2001: A Space Odyssey

Wow! Seeing this on the big screen with a remastered 70mm print is one of the great viewing experiences of my life. If you know me, then you probably know that I swear by this film (I rank it the third greatest ever made), but on the big screen and even after having seen it a dozen times, I noticed things that I had not noticed before and the genius of its director, Stanley Kubrick, became more apparent to me than ever before. Despite the fact that there is no dialogue in the first half hour and the last half hour of the 2hr. 20min. film (and not just a whole lot in the middle either), my eyes were glued to the screen. I spent most of the time staring in awe with my jaw gaping at the imagery in front of me. Kubrick takes it upon himself to tell the entire history of man and even into his future. While I can't subrscribe to the films godless worldview, I can appreciate its entreatment for man to take the next step in our "evolution". Not biological, mind you, but mental, whether that be the recognition of our dangerous dependence on technology, or our unhealthy tendency to kill each other. I won't even attempt to give a synopsis of the story, because there isn't one to speak of. I won't tell of it's complex, three-dimensional characters, because there aren't any. It's not a film about a story or even about characters, but about mankind and some bold ideas. It's ambitious to be sure, but also one of the very few films that seems to transcend its medium.

I never before noticed, or paid attention to how beautifully Kubrick handles the world of gravity in this film. Take for instance, towards the beginning, when the shuttle is landing in the circular space station, a shot pulls back through the center of spinning, circular space station, and through windows in the structure, you can see people on the bottom, the two sides, and on the top, all apparently standing upright, though from our perspective, some are standing upside down, or seem to be walking up walls. There are numerous instances of such concepts throughout the film and Kubrick always manages to capture them in a way that allows you to rediscover the reality of gravity for the first time (for me anyway). I also noticed a pervasive dark humor throughout the film that I had not noticed before. An obvious (though not the only)example of this is when HAL is begging to Dave, "to sit down, take a stress pill, and calmly think things out," right after kill the crew and denying Dave entrance back into the ship.

Even his technical mastery has never been so clear to me. When I think of the images in the film, I usually think of sterile whites and pales, but I began to notice his use of color. No one uses color in both lighting and production design as well as Kubrick. Notice the reflection of the display panel on Dave's face as he navigates the pod or the red light of one of the shuttles. His craftsmanship is superior. Each of his shots displays his legendary perfectionism in lighting, design, composition, and framing. I wish I could do a shot by shot analysis just bring out specific and understand it better myself, but all I can do is sit back in awe and wonder how he ever thought of doing it that way. Seeing this on the big screen and on 70mm is the only way to go. You notice all the minutae throughout the frame that may be lost when brought to a television.
To some this may be boring, confusing, ambiguous, cold, and bleak, but rarely have I felt more awake and alive as while watching 2001: A Space Odyssey.