2001: A Space Odyssey

The price of admission for this review is a full watch through of the video above; in full screen, no interruptions, and with headphones preferably. It is only then that you can truly begin to admire this film for all that it is. If not the greatest opening to a film, its definitely the best way to start this article as Stanley Kubrick was able to incapsulate many of the things I find grand of this film, all in the opening scene.

2001: A Space Odyssey was directed by Stanley Kubrick, with the screenplay being produced in close collaboration with English science-fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke would author a short story, titled "The Sentinel", that would serve as the foundation of inspiration for 2001. When Kubrick and Clarke began working together, their imaginations would run freely in the form of a novel that was written prior to the beginning of the script. From this novel the script would be extracted, with key details of cause and effect being left out to create the truly timeless film that has been highly regarded amongst many in their lists of "All Time Best Films"

Entering this film, I was well aware that it was highly regarded. I was fearful that this preconceived notion might affect my initial viewing; perhaps I would be extra critical in an attempt to be different from the rest or maybe I would feel pressured to celebrate the excellence of the film without ever fully understanding it. All worries dissipated as I was ushered into a tiny cinema with one hall, with an audience ranging from children to senior citizens, all gathered together to view a 4K restoration of 2001: A Space Odyssey on its 55th anniversary year. Before the film even began, I welcomed the feeling of the unknown engulfing me. Of not knowing what the film would be about, not knowing how I would feel, not knowing if it would capture my attention for its full running time. Well, Kubrick did a well enough job that he even has my attention now, over a month later, as I sit and critically write of his film.

If you have gotten this far in the article and have NOT watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, I urge and plead that you go do so before reading any further. For one, I envy you. Moreover, the excellence of this film is in the universality of its meaning. If you are to read my interpretation, prior to watching the film, than I have forever tarnished Kubrick's ultimate goal in creating the film. I invite you to clear a block of time, eliminate your distractions that are ever present in our 2023: Overloaded Odyssey, and let your emotions guide your thoughts throughout the course of Stanley Kubrick's production.

What makes 2001: A Space Odyssey great? (Spoilers)

As I previously mentioned, this question of whether or not the film is truly "great" was omnipresent even before I sat down to watch it. Before I had time to form an opinion, the true opening of the film slapped me across the face and told me to stop thinking and start feeling. I am referring to the black screen with the chorus of ethereal sounds that upon my first watch, I thought it was a glitch. From the very onset of the film, Kubrick forces the watcher into a state of uneasiness that prevents you from wandering off. Had I made the price of admission for this article a black screen that played weird sounds for 4 minutes, anyone who has never seen the film would have likely not return to read what I wrote. Luckily, I did not do that and instead I showed what I consider to be one of the greatest openings to a film.

Kubrick presents us with the Moon, Earth, and Sun, all in one image, whilst playing the opening theme from the Richard Strauss tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra. A musical piece that is now widely recognized as an omen to significant events to come, but in 1968 was rarely known by anyone. A tone poem inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical novel of the same name, in which Nietzsche questions God, humankind and our existence in the natural world. Kubrick's deliberate choice of this piece would make you consider that perhaps this movie had a professional crew designing and choosing the score for him, as it should be noted that the Also sprach Zarathustra climaxes in the key of C major - the universal key (Alsop). American conductor, Marin Alsop, analyzed this specific piece and mentions that "we feel C major in a very primal way as human beings". In a tale of man and universe, its only fitting that from the start you are feeling the grandeur of the cosmos, as opposed to just seeing them. Over the span of a minute and 40 seconds, the audience is presented with a slow burning image of three of the most essential celestial bodies to our beings, whilst experiencing a sound they are likely to never forget. It is Kubrick's calculated use of classical music and intricate narrative structure that has captured the hearts of many as 2001: A Space Odyssey finds its spot in film history as one of the greatest films to ever be made.

I wish to make a quick mention to an interesting psychological tool I noticed Kubrick utilize upon my first watch through of the film. In suspenseful scenes, such as whenever a human had to go outside of the ship into the vastness of space, Kubrick would have the only sound you hear be the breathing of the subject. In the same vein of eliciting feeling in the viewer through music, Kubrick attempts to modulate your subconscious breathing to match that of a worried spaceman trying to not float away into the abyss of space.

My Favorite Scene

The vastness of space can not be understated, for humans to conquer this frontier will always be a point of pride for myself as a species. It is with the initial scene of space travel in this film, that Kubrick first captured my heart. Rewatching this scene, I am teleported back to my theater seat and the flurry of emotions fill me once more. I remember being awe struck at the beautiful dance Kubrick was portraying in front of me. A dance between ship and dock, man and universe, director and audience. The magnificent waltz of Johann Strauss II's An der schönen blauen Donau has filled many ballrooms with humans spinning around as they dance along, much as Kubrick coordinated the spins of these two spacecrafts in an elaborate dance with a beautiful conclusion of meeting together. The scene is longer than is portrayed in the above clip, yet it is the conclusion of the dance in which the message is clearest. Without this eloquent coordination on many levels, 2001: A Space Odyssey would likely be forgotten by many as opposed to revered by all.

What does the ending mean in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Perhaps the most asked question in 1968 and the most googled question in 2023, the ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey is the cherry on top that makes the film great in my eyes. It is with the ending of the film that Kubrick is able to bring together the entire film in one big circle. The truly magnificent part is that every viewers circle is slightly different, unknowns being filled in with whatever personal schemas seem to be present in our minds upon viewing this film. Answers to the question, "What does the black monolith symbolize?", are inherently different to everybody's first viewing experience. To a computer scientist, perhaps this black monolith is an incredibly intricate tool from a far more advanced alien civilization, deliberately placed in each location it is found upon in the film as an attempt to observe the life of this particular solar system. To an organic chemist, perhaps the magnificence of this black monolith can only be compared to the tedious, elegance of technology known as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. To me, the black monolith is representative of a higher being, larger than is possible for humans to comprehend, as it attempts to push whichever species encounters it further along on its evolutionary tale.

As the unknowns of the film are filled with our own personal schemas, as a student of STEM for my entire academic career, the meaning of 2001: A Space Odyssey comes from a tale as old as time, evolution: a subject I have studied in ad nauseam through various levels of biology. I could not help but notice in the film that the appearance of the black monolith is always at a critical point of the evolutionary tree for any species that encounters it. During The Dawn of Man, Kubrick shows you the apes coexisting with tapir and arguing with other apes through incoherent shouts before introducing the black monolith. The apes had reached the climax of their evolution without the discovery of the black monolith one morning. They would not utilize language as shouting seemed to get the job done with communication, and they seem to be willing to share their herbivore resources with fellow tapirs. Through the simple introduction of tools to apes, man would evolve to not only conquer the earth but space travel as well.

After conquering space travel, another black monolith is found deliberately buried 40 feet in the moon, with instructions to travel to Jupiter. At this point, it is likely humans have reached the climax of their evolution as you were able to see how comfortable space travel had become. With the length of the film, some might even argue space travel had become rather boring. With this new challenge of traveling far beyond the scope of our understanding, humans would be forced to evolve once more. This time, instead of tapir and ape, it would be human and computer.

On the journey to Jupiter, it is unknown to audience and space crew as to what was waiting there. What was known was that the mission was kept highly secret and that humans were relying on an incredibly advanced computer, incapable of failure, in the HAL 9000. If we were to think back to tapir versus ape, the ape quickly killed tapir and moved along. In this circumstance, it would be nice to think that man and computer can peacefully coexist on their journey to a new frontier to encounter, potentially a third black monolith. As you know, that was not the case and instead the computer nearly successfully eliminated all humans on the mission. In one of the most gut wrenching scenes I can recall from recent memory, the last surviving crew member began killing HAL 9000 by disconnecting much of its memory from a presumably larger motherboard. Near the end of HAL 9000's conscience existence, Kubrick had it sing the popular song "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" as an ode to the first speech synthesis demonstration from a computer in the IBM 704 in 1962. Finally, after killing HAL, the mission speech is revealed to the last remaining crew member as to what was discovered on the moon. What remains is the final evolutionary step in the journey from man to Star Child.

The following sequence of scenes are quite interesting to me as Kubrick goes fully abstract and allows us to truly form our own conclusions as the last remaining space member travels through a Star Gate. To me, this was the higher being attempting to show man what it has been doing for so many millions of years. I believe this was an acknowledgement to the history of time from the perspective of something so much more powerful than man that you see flashes of a highly distressed face, in between the abstract images of the universe, as man experiences consciousness through a higher being. There are shots of what I presume to be Earth in between shots of expanding cosmos, similar to the Big Bang. There are shots of abstract color and shapes that have no meaning to our human mind. I do believe the higher being notices the distress in the individual and creates the neoclassical room in which they would observe this individual age. Analyzing how the simple introduction of tools to monkey was able to create this specimen before them. As the film concludes with the wine falling off the table and the glass breaking, yet the wine remaining spilt on the floor, I interpreted that moment as the end of the human body but the continuation of the soul.

The Creation of Adam

As a final ode to a famous part of human history, Kubrick concludes the film with a final scene of the most advanced evolutionary state of man reaching out to the black monolith in an attempt to reach a higher state of consciousness. The next scene features the same Richard Strauss tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra that was heard in the beginning of the film, as a baby floats in a transparent bubble looking upon the Earth. My final interpretation, being the most difficult for myself, was that man had evolved to understand existence as more than just a human. That they themselves would be born into a capacity to explore and manipulate the universe much like the higher being had done with the black monolith.

Concluding thoughts

In a generation that seems to be evolving with a diminished attention span, I have often struggled with the action of sitting down to watch a film as they require your attention for upwards of two hours at times. I would instead find myself scrolling for hours, on one of many social media apps, that are designed to infinitely consume your attention. 2001: A Space Odyssey offered me the opportunity to explore not only a great film, but great thoughts with my dearest friends. For the film to end, and to be able to discuss up to an hour afterwards what meant what and when and how feelings were summoned. As a film with little dialogue, I could share it with my Spanish-speaking mother and have the same conversation as others with no need for extensive translation of what was said. Instead, this film invites you to feel, every step of the way. The more I learn about this film, the more I fall in love. A truly timeless science fiction film that remains as ethereal as it was during its first screening, half a century later. To me, it is the greatest film of all time. If you disagree, I invite you to share a film you propose may rival it.

References

Alsop, Marin. “Alsop Sprach Zarathustra: Decoding Strauss' Tone Poem.” NPR, NPR, 13 Jan. 2012, https://www.npr.org/2012/01/14/145168801/alsop-sprach-zarathustra-the-conductor-decodes-strauss-iconic-tone-poem.