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RE: Fresh Musings on Kubrickâ€™s Monument for the Ages: 2001

Posted by halfnote on May 11, 2008 at 21:30:13:
I have never seen Tarkovsy's "Solyaris", or the Soderberg's remake.

Is there a dubbed version of the Tarkovsy? I HATE reading subtitles. But I will certainly seek it out. I have already picked up a few interested critical tidbits on the film. So I'm primed.

The mere fact that some of you folks here see fit to compare it to 2001 speaks volumes. However, I will be surprised if it turns out to be a work of its stature. But I am definately intrigued, and I will keep an open mind.

Also, you have really put your finger on yet another interesting thematic cluster in 2001 -- the whole idea of deception. There are so many importat instance of it. HAL himself proliferates deceptive, duplicitous statements at every utterance.

"I enjoy working with my human counterparts"

"Thanks for the stimulating chess game, dave."

Then, there's the ruse about dave's psychological test, as though deceiving humans has been hard-wired into his "psyche." And the humans are very wary and distrustful of him, and he of them. Frank and Dave invent their own ruse to discuss their concerns privately about his fault prediction on the antenna. (Interesting phrase, in terms of the earlier ethical themes I cited ... "fault prediction"). Also, as you point out, the crew is not told the truth about the nature of the mission. And prior to this, a "cover story" about some sickness has been created to prevent "mass confusion" and "cultural shock" on the part of humanity, were they to find out the ACTUAL discovery of made on the moon. And this foreshadows, perhaps, HAL's own reaction to the terrible truth that he cannot handle -- namely, that he has made a mistake.

The idea that we are victims of a grand ruse, that we never know the truth, and that we would be unable to process it if we WERE to learn it is woven deeply into the film's fabric. We are left wondering if the Universe itself is not some kind of ruse, and, in high irony, if Kurick has not himself fashioned a "truth" in 2001 that we, as viewers, cannot handle.

Your point about the timeliness of the themes of deception, internationally and politically (themes Kurick has explored in Paths of Glory, and which he would return to in Clockwork Orange, perhaps most notably) are yet another example of this film's uncanny ability to work both within the context of its own time and to transcend it -- just as it does with its psychedelic themes.

There is only one other place where I have encountered this kind of concatonation of concepts ... this sense of almost inexhaustible richess in content and theme: the major plays of Shakespeare.