this year marks the 50th anniversary of 2001: space odyssey since it was conceived so i just feel like its a perfect time for a revisit! for me this is not only a film, but instead a transcendent cinematic experience that graced us with one of the most grandeur and visionary artforms in history. kubrick explored a theme thats way ahead of its time and conjured it in an insanely sophisticated visualization, resulting to a blitz of candy for the eyes.
it contains minimal narrative (there's literally no proper dialogue for the first 20 minutes) and the expositions are juxtaposed with epic space scenes and goosebumps inducing music such as johann strauss' classic blue danube and gyorgi ligeti's haunting lux aeterna. with kubrick's masterful skills, the whole combination transforms into a visual poetry that gradually draws us into its surrealist world and eventually leaves us breathless. the defying gravity scene via centripetal motion, the innovative model for spaceship designs, the highly detailed interiors and exteriors; they present a futuristic vision but also look realistic at the same time.
through this masterpiece kubrick invites us to reanalyze the basic nature of human instinct, evolution, and the thought that we are never alone in this universe. that there are endless possibilities out there that we have yet to discover, that theres no limit for our intelligence to advance, and that in the end its not about the destination but the journey, hence odyssey! undoubtedly a film that will be discussed for many generations to come.
"it gets better," they said.
"bad things dont last forever," they said.
what they dont say is things dont get better actually we just grew tolerance and thicker skin to overcome pain a bit better because life is literally a game where we gotta be stronger to beat difficult stages except game rewards us with happy ending while in reality happiness is temporary no one ever ever equipped us with proper strategy guide and we are thrown into this simulation that keeps on glitching and breaking and reality does not matter because nothing feels real anymore as the constant blow hits us over and over again numbing our senses and the ability to function. i hate the phrase 'everything happens for a reason' because it sounds more like a lazy excuse to justify terrible things but i guess sometimes all we can cling to is hope and thats not even a safe option because hope is a double edged sword that either motivates or blinds us. people are proud for cheating death but honestly cheating life sounds more appealing to me.
