2001: A Space Odyssey And Blade Runner: Classics Of Science Fiction

What makes a good film? If we look at many of the ‘classics,’ they all share something in common-depth. Whereas, say, Animal House is a simple comedy with a blatant plot and no real opportunity for intellectual study, Dr. Strangelove is a subtle commentary on a great many issues. Yet when we loo

Not only is it visually powerful and gorgeous… It heralds the start of something grand.

Compared to HAL, Dave Bowman and Frank Poole look positively robotic. Presumably, most of their existence on the ship is spent doing routine checks and exercising, with the occasional chess game against HAL. Both Dave and Frank change little, nor do they show any real enthusiasm for the mission.

The special effects and style of both films are widely different; yet they manage to appeal to the same audience. Both films manage to be thought-provoking and worth seeing several times, and the complexity of their respective plots necessitates this. The films are not necessarily meant so much for conventional entertainment as they are for thought. Perhaps Piya Shedden says it best, in her two-page review of 2001:

In Leon’s apartment, Deckard finds photographs. Why would a replicant, one without memory implants, keep mementos of his life? It is another sign of “humanity” in something that is supposed to be a machine.

Cavagna echoes this sentiment in his AboutFilm review:

HAL the computer, on the other hand, has it comparatively easy. The crew of the Discovery believe (at first) that he is infallible and utterly trustworthy. Yet he, too, ends up becoming a foe of the humans aboard- and his villainy is again due to human failure. Although it is not explained in either the film or the corresponding novel by Arthur C. Clarke, it is made clear in the sequel (2010: The Year We Make Contact) that HAL acted the way he did due to the way his instructions were worded; he believed it was more important to keep the purpose of the mission secret than to keep the humans alive.

Scenes such as the docking of the spaceships to the Blue Danube Waltz and the scene in which the Discovery glides into view, first its bulbous head and then the rest of it, its slender midsection seemingly endless, are hardly realistic or down-to-earth, but are majestic and fantastic works of art. Blade Runner, on the other hand, is very much a down-to-earth film. Although it hardly lacks special effects, one can hardly believe that the same person did the effects for both films. Cinescape talks of these effects:

Some topics in this essay:
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