Evaluate: Kubrick’s ‘2001: A House Odyssey’ terrifyingly depicts human ingenuity

The Paris Theater showcased Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A House Odyssey” this previous Sunday, together with many different up to date and traditional movies screened in immersive codecs. Displayed in 70-millimeter movie, it was part of the theater’s “Huge & Loud” collection. Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece stays hypnotic in its presentation and surprisingly profound in its human subtext for a movie that prides itself on its technical achievements. 

Because the title suggests, the movie is each a voyage into humanity’s future and a mirrored image of its previous. Starting with the long-lasting prologue sequence, Kubrick brilliantly units the tone for the remainder of the movie by showcasing apes on a prehistoric Earth who uncover their capability for violence. When one out of the blue realizes their very bones can be utilized as a weapon, the apes instantly use it to wage warfare on each other and set up energy and dominance. The battle involves an finish when a mysterious monument often called Monolith out of the blue seems on Earth, inciting a combination of worry and curiosity among the many primates. 

After the prologue, the movie follows Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester), a scientist main a mission to find the Monolith, who serves as an allegory for human evolution sporadically all through the movie. Throughout this sequence of the movie, Kubrick unintentionally predicts expertise that might be used within the twenty first century, together with digital tablets and video calls. 

The movie’s last act, arguably what it’s greatest recognized for, follows astronauts David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) main an area expedition to safe the Monolith. They’re aided by a complicated synthetic intelligence, the HAL 9000 pc (Douglas Rain) — which controls lots of the spaceship’s features. The 2 astronauts are accompanied by three others in hibernation pods which induce sleep. When Bowman and Poole start to doubt HAL’s capabilities, they plot to disconnect it from their system and go about their mission alone. Nevertheless, HAL catches on to their plan, and out of paranoia and existential menace, makes an attempt to kill every of the astronauts.

Whereas “2001” is extremely wealthy in its narrative intuitiveness, the image is most well-known for its astounding filmmaking. Utilizing large rotating units, Kubrick and his staff generate a strikingly plausible world for audiences to immerse themselves in, with sensible results so convincing that they surpass the computer-generated visible results in trendy blockbusters. British cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth, who would later shoot Richard Donner’s “Superman” in 1978, captures the crew’s masterful craft in a mesmerizing manner. Regardless of the movie’s overwhelming ambition, the videography stays hermetic and targeted, typically utilizing simplicity to stir the viewer’s feelings.

The movie is as a lot of an auditory expertise as it’s visible, well-known for its intensive symphonic sequences. The sound design carries large worth all through, each virtually and narratively when constructing suspense — a talent Kubrick would replicate over a decade later in “The Shining.” 

Technical deserves apart, “2001” is a thematically placing movie, and at factors, even terrifying. The concept of discovery and leaping into the unknown is rarely as soon as offered as a lovely and even remotely constructive factor. Each time mankind invents or comes throughout one thing new — whether or not or not it’s apes utilizing bones as weapons or scientists creating synthetic intelligence — Kubrick frames it as a horror film. It’s nearly as if the mere considered creation is one thing to worry, not one thing to be inspired. 

“2001: A House Odyssey” is an extremely uncommon movie in that it prompts the viewer to ponder humanity’s ingenuity — not only for the sake of contemplation, however as one thing to actively fear about. It’s a timeless, one-of-a-kind masterwork that demonstrates cinema’s profound narrative and inventive potential.

The movie can have an extra screening on the Paris Theater on Friday, Sept. 15.

Contact Yezen Saadah at [email protected].