, even though it provided him with the funds to move to England and pursue his own ends, like 2001.

2001 shows the power images have, with very little dialogue. It is perhaps a throwback to old silent films where the movie rolled while a piano player played according to the scene.

The opening shot shows a celestial alignment of Moon, Earth, and Sun vertically represented in the blackness of space with the viewer looking out from beyond the Moon, across Earth, to the Sun. As a child of the 60’s, I had never seen such a shot, and this was before Neil Armstrong had taken his historic first steps on the Moon. The opening strains of Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra provide a fitting accompaniment for the enigmatic opening sequence. The piece is also a veiled reference to Friedrich Nietzche's book of the same name, which gives some enlightenment as to Kubrick's purpose.

The movie is divided into three parts complete with titles at the appropriate times. The first of these is entitled...

The Dawn of Man

Panning across a barren deserted landscape the camera cuts to various forbidding terrain features. Photography liberally uses false color images, something I learned about much later when studying infrared imagery. The scenes are mainly red. Then the real color comes out and we see a mastodon skull, so there is life, after all. The landscape now appears to be savannah, like Africa. Apemen and tapirs herd and eat grass together in harmony or else unaware that they are different. The camera cuts to a lone apeman. A glowing-eyed leopard pounces on the apeman and the screen turns to black — the first violence. The chattering apemen surround a small water hole. A rival band of apemen drives them off by merely snarling and posturing. The apemen are shown huddled together sleeping fitfully during the night. The leopard’s eyes glow in the night while he sits over his zebra kill.

When the apes awaken, there is a mysterious black monolith in their midst. A malevolent humming tone accompanies its appearance, sort of a theme song that recurs throughout 2001 whenever it appears. I feel that the monolith represents technology. One apeman learns to use a leg bone as a cudgel. Monolith appears > apeman learns to use tools. He smashes bones that are scattered around, including a few skulls. The celestial alignment flashes briefly - inspiration - and a tapir falls to the ground from the deadly blow of the apeman’s bone. The apemen are shown eating the raw flesh. The apemen find the rival clan and set on them with legbones. A couple strike one of the apemen, killing him. In a little victory celebration, an apeman tosses his bone, spinning, into the air. It transforms into a spaceship traveling through space.

From a vantage point between Earth and Moon the viewer sees Earth and a serenely rotating space station. Aboard the PanAm space shuttle, the lone passenger dozes. A stewardess wearing grip shoes walks laboriously through the cabin, retrieving his pen floating weightless in the air.

Tremendous camera magic allows the stewardess to walk upside down and around the walls of the cabin, the photography is still impressive and better than most of the computer-aided special effects currently seen.

The crew of the craft are shown eating liquid foods from little boxes with straws, similar to the juice drinks of today. Dr. Floyd, now awake, is shown amusedly contemplating the directions of a zero gravity toilet. The directions are about as complicated as an IRS form and the viewer wonders what would one do in an emergency? The space shuttle docks in the rotating station to the strains of The Blue Danube, also a recurring theme throughout the film.

Dr. Floyd is shown in the Hilton, there are other American logos in the film, including Bell telephone. He has a layover before his flight to the moon, so he heads over to the restaurant for breakfast. On the way, he meets some fellow scientists, presumably Russian. They try to pump him for information, but he does not tell them anything. Floyd uses a Bell Picturephone to call home. He operates it with a credit card. He is shown on a shuttle to the moon. Once there he delivers a briefing to the team of scientists, revealing the real reason he is there. Another monolith has been found... and it is beaming an electronic signal towards Jupiter...

The spacesuited team approaches the monolith, accompanied by the malevolent humming tone. Kubrick does a coy visual reference to Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam. Floyd reaches out to touch the black monolith and his finger touches his finger reflected in the shiny surface. As the sun rises over the horizon, the monolith emits a burst of piercing noise, the team recoils in pain. The picture fades...

CRITIQUE

The apeman scene is integral to the film but it is shot on a soundstage with backdrops of the fantastic landscape. The apemen costumes look cheesy. Kubrick might just as well have used real apes which might have been more effective. Photography, lighting, music, and sound effects are all superior.

The space scenes are fantastic. The references to familiar products makes it more believable and gives continuity with the present. Kubrick was w-a-a-y before his time in the use of special effects, notwithstanding whatever the generation that grew up with Star Wars thinks. Acting is competent, but no character is really a standout, and I believe that that’s what Kubrick intended. It is a film about technology, not personalities.

END PART I

Due to the importance of this film to the Science Fiction genre, and the amount of criticism it deserves, stay tuned for Parts II and III, listed below -

2001 Part II
2001 Part III

Recommended: Yes