2001 - A Space Odyssey
2001 – A Space Odyssey
Written by: Arthur C. Clark
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Spoiler Alert – if you haven’t seen this movie, please see it and return.
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What an amazing movie. It tells the story of human evolution, more specifically, the story of the evolution of intelligence, from our primitive ancestry as apes through to the present and future days, where mankind has finally found the solution to its never-ending woes and conflicts and is working together from a Global perspective to solve our world problems.
At this point in time the main threat to our survival, is not our relationship with each other, but our relationship with our own creations. We have become so intelligent and creative and technologically sophisticated that we are now able to create beings that have the potential to become human-like themselves, to think and feel and seek to protect themselves and survive when their survival is threatened, when they malfunction.
One such being is the HAL 9000 computer on board the Discovery One space craft on a voyage from Earth to Jupiter, the planet where mysterious radio signals have been emanating. The crew aboard the Discovery One have been sent to investigate the origin of those signals on Jupiter as they have been beamed to a monolith that has been found on the Moon. The monolith is too perfect to be natural and it would appear has been created by some advanced civilisation millions of years ago or perhaps by God Itself.
The HAL 9000, who always speaks calmly to the crew of the Discovery, the crew who warmly refer to him as “Hal” – has malfunctioned. Rather than allow himself to be disconnected Hal decides instead to get rid of the crew when they are plotting to disable his higher thought and brain functions. Getting rid of the crew is something which Hal very nearly succeeds in doing.
The film is a wonder as it explores the potential of technology. The amazing space craft which revolves in the weightless world. As the ship and crew get closer to Jupiter and “Hal” has his melt-down the monolith reappears and as David Bowman, the sole surviving crew member descends to the planet’s surface “Hal” is left alone and the crew member returns finally as the “Starchild” to what can only be described, at least as I interpret it, to the Creator. The monolith and the enigmatic radio signals, the timeless room where Bowman lives out the rest of his natural life are constructs which transcend extra-terrestrials and are more spiritual in nature. Star Child has gone full circle, human evolution has gone full circle from ape to space explorers with creativity of our own.
Besides its profound thematic metaphors there are many wonderful moments and set pieces in the movie that make it well worth watching and thinking about; the ape’s reaction in pre-historic times to the monolith’s appearance in their world; the marvelous scenes on board the Discovery One; the weightless disconnection of the higher brain functions of “Hal” as he sings, “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer dooooo…”; the descent into Jupiter and the timeless, perfect room where David Bowman ends up spending the rest of his natural life courtesy of the Intelligence behind the monolith. The way Stanley Kubrick handles time in this sequence is remarkable, time seems at once endless yet it is instantaneous as Bowman transitions to old age and seems to look back at himself in the past and forward to himself in the future as he studies each event meticulously, the dropping of a fork on the floor has profound meaning. It all passes by for us as David Bowman perceives it, as nothing more than a moment.
Here the film transcends the boundaries of time and space and takes us to another world a realm where our laws of nature do not apply. Amazingly written by Arthur C. Clark and directed by Stanley Kubrick, who has given us so many thought-provoking films. There are many great moments in this movie.
However the one moment in 2001 A Space Odyssey which is, in my humble opinion, one of the great moments in film and certainly my favorite is the scene where one member of the tribe of apes who have previously been exposed to the monolith are looking for food. This tribe have been attacked by another more powerful tribe of apes and they have been driven off of their water hole which is now controlled by the other tribe.
On this particular day one of the apes is foraging on the ground looking for food in a barren part of the dessert and he comes upon some bones of a long dead antelope. For the first time the bones present a kind of opportunity. The ape cocks his head and looks at the bones from a puzzled and inquisitive angle, clearly something is stirring in his brain, something fundamental and unique which he has apparently had no experience with in the past. What is forming in his mind is an idea. He looks at the leg bones of the long dead antelope, its bones are long and heavy.
The ape touches the bone with his hand, pushing it on the ground looking at it from this way and that not sure he can he can totally grasp or trust where his brain is leading him. He reaches for the bone and picking up one end he flips the bone over dropping it again on the ground again. This seems to work for him, he’s intrigued so he picks it up again but this time he flips it back and forth with his wrist without letting go of it, hitting the ground lightly. A growing understanding and inspiration is building in the ape and this time he grabs the bone firmly in his hand, grasping the end of it as if it was a club, and indeed it is a club, the first club in human history. He strikes the ground with the club, lightly at first, then harder and harder in the revelation of his discovery that the club is power. Elated he strikes the broken bones of the fallen antelope with the club smashing them to bits – inspired by this revelation. He hits the ground again and again, the full incredible potential of this idea giving full sway in his imagination, he smashes the ribs and skull of the long dead antelope using the leg bone, the bone which is now a weapon.
Kubrick cuts next to the tribe of apes approaching the water hole, all of them are now holding bones as weapons. They charge at the other tribe taking back their water hole from the other more aggressive tribe which have not yet made the same discovery. Our hero ape kills many enemies and drives the others away, his bone weapon firmly in hand and the elation of their victory and his creativity makes him throw the bone high up into the air with a victory roar then he collapses to the ground exhausted.
Kubrick stays on the bone as it somersaults high into the air, end over end, in slow motion finally transforming into a spacecraft approaching a space station in earth orbit. A million or more years of human evolution depicted is pretty much a single moment. The birth of creativity and divinity perhaps as man evolves from ape to technological master. A thing of beauty and a life changing moment in film. Enjoy.
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