I was one of those naive viewers who never glimpsed Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in its trippy, deeply philisophical grandeur. I took in the amazing special effects, still impressive after 1968! Despite the minimal dialogue, I could feel the tensity and grandeur of spacecraft traveling in the moon, the hopelessness on an AI controlled ship and the twisted horror of the final sequence that involves eighteenth century decor. "What?" I asked myself. "Eighteenth century decor? What is this movie anyway?"
Actually, that's how I was throughout the whole movie: I kept asking "What's going on? What's with the apes and the monolith?" I knew the "past" was shown first to show evolution of humankind but it was pretty ambigious nonetheless. It was the same for the mission on the moon, where another monolith was found. Then the trip to Jupiter...I will die knowing that there is a movie that will make me reflect on these twisted images for years to come. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a movie that will haunt me to a point where I need to see it again. So Kubrick's science fiction adventure was, well, almost near impossible to comprehend with the mysterious mode of direction that was used. And yet, perhaps the movie was not made to stand by itself. Enter Arthur C. Clarke, the man who helped write the screenplay with Kubrick and
wrote the novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The novel, according to this review by Steven Silver, the novel helps explain the events going on in the movie even though it may only be 90% compatible with the movie. For one thing, the novel version depicts Dr. David Bowman and his crew traveling to Saturn as opposed to Jupiter. I have not read the novel but I will certainly have to pick up it sometime soon.
Actually, that's how I was throughout the whole movie: I kept asking "What's going on? What's with the apes and the monolith?" I knew the "past" was shown first to show evolution of humankind but it was pretty ambigious nonetheless. It was the same for the mission on the moon, where another monolith was found. Then the trip to Jupiter...I will die knowing that there is a movie that will make me reflect on these twisted images for years to come. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a movie that will haunt me to a point where I need to see it again. So Kubrick's science fiction adventure was, well, almost near impossible to comprehend with the mysterious mode of direction that was used. And yet, perhaps the movie was not made to stand by itself. Enter Arthur C. Clarke, the man who helped write the screenplay with Kubrick and
wrote the novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The novel, according to this review by Steven Silver, the novel helps explain the events going on in the movie even though it may only be 90% compatible with the movie. For one thing, the novel version depicts Dr. David Bowman and his crew traveling to Saturn as opposed to Jupiter. I have not read the novel but I will certainly have to pick up it sometime soon.I usually have some interpretive commentary about what I have seen or read. My best guess about the movie (and other comments I read on the Internet) is that the primary theme is evolution. We see humanity as just a bunch of savage apes eating, growling and fighting amongst one another. Then a giant black stone slab comes down to earth and truly sends the apes into a frenzy. Thousands of years later, humanity goes into space and even a major airline company that exists in the real world gets its own space ship line up. On the moon, where no one would expect nothing but a pitted surface made of chalk, another monolith appears. The "evolution" of this action has us focus a few years later on David and his crew, watched over by a highly intelligent and articulate AI complex named HAL.
HAL may think higher than a human being but may be an antagonist towards human evolution; technology benefits us in many ways but it can destroy us in many ways as well. Why would the atomic bomb be glorified? The device is one technological achievement of humans that would ultimately destroy us. HAL, designed to benefit humankind, turns against its human crew. David succeeds in dismantling HAL and proceeds onto the next stage of evolution; a transcension beyond, time, space and even body!2001: A Space Odyssey will haunt my psyche for years to come. I'll imagine that I will watch it seventy times and still not get the full picture! Kubrick was awesome for A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove but his props for weirdness in the sci-fi realm tops off all the films he created during his lifetime.
- Kristopher
No comments:
Post a Comment