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STARS...
Keir Dullea,
William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter
PLOT SUMMARY...
A strange artifact is found on the moon, leading to a space trip
to Jupiter.
QUICK SCAN...
This film could be compared to "2010". All these years
later, the film still has a great look, particularly in space and
on the Jupiter bound spaceship. The FX, involving an astronaut's trip
through a "star gate", are dazzling, and a highlight of
the movie.
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2001 - Review:
Although made almost thirty years ago, 2001, Directed by Stanley Kubrick,
from a Screenplay by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, remains one of
the best examples of quality Sci-Fi filmmaking ever made. Critics
talk about this one and praise it non-stop, especially the confusing
/ hallucinatory ending. Although "Star Wars" and its two
sequels may be more exciting, and certainly faster paced, you'd be
hard pressed to call them better films than 2001.
In the film's classic "Dawn of Man" opening scene, we get
a very realistic look at man's pre-Homo Sapiens ape ancestors. Following
the appearance of a mysterious black object, (which resembles a contemporary
TV remote control), and an ape touching of it, the ape kills a rival
with a foreign object, an animals jaw bone. Watching it, you feel
yourself present at a crucial moment in pre-man's history. This is
my favorite scene in the film.
Soon we're in space, in 2001, on a Pan Am spaceship. The space plane
is headed for the vast, still uncompleted, orbiting space station.
Aboard is William Sylvester ("Gorgo", "Devil Doll"),
playing a government man, sent to investigate when a similar mysterious
black object is found on the moon. Soon, he hops the spherical Aries
shuttle, heading for the Clavius base on the moon. The scenes in space,
aboard the space vehicles and on the moon, (which wouldn't be visited
for real, for another year), are totally realistic!
When Sylvester visits the black object on the moon, it emits a shrieking
signal, in the direction of Jupiter. Soon the phallic shape of deep
space probe, Discovery, is sent out to investigate... Keir Dullea
(also in "2010"), and Gary Lockwood ,("Survivor Zone"),
play the chief astronauts. Their haircuts and general features suggest
they could be brothers, and they have equally mild, bland personalities.
Their talking robot, Hal 9000, (the voice of human Douglas Rain),
seems more human than them, which may be is one of the film's points.
When Hal goes berserk, killing the hibernating crew men, as well as
Lockwood's astronaut character, Keir Dullea's character escapes in
a space pod, going on a weird black object enduced trip, which results
in his aging, death, and rebirth as a "Star Child", a new
kind of human as near as can be determined. For those who favor the
mystical, the film's 60's "light trip" conclusion is a source
of great satisfaction. For those who favor linear story telling, the
ending is irritating and long.
The films mind blowing Special Effects were created by Director Kubrick,
with Douglas Trumbull, who went on to make such Sci-Fi films as "Silent
Running" and "Brainstorm". Much new technology had
to be invented to create the effects, an approach echoed later by
Lucas and company with "Star Wars".
The use of classical Music, principally that of Richard and Johann
Strauss, as a musical counterpoint to the space scenes, was considered
revolutionary at the time. And in an era of the overly robust, contemporary,
instrumental Music behind many Sci-Fi epics, the choice of classical
is still refreshing.
2001 should be watchable for most Sci-Fi fans, except those who like
strong characterizations, and concrete endings. For double feature
fans, 2001 and 2010 are a great double bill.
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