Central to the profundity of 2001: A Space Odyssey is the notion that few things are more meaningful than a child’s first steps, the emotive impact of this scenario manifest in every one of the film’s dizzying set pieces, albeit multiplied to epic proportions. At its core, the film is a journey, a summarization of those questions that are both the simplest in their inquisition and most profound in their answers: Who are we, where do we come from, and where are we going? The film exists as an exploration of these timeless themes and the existential weight that accompanies them, probing our growth from passive eating machines subject to the unforgiving elements, to conquerors of the world and pioneers of space, awaiting only a helping hand from a superior force to reach the next level of existence. Just as the ape-men in the opening act must learn to use the tools around them to survive, so, too, must man learn to walk again when subjected to zero gravity, captured here with a gravitas that suggests a celestial being waxing philosophical.
The first step toward the stars comes when mankind, presented as the aforementioned ape-men roaming the Earth millions of years ago, realizes that a bone needn’t be just a bone. This first (and simplest) tool gives way to an orbiting spacecraft in a ravishing and much-ballyhooed graphic match, then to the supercomputer HAL-9000 (voiced by the inimitable Douglas Rain), who—during the film’s most plot-driven sequences—captures our ambitions and foibles as he inadvertently wreaks havoc on the central mission to Jupiter. The human performances in the film have often come under attack for their proposed woodenness; in actuality they succeed in capturing an archetypal timelessness via their finely condensed formalism while also providing the level-headed antithesis to HAL’s deranged subtleties. Ironically, it’s HAL’s disembodied voice that provides the film with its most immediately human element, his tragically flawed personality (essentially manifest of a critical programming error) providing an emotionally vulnerable counterpoint to the film’s otherwise perfectionist, externalized perspective. His breakdown is one of sentient self-defense, his eerie, predatory malice subtly foreshadowed by the much-feared predators of the ape-men in the first act. Once again, man must come to a new level of control over his environment if he’s to survive, with Dave Bowman’s (Keir Dullea) decisive disconnection of HAL—cold, collected, and emotionless—echoing the ape-men’s newfound barbarity four million years prior.
Stanley Kubrick, like many great artists, often took to examining humanity from the outside in, a quality that both fans and detractors have mistaken for outright cynicism. 2001 is an incontrovertible counterargument to such misanthropic claims, both celestial and appropriately humble in its framing of our existence against the reaches of space, the semi-detached tone critical to its aura. Though God is never explicitly invoked in the film (Kubrick himself was something of a spiritual secularist), the unseen extraterrestrial forces—represented by the black, geometrical monoliths that appear at critical points throughout—are undoubtedly manifest of the God concept, and ultimately build on the notion. As a metaphor, the monolith is many things: an evolutionary trigger, a burglar alarm set to notify our having reached the next stepping stone, a porthole that penetrates the very fabric of space and time. It’s no coincidence that the towering figures bear the likeness of a doorway, in the final act sending Dave beyond the infinite of space only to return him back to Earth, born again. The psychedelic sequence that accompanies the former is one of the preeminent accomplishments in all of film—a climactic, orgiastic sequence of alien landscapes, exploding nebulae, and wafting tides of organic space that practically leaps off the screen. Putting to shame the comparatively shallow thrills of virtually every blockbuster ever made, it may be the ultimate example of mind-blowing cinema; show us your O face, baby, and prepare to meet your maker.
This, however, isn’t until long after the film has lulled the subconscious into a state of deep tranquility—essentially, a return to nature, of inwardness and meditation unhindered by the distractions of the rat race. Detractors often cite the film’s lack of dialogue as a source of extreme boredom, but it’s through the film’s silent, deliberate hypnosis that it achieves its ballet-like majesty, with every painterly image and effortless pan and cut communicating not only a necessary narrative/emotional cue, but the wordless beauty of mankind as a creative, conscious entity at work in the universe. This sense of awe is appropriately complemented by the marriage of Kubrick’s work with that of composers past, the thunderous notes of “Also Spake Zarathustra” catapulting man into the cosmos only for Strauss’s “The Blue Danube” to titillate his senses once there. The space-docking sequences employing the latter evoke a range of feeling far beyond the evocative ability of language’s too-literal limitations, at once exhilarating and bemusing in their waltz-like bliss, while the repeated use of the former marks mankind’s many ascensions throughout the film. Their rhapsody is apparent throughout the entirety of the film, as individual moments made eternal, as literature created in the flesh. The final passages are the most exultant in their taking us beyond ourselves into a wide-eyed state of untarnished possibilities; entirely without words, the film reminds us that, despite how far we’ve come, the real odyssey has only just begun.
Image/Sound
Like the difference between 2001 on a television versus inside a theater, so too is the difference in image quality on the previous single disc release and that of this new transfer. Image is crisp throughout with nary a flaw or artifact to be seen, and though the film’s model work is easier to pick out on DVD in these post-Lord of the Rings days, the space sequences are nothing short of glorious in their deep, rich blacks; flesh tones are balanced, the stargate sequence retains every bit of its cosmic splendor, and gone is that rotten yellow tone that permeated the former disc’s image. Sound is even more impressive: The wail of the monolith will send shivers down your spine, the cheetah’s nighttime prowl during the opening act is the stuff of pure nightmares, and Strauss will seduce your mind before you know what hit you.
Extras
Warner Home Video has certainly compensated for the bare bones release fans have been forced to rely on for the past six years. On disc one is the film’s original theatrical trailer, a carryover from the previous release but a necessary inclusion nonetheless. With the film is a rewarding commentary featuring lead actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. It sounds as though the two were recorded separately and mixed together after the fact, but it’s a good listen despite a number of empty stretches. Dullea is the more assertive voice, but it’s Lockwood’s naked reflections that are most memorable, particularly his expressed cynicism concerning mankind’s inability to coexist with nuclear power. Simply put, it sucks major that we’ll never get a commentary from Stanley Kubrick himself, but given the master’s approach to filmmaking, it’s probably better that way.
Disc two features a plethora of featurettes sure to entrance both newcomers and long-time fans alike. The best of these is “What Is Out There?,” in which Dullea reads from interviews from the likes of Kubrick, Isaac Asimov, and other renowned science fiction experts, exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the film and Kubrick’s ideas regarding the God concept. Typical but nevertheless expert is the Channel Four documentary “2001: The Making of a Myth.” Hosted by James Cameron, this special looks at the general scientific and artistic background of the film and its influence through today; essentially, a good introduction to anyone having difficulty accessing the artistry of Kubrick’s masterpiece. Next up is “Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001,” in which a generation of filmmakers express their indebtedness to the film and its continued influence today (in short: Star Wars fanboys, know your place). “Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001″ deconstructs the film’s technological aspects, from its near-exact predictions concerning space travel to the efforts taken to maintain absolute scientific integrity during the production. Fascinatingly tongue-in-cheek is “A Look Behind the Future,” a 1966 promotional short that treats the film as another in the line of Forbidden Planet-like spectacles.
Of all the special features, perhaps most fascinating is “2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork,” in which a series of early test paintings (presented by Kubrick’s wife Christiane) are mixed with footage from the final film and a segment of the actual scoring, providing a glimpse not only of the painstaking processes used to create the revolutionary stargate sequence but also how the final product might have looked under different creative circumstances. The 3-minute short “Look: Stanley Kubrick!” montages the director’s early work in the field of photojournalism, while an audio-only 1966 interview with the director provides the lone connection on the disc to the creator himself.
Overall
My God, it’s full of stars: a fitting DVD package for the greatest film ever made.
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