'Space Odyssey' Proves Breathtaking

"2001: A Space Odyssey," viewed from a technical and creative standpoint is quite possibly the greatest motion picture ever made - and the most enigmatic.

In the first of two remiere performances at the Villa Theatre Wednesday, "2001" proved to be awesome, startlingly beautiful and a monument to the genius of its creators.

The lengthy (two hours and 40 minutes) Cinerama production opened under the auspices of the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce. A benefit premiere is scheduled Thursday by the Utah Chapter, Arthritis Foundation, with the regular run beginning Friday.

Infinity

Director and co-author Stanley Kubrick, who also brought "Dr. Strangelove" to the screen, takes the movie-goer into the nearer reaches of infinity as it may appear 33 years from now.

A curious slab - or one just like it - four million years earlier when it was worshipped by apes who had just discovered bones could be used as weapons in fighting other apes.

All this is spelled out in a prologue to the film.

Roughly a fourth of the picture unreels before a word is spoken. "2001" is essentially a visual experience; in the 160 minutes of its running time, there is less than 30 minutes of dialogue. Other sounds - a spoon, pencil or glass, strikes something - become all but dialogue.

Spacemen

Two spacement, Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, are assigned to track the possibility of a relationship between the lunar slab and high frequency signals emanating from Jupiter, a planet so distant that three other crewman are maintained in a state of hibernation . Dullea and Lockwood complete their assignment.

And then there is Hal, a highly sophisticated computer whose two human companions ponder whether or not it has emotions. Both men begin to distrust the chess-playing machine, until finally Hal kills one spaceman and attempts to prevent the other from entering the ship after a futile rescue operation.

Questions

Kubrick and his collaborator, scientist-novelist, Charles C. Clarke, provoke frustrating questions with "2001," and leave them unanswered.

Dullea's experience with Einstein's time theory as he nears Jupiter (He sees himself before he actually becomes that self, and finally returns - as a fetus - to earth, or an earth at least. The movie-goer is left to decide whether the earth is the one the spaceman knew.)

There are stunning scenes too colorful to adequately describe, in "2001."

It is a unique film.