Back when Space was Clean Life was simpler then ... in 2001

In space, 
no one can hear you yawn. 

I recently re-watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. I know I will enrage legions of Kubrick fans when I say I was underwhelmed. Geeze. Space was so clean back then. All those glossy white hostesses toting their trays: "You ain't nothing but a waitress in the sky" or in the void, I guess. It's all so disturbingly tidy. Those born after the age of Ridley Scott's Alien saga might be unable to relate to such neatly bundled outer space. For familiar comfort though, the dark universe is still full of mayhem and sudden often inexplicable death. 

The evil super-computer HAL reminded me of nothing so much as a really lame boyfriend I had once. First he cuts you off from friends and coworkers. Then he just quits speaking to you. Finally you have to shut him down. He seems rational on the surface but is ultimately jealous, violent and petty. Oh yeah. There's some bad memories for you. If 2001's squawking chimpanzees represent your critical family at holiday time brandishing a wishbone and daring you to grasp it and dream of a future that doesn't include a total loser, then the whole thing could have been an allegory of our crash-and-burn. Although in fairness HAL did have higher brain function which - as I recall - was sorely lacking in my sometime honey. 

Even the epic battle against HAL remains oddly antiseptic. If you are going to duke it out mano a roboto, shouldn't there be a metal exoskeleton sixty feet tall with huge titanium fangs? Advanced weaponry? Telepathy? Nope. There's more like a programming glitch, some eavesdropping and HAL grows fond of cutting off your oxygen supply. Well, that's just not cricket, is it? Perhaps Bowman could have turned HAL off and then back on again? Power cycling: it's not just for laptops anymore. 

Post-2001 cinematic space is cramped, noisy, poorly assembled and filled with gory death. Death at the hands of alien creatures with multiple sets of long sharp teeth or powerful weaponry. Ahhhhh. That's better. A stand-up fight instead of a bug hunt.


2001 on imdb. com