This movie is a complex work of director Stanley Kubrick,but it is well acclaimed by critics and audience all over the world.Even though film didn't run well for first two weeks,after that it improved commercially as well as by good reviews.Many thought this complex intellectual work in cinema will not reach well,but it proved them wrong.I know
that Stanley Kubrick has done just 11 mainstream feature films,each one
of them has different story plots derived from literary works.I was just wondering why such a reputation for him all over the world for just 11 films.So,i just got this movie and started watching with no expectation or information about story.The story is been written by renowned science fiction writer Arthur C.Clarke and i would say it is an exceptional material where we can explore themes ofevolution,A.I,E.T,origin and end of universe.The story has mystery and adventure in an innovative backdrop of space.But Arthur C.Clarke
said that 90% of movie is interpretation of Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick worked on this project for around 5 years,and released in 1968.It had some vision and forecast on technology,space life,space travel to be used on future,where some of them were successful.2001:a space
odyssey is one of the innovative films of it's times.Especially i was amazed the way that this movie has explored some intellectual concepts through a movie story. Nobody might have expected to see this kind
of achievement in a screen,where we see visuals of space,space craft and others.I am sure this movie taught the movie making fraternity the fun,fantasy,adventure,scope through a science fiction movie. The first 4 minutes had mysterious back ground score with blank screen after which the movie started.The movie started with a chapter called "The dawn of man" which had 15 minutes sequence in a desert,which was supposed to be Africa 4 million years ago ,where we see various activity of historic apes .It had no conversation,just various visuals communicating evolutionary concepts,especially the usage of tool.We also see a black rectangular wall like thing(which is called as monolith in this story)which appears mysteriously on a overnight .We see fear,curiosity of apes on the mysterious monolith.The ape learns to use tool,the first turning point of mankind.I think the 15 minutes ape sequence is controversial especially for casual viewers of cinema,because i switched off DVD as i was bored and cannot understand what was happening in screen.But i watched it second time with lot of attention,and was able to grasp some points communicated through visuals.But i was not very impressed of the ape sequence,because i felt things explained in that 15 minutes were not that important to story,as well as little boring.But i was really stunned by the subsequent 2 hours. Now we see the ape learning to use first ever tool and is been thrown which cuts to space ship, which indicates the progression of tool in the evolutionary process,and this happens in the year 1999.The stunning visuals show about space life like zero gravity toilet,pen flying away due to lack of gravity,food styles in space life,how
people walk in space.The visual showing the space crafts,costumes,visual effects,set decoration were amazing and it made me feel that i am in space travel,especially the classic composition background score made me connect with visual with lot of joy.The importance of background score is understood through this movie.Such a great impact it had. The story now starts as an American scientist is on mission to moon,where through discussions with his friends and conference speech,we understand there is a mysterious monolith been planted on moon by E.T,millions of years ago.The substance it is made of and the radiation it generates are extremely powerful.There is sense of mystery built on story about monolith through background score also.After that we see scientists go the place of monolith to research and as they try to take a photo,we hear a mysterious sound and scene cuts of to Jupiter mission chapter,which happen after 18 months.In this chapter,through visuals we see the space craft for Jupiter mission,which has 5 scientists,where three of them are in hibernation(in sleeping state with protection) to conserve energy for space mission.Through TV interview,we come to
know that they are accompanied by HAL9000 computer(A.I),which controls the overall mission and it is an extremely efficient A.I,that thinks like human.There is a a question been raised about its emotion also.
Suddenly the A.I questions the 2 scientists on mystery of mission,that to bringing couple of scientists to mission in last minute.Further it detects problem with
AE35 unit in space ship,as a result one of the scientist decide to replace it.But from the space team of earth,who have the HAL9000 twin,detects that information given by HAL9000 in space ship is wrong.HAL9000 gets
confused after replacing the
AE 35 unit and says the scientists to wait and let it fail to fix the problem,as they can afford to be out of communication from earth for sometime.Both scientist discuss on this crisis secretly getting away from HAL9000 and decide it to disconnect it.But HAL reads the lip movement and finds out that they are going to disconnect it.Now one of the scientist leaves the space ship through EVA pod and replace the original
AE35 unit,but HAL kills the scientist who went to replace and also kills three of them who were in hibernation.Now the other scientist leaves space ship through EVA pod to survive the one who is flying in space.After surviving him he returns to space ship,but HAL refuses to open the door.And he uses emergency air lock to enter space ship and disconnects HAL,after which he gets message through TV that real mission is to find the mystery of monolith in moon,which causes radiations in Jupiter. Now,we come to the final chapter,Jupiter mission and infinity,where we see earth,Jupiter and monolith aligns in the space and the scientist travel through time and space through EVA pod and finally reaches a 4
droom,where he ages and dies,and finally becoming a embryo in the death bed.Now we see the monolith in front of bed generating light,energy and he becomes star child. This film is path breaking in all aspects,but there is one side of audience and critics blaming it to be dull,uninteresting, and slow.Only if you love travelling space with sense of adventure and having the passion explore the mystery of universe,you will be enjoying.Otherwise,it's going to be a nightmare.Stanley Kubrick has given new dimension to film making and it's scope.The movie is evident that he is put a great deal of thought and hard work,for which we must appreciate.I really understood why he is such a powerful and popular film maker after watching this movie.Especially his movie making process is perfect,extracting great material from literature,concentration on background score,using powerful visuals.
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