From Technology to Transcendence: Humanity's Evolutionary Journey in 2001: A Space Odyssey (Critical Essay‪)‬

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (co-scripted with Arthur C. Clarke) has become an American icon. The Also Sprach Zarathustra theme is so recognizable that advertisers use it to sell everything from luxury automobiles to hamburgers. Moreover, 2001's cult status seems amply demonstrated by the literally hundreds of sites on the World Wide Web, offering everything from interpretations to film memorabilia for sale. Also the film has spawned a rich body of folklore among the in-crowd of computer literati. One legend has it that IBM named its 9000 Series processor after HAL, whom the film introduces as the third of the 9000 Series. Another speculation suggests that HAL's name originated from combining each of the three letters that precede IBM. (1) Not all viewers were convinced of 2001 's greatness when it opened in 1968. The turned-on, tuned-in beautiful young flocked to it as the ultimate cinematic trip, and some critics hailed as a masterpiece. But others were less impressed. Writing for the New York Times on April 4, 1968, Renatta Adler echoed the confusion many viewers experienced, citing: "unreconciled plot lines" and "murky implications of theology." She goes on: "some extra scripts seem required, and the all-purpose answer, 'relativity,' does not really serve unless it can be verbalized." Ray Bradbury offered a similar writerly perspective on the film. He found "the dialogue banal beyond extinction" and judges Kubrick "a very bad writer who got in the way of Arthur C. Clarke, who is a wonderful writer" (cited in Agel 299).