Tripartite Tour de Force, Part II

Hi again! Thank you for returning to read the second part of my review of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

If you haven't read my review of the first act, you can read it here: 2001 Part I

...the second part of 2001 is entitled...

Jupiter Mission (18 Months Later)

A long spacecraft is shown moving through space. The camera takes us inside to see an astronaut running and shadowboxing around the circular track inside the hospital-clean spaceship. As he leisurely loops the track, we notice desks and coffin-like objects... Again, camera magic makes it appear that the runner is crossing the walls and ceiling just as the stewardess did earlier.

We join the astronauts at their workstations; one is eating, the other chooses foods from a machine where it is heated (prophecy of microwave?) he pulls the hot packets out of the various doors and joins his fellow at their adjoining desks. Each has a flat screen TV lying on their desk, about the size and thickness of a magazine (we’re not there yet!!). They are watching a BBC interview of themselves. From the conversations, the viewer quickly gathers that these astronauts are about as boring and colorless as they can be. In fact, the most interesting personality belongs to the "brains" of the outfit, a HAL-9000 computer. The computer runs all aspects of the ship, including the three crew members that are in cold storage awaiting arrival on Jupiter before HAL revives them. The two awake crewmembers appear superfluous to the mission, which is completely automated. The computer is the only one knowing the true details of their mission.

"HAL" has an irritatingly calm masculine voice. It also has artificial emotions programmed in. As the scene progresses, the viewer notices that HAL’s cyclopean red eye is mounted everywhere aboard the ship. There is really nowhere one can go and be out of HAL’s sight... An astronaut plays chess with HAL, who naturally wins. HAL has a discussion with the other astronaut "Dave" about his sketches. Dave has sketched the sleeping astronauts in their sarcophaguses. Kubrick continually represents HAL as a close-up of that large red light with the large whitish highlight. As the scene moves forward, it begins to menace the viewer. The highlight gets yellower and yellower, indicating jealousy and paranoia.

HAL detects a malfunction in the AE35 unit. The astronauts do a space walk and replace it with a spare. HAL suggests they test the defective unit. They find no faults. The astronauts diplomatically decide to hold a conference, outside of HAL’s hearing in the space pod, using a pretext to fool the computer. In their "private" discussion, they decide HAL has failed, not knowing that HAL was reading their lips... The astronauts take another spacewalk to replace the AE35 unit to confirm their suspicions. HAL severs the umbilical of one astronaut, kills the three hibernating members, and locks Dave outside in his pod!

Dave, like the innovative monkey in the first part, improvises, opening the door of the emergency hatch and blowing himself inside the mother ship with the explosive hatch on his pod. He manages to close the door, fill the lock with oxygen, and survive. He puts on his helmet and proceeds to disconnect HAL. As HAL loses consciousness it triggers a prerecorded message from Dr. Floyd. Dave now knows the reason behind the mission – they were following the monolith’s radio signal to Jupiter.

CRITIQUE

Kubrick again shows his genius for visual representation with spacecraft that are beyond most any that have been depicted on film since, despite what the Star Wars generation thinks :>. The colorless astronauts are trumped by the computer with a personality more vivid than either of theirs. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, this is the last scene where the, at best sparse, dialogue occurs.

The details shown in the spacecraft, such as the eating and computer controlled equipment are strongly predictive of things as they actually turned out. The photography and editing is some of the strongest I’ve seen, with this sequence making a integrated statement that is hard to fault.

There is also a subtle thread of error played out by HAL in which he continues to make little mistakes but rationalizes them. This actually is one of the best parts of the screenplay. Kubrick sets it up by Hal confidently stating, on several occasions, "No HAL-9000 series computer has ever made an error." This claim of infallability even leads to comic moments and makes the computer seem more human than the robot-like astronauts, who never apparently make a mistake, except in trusting HAL.

Please stay tuned for the final installment of my review of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which follows below:

2001 Part III

Recommended: Yes