Review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Gavin K — 03 Nov 2017

There are many movies some you forget whether they are good or bad, some you remember and then there are some that you will never forget. I'll never forget The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Taxi Driver or Lawrence of Arabia and I will never forget 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is a epic parable that is told in three distinct parts. The first part is The Dawn of Man, detailing humanity's distant ancestors as they struggle to survive until they find (or is found by) a curious monolith that gives them the first step on the road to intelligent consciousness and more specifically the ability to use tools to kill a rival group of apes.

We then jump into the future from bone to spaceship, two tools of a different time. We find that docking these ships is a intricate affair which Kubrick shows with such elegance and beauty its like where watching a unique type of ballet.

But humanity and monolith meet again this time on the moon and just like the apes before them they are enlightened and set out on a quest. A group of astronauts take on the assignment with a onboard computer named HAL9000 at there side.

HAL is one of the great villains of cinema not because he is evil specifically but because we don't know whether to blame him for his actions or his human creators. HAL doesn't trust Dave or Frank and believes that he cannot risk keeping them alive as the mission is just too important but also because they plan to shut him down.

In the most emotional scene in the film HAL meets his inevitable fate, created by mans intelligence and destroyed by its instinct to survive. The Infinite is an ambiguous ending as Dave enters the void.

It could mean many things but I believe it is the answers to all our questions and all the secrets of the universe delivered by a being or set of beings beyond comprehension that gives Dave in death the last step in evaluation.

Eternal life and eternal wisdom. No movie asks more questions about humanity and none poses more. This a transcendent symphony that will never age because it is about something that will continue to be relevant.

The flaws and very nature of the human race.