Mind The Gap: In 2021, I’m Still Not Getting ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’
There have been a few movies that I’ve been coerced into watching with my father, including Citizen Kane, my last Mind the Gap post, and The Exorcist, which should have been one. And despite my dad and I having seen a few minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey together years ago (I believe it was solely so I could hear the iconic music, and nothing related to the film itself), we decided to give it the old college try. And unfortunately, just like with Kane, we were baffled as to why it’s widely proclaimed one of the greatest movies of all time. I’m starting to think there must be something wrong with my brain considering how many of these classics I just don’t seem to get.
I have nothing against classics. I have nothing against symbolism. I have nothing against science fiction. In fact, as a former English major and a huge movie lover, I enjoy all these things quite a bit. But despite this supposedly being the middle of that Venn diagram, it fell incredibly short for me. Mostly, that was related to the sheer length of this film. For so much of this movie, it feels like things are going in slow motion, and there is no benefit from it. No words are spoken, no plot is developed and, after a few moments, no visuals are astounding. It’s just flat-out too long. I wanted to appreciate the aesthetics, especially considering how old the movie is, but when we literally ended up fast forwarding through these scenes and just checking in to see if anything was being said, it just became exhausting.
The transition from the apes to the space travel plot lines are incredibly jarring, and my father and I had to google to make sure we weren’t missing something significant. Turns out, not even kind of. We actually got a bit invested once we reached the middle third of the film, and we started to come around a bit. There was a vague horror element I wasn’t expecting coming from the terrifying even-keeled nature of the computer (HAL) as his behavior becomes more and more sinister and problematic. Despite being able to telegraph how some of the main plot points were going to turn out, there was something incredible about how this was one of the first movies to actually cover these bases.
When the movie ended, I was befuddled. It seemed like I had missed something huge, but after double-checking the plot summary, I definitely remembered all the major story points, even if I did struggle with being able to tell all the vaguely similar white men apart throughout the film. I don’t love movies that are then described by the film makers as being ‘left open to interpretation’ but with zero direction. Rather than seeming deep and meaningful, it comes off as lazy, like they also don’t know what to do with it, but go nuts trying to figure it out for yourself.
I wanted to like this movie. I get no joy from severely disliking it. It actually worries me how different my opinions seem to be from some of the most famous critics on some of the most famous films. I constantly feel like there’s a level of intelligence that somehow missed me when it comes to media. Or, maybe everyone is somehow lying and the biggest conspiracy theory in the world is how terrible the most critically acclaimed movies actually are. Now that would be impressive.
Well, guess it’s time to see which other great works of cinema I can tear apart over the next few months. Shockingly, The Exorcist was my favorite of these classics I’ve been viewing lately, and I am truly not a horror movie fan.