2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick, 1968
I went from thinking this film was a self-indulgent piece of crap, to really liking it, to thinking it was an extremely drawn out piece of self-indulgent crap to really enjoying the film as a whole. The film is truly drawn out in every sense of the label. Both static shots and entire scenes seem to be held out longer than is comfortable for today's general viewer, but overall it lends the film a unique feeling and tone. The stark portrayal of space is an interesting counter to more recent sci-fi films as the silence of space is emphasized not only in lack of diagetic sound, but in the absence of a soundtrack. Generally, viewers rely on some sort of ominous music or soundtrack to inform them about how they should feel regarding otherwise ambiguous imagery. This film embraces silence which I feel conveys a greater sense of discomfort.
This film is considerable amount older than I originally thought, and I can't imagine how stunning the final chapter would have been to a contemporary audience. I thought the middle chapter was an eerily relevant cautionary tale and you won't see me consent to any form of artificial hibernation any time soon.
Image Courtesy of litmuse on Flickr.
1 comment:
Ah, but be careful! There are some of us old enough that this movie was/is historically relevant in all kinds of ways based on the time. We are struggling to realize that not only is this movie now irrelevant, it was so then, and so are we now!
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