2001: a Space Odyssey

There Is Space For All

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Now that Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick probably have the occasion to collaborate again in a dimension we do not necessarily have access to yet, - say NO to Illegal Alien Telepathic Broadcasts by the way! - this moment seems pleasant of a time to review the 1968 sci-fi output these two giants of heavyweight entertainment presented grateful consensus with. Probably one of the most serious fictions ever arranged as a motion picture buildup, 2001: a Space Odyssey is a work intended to guide viewers unto massive thinking processes opposed giving out strict, deliberate aspirations of delivering integral statements and corresponding answers. Odyssey is a thorough stare to Infinity to let us wonder if Infinity inspects us back at all.

Clarke and Kubrick even stated that if someone understands their work perfectly, then they have failed miserably as storytellers. As a statement of monstrous ambitions and proportions, Odyssey succeeds blatantly at capturing and presenting the unconceivable "vastness" Mere Space greets humanity or even existence with, yet surely this latter definition of "vast" is an unavoidable understatement, since we have NO CAPACITY to understand

True Infinity

We have but cautious models and superfragile approaches yet surely Space-Time reigns beyond our capacity to understand it completely. Clarke and Kubrick have realized this handicap of ours back in 1968, and choose to offer a buildup with evident interest regarding the matter we do start to cautiously touch upon. As of today, I do think that there is nothing more wrong or more arrogant a human being could state than to claim to possess the proper approach let alone complete understanding for, and of the Infinity this here casual Universe entertains us with. The consecutive one Biggest Ignorance is to claim that the Universe ends. Haha! And then there is: nothing, yes? Show me nothing, I so do beg for you. Third Biggest Ignorance is: not to Worship Pizza. You can not really do much more about the Universe Issue than noticing and admitting that all human conceptions prove to be useless, worthless and out of place - but NOT out of space - by the moment human tries to precisely model it's unavoidable basic nature, which is: Infinity.

Space owns us. Space gives us: Space. And all of a sudden: we are hopelessly lost in freedom. Freedom is our prison. Sad, no? Welcome to the Ultimate Paradox, this here Enigmatic Burden you could call human existence if you prefer, thus let us see what signals and games these two brilliant minds of Clark's and Kubrick's have incorporated and offered for us in a work that recognizes Mere Space for what it is: Mere Unknown. I think we shall even say: the Not-Knowable. Stoic, dark, majestic. Oh, and surely:

There Is Space For All.

When Space-Time is about to be revealed, neither Clarke, Kubrick, Ligeti or Strauss know or allow jokes to be told or even hinted at. The director offers you an exquisite soundtrack support to escalate the blatant effectiveness the image sequences do possess on their own. The senselessly - thus, highly sanely - powerful, brief space-symphony Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Strauss is a re-occurring theme to accompany the visual output while György Ligeti's musical language offers you a massively thorough experience of how exquisitely special and improbable moods music can summon. Odyssey is more of a testament and semi-passive observation process on mere existence itself than a film with an urge to fill the playtime in with event-oriented narrative vibes, thus the core story buildup develops with the majestic ease and calmness a huge spaceship would soar unto unknown parts.

Kubrick gives you The Dawn of Man, in case you doubt that, he even states all this via a text to compromise the marvelous opening scene. As you would have had the chance to take the profoundly powerful still images Kubrick shows about this "Just-Earth" for some casual quiz affair about geography. A massively relevant segment in the film's body, The Dawn of Man accounts a prehistoric period characterized by stripped, intimidating, enormous spatial perspectives and a general "grouchy mood" of the very Planet, a mood by which this organic habitat would have not exactly decided yet whether to evolve unto a place to greet it's few species warmly or to choose torpor instead, tolerating NO observers present on it's surface whatsoever.

Big words should be kept carefully so they do not lose their proper meaning via overuse, yet one can not escape the persistent need of admitting that even a superbrief sequence of this vision lefts you completely baffled. The prehistoric ape-like humanoids to offer the main narrative force in the segment are realized via similarly stupendous convince power: their general behavior, temper and intelligence level is thoroughly depicted and/or hinted at, no approach is given or allowed to doubt the authenticity, the mere weight of the depicted fiction. Funny thing is: when fiction DOES kick in, the buildup grows to epic proportions without you noticing the transformation - you can't help but take part in it instead.



One day some bigass monolith is appearing at the vicinity of the apes. You see, these Highly Mysterious Artifacts of Unknown Origins usually have some funny tendencies to exhibit. Like: they: TELL you. Like. Things. The leader of the pack gains an insight shortly after the Monolith's manifestation, thus Man recognizes the possibility, the option to use and to rely on Tools. Even recognizes that Tools can be used as Weapons. The ape leader smashing apart the skeleton he sits next to with a bone club he just invented is a segment to give you a permanent retina stigma, and there is but one, and only ONE type of retina stigma that we are looking for: the permanent. Add Thus Spoke Zarathustra to it and you necessarily left speechless. Good thing me just writes here. I suppose we shall safely say that the very first sequence of Odyssey weights in as primal candidate for a maximum Onion rating, yet fear not: I dare say that Kubrick commits

Space-Time-Overkill

in the very next sequence in which you have the chance to take a free stroll via some casual Space-Time-Ideal with Strauss's ENTIRE, I mean: ENTIRE! Blue Danube Waltz to support this here pleasant, but senselessly lengthy scene. Let me tell you: this sequence is still acceptable, yet Kubrick evidently gets lost either in Strauss's music or in his very own, very personal Space-Time Ideal. Believe this NOT though, as I just lied: he gets lost in both of them. It is not to say that the scene would have no beauty to it. It is more like that it has sooooo much stomped-and-trampled-out beauty to it than you can't help but wonder what an index finger is useful for. Sure, that may sounded a bit harsh. But this is the thing, folks, let's face it. Once you combine Strauss's great romantic music piece to support a Space-Time vision as long as these exquisitely comfy and friendly melodies do keep going, then:

1. You will need to cast immensely brilliant magic spells as a movie director if you do not want to be accused of effect craving. 2. Either your images or the music will grow tired. Strauss wons though, as you can still appreciate his music nicely and clearly while you drift away to sleep, thus no longer having relation to Kubrick's input.



Having no particular aspiration to account the cautious, yet undoubtedly elegant Monolith-story arc thoroughly as it might spoil your opportunity of finding links and possible connections yourself, let us say that these strange artifacts seem to be scattered around our known galaxy and they always do have a primal impact on humanity once they are discovered and tinkered with. The Monoliths are of supreme importance in the narrative, yet their significance grows evident throughout their relatively wide interpretation field one could approach them from. A Gift from God? A Curse from God? A Gift from Aliens? A Curse from Aliens? But subtle symbolism to represent Man's urge to Seek, to Evolve? Do not sweep neither of these approaches immediately away if I might recommend so and choose your interpretation yourself.

The original story by Clarke which was published a couple of months after the movie's debut emphasizes the Alien interpretation - yet the connection between the film and the text is a flexible one, and it is such by clear and strict intentions from the authors. The final sequence of Odyssey with the Psychedelic Megatrip could be safely interpreted as a radical inner transformation, a spiritual process in which man is pulled through blind infinity just to face and overcome his suspected, his conceptualized boundaries, those that were might be boundaries only due to the ideas, routines, ways of thinking, seeing and experiencing that man thought to be True, Proper, Legit and Believable via his senses and current inner capacity. By the final scene I tend to think that

Blind Existence, Rampant

is collapsing on your protagonist, who fortunately chooses NOT TO BE CRUSHED by this experience - which is an All Time Option by the way and also is the quite correct route to psychosis - rather he takes part in the Ultimate Transformation his current form of development level allows him to adept for. Surely, I do not claim that this is the correct and final interpretation, yet it might be more fruity or more interesting to approach the matter via this way compared to the Alien or God thesis, those that seem to be more easily accessible, yet, without a doubt: similarly defendable motives and explanations. They tend to avoid curios prospects though, in my opinion.



- Is There Anybody: OUT THERE!?
- You BET!

Now for HAL. The HAL 9000 Supercomputer Unit is one of the primal protagonists of Odyssey, a quite inventive fiction delicacy Clarke presents you with. The unit mimics human emotions so efficiency of communication with humans is increased, yet this particular segment of the story arc relies on top level suspense buildup techniques that the authors deliver with timeless elegance. HAL reports a malfunction in one of the shuttle's unit, thus a routine check is imminent by the crew. They find that there seems to be nothing wrong with the accessory in question, so they start to wonder if HAL itself exhibits signs of malfunction, giving out dangerous misdiagnoses.

They are of course aware though that accusing HAL of malfunctioning could lead to unpredictable results IF the Supercomputer is INDEED gone crazy. So they lock themselves in at a safe cabin and discuss matters privately, their focal point to negotiate is whether they should disconnect the unit. Only they just imagined. HAL reads their lips and thus becomes aware of the danger it has to face - and, all of a sudden: what seemed to be but mimics of humane emotions from HAL - quickly become frightfully alike to the Real Deal. Let us notice the wide interpretation field which is similarly included and offered even in this aspect of the story, a segment that is quite capable to sell itself out on it's own, absolutely independent from the core buildup. We have a wide array of possible assumptions, each is highly defendable and do lead to interesting answers. HAL might have misdiagnosed indeed and simply grew fearful of the possible consequences of it's mistake. Or, it might have concluded that human error will be inevitable during the mission, thus it chose to erase the possibility: HAL faked the error so it could lead the crew to incriminate itself in a short while.



One of the absolute peek moments of Odyssey is HAL's reaction when it's disconnection seems to be imminent and quite unavoidable. A bizarrely beautiful period, as mere machine, artificial semi-consciousness tries to exhibit humane emotions in hopes to find resonance it can generate a harmonic vibe with. It seeks the emotional solution via the language of pure mathematics, shooting off the options, the equations, one after the other. Brilliant, brilliant fiction stuff. Fiction stuff to give you the Good Old Shivers which is a rather rare friend to greet in science-fiction.

Odyssey remains an amazingly stable and excessively strong visual output even if we do inspect the techno mood it does deliver. An immense amount of work was devoted consulting with scientists and engineers of the era to establish a vision with the legit edge to it, thus these sober governing factors all remain intact to this day and do save the movie steadily from having to acknowledge a dated techno feel to it. Calm, fluent, serious, cleverly playful and elegantly majestic: 2001: a Space Odyssey is a true cultural mark in Space-Time, reigning at the highest peeks of serious science-fiction entertainment.



- I'd NEED to take a leak but I might as well just DO IT with THIS suite on!

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