Movie Rental Review
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United States/United Kingdom, 1968
U.S. Release Date: 4/3/68 (re-release scheduled 1/1/01)
Running Length: 2:19
MPAA Classification: PG (Mild violence, mild profanity)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Douglas Rain (voice)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick & Arthur C. Clarke, based on “The Sentinel” by Arthur C. Clarke
Cinematography: Geoffrey Unsworth
U.S. Distributor: MGM
Movie Rental Review Rating: 10/10
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a landmark, science fiction classic - and probably the best science-fiction film of all time. I remember when it was released, my dad was a big science fiction fan and he took me to see this movie. I was only six years old at the time so, I had many questions about
2001: A Space Odyssey. I remember he explained each question patiently.
2001: A Space Odyssey opens with “The Dawn of Man”, set in the prehistoric past of the Pleistocene era about four million years ago. Primitive apes encounter a mysterious black monolith, after the experience they become endowed with intelligence. The next scene we see one of the apes playing around with a bone and figures out how to use it as a weapon. The fight over a water hole between two ape tribes is won by killing the head ape of the unarmed tribe. Man’s brutality is born.
We jump to the year 2000 where a graceful dance between a spaceship, a pen, flight attendant and space station set to the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss. The destination of Dr. Heywood R. Floyd (William Sylvester) is the moon to investigate the findings of the second monolith. I enjoy seeing the past’s vision of the future. Dr. Floyd makes a call home on a Bell Picturephone and speaks to his daughter Squirt (director Kubrick’s daughter Vivian). Note the spectacular sight of the rotating Earth. He wishes her a Happy Birthday.
To the music of The Blue Danube, Dr. Floyd is on Pan Am spaceship (a lunar landing craft), the spherical Aries, it takes passengers to the Clavius base on the moon. The flight attendants are serving TV-dinner style tray, fitted with straws and pictures of the different foods, which was a typical viewpoint of the 60’s time period when artificial foods were being introduced into the diet. Upon the landing, we see personal in space suits as well as personal in the windows as the ship is lowered into the moon base just to get an idea of the sheer size of the base.
Next lag of the journey is a “moon bus” jetting out to the Tycho excavation site where the second monolith is located. Dr. Floyd and some of the other Clavius base personnel, Halvorsen (Robert Beatty) and Michaels (Sean Sullivan) enjoy eating hearty cellophane-wrapped sandwiches.
The men stand on the top of the ramp leading down to the excavation site in awe of what they see. They circle around the monolith and Dr. Floyd touches it with his space glove. They gather in front of the monolith to have a picture but just as it is taken, a ray of sunlight strikes the monolith that signals the end of the dark, 14-day lunar night. Suddenly, the object emits a ear-piercing, electronic screeching noise. The group is stunned and staggers, reeling helplessly backwards as their helmet headphones are filled with the blasted signal.
We jump 18 months ahead to the Jupiter mission where we see how Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) and Mission Commander Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) relax during their journey. During the interview with BBC-TV evening news program, ironically titled “The World Tonight,” we first meet the HAL 9000 or HAL. HAL runs all aspects of the ship and in his words, “the most reliable computer ever built”. HAL has a concerning conversation with Dave about the mission and the odd circumstances surrounding the mission. This shows HAL to be more than just a number crunching machine but thinking and reasoning entity. Then HAL suddenly interrupts: “Just a moment, just a moment. I have just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It’s going to go 100 percent failure within seventy-two hours”. After receiving permission to replace the bad unit Dave leaves the ship to go EVA and replace it. After running diagnostics on the unit Dave cannot find anything wrong with the unit, HAL suggests to put the unit back in and wait for it to fail. Mission Control says that the HAL 9000 is in error but HAL says that it is human error. When they question HAL about the error, he is very defensive and evasive in his answer and explanation. HAL really get suspicious when Dave and Frank get into the pod together to discuss the problem and the alternatives to the inevitability of a break down of HAL’s systems. Little do they know that HAL can read lips and has interpreted their entire conversation.
When return after the “Intermission,” Frank is outside the spaceship Discovery to replace the original AE35 unit. HAL controls the pod to swivels and moves toward Frank. HAL extends the pod’s mechanical arms and murders Frank by snapping the oxygen lines. Frank is sent hurtling through space away from the Discovery a long with the murderous pod. Dave sets out after Frank to rescue him but we know that Frank is already dead. Meanwhile back on Discovery we peer into the lifeless eye of HAL as he executes the three other passengers that are still in hibernation. When Dave returns to the ship HAL will not open the pod bay doors and reveals to Dave that this mission is too important for him to allow Dave to jeopardize it. HAL also lets Dave know that he could read Frank and Dave’s lips while they were discussing their options. Dave has to go into the ship via the emergency hatch but HAL points out that Dave does not have his helmet with him and it will be difficult to entry the ship in this manner. Dave makes it back in and he is not happy with HAL.
With his helmet on now and bent on taking care of HAL we hear HAL say those famous words “Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave?”, HAL even attempts to reason with Dave, I like the comment about taking a stress pill. As Dave shuts down module after module HAL says his mind is going and he is afraid. To keep HAL occupied while Dave shuts down the rest of his systems, he gets HAL to sing a song “Daisy Daisy”. Dave unknowingly triggers a prerecorded message made by Dr. Floyd expressing the full mission details and the only one onboard the ship that knew about the full mission details was HAL. HAL realized the importance of the mission, which is why he mistakenly took the steps he did to insure the success of the mission.
The Discovery approaches Jupiter and we see the third monolith in the distance orbiting Jupiter. A pod bay door opens and Dave takes a pod towards the monolith. As he approaches the monolith, there is a strange alignment of celestial bodies. Dave enters what appears to be a time warp a gateway to somewhere, at the time the effects were quite stunning. Dave sees stars and galaxies come alive on his trip to the monolith, almost like the monolith is communicating it’s real purpose of existence.
After traveling over some psychedelic landscape the pot lands in strange bedroom lit by a glow from the floor. Dave is looking a little older in his space suit as it looks around in an open door he sees a figure sitting in a chair. The figure turns to look at Dave then turns back and stands up. It is Dave but, much older. Dave in the space suit is gone and the older Dave returns to eating. Dave drops his glass on the floor and sees a yet older Dave lying on the bed. The older Dave lying on the bed points up to a fourth monolith that is at the end of his bed. Dave now becomes a glowing, hazy, translucent fetus or embryo in an embryonic sack that rests on the bed. To the music of Thus Spake Zarathustra we see him looking over the earth.
Here at the Movie Rental Review 2001: A Space Odyssey is comprised of an excellent story, stunning effects and epic musical themes, making this movie one of the all time greats.
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Official Site of the “2001: A Space Odyssey ” movie
Here is what others are saying about it:
“It is spectacular, beautiful and thought-provoking, and the special effects still work…”
– Apollo Movie Guide, Brian Webster
“…take advantage of the big screen to get the most out of this visual masterpiece.”
– BBC, Almar Haflidason
“Alone among science-fiction movies, 2001 is not concerned with thrilling us, but with inspiring our awe.”
– Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert
“…awesome…”
– Evening Standard, Alexander Walker
Movie Rental Review: 2001: A Space Odyssey
