2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

After being bored by The Shining (1980), disturbed by A Clockwork Orange (1971) and disappointed by Dr. Strangelove (1964), it was with some trepidation that I watched Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey this afternoon.

I was intrigued as I've seen parodies in The Simpsons, Futurama, etc, and I know the music, but other than these iconic moments I had no idea what to expect in terms of plot or anything else. I was initially skeptical that there was even going to be a plot, but the movie slowly unfolds into a mystery of sorts, as you follow the mysterious black obelisk from The Dawn of Man, through to the Moon, Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite, wondering just what it is and how it connects events.

Well it turns out that there are no answers, or at least none I could glean. While a lack of answers can sometimes infuriate (though I'm used to this, being an X-Phile!), with 2001 it didn't matter. I was never bored by the movie, despite long tracts where nothing much really happens, and the lack of explanatory dialogue, or much dialogue at all really! There are only a handful of characters in the movie, one of which is the engimatic HAL 9000 computer, whose dulcet tones I was familiar with before I sat down to watch. (Incidentally, there was only 1 actor I recognised - Leonard Rossiter from Rising Damp! Bizarre).

Much of the power of 2001 comes from the beautiful cinematography, and the gorgeous music. I was put in mind of Disney's Fantasia (1940) by the use of classical music to tell a story, and the only time I got a bit antsy was during the Beyond the Infinite sequence, which went on a little too long and felt like watching a screen saver! That would be my only niggle in the whole experience of this remarkable film. I was surprised to find out after watching that it was released in 1968, it's not dated at all on the whole, except in the case of some of the costumes and furniture, and the effects are better than some CGI I've seen in recent years. 

After enjoying 2001, I won't be as reticent to give some of Kubrick's other movies a go as I was before.