Still awe-inspiring

2001: A Space Odyssey

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Screenplay by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke

From Clarke's story "The Sentinel"

The first time I saw Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was in seventh grade science class. My teacher, Mrs. Trillo, had regularly shown some fascinating Carl Sagan documentaries during the school year. When she put on 2001 there seemed to be mixed reactions from the class.  During the famous “Dawn of Man” sequence there were giggles from the class and a general feeling the film was boring.  Such sentiment today would be greeted with dirty looks from cinephiles.

I don’t even recall if she had shown us the full picture as class time didn’t often permit such long viewings.  I do remember being incredibly by awed by what I was watching.  It was high-grade science fiction like I had never seen before.  I was intrigued by the docking sequence and the use of a classical piece to accompany it (Johann Strauss’ indelible “The Blue Danube”.  I was mystified by the black monolith and wanted to understand its role.  Moreover, I was awed and inspired by this vision of space where advanced technology (both terrestrial and extraterrestrial) exists, space travel is frequent and easy and space is vast, beautiful and mysterious.  I didn’t really understand the film but sensed what I was seeing was something special.

Years later when I viewed the film again it was like seeing it for the first time.  To this day I still get chills during the docking sequence accompanied by “The Blue Danube”.  By setting space to classical music Kubrick makes us of think of elegance, sophistication, refinement and beauty.  Only Kubrick, the filmmaker who used Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain” infamously in A Clockwork Orange, could think of this. Only Kubrick could think of ingeniously jump-cutting from the ape throwing the bone in the air to the space station.

The main reason I think 2001 continues to awe and inspire is it challenges us think, feel and imagine beyond the usual.  The very notion that a supercomputer like HAL-9000 can manage an entire space station and crew was probably a wild idea in 1968. In 2011 it sounds conceivable although I think such artificial intelligence is still decades away.  Also, 2001 cautions us that with advanced technology new wonders are possible but artificial entities like HAL can probably never replace human beings.  Much in the same way advances in cinema and CGI have the ability to push cinema creatively there is no other experience like 2001.  Kubrick showed us the apex of science fiction and reminded us of what pure cinema looks like.