The Most Famous Images from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and What They Could Mean
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
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Disclaimer: All reasonable comments are welcome, including reasoned disagreements. You will be banned for foolish talk, harassment, and hate speech on sight; it's a tremendous waste of life. I believe in freedom of association and, by extension, freedom of dissociation from you. 
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The starchild is indeed the sign of rebirth but a different one. The monolith always represents a leap forward, some form of rebirth from one level of human consciousness to another. After the whole movie, which seems to celebrate technology, the man is in a metaphorical space - a room of Enlightenment era architecture with earthy colours (green and brown), eating normal food, and having gravity (the glass break). Then the monolith appears, and another rebirth happens. This one, however, after the whole movie being about exploration of the space, looks back at Earth, and finally the child looks at the viewer in cinema (on Earth) - it looks into our eyes. I think what Kubrick is trying to say is that we need to refocus from territorial battles and a constant need to conquer everything (where space exploration is just another conquer endeavour). He suggests that the actual rebirth and leap forward happens if we focus on understanding ourselves on Earth rather than aim to conquer other spaces and run territorial battles (similar to his previous movie Dr Stranglove). 2001 is a deeply pesimistic picture from my POV - technology will fail us and in order to truly get out of the "ape mindset" of conquer and violence, we need to look into ourselves rather than outside.
Your knowledge and analysis is irreplaceable. For example, I never connected architectural style of the monolith to art of the 20th century. Very interesting.
His knowledge is weak. Nearly as weak as yours. He doesn't even know what the monolith is, which by now is common knowledge.
@@fgoindarkg What? How can you know this? What do you mean?
I've long suspected that the Star Child serves as an echo of the opening subtitle, "The Dawn of Man." Just as the monolith triggered a new evolutionary era at the movie's beginning, it has triggered another at the movie's end.
This movie is a phenomenon.
def one that will speak to many generations, as it speaks to the current, thru their own 21st century lens on our world, our civ, and our reality
Number 4 - the alignment of monolith, sun and moon indicates that the moment is just after a solar eclipse, although the crescent moon would not actually be visible.
I recently saw this in the theatre and it blows my mind this was made in the late 60s. It's impact on George Lucas is evident in numerous scenes: the shots of spaceships, the docking bay, the heavy breathing sound, etc.
I like Rob Ager's theory that the monolith is the cinema screen, alluding to how the medium has transformed us as humans, and many of the sequences are partially a deceptive, propaganda piece for the space race, or atleast a parody of that. What ever it means, this is the film that made me fall in love with cinema and want to study it more and more. It defintily had a transformative effect on me
it's an interesting theory ... one of many
Thanks for the insights. Always found this movie puzzling. Strange fact- I read that the name HAL for the computer came from IBM. They went backwards one letter for each of the initials.
ah, that makes sense. Great! I never had heard that.
@@LearningaboutMovies yes, i heard that as well in a youtube video, forget which, cool trick
@@reddykilowatt kind of same difference, but Ok (-:
I think some other important images involve humans struggling with their technology. The stewardesses stumbling and struggling to even walk in their zero-gravity shoes, the man furrowing his brow trying to comprehend the extremely long and complex toilet instructions, Dave instructing HAL to open the pod bay doors and being met with stillness and silence, or even earlier trying to show his drawings in a way HAL's camera can see.
I also believe the ape is a male, named Moon-watcher according to the credits and book. Great name, great foreshadowing. I do find it a little weird that tools are used for violence in The Dawn of Man but warfare is completely absent in the "modern" part of the film and feels strictly 'man vs machine.' I feel like warfare would be a great catalyst for people to go ' in over their heads' with technology. Certainly not an uncommon thing in cold war era film and literature.
I've always tuned out a bit during what I call "the kaleidoscope" section as Dave approaches Jupiter and lands on one of the moons, so I'm not quite sure how he ends up in the room. But in a film that has been strictly about the material world and overcoming obstacles solved and caused by technology, his aging, death, and reincarnation feel like a very spiritual experience. It's Kubrick's thesis of the film, but by far the hardest part about it to concretely interpret, but that was likely intentional. But still frustrating. I might give the book a go someday, but I want to take the visual medium of film on its own for its own presentation as much as possible.
a lot to dig thru, fo' sho'
Regarding your second paragraph, you can look at the graphic match cut from the bone to the spaceship as "well, we screwed up at the beginning of our history, but it looks like we've really progressed since then!" After all, that entire sequence following that iconic cut is displaying the astonishment of our technology to that point. The Blue Danube plays and you see some truly amazing things. As the film goes on, however, you pick up on more and more ways that our technology has affected us negatively. At first glance, our technology can look appealing, but under the surface, you discover it's brought about the worst in humanity. That's why I can give or take the fact that the spaceship is supposed to be a nuclear weapon in the book.
Frankly all the deception part of the conversation with the Soviet scientists feels very much as a part of an ongoing war. It’s not being fought in that moment, but it’s there as a background for all the movie
@@lorenzoamato953 ah, somehow I completely missed that
@@lorenzoamato953 interesting idea
In the Stargate sequence Bowman's suit is reflecting red on the outside with similar reflections to those that are on Hal's eye. At one point a still image of Bowman's eye yellow. Maybe just coincidence but with Kubrick you never know.
There was a Monolith that stood behind the University of Hawaii Chemistry building; it emitted a low hum.
A wonderful look at 2001. I've wondered, given the time distortion experienced by Bowman in his final scenes, if it's just a momentary progression and evolution of Bowman with the star child image, before he further transcends into something even less comprehensible. If you accept 2010's Bowman as canon, that might be further supported. Anyway, wonderful stuff.
IMHO the significance of 2001 was not the image itself, but it was the first movie letting people to ask themselves "what that meant?"after watching the film . so that kept movie lovers rewatching it again and again. it was an ingenious marketing trick by Kubrick.
Lots of movies were like that before, but maybe not as mainstream. Buñuel, Bergman, etc
def deep movie for something that was actually popular ... utilized slick tech /sci-fi innovations to hide a profound story within ... near endlessly deep, but as with many things, one has to be in right mood to completely explore ... many easter eggs as well, planned or accidental even
The monolith is a computer linked to the mainframe back on the alien's planet that plants ideas into minds, exactly like the internet.
kubrick one on the ultimate auteurs, a probing genius, that followed his own whims and curiosities,,, fantastic
At the very least the monolith makes a few of us think about menhirs or other giant stones placed upright that puzzle or used to puzzle us. Both evoke the same responses: Who? /why? How? when? Though opposites (one dense, defined, tangible the other empty, infinite, intangible) both space and the monolith are about the only times smooth, solid, uninterrupted black is used. The slab isn't space on earth, but they both tantalize the people who demand to know what's it all about e.g.. "I'm not leaving until I know what this is." "I'll ready to spend my life trying to understand this."
thank you.
I realize that this will not be a popular opinion, but never got this movie. It's always troubled me because I love Kubrics work but this one never worked for me. I mean it really bores me every time I try to watch it. Your commentary is the first time in awhile that makes me think I should try again :)
Same. Then I read the book. It’s an easy read. The movie made so much more sense, especially the beginning.
cool exercise
The image of the human fetus is perhaps meant to remind viewers that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny?
star child always made me think of:
"unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven"
humans, always progressing ... a great honor, and responsibility
I never thought of this. And I've always been searching for Christian interpretations to the film. Thank you for that.
Why does the Monolith, White Room, or Star Child have to have any meaning other than looking cool and letting the viewer think there is something significant there?