On Seeing Kubrick's '2001' in the Theater for the First Time

An experience I won't soon forget

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Thursday, February 3rd 2011 at 1:17 PM

Yesterday and today Seattle's Cinerama is having a mini sci-fi festival showing Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind, James Cameron's Avatar and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Based on the headline and image to the right I'm sure you've already figured out what film I watched.

This was my first time seeing any Stanley Kubrick film in the theater, let alone 2001, and it was one of those movie going experiences I won't soon forget. It's a completely different experience watching it on a screen nearly 70 feet wide and with Cinerama's all new digital sound system.

As I watched I forgot about any interpretation of the material I may have had and was instead swept up by the sheer size and scope of the production. You can't help but become absorbed by the film as soon as Ligeti's "Atmospheres" plays over a black screen for the film's the Overture leading into Richard Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra". It's one of film's grand moments.

I sat about eight rows back from the front, dead center. Typically this is a seat reserved for those that arrived late, but for this film, in this theater it was enveloping. I couldn't imagine a better seat. 2001 affords you the opportunity to look from one side of the screen to the other as it curls itself around its audience, first with the wordless mysteries of the ape, to the all encompassing blackness of space and finally a light display culminating in the star-filled embryonic fluid of the infinite.

As far as my personal interpretation of the film goes I see it as a circle of life story offering an alternative, or parallel, look at human evolution from ape, to present day man, to something currently unimaginable. These are ideas that can be pit alongside Darwin's theory of evolution and the Bible's story of creationism and in searching for the thoughts of others that have discussed this online I came across an essay by Don MacGregor titled "2001 and the Philosophy of Nietzsche" that I found particularly fascinating.

MacGregor's essay adds context and comparisons to what are my thoughts on the film exactly. His knowledge of Friederick Nietzsche's book, "Also Sprach Zarathustra", is knowledge I don't have and its influence on 2001 is undeniable when you read MacGregor's breakdown. Here are three key segments that stood out to me:

The Nietzschean idea seems to have its origin in Darwin's theory of natural selection. Nietzsche saw life as "a struggle for existence in which the fittest survive, strength is the only virtue, and weakness the only fault." According to Nietzsche, the evolution of man will travel through three stages: primitive man (ape), modern man, and ultimately, superman. Of this, Nietzsche wrote "what is the ape to man? A laughingstock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be to the superman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment." Man is just a bridge between ape and superman, but for the superman to be, man must use his will to make it happen, "a will to procreate or a drive to an end, to something higher and farther." [...]

In the journey from primitive man to superman, the monolith on the moon in 2001 marks a major moment. In the scene with the moon monolith, the sun is pictured directly overhead when the monolith emits a loud noise (perhaps to signal the arrival of this moment). This moment is described by Nietzsche as "the noon when man stands the middle of his way between beast and superman…a way to a new morning", the first morning of the superman. [...]

The superman is reached at the end of 2001. In the final scenes, the astronaut, David Bowman, lies on his deathbed. He wills the superman into existence before expiring. "'I love him who willeth the creation of something beyond himself and then perisheth' said Zarathustra."

There's always been a fascination with 2001 despite receiving mixed reviews upon its initial release in 1968. It has since grown to become considered one of the greatest films of all-time. I first saw it in 2007 at home. I marveled at the effects and the grandiosity of it all, but even though I enjoyed it I was unaware of what I was missing seeing it only on a 50" plasma rather than on a 68' movie screen. No film has ever given me a theatrical experience the way this one did yesterday. Should you be given the chance to do the same I highly suggest you don't pass up the opportunity.

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