Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

2001: A Space Odyssey
1968
*****
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Douglas Rain, Leonard Rossiter

This influential science fiction film ambitiously charts the past and future of mankind in mere 140 minutes, from the early humans who discover the use of tools to the future when a man-made computer tries to outwit its creator; all under the watchful eye of a mysterious black monolith. Kubrick's adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's book is cinema at its purest. With the groundbreaking special effects and minimal dialogue he creates iconic images, and his use of music, most famously by Johann and Richard Strauss, is ingenious. It's a fascinating, exhilarating, and confounding film which defies interpretation.