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Originally Posted by omloflump
...when you're making a film you have to use the medium to its full potential. Otherwise, you're just doing a second-rate novel. Why bother making a film if you're not going to invest any care in the only elements that separate film from everything else? You have to give it a reason for being a film; you have to justify the medium’s (and the film's) existence. Don’t make the audience think that the only reason you made your film was because you couldn’t write a novel. It’s true that it’s easier to make a ‘good’ film then a ‘good’ novel, but that’s no excuse. Make something uniquely filmic.
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I completely agree with your assessment. I've said it a million times and I'll say it another million, film is a visual medium. It's strengths are completely different than the strengths of the written word or even music heard on its own. Many people (including a disgustingly high number within the industry itself) don't understand this. Telling the vast majority of a story through the visuals is what makes film great. This is why silent films are missed. Not because I don't love sound films, but because filmmakers were much more inventive with the visuals then since they had to be.
In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the last 30 minutes of the film or so (along with the first 30) are miniature silent films. There's no dialogue. Kubrick shows the final stage in human evolution without needing to say a word. Another great choice he made is that we don't see the aliens. We know they are watching and studying Bowman, as we see him rapidly aging and transforming, but their physical form remains a mystery to us.
It is also fitting that Bowman's trip through space is through a tunnel, a birth canal of sorts, since that is what Bowman is to do: be reborn into a higher form of existence. This isn't just a fantastic sequence, but it's a necessary sequence. The aliens have allowed humankind to reach this point with only very minor interventions in the forms of the monoliths (guiding lights in a sense). Mankind could have destroyed its own future (the next stage) had HAL, a human creation, succeeded in killing everyone aboard the ship to Jupiter. But Bowman succeeded in stopping HAL and escaping.
What is it that makes all of this even more intriguing? It demands thought and comprehension of VISUALS. Thank God some people know how to make movies.
