"I've Never Completely Freed Myself From The Suspicion That There Are Some Extremely Odd Things About This Mission..."
With The Shining re-released into cinema chains across the country last year, the brilliance of Stanley Kubrick's masterful adaptation of Stephen King's most iconic novel meant that audiences could experience the works of one of the greatest filmmakers of all time for potentially the first occasion upon the big screen, and with this year being fifty years since the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the chance to embrace one of the greatest and most influential science fiction movies of all time within the confines of all its' cinematic glory is similarly too tantalising to pass by. Based upon Arthur C. Clarke's 1951 short story, "The Sentinel", Kubrick's undisputed masterpiece has been subject to tributes, parody and political analysis in regards to its' potential leanings on the filming of the Moon landing ever since its' first release, a questionable standpoint if ever there was one, and with groundbreaking special effects, a spine-tingling musical accompaniment and the subversive, auteur touch of Kubrickian's perfectionist idealism, 2001 remains to this day an unmissable experience, one which captures the scope of endless cinematic possibility and one which emphasises the bold strokes of a master filmmaker at his most unparalleled and extravagant.
With the fanfare of Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" bellowing majestically against the backdrop of Earth's reveal, a stellar introductory piece which rivals the opening scroll of Star Wars for most iconic science fiction prologue, the first act's dedication to the discovery of both man's ability to kill and the appearance of the ominous alien monolith is a staggering work of cinematic bravery, one which picks off those unable to handle the stagnated, silent aura of Kubrick's storytelling and one which features the most ridiculous, yet brilliant, editing jump cut in which two instruments of death are swiftly compared, just with million of years in between. With on-screen speech not occurring until the twenty minute mark when the introduction of William Sylvester's Dr. Heywood Floyd brings with it exposition which attempts to outline the ambiguous nature surrounding a supposed mass epidemic at a moon-based space station, the gorgeous special effects and cute, clever technical asides being presented to the backdrop of Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube" is an outstanding cinematic partnership, with the set design and Oscar winning visual effects both remarkable and as beautiful today as it would have been half a century ago, and for younger audiences who have been treated to increasingly impressive special effects over the past few decades or so, the one real reservation of seeing the effects of 2001 on the big screen is the shame of not seeing it back in 1968 when its' unprecedented spectacle would have been jaw-dropping.
As the movie moves into its third act and most impressive act, the trials and tribulations of the ill-fated Jupiter Mission is the centrepiece of the film's real action, a tense build-up of muddled uncertainty and of course, the deadly "malfunctioning" of the iconic HAL-9000, the super computer whose flawless and perfect technical record is questioned by Gary Lockwood and Keir Dullea's Frank Poole and David Bowman, two on-board scientists unaware of the bigger picture surrounding their suspiciously ambiguous deep space mission. With Douglas Rain brilliantly supplying the voice for HAL, his creepy yet elegant monotone speech is the work of genius, one which captures perfectly the sense of something that may indeed feel human but is undoubtedly still a cold and very calculating machine, a factor evidenced by the relatively nonchalant way death is portrayed on-screen. With the final twenty minutes dedicated to Bowman's journey through the Infinite, the famous surrealist "star-gate" sequence is absolutely bewildering and stunning to behold within the cinematic format, a vivid roller-coaster of beautiful imagery which transports the audience to science fiction heaven and beyond. With a concluding act which leaves all questions intact without clear answers or the chance for any form of meaningful resolution like the best science fiction movies are brave enough to do, 2001: A Space Odyssey deserves its' chance to be witnessed on the big screen, and with it hard to believe such a movie has ticked over to the ripe old age of fifty, it wouldn't be surprising to see Kubrick's masterpiece still as effective as ever in another fifty years' time.
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