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Re: 201 A Space Odyssey. You get from this movie what you bring to it

Posted by David Aiken (A) on January 5, 2007 at 13:04:34

In Reply to: 201 A Space Odyssey. You get from this movie what you bring to it posted by Analog Scott on January 4, 2007 at 10:57:08:

I suspect that what we get from anything depends on what we bring to it. I don't think 2001 is a special case in this regard.

I bought myself a copy of 2001 last year and saw it for the first time in over 30 years. Just to make Viktor's day, I also bought a copy of Solaris last year and saw it for the first time after a very similar period. My feelings about both after the lengthy gap may be of some interest to some in this debate.

First, what they have in common: both are slow moving and both are set in space. The endings of both are very strong on ambiguity/uncertainty.

Now to the differences. My feeling about 2001 is that there is less to it than I remembered while my feeling about Solaris is that there is more to it than I remembered. Perhaps that's not surprising because I think I saw Solaris maybe 5 or 6 times in the first few years after its release while I probably saw 2001 twice at most. I can remember both making an impression on me but I think it's fair to say Solaris haunted me. That's still the case.

I think 2001 is an influential film rather than a great film. I don't find any great philosophical or psychological issues/questions in it, and I can usually recognise such issues since I have a degree with majors in both of those areas. It really consists of 3 parts, the introduction in the distant past, the scene on the moon, and the space journey. Each has a completely separate set of characters and I find all of them rather flat. There really isn't anything in the way of character development anywhere. I don't regard the change in Dave as character development, and I think it's gilding the lilly to call it 'evolution' or 'transformation' instead, though that is what I think we are supposed to see it as, simply because we have no real idea of what he becomes. Really all we know is that he undergoes radical change. I think it's possible to do a good movie without character development, but then you have to rely on story telling, action, and/or comedy and we don't get much of these.

Having said all of that, I still think 2001 is spellbinding visually and it's superbly put together. It definitely moved the goals for what could be done in sci-fi film in a way that I don't think any other film has.

In contrast, what I find in Solaris is what is missing in 2001: realistic characters with human flaws grappling in different ways with a troubling situation and some genuine moral questions. I'm not certain that there's much of what I'd call character development but Kelvin certainly changes in the process. Solaris is also broken into separate parts: Kelvin on earth and Kelvin on the space station with the first setting the scene for the second in a way that the lack of character continuity in the episodes of 2001 fails to do for me.

And after seeing Solaris again after a long break, I'm surprised by how much more compelling I find both the issues it raises and the film itself.

So that's my take on things. Ultimately I think 2001 is a very influential film which is extremely well made but with few strong resonances for me while I think Solaris is a great film with very strong resonances for me.

Everyone's mileage is definitely going to vary here.

David Aiken

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