Kubrick, Stanley--Criticism and interpretation

The concept of time in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey is examined from social, biological, psychological, and spiritual perspectives. In Arthur C. Clarke's novel, his version of the film, he treats the nature of time as a cyclical process. He eventually explains that the notion of physical time is non-existent or an impermanent illusion. While Clarke's novel interprets time, the film projects and manipulates the nature of space and time, which spectators may experience as reality. Time's direction can be viewed or experienced as a cycle from an Eastern philosophical perspective. However, a Western interpretation requires a compromise between two separate directions of time, one as a cycle, the other as linear. The film and novel ultimately negates the direction of linear time through the appearance of the mysterious monolith, which transcends and reincarnates human beings.