KWSAN REVIEWS
FILMS: '2001'
By BOB BUTLER Kansan Arts and Reviews Editor
Any film which can move Pauline Kael to write a five-page protest in Harper's magazine must be pretty controversial. Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" is that and much, much more.
Miss Kael panned the film, calling it a playground in which Kubrick spent millions on "toys" and held them together with the thinnest of plots. She thinks the film is artistically pretentious and boring. To a certain extent, she is right.
True, Kubrick does dwell a little too lovingly on his "toys." True, he is pretentious (it's hard to keep from laughing when his name flashed, God-like, across the screen to the pompous blasts of "Also Sprach Zarathustra"). True, we do get a little bored with the film's aerial ballets of rockets and space stations.
But these faults fade away when one ponders the film's finer points. "2001" is a daring cinematic adventure into the metaphysics of man's creation and future, told with the cold, slow deliberateness which characterized outer space itself.
“2001” is so complex a film it is doubtful many will catch its subtleties on first viewing (I've been through it four times and I'm still not sure I understand it). Kubrick, realizing this, has gone out of his way to explain his motives and goals in several magazine interviews. But what this all amounts to is that if you really like “2001” you'll probably have to see it more than once. Purists may grind their teeth at this—I see the film as a good book to be read again and again, each time picking up a little more.
Visually the film is beautiful, sort of an "Elvira Madigan" of the heavens. Kubrick's "toys" are fascinating to watch and I can't blame him for playing with them. "2001" may be the most
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technically impressive film of all time. After this the run-of-the-mill science fi tion film seems pitifully fake. One leaves the theatre wondering if Kubrick managed to shoot his crew into orbit for the filming.
"2001" is really three films in one: a documentary on man's past and his probable future, a wry comment on 21st century humanity, and a metaphysical exploration.
Apr. 9
1969 KANSAN 5
As a documentary "2001" looks back to the African deserts of three million years ago where starving apes with the potential of humanity are saved from extinction by an unearthy visitor. This opening sequence is hair-raising in its realism as the creatures fight for survival in a danger-ridden world for which they are ill-prepared. Then, in a single frame of film, Kubrick takes us to the wonders of the near future as man probes beyond his shell to explore the universe. Kubrick's visions are prophetic—whenever possible he contacted space scientists to make the sets and visual effects as realistic as possible.
As a comment on space-age man the film launches a devastating attack on the de-humanization processes we are already starting to feel. Kubrick's astronauts are cold, emotionless zombies while HAL, a murderous computer who decides humans are jeopardizing a space flight, is the only likeable, interesting character in
the film. Brilliant scientists chew their ham sandwiches with the same lip smacking and noisy grunts as their hairy ancestors. Hibernating astronauts die not as men but as tiny electronic blips on a screen with a light flashing "Life Functions Terminated." And the capitalist instinct finds its way to the stars with Pan Am spaceflights and a Howard Johnson space station.
But "2001" is above all else a complete metaphysical question. It is in this respect that the film becomes vague and confusing and loses its audience, for Kubrick leaves us not so much with information as with impressions: the weird light show which transports a helpless astronaut to another dimension, the mysterious bedroom cage he finds himself in and his rebirth as a star-child, floating back to earth with powers we can only guess at. We know that the astronaut is searching for a life-form which visited the earth far in the past, and we assume that he has been captured and changed by it. But what kind of power is this that can make monkeys men and men gods And do each of us contain the power to become godlike.
The film taxes the imagination and demands much of its audience. But "2001" has a strange way of picking up followers. Don't be surprised if you find yourself seeing it again and again. It keeps getting better.
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Kansan Arts Calendar
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ATTENTION
PRESIDENTIAL-VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES STUDENT SENATE CANDIDATES CLASS OFFICER CANDIDATES
Student Senate and Class Officer nominations due in ASC office, Union 105B, by 5:00 p.m. Thursday, April 10. ASC Elections Committee
There will be a candidates meeting Wednesday, April 9 at 7:00 p.m. in the Union Ballroom. Campaign and election procedures will be explained. All candidates and prospective candidates must attend.
Todav
4 p.m. - Poetry Hour - Robert Bly, visiting lecturer - Big 8 Room Union
7 & 9 p.m. - Classical Film - "La Marseillaise" - Dyche
8:20 p.m. - Experimental Theatre - Two Japanese Folk Dramas Thursday
7 & 9 p.m. - SUA Film - "The Maltese Falcon" - Dyche
8:20 p.m. - Experimental Theatre - Two Japanese Folk Dramas Friday
7 & 9:30 p.m. - SUA Films - "Come Back Africa" "Black Girl"
and "Barom Sarret" 303 Bailey
7 & 9:30 p.m. - Popular Film - "The Silencers" - Dyche
7:30 p.o. - Folk Dance Club
8:30 p.m. - Experimental Theatre - Two Japanese Folk Dramas
FOUR KILLED
CALCUTTA (UPI) — Security guards fired at workers rioting at a munitions factory in Calcutta Tuesday and four persons were killed. The workers, who were protesting the dismissal of a colleague, fought the guards and seven persons were injured.
NEW RULER
ACCRA, Ghana (UPI) — Brig. A. A. Afrifa took the oath of office Tuesday to become leader of Ghana's ruling National Liberation Council. The council picked him when Lt. Gen. J. A. Ankrah resigned amid a scandal over money last week.
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