Thoughts on 2001: A Space Odyssey

Thoughts on 2001: A Space Odyssey

I thought the ape story was hilarious, having seen a rip-off of it in Mel Brooks' History of the World. Jokes aside, I could go into critiques of the story, such as the the unrealistic idea of apes living in barren desert devoid of water instead of, you know, a jungle. However, I appreciate the idea: that in one moment, an ape picked up a bone and turned it into a tool, forever changing the course of mankind. This was seemingly caused by the ominous alien monolith. Are aliens controlling our technological or societal advances? Maybe. If so, thanks guys!

HAL. At first he's creepy, then downright ominous, then full-blown psycho killer. Why did he do it? If we assume that he's intelligent enough to believe he is sentient and thus is sentient, he probably did kill Poole out of self-defense because he knew Poole and Bowman were planning on deactivating him. HAL is a computer without the 1st rule of robotics (don't kill humans or allow them to come to harm through inaction, Asimov reference). But why did he kill all of the other crew members? That was NOT just a malfunction, for sure. My theory is that HAL thought that if he killed Bowman and Poole then maybe the other astronauts would be awakened somehow and deactivate HAL. Alternatively, it could have something to with the secret message HAL was carrying. I think that only a pre-programmed order to kill those men (more conspiracies!) or self defense would have led HAL to kill the crew in their comas. Still, whatever the case, HAL deserved what he got in the end: the computer version of death.

This film is a work of art for its use of cinematography, special effects, and audio (think Poole's heavy breathing). That being said, like some great art (Mona Lisa?) it doesn't make sense to the average viewer, which I am. Given the choice, I would re-watch only the ape scenes and the HAL scenes, because I'm an American who likes to be entertained enough not to be bored and I felt like I generally understood those parts. This movie does make a nice change from the hero cycle and movie cliches that encompass almost every other movie I watch.