2001 - A Space Odyssey - A Space Odyssey

Adventure, Sci-Fi

Keir Dullea	Dr. Dave Bowman
Gary Lockwood	Dr. Frank Poole
William Sylvester	Dr. Heywood R. Floyd
Daniel Richter	Moonwatcher
Leonard Rossiter	Dr. Andrei Smyslov
Margaret Tyzack	Elena
Robert Beatty	Dr. Rolf Halvorsen
Sean Sullivan	Dr. Bill Michaels
Douglas Rain	HAL 9000 (voice)
Frank Miller	Mission controller (voice)

Director	Stanley Kubrick
Producer	Stanley Kubrick
Writer	Arthur C. Clarke; Stanley Kubrick

Mankind finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, artifact buried on the moon and, with the intelligent computer HAL, sets off on a quest.

When Stanley Kubrick recruited Arthur C. Clarke to collaborate on "the proverbial intelligent science fiction film," it's a safe bet neither the maverick auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would virtually redefine the parameters of the cinema experience. A daring experiment in unconventional narrative inspired by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel," 2001 is a visual tone poem (barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history of human evolution. From the dawn-of-man discovery of crude but deadly tools in the film's opening sequence to the journey of the spaceship Discovery and metaphysical birth of the "star child" at film's end, Kubrick's vision is meticulous and precise. In keeping with the director's underlying theme of dehumanization by technology, the notorious, seemingly omniscient computer HAL 9000 has more warmth and personality than the human astronauts it supposedly is serving. (The director also leaves the meaning of the black, rectangular alien monoliths open for discussion.) This theme, in part, is what makes 2001 a film like no other, though dated now that its postmillennial space exploration has proven optimistic compared to reality. Still, the film is timelessly provocative in its pioneering exploration of inner- and outer-space consciousness. With spectacular, painstakingly authentic special effects that have stood the test of time, Kubrick's film is nothing less than a cinematic milestone--puzzling, provocative, and perfect. --Jeff Shannon