As an artist myself, I consider films as one of the most
important form of art. It's the movies that give us a beautiful escapism from
reality to a world of their own. It's a Rocky Balboa or an Ellen Ripley that
makes us want to become like them. A movie like Iron Man releases and every
engineer wants to design a suit like the one of Tony Stark’s. It's the world of
Star Wars or Star Trek that makes people all over the world fight over the
characters and circumstances that don't even exist in real life.
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| img source: stangehorizons.com |
This Alex North musical starts off with a slow rumbling with a
black screen which goes on for minutes, with the audience expecting something
huge from the movie before the title appears. Once the movie started off, the
imagination of the future in this movie stunned me to such an extent that I had
to check whether this movie really released in 1968 or not. Nobody could have
imagined the technology of Skyping and astronauts using tablets in space during
1968.
Despite excellent acting and amazing characters, it's the
character of HAL 9000 for me that steals the show. Voiced over by Douglas Rain,
HAL 9000 is ironically the most "human" character present in the film
that won't take any second chance for the mission to succeed. Douglas Rain made
such a huge impact by his voiceover, that this voice further inspired Anthony
Hopkins to behave as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs the way
HAL 9000's voice behaviour was. It is a film like no other, not only
revolutionizing science fiction, but also changing the way films are
conceptualized. It was probably America's first film and has inspired the likes
of George Lucas and countless other writers and directors.
Apart from its visual greatness, the reason the film spawns so
much discussion and analysis is because so many people have so many different
interpretations of it. Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, his co-writer, had a
vision, but we have never really found out what was going through their minds.
Of course, the skinny on its 'message' is how technology of the future will
take over humanity and decide the course of our lives unless we are careful.
2001's ending is one of hope, a version of our rebirth through the star-child's
flight back to earth. Just like the monoliths shown in this movie, this movie
is an epitome of perfection and a movie that will inspire humanity to rise for
many more generations. For me, 2001: A Space Odyssey is and will always be a
legendary piece of art.
- Kshitij Choudhary (BJMC I'D')
