Who would think a movie from so long ago could possess so much value? How about a movie with minimal discussion and dialogue? Well, 2001: A Space Odyssey may just shock you. In three hours, there is a total of about forty minutes of dialogue. This dialogue wasn’t similar to our modern day normal human interactions, but rather directly to the point with no small talk. 

     The film 2001: A Space Odyssey was directed by Stanley Kubrick, who is one of the most influential filmmakers in history. Playing a significant role in the movie were actors like Keir Duella, Gary Lockwood, Arthur C. Clarke, and William Sylvester. Doing the voiceover for HAL I9000 was Douglas Rain, produced in 1968. The movie is a sci-fi based film that a non human device called HAL I9000 with artificial intelligence tries to warn humans about their exploration in space, but isn’t listened to. Instead, the two main characters attempt to shut it down completely, but Hal recognizes their plan and would go to extremes to prevent this. This movie is considered a top movie of all time by many and is extremely influential. The amount of money made was about five million dollars above their budget, so this movies success is evident in their revenue. 

     To begin the movie, a group of early primates are driven off from their water hole by another group of primates. The same group that was driven out would later return with bones as weapons and reacquire their territory. Millions of years later, a group of people from the United States are headed for Jupiter, with Dr. Bowman and Dr. Poole on board. There is an artificial intelligence called Hal, which is a computer that can communicate and act like a human. Hal warns them of the dangers of this trip and strongly encourages them to change their mind, but they refuse to listen and instead try to shut down the machine. Hal responds harshly to this and takes drastic measures against the two of them after reading their lips, which is honestly intriguing to watch how a computer has been affected by the human race. 

     This movie has many overarching themes that are fascinating, for example the advancement in technology and such, but not so in communication. This movie was designed to exaggerate the intelligence and technology that would be produced in the future, but the communication between humans decreasing due to it not being needed anymore with all the technology. There is minimal emotions and humans do not act as you would see them nowadays socially. The technology has taken over this part of their social life, and is replacing that key component of life, communication. This movie is suggesting that this will be our future, and we will begin to rely too much on artificial intelligence. It is stressed throughout the movie that there has never been any situation of Hal being incorrect, but yet the computer is still not believed in its configurations. This shows the reluctance of the doctors and their stubbornness as they don’t agree with an “emotionless” computer that was specifically designed for missions like this.

     I would definitely recommend this movie, however, there are also conditions that come with this. I feel that the person watching this needs to be a mature teenager or older, as this will allow them to understand and comprehend the underlying messages hidden within the plot. Patience is essential for a viewer of this movie, especially during the silent sections. Without patience, this movie will immediately become uninteresting and boring. If you stay patient and focus on what has happened so far, the value that this movie brings is worth it. Many movie reviewers immediately called this movie “dragged out” and “useless” upon its release, and this is because they did not actually take the time to appreciate and digest the plot. Personally, I would say whenever you get the chance, 2001: A Space Odyssey is worth experiencing.