Neil Fein's Blog

Along with Elan and Judy and assorted other Random People they invited, we went to Bryant Park in NYC last night and saw an outdoor screening of 2001: A Space Odyessy. I enjoyed the film, although Martha didn't particularly.

It was fun to hear an audience all excited by the film, though; they applauded when moon-watcher smashed the animal skeleton, discovering tools; and they laughed when HAL kept saying to Dave Bowman, who he had trapped outside the Discovery-1 with no spacesuit, "Dave. What is the problem." "I know things haven't been quite right with me, but I'm much better now." "You ought to take a stress pill, sit down, and think things out." And of course they broke out into wild applause every time the monolith showed up.

This is a film... the cover of a book I own says it very well: "The critics loved it. The critics hated it." It's not a narrative, it's a statement. I have ideas on what it says, but the important thing in 2001 is that the viewer get the chance to figure that out for themselves. Even though I enjoyed it as a good science-fiction-action film, I discount the anemic sequel, 2010, as it's such a letdown to have a film try to retro-explain the grandeur.

Sometimes the question is more important than the answer. And the thought is more important than the reality.