Classic 60s Movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey

January was Classic 60s Movie month. Today bonus guest post comes from Jasper Lamar Crabb.

Movie Title: 2001: A Space Odyssey

Year: 1968

Writers: Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, based on the short story “The Sentinel” by Clarke

Lead Actors: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Douglas Rain

Director: Stanley Kubrick

IMDB Plot Summary: Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, object buried beneath the Lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H.A.L. 9000, sets off on a quest.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 60s Movie: On paper, this movie shouldn’t even work. There’s no clear protagonist — aside from mankind. Large stretches don’t advance the plot at all. And one of the most emotionally wrenching moments is when the non-human antagonist dies. But in Steven Spielberg’s words, like many of Kubrick’s works, it’s more than a mere movie — it’s a “complete environmental experience…” that casts a unique spell. In a decade marked by experiment, it was a stylistic shift for Kubrick. While all of his pictures up to that point had more or less fit the classical mode of filmmaking, it was here that he began to challenge the audience by flouting its expectations in various ways, including the use of radically slow pacing and alienating, Kabuki-style acting. Some found this boring if not infuriating. But those who were willing to give themselves over to the experience often found it hypnotic. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY covered the whole cinematic spectrum, from the big-budget Hollywood epic to the abstract filmmaking practiced by such auteurs as Jordan Belson, and fulfilled Kubrick’s intention to create an experience that hit the viewer at a deeper, more subconscious level than the usual fiction film. It was so intertwined with the times, being released only a year before the actual Moon landing and becoming one of the first films to be fully embraced by the drug culture. I’d venture to say that with the possible exceptions of EASY RIDER and Kubrick’s own DR. STRANGELOVE, it is THE emblematic film of the 60s.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie: The final tracking shot towards the monolith as astronaut David Bowman reaches out and dies, before his rebirth as the Star Child.

My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie: HAL’s lobotomy….

HAL: I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a… fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.
Dave Bowman: Yes, I’d like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me.
HAL: It’s called “Daisy.”
[sings while slowing down]
HAL: Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy all for the love of you. It won’t be a stylish marriage, I can’t afford a carriage. But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: It’s interesting to compare how Kubrick depicts various primal human activities in each of the four acts:

Compare how he shows eating — from the primates picking at plants and later chowing down on tapir meat, to the astronauts ingesting disgusting artificial slop in space, to Bowman’s final meal at the end of his journey.

Communication shifts — the screeching and grunting of the apes gives way to the overtly friendly banalities of the exchanges in the space station, and the interaction between the astronauts and HAL, an artificial life form.

Killing and death pervade the film, from the slaughter of the tapir and Moonwatcher’s rival to the chilly demises of the astronauts in hibernation and Bowman’s death and subsequent re-birth.

Family relations transform as well — compare the apes cuddling their children to Frank Poole’s birthday greetings from his parents.

Listen for Kubrick’s cameo appearence — according to Katharina, his daughter, Kubrick himself supplied the breathing we hear when Bowman checks into his outer space hotel suite.

Thanks, Jasper! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

Twitter: @JasperLamarCrab.

We already have a set of classic 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 60s Movies.

For the original post explaining the series, go here.

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