2001 space odyssey

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) dir. Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvestor, voice of

Douglas Rain

****

At the Bloor Cinema in downtown Toronto on Wednesday I caught a

screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey" in glorious 35mm (a 70mm print

would have been nicer, but 35mm is just fine). In my brain I

transported myself to 1968 (before I was born) and pretended I was

watching the film for the first time at its premiere. I couldn't quite

pretend I didn't know what was coming next, but the experience was a

magical event.

When the lights went down the opening musical overture (customary in

those days for epic films) played for a couple of minutes. It's a

wonderful soundscape of moody murmuring and chanting. Then the the

opening "scene" set to Richard Strauss' operatic Also Sprach

Zarathustra. The audience is awe-struck with the most unbelievable

special effects, then, ever put to the screen. Kubrick at his most

audacious then, `flashes back' to the dawn of man - a Neanderthal man

chapter of the story which shows the moment of divine intervention

when man progressed as intelligent creatures. Then one of the

neanderthals throws one of his new bone-weapons into the air and match

cuts to an orbiting satellite thousands of years later. Wow.

We then meet Heywood Floyd, an American summoned to speak at a meeting

of scientists to discuss a brave new discovery on the moon. Floyd's

team investigates a mysterious black monolith recently been dug up in

a crater on the moon. The monolith, which had been purposely buried

there millions of years ago, emits a pulse toward the planet Jupiter.

The third chapter occurs 18 months later as we follow two American

astronauts, Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood),

on the space journey to Jupiter. Bowman and Poole's mission is

compromised when the ship's intelligence computer HAL 9000 (voiced by

Douglas Rain) runs amok and targets them for death. The rousing fourth

chapter moves from the physical into another dimension of space and

time. The monolith appears one last time before Bowman who experiences

the ultimate existential epiphany.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" is no doubt a difficult film and not for all

tastes. If it's you're first viewing, and you watch it with a clean

slate without expectations, the film will likely astound you beyond

belief. If you're like me, who, at aged 8, had expectations of "Star

Wars", you're in for disappointment. So it took me a second viewing in

my teen years to fully grasp and appreciate the enormous depth and

spirituality that Kubrick and co-writer Arthur C. Clarke puts onto the

screen.

Technically the film is still a mystery as to how some of the shots

and effects were made. Even today, against the highest-priced CGI,

Douglas Trumbull's special effects are utterly believable and

awe-inspiring. Kubrick knew this film would set the benchmark for

special effects and rewrite the book about science fiction on screen.

As such he took meticulous care to get the physics and science

correct. Watch how long he extends each procedure in the film. In the

waltzing spaceship dock sequence Kubrick painstaking shows us with

each immaculately composed shot how a space ship docks in zero-gravity

space. Watch the sequence where Frank Poole changes the faulty "AE-35"

unit on the satellite dish- the attention to detail on every switch

flipped, button pressed or body movement is slow and steady but

hypnotic in it's meticulousness (and reminiscent of the CRM 114

sequence in "Dr. Strangelove"). Kubrick makes art out of technique and

procedure.

Another of the great technical achievements is the famed rotating set

which allowed Kubrick to achieve the incredible tracking shots through

the circular ship. Perhaps the most head-scratching effect, is the

smallest - the floating pen with leaves Heywood Floyd's hand and

floats effortlessly in mid air and then is caught by a stewardess. I

now know how it's done, but only after reading it in a book many years

later.

The structure of the film is as daring as the concept. Splitting the

film into distinct and separate chapters means, in each act we're

introduced to a new set of characters. But they aren't so much

'characters' as instruments to propel the film forward. Bowman and

Poole are so unemotional in their work they are as robotic as HAL,

their computer nemesis. But their battle of wills is the highlight of

the film. And watch the brilliant foreshadowing throughout the chapter

as to how their battle will end - a brief cut a random hurdling

asteroid, a shot of the "exploding bolts" sign on the pod, or the

Bowman's red helmet left lying in the podbay.

"2001: A Space Odyssey" has become a cultural phenomenon because of

the way it unifies science and religion. "2001" tells us that though

space and time are infinite, it's God's presence, whether you believe

in the dogmatic teachings of the higher power, that that has caused

man, as a species, to break free of our physical bodies and achieve

the unachievable. Enjoy.