Considered as one of the finest films made in the world of cinema, this unique masterpiece can easily be quoted as something which simply goes beyond the normal cinematic imagination of a viewer. In simple words whatever comes to one’s mind looking at the title and genre of this film, it surpasses that vision by miles and comes out as an entirely different out of the box experience, beyond comparison.
The reason being, 2001 is not just a story but it’s a director’s vision of evolution in the past as well as in the future. It basically revolves around a monolith (a single massive stone or rock) which is mysteriously found in the early age, then on the moon and later in the coming era too. The film is an unbelievable kind of documentation by the master film-maker Stanley Kubrick which also won numerous awards including an Oscar for its Visual Special Effects. But being an extraordinary film, its watching process also needs to be conditioned first and one essentially has to keep in mind the following exclusive points before going for it.
The very first amazing fact related with this film is that it was made in 1967-68 talking about moon and the next century when mankind had not even kept their first step on the moon. And the historic event happened only in the next year i.e. 1969. Considering this fact, 2001 becomes an even greater achievement by the director as it was his vision alone with which he executed all the fabulous space and moon sequences in his film with such conviction.
The film has no dialogue at all both in its first and last 23 (appx.) minutes on the screen. And in between it has several scenes without any music or dialogue depicting the space……Why…because there is obviously no sound in space technically! So with more than one hour of silence, for many it may be a strange and unexplainable kind of film which even starts with a complete black screen for few minutes before showing the light.
In other words, 2001 is more like a poetic or artistic expression on the silver screen wherein the poet or the painter is in love with the space and its divinely silent ambience. But along with its regular silent phases it brilliantly uses few Classical music pieces as its Soundtrack which actually result in a great long lasting memorable impact on its selected viewers. Bundled with such unusual features, as a film “2001” might be ‘Just Nothing’ for the viewers looking for a certain storyline, characters or the usual kind of entertainment. Perhaps this was the reason why it was not well accepted by many critics in its premier (as mentioned in its IMDB page), wherein a few even left the show saying, “Will someone tell me what the hell this is about?” A few negative and unfavorable reviews even said, “Somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring", “A monumentally unimaginative movie", "Space Odyssey fails most gloriously" and “Superb photography major asset to confusing, long-unfolding plot."
The movie was reportedly not a financial success during the first weeks of its release. But later young adults were seen coming to the theater in increasing number, who felt excited to watch its ‘Out of the world kind of space sequences” under the influence of psychotropic drugs. Probably because it does give you few meditative kind of enigmatic minutes spent in the wide, black, silent space like in a trance. This youth craze actually helped “2001” to become a success in the end, despite of all the negative reviews it received in the beginning.
As a conclusion, do watch this classic only if you are interested in watching “A Modern Art Painting on the Silver Screen Canvas” painted magnificently by a visionary. Watch it, if you are really interested in knowing what the creative people really had in mind about the 21st century when they wrote or thought about it in the 1960s. And watch it only if you are ready to witness “An Experiment on Screen” which was and which still remains a one of its kind of great attempt in the history of cinema till date. It’s strictly not a normal movie from any angle and frankly needs a huge amount of PATIENCE in a person to watch it in one sitting of more than 2 hours. But once you have watched it, the film gives you enough to think about how BIG is the universe we are living in and how SMALL is our individual identity in front of those big celestial components.
To give you an idea, the film did enlighten me about, what could have been the first ever weapon in the hands of primitive man or manly-monkeys to kill another, different from big stones and tree-trunks. It had to be the strong big bones of the dead animals as shown in the film. Moreover I really loved watching a particular (few seconds long) innovative scene featuring the transformation of mankind from a bone tossed in the air to a shuttle travelling in the space. A single jump cut of few seconds taking you millions of years back to the beginning and then to the present or future.
An essential watch indeed, particularly for the students of the medium.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
Starring : Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood and William Sylvester.
