The 1960s was a decade of many things. The topic that was not of this world during that time were literal space travel, like moon landings. Space and future science fiction stories would all become a staple for those ten years and onward. In film, more and more movies were beginning to revolve around this kind of setting too. From the late sixties, this film was one that has left people talking about it despite its bashing on release. More significantly, the man behind the film Stanley Kubrick is another reason why this movie has the reputation that it does. One thing to keep in mind is, Kubrick is not your standard director. So to expect something familiar or something close to familiar would be not wise if interested in seeing this film. That’s not saying this movie is bad, but it is tough to get through.
The story, adapted by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke author of the original literary work, is about a small space crew who goes to find out about a mysterious dark slab of whatever. This is about as much as the audience will receive on this. For a film that runs two and half hours, the next question is, what else goes on? Well…a lot of scenes that go nowhere. The biggest crime this film commits against its audience is robbing them of their time. Despite its run time, it seems Kubrick added almost all the wrong ingredients to make full use of the story and its characters. There are several irrelevant scenes that appear throughout the runtime which do not provide any clarity or explanations related to the plot at hand. Such wasted time went into presentation and very little into development.
One can sympathize with being meticulous with a project and making sure establishing shots look good. However, when those kinds of shots take up multiple sections of the narrative, then the story ceases to captivate the viewer’s attention. There are very few characters that take the focal point of the story. William Sylvester plays Dr. Floyd who’s informed of the strange dark free standing tabletop. Then the writing jumps to Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), two humans aboard the space ship investigating the mysterious item. Accompanying them is their super computer guide HAL9000 voiced by Douglas Rain. Unfortunately, the only character who actually comes out remotely memorable is Rain’s performance as HAL9000. However, this doesn’t mean the computer is a well-rounded character. Most remember HAL9000 because of the soft and creepy voice over work Rain provided.
Another issue with the execution is the tone Kubrick is trying to convey in the story. There are moments where the scene being portrayed feels like it supposed to be whimsical or lighthearted and then it abruptly shifts to what should be a horror film. These kinds of emotions are felt especially because of the music. Pacing though is by far the worst element to this picture. Most film fans are aware of how controlling Kubrick was with his films. Coming from a photography background, Kubrick seems to enjoy focusing on various shots in order to convey a message or have the viewer create their own message. However, for example, when the viewer has to see how a character executes a piece of machinery step by step, it is beyond boring. Taking the time for certain things are needed. Taking the time all the time is not.
If there’s one thing that does work to this film’s credit is the cinematography. Why? Well it’s Kubrick’s biggest strength. With support from Geoffrey Unsworth who would later shoot for Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), the visuals are great for their time. With much of the backgrounds being mattes, much of looks photorealistic. There’s no discrediting it. It’s just that, these shots would’ve been better suited being sold as art at an auction, not in a movie. Lastly the music used in the film is okay because it is so well known now and launched several parodies later on. But with knowing that, it can’t be taken as seriously here either. Topping that off is that originally composer Alex North scored the movie, only for Kubrick to ultimately not use it. Thankfully North got a release of his score. It would’ve been nice to see it used instead.
Presentation is the word for this film. All other important components that make a movie work come dead last. However, anyone who enjoys Kubrick films should find it enjoyable, although that’s not saying much. For anyone else, there’s practically no story, the tone is misguided and the execution takes forever to gain traction.
No comments:
Post a Comment