Persuasive Essay

As the sun rises, the apes are roused from their sleep. Music and tension build as they begin to take notice of something off-camera. A large, black object is revealed, and the primates gather, at first terrified by the foreign, rectangular monolith towering over them. Curiosity overcomes the ancestors of man, and they move closer to inspect the device. From that point on, the hominids are changed, developing the ability to create and innovate. The camera focuses on a bone, man’s first tool, thrown in the air falling back toward earth. A jump cut occurs, taking the viewer millions of years into the future to the peak of man in the year 2001. A satellite in space appears on screen, a result of that supernatural event of the past.

 

This pivotal moment from the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most famous scenes in film history. The Stanley Kubrick-directed film follows the story of mankind, not necessarily any specific main character, and its evolution as humans branch out away from their homeworld into space. The film stands the test of time as a landmark in the genre and possibly the single most important science fiction film of all time. The modern state of science fiction in the film industry is primarily shaped by the legacy of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Staples of the genre, such as Star Wars and Alien, would have never existed if it were not for the foundation laid by Kubrick’s film. Ultimately, 2001: A Space Odyssey changed science fiction in cinema by rejuvenating a genre formerly associated only with B-List, cash-grab movies, with visually stunning, innovative special effects, and philosophical themes and ideas, that have been echoed throughout the genre ever since. 

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Prior to the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, science fiction was dominated by giant monsters, creepy creatures, and freakish aliens who had ruled the silver screen for several decades. Universal and Paramount’s monster movies, such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man,  Frankenstein, and King Kong, were considerable successes in the thirties and forties, issuing in a new wave of films to define the genre. These films by themselves were not necessarily of poor quality at all and “reflected the growing apprehension and dread felt by international audiences slowly moving out of the Great Depression;” however, the mountains of cheaply produced sequels and spin-offs of these films turned the science fiction genre into one synonymous with B-list movies only made for profit. This issue did not always exist; in the twenties, science fiction was a widely respected genre as filmmakers and directors would “infuse social commentary into the movies they were making” and turn fantastical stories into allegories of actual society. One of these films was Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, a landmark science fiction drama that incorporated underlying ideas of real-world social issues, such as class discrimination. Films such as Metropolis are prime examples of this utilization of more significant concepts and themes within science fiction that would diminish from films in the decades to come. It would not be until Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, however, that these philosophical and ponderous themes would re-enter the realm of science fiction in cinema. The ideas portrayed in Kubrick’s film range from the meaning of humanity’s existence to the dangers of artificial intelligence, massive scale ideas that contrast with the films pumped out by Hollywood at the time (Baker).

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Unlike most science fiction films made up to that point, it took Kubrick four years and a costly budget of over ten million dollars to create 2001: A Space Odyssey. By the time of its completion, it was the most expensive film ever made. Millions went into the innovative special and visual effects, such as the tedious front projection technique for the Dawn of Man scene or the complicated new process of split screening photography for the stargate sequence (Poole). Special effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull led his team of artists to create intricate miniatures and models and massive sets for the spaceship and Moon scenes. The special effects were so astonishing at the time that, after the film’s release, “many experts hailed Kubrick for the incredibly accurate depictions of space flight.” Such a significant effort had been put toward the attention to detail during filming that Kubrick even contacted real scientists who gave him feedback on decisions to make. For example, Kubrick reached out to astronomer Carl Sagan to ask for advice on presenting the extraterrestrial life forms in the movie. He responded by advising him not to depict the aliens as humanoid, leading to the decision to keep the aliens unseen throughout the whole picture, a concept unheard of in a time when monsters and creatures defined science fiction (“2001: A Space Odyssey”).

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Kubrick also wanted his film to differ from the rest not only in the grandness of the visuals but also in the story underneath. The main plot of the movie follows a crew of astronauts on an interstellar journey to investigate a strange signal emitting from nearby the planet, Jupiter. During the course of the mission, the ship’s artificially intelligent computer, HAL 9000, malfunctions, and attempts to kill off all of the human crew members, causing the film’s central conflict between man versus technology. While the film’s storyline seems relatively straightforward on the surface, the questions posed by the film’s beginning and ending sequences suggest a broader storyline following mankind itself from primates to extraterrestrial star-babies. To achieve this monumental feat, Kubrick partnered with acclaimed science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke on the project, writing a screenplay based on one of his short stories titled “The Sentinel” (“2001: A Space Odyssey”). 

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Kubrick wanted to create a film that was purely a “visual experience” rather than just a straightforward narrative story. Much to the displeasure of Clarke and studio executives, who found his ambitions to be too risky for their investment, Kubrick prevailed, pursuing “ambiguity over clarity” (Pipolo, "Space Odyssey”). The film’s ambiguity plays to the philosophical questions it proposes about “man’s relationship with the universe” and intended “to hit the audience in their hearts, minds, and stomachs.” 2001: A Space Odyssey accomplished this feat but to both positive and negative reactions from the public, with some audience members put off by the unanswered, broad questions the movie put forward. Other audience members were left feeling disappointed as they felt “Kubrick dedicated far too much attention to the impeccable technological aspect of 2001, at the expense of dehumanizing the characters and abandoning character development” (“2001: A Space Odyssey”). 

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The critic’s opinions were divided, and “the science fiction establishment hated it,” with famed science fiction authors such as Lester del Rey, Frederick Pohl, and Ray Bradbury denouncing the film. However, many viewers reacted positively, praising the film for its ambition, special effects, and unique ideas. Young people also seemed to enjoy the movie much more than adults, with children and teenagers rushing to the theaters multiple times to see it. The film also achieved the status of a “drug trip” movie, with hippies crowding to the cinema to specifically witness and experience the several minute long, psychedelically colorful stargate sequence. Overall, despite a mixed reception, the film proved to be a massive success at the box office (Poole).

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The impact of 2001: A Space Odyssey had an immense effect on the culture of the time, with the film resonating well with a new generation of filmmakers. A “VFX arms race” occurred with 2001: A Space Odyssey being the catalyst, as production teams competed to match the visual effects of the 1968 film. Directors such as Steven Speilberg, George Lucas, and Ridley Scott charged into the scene with the inspiration from Kubrick to create high-budget films such as Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Alien. These films would become substantial commercial space blockbusters of science fiction in the seventies (Murthi). Along with influencing some of the most successful films of all time through its pioneering special effects, the philosophical ideas and themes expressed in 2001: A Space Odyssey also initiated a change in the genre, with more intellectually poised science fiction films such as Robert Wise’s The Andromeda Strain, Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris, and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner releasing with some critical acclaim throughout the seventies and early eighties (Baker). Moving forward through the eighties, nineties, and the new century, films began to implement both philosophical ideas and the spectacle of visual effects into blockbuster films. Movies such as James Cameron’s The Terminator channeled 2001: A Space Odyssey’s theme of Man versus Technology in an action-packed blockbuster setting. As Vulture journalist Vikram Murthi writes, “2001 casts an enormous shadow on the last half-century of pop culture, let alone the science-fiction genre,” and the film’s “consciousness-oriented presentation of complex, multi-interpretive ideas has lingered in the culture for decades.” 

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Just as the black monolith altered the course of humanity, 2001: A Space Odyssey’s legacy proves that its endeavors have been successful. As Jay Tellote, a Film Studies professor at the Georgie Institute of Technology, states, Kubrick “made science fiction very respectable.” Before 2001: A Space Odyssey, the science fiction genre in the film was just getting by, failing to release its hidden potential for something greater than just cheesy, fun, and forgettable flicks. Then, Kubrick’s space epic appeared, spurring the change needed to innovate the genre and unsettling the science fiction establishment. When the British film magazine Sight and Sound crafted their list of the ten greatest films of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey came in sixth, which “means the critics now are looking back and saying science fiction has a place among the greatest films ever made” (Telotte). This monolithic film stands still in the modern-day as a nearly supernatural event of the past, a single point in the history of science fiction where everything seems to have changed.