2001 has been complimented as the greatest space movie of all time. It was said to be wonderful, amazing, stunning, overall a great film. So, naturally, I decided to watch it.
To define this movies plot is really hard, because there really is no plot. I’ll explain what I can.
The movie starts with the Dawn of Man. Here we see several shots of landscape. Then we meet apes and spend ten minutes watching monkeys fight and go about their life. One is massacred by a tiger, a group is driven away from water, and the apes are overall cold. Then the monolith appears, which gives the apes the knowledge of tools. A beautiful sequence when the ape begins to smash bones as the 2001 theme plays in the background.
Then we jump three million years into the future, in the year 2001. We listen to classical music while we see several long shots of a space station and a ship coming in. After about five minutes (or more) of this we end up inside the space station. A meeting is held (of which I understood nothing), and then we go to a moon colony. Another five minutes of a space ship landing. Yippee. Another meeting that I didn’t understand.
Then things get interesting when the monolith is rediscovered and gives the astronauts the knowledge of building Discovery 1, a humoungous ship heading for Jupiter. This is where the characters are really introduced. We get to know the awesome, all-knowing HAL 9000 (voice of Douglas Rain), simply HAL. And we meet two of the five crew. The other three are in hybernation, being watched over by HAL.
HAL reports an error and it is discovered that HAL is lying, or malfunctioning. Dave (Keir Dulla) and Frank (Gary Lockwood) meet in private so HAL will not hear them. However, HAL reads their lips and discovers that they might pull the plug.
The antenna dish that HAL reported to be malfunctioning breaks down, so Frank goes out to fix it. While outside his pod, HAL takes control and snaps Frank’s air hose. Dave goes after Frank, catches him (it takes another five minutes for this) and then realizes HAL’s gone berserk and killed the men in hibernation. Somehow he gets inside the ship and disconnects HAL.
When HAL is disconnected, we get the most touching and emotional scene in the movie. As Dave pulls out HAL’s memory sticks, HAL pleads for it’s life. Eventually HAL remembers the first song it ever learned, and sings it. It’s voice slows down, getting slower and slower before HAL is obliterated.
Dave hops in the last pod and travels to Jupiter. The monolith follows him, and Dave somehow ends up in a wormhole, and we spend the longest six minutes ever traveling through this wormhole.
Eventually Dave ends up in an elaborate room, in which he sees himself old. He transfers into that body. The older version gets up and walks to the bedroom. There the old Dave sees an even older version of himself, in bed, dying. So Dave stretches out his hand, and suddenly is replaced by a baby inside a glowing gelatinous sphere.
The ending shot features the baby (or Star Child) hovering over earth.
That is what 2001 is about. It’s hard to talk about this movie without debriefing the whole plot.
First of all, you have to realize that Stanley Kubrick’s intentions are not to thrill us. That is apparent in the beginning. The purpose is to make us think about the film, to look at it like a philosopher would, and discuss what it’s about. I think Stanley Kubrick was stoned when he filmed the majority of the movie, which would not be uncommon for the 1960s, when everyone was stoned.
There is one amazing element to this film. The visual effects. No argument. They are the best I have ever seen. They looked real. In fact, I was almost convinced I was in outer space, or at least they actually did film it in outer space.
The sequence of the ship boarding the station that looks like wheels features another amazing effect. A stewardess walks to the end of a hall, then slowly walks up the circular room’s wall and eventually ends up on the ceiling and walks through a door. And when Dave (or Frank) takes a run around Discovery 1’s circular room, it’s amazingly executed.
Kubrick places the camera sideways and we watch Dave or Frank run on the floor but also go round and round. Ok, this is to hard to describe, it needs a visual. See the movie.
The acting isn’t anything special, but the voice of HAL does leave you chilled. I loved HAL and even played a spoof of him in a play (I should’ve seen the movie first though). HAL was awesome, the best computer character ever. Far outdoes C3-PO and R2-D2 of the Star Wars franchise.
And the opening sequence is amazing. You here the trumpets while at a planet. The camera moves towards the planet and another planet, along with the sun, appear behind it. As the music and credits roll, you get closer to the other planet till you fade out.
The theme is only heard three times. Once in the opening sequence; again when the ape discovers tools; and a third time is when the Star Child looks on at earth.
The music is another interesting factor of this movie. Stanley allowed his composer to compose the 2001 theme, and I believe that (not quite sure) the composer also came up with the monolith music, which can get very annoying and start hurting your ears (the whole point, of course).
As I stated before, the visual effects are amazing. They are far better then the CGI crap we see today in movies, such as the current Star Wars movies. Even Frank’s lifeless body floating through space looks real.
The apes in the beginning also look real. Coincidentally, this movie was released the same year as Planet of the Apes, another weird look at Sci-Fi.
So there is great awe surrounding this movie. The docking scenes are exhilarating, the worm hole scene inspired the graphics you see on CD recording programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player, and overall this movie spawned all the other great space movies.
If the special effects had sucked, this movie would receive a flat F. But since Kubrick does make it exhilarating, I have to concur with a much higher grade.
As far as recommendations go, I would recommend this to movie freaks and Stanley Kubrick fans. The rest of you with ADD (or ADHD) stay away. This movie will put you to sleep.
To define this movies plot is really hard, because there really is no plot. I’ll explain what I can.
The movie starts with the Dawn of Man. Here we see several shots of landscape. Then we meet apes and spend ten minutes watching monkeys fight and go about their life. One is massacred by a tiger, a group is driven away from water, and the apes are overall cold. Then the monolith appears, which gives the apes the knowledge of tools. A beautiful sequence when the ape begins to smash bones as the 2001 theme plays in the background.
Then we jump three million years into the future, in the year 2001. We listen to classical music while we see several long shots of a space station and a ship coming in. After about five minutes (or more) of this we end up inside the space station. A meeting is held (of which I understood nothing), and then we go to a moon colony. Another five minutes of a space ship landing. Yippee. Another meeting that I didn’t understand.
Then things get interesting when the monolith is rediscovered and gives the astronauts the knowledge of building Discovery 1, a humoungous ship heading for Jupiter. This is where the characters are really introduced. We get to know the awesome, all-knowing HAL 9000 (voice of Douglas Rain), simply HAL. And we meet two of the five crew. The other three are in hybernation, being watched over by HAL.
HAL reports an error and it is discovered that HAL is lying, or malfunctioning. Dave (Keir Dulla) and Frank (Gary Lockwood) meet in private so HAL will not hear them. However, HAL reads their lips and discovers that they might pull the plug.
The antenna dish that HAL reported to be malfunctioning breaks down, so Frank goes out to fix it. While outside his pod, HAL takes control and snaps Frank’s air hose. Dave goes after Frank, catches him (it takes another five minutes for this) and then realizes HAL’s gone berserk and killed the men in hibernation. Somehow he gets inside the ship and disconnects HAL.
When HAL is disconnected, we get the most touching and emotional scene in the movie. As Dave pulls out HAL’s memory sticks, HAL pleads for it’s life. Eventually HAL remembers the first song it ever learned, and sings it. It’s voice slows down, getting slower and slower before HAL is obliterated.
Dave hops in the last pod and travels to Jupiter. The monolith follows him, and Dave somehow ends up in a wormhole, and we spend the longest six minutes ever traveling through this wormhole.
Eventually Dave ends up in an elaborate room, in which he sees himself old. He transfers into that body. The older version gets up and walks to the bedroom. There the old Dave sees an even older version of himself, in bed, dying. So Dave stretches out his hand, and suddenly is replaced by a baby inside a glowing gelatinous sphere.
The ending shot features the baby (or Star Child) hovering over earth.
That is what 2001 is about. It’s hard to talk about this movie without debriefing the whole plot.
First of all, you have to realize that Stanley Kubrick’s intentions are not to thrill us. That is apparent in the beginning. The purpose is to make us think about the film, to look at it like a philosopher would, and discuss what it’s about. I think Stanley Kubrick was stoned when he filmed the majority of the movie, which would not be uncommon for the 1960s, when everyone was stoned.
There is one amazing element to this film. The visual effects. No argument. They are the best I have ever seen. They looked real. In fact, I was almost convinced I was in outer space, or at least they actually did film it in outer space.
The sequence of the ship boarding the station that looks like wheels features another amazing effect. A stewardess walks to the end of a hall, then slowly walks up the circular room’s wall and eventually ends up on the ceiling and walks through a door. And when Dave (or Frank) takes a run around Discovery 1’s circular room, it’s amazingly executed.
Kubrick places the camera sideways and we watch Dave or Frank run on the floor but also go round and round. Ok, this is to hard to describe, it needs a visual. See the movie.
The acting isn’t anything special, but the voice of HAL does leave you chilled. I loved HAL and even played a spoof of him in a play (I should’ve seen the movie first though). HAL was awesome, the best computer character ever. Far outdoes C3-PO and R2-D2 of the Star Wars franchise.
And the opening sequence is amazing. You here the trumpets while at a planet. The camera moves towards the planet and another planet, along with the sun, appear behind it. As the music and credits roll, you get closer to the other planet till you fade out.
The theme is only heard three times. Once in the opening sequence; again when the ape discovers tools; and a third time is when the Star Child looks on at earth.
The music is another interesting factor of this movie. Stanley allowed his composer to compose the 2001 theme, and I believe that (not quite sure) the composer also came up with the monolith music, which can get very annoying and start hurting your ears (the whole point, of course).
As I stated before, the visual effects are amazing. They are far better then the CGI crap we see today in movies, such as the current Star Wars movies. Even Frank’s lifeless body floating through space looks real.
The apes in the beginning also look real. Coincidentally, this movie was released the same year as Planet of the Apes, another weird look at Sci-Fi.
So there is great awe surrounding this movie. The docking scenes are exhilarating, the worm hole scene inspired the graphics you see on CD recording programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player, and overall this movie spawned all the other great space movies.
If the special effects had sucked, this movie would receive a flat F. But since Kubrick does make it exhilarating, I have to concur with a much higher grade.
As far as recommendations go, I would recommend this to movie freaks and Stanley Kubrick fans. The rest of you with ADD (or ADHD) stay away. This movie will put you to sleep.
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