Review of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by Luke N — 29 Aug 2013

I won't pretend to understand everything that this film is trying to say - I won't even assume that there is any profound message underneath its bizarre story - because that is ultimately irrelevant to what makes this film such a fascinating one - and, in my opinion, the most accomplished piece in Stanley Kubrick's career.

What drives this film alone is the sheer beauty of its vision, which reveals itself slowly, and sometimes silently to us, in such a way that you find yourself drawn to the images much like a child draws himself into an imaginative stupor as he plays with his spaceships.

The magnitude of Kubrick's direction is something to be marvelled at, and the suspected senselessness of the script only adds to that general lack of understanding that space represents. But then this film also works in numerous other ways.

Its set-designs are absolutely captivating - convincingly futuristic and yet still reminiscent of the 1960's; the score is powerfully harrowing, and the recorded music appropriately beautiful; the story - when it makes sense - is downright fascinating; and with the help of its forebodingly eerie atmosphere, it simultaneously manages to be enlightening and actually quite creepy.

I could go on about what makes this film one of my favourites, but I should end the review here. Basically, it's just something you really must see in order to believe.