An imposing black structure provides a connection between the past and the future in this enigmatic adaptation of a short story by revered sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. When Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and other astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission, their ship’s computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behavior, leading up to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time.
The movie has no dialogues for a lot of its screen time. There is just background music in those scenes. Its more a visual movie. And there are some scenes where the screen just goes blank with no sound or dialogues. The scenes involving HAL are very good.
The visual effects are excellent even by today’s standards and the movie had won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects back in 1969. The cinematography and art direction are excellent. Stanley Kubrick’s direction is excellent.
I think Interstellar is inspired from this not just in plot but even some scenes.
Keir Dullea was very good as Dr. David Bowman. Gary Lockwood was good as Dr. Frank Poole. William Sylvester as Dr. Heywood Floyd. Douglas Rain was very good as the voice of HAL 9000. The rest of the cast was decent.
Now not everyone will like it though. Many will hate it and think its pretentious. The movie requires a lot of patience. Frankly I could not understand the ending and read a interview of Stanley Kubrick on IMDB which explained the ending and it made sense. There are as usual people over reading the ending and coming up with their stupid theories.
Recommended
P.S. This was actually a comment that I made back in Oct 2015.
Tags: Stanley Kubrick
