Tuesday, May 24, 2016

2001: A Space Odyssey

More of a experience than a film, with other's trying to duplicate the tone with little success.

This is not an easy film to talk about because when I try to recount it all I sound like I am on drugs. The film is about....I have no idea. There's hundreds if not thousands of interpretations of this movie and it's themes. This movie is the most ambiguous film in human history. It is not like Watchmen where the ending is ambiguous, the whole damn movie is riddled with ambigooey! And it's split up into parts, very much like the novel which it was based on, starting off when humans weren't even humans they were apes living in Africa until one day the apes discover an ominous monolith which somehow slowly starts the evolution process. The apes start utilizing bones as weapons and then...a very strange transition happens that pretty much goes like this: ape kills ape, ape rejoices, ape throws bone into the air, cut to a spaceship in orbit of Earth. And then we meet with an expedition team going to the moon where they discover another mysterious monolith that they excavated below the moon's surface. Followed by more astronauts travelling to Jupiter for some science reason or another. Honestly I forgot, I think it had something to do with a transmission signal but don't quote me on that. Then we meet the infamous HAL 9000, which is easily the best part of the movie. I mean you want to talk about scary movie villains, HAL is up there! The film is so minimalistic, and fascinating to watch. It's done in the staple Stanley Kubrick style with long shots, great use of music, uncomfortable atmosphere, and ambiguous endings. I would not recommend this to be your first Stanley Kubrick movie, like maybe your fifth but not your first. You have to be in a very special kind of mood to experience 2001: A Space Odyssey. And the ending can be summed up in one word, SYMBOLISM!!! Tune in Thursday where we look at another classic Stanley Kubrick film.

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