This is part 6 of 12 of my retrospective of Stanley Kubrick’s career.
From this point on, viewing Kubrick's movies on Blu-ray makes a huge difference.
It is understandable why "2001: A Space Odyssey" was the first "flop" from Kubrick during its original theatrical run. Back then, in the last 60s, its psychedelic scenes were maybe its only saving grace with all those hippies high on new sensory experiences. Even nowadays, the movie is much too slow and difficult to understand, both of which were intentional goals: You're supposed to feel slightly bored, you're supposed to have unanswered questions. So, what could feel like a intellectual, pretentious movie is instead an art movie about moods and raising questions rather than answering then. But in this world of the "Lost" TV show and fast-paced action movies, audience now expect spoon-fed exposition à la Inception.
What makes this movie so groundbreaking is not necessarily the spectacular visual effects (this movie is now 44 years old), but more its unconventional narration. Scenes take great time to establish themselves, and then they cut to another scene in jarring ways. The focus, both visual and musical, slowly but surely pulls you in emotionally, so this requires to be seen in a distraction-free environment. The plot is thin, yet is laser-focused into raising unexpected ethical questions: Why is HAL more moody than humans? Are tools mostly for killing? Can we accept that there are things we can't understand? Are there things beyond life and death?
In a way, 2001 is both a very light and very heavy science fiction story. And while most people will be bored of their minds watching it, as cinematography it is a masterpiece unequalled ever since. (Yes, The Tree of Life is a poor and pretentious imitation of 2001 that everybody will forget about in 5 years.)
Published on May 14, 2012 at 20:18 EDT
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