Another take: The National Council of Astronautics and the elites represented by it projected their own sense of loss of control occasioned by the monolith onto the public. They are the ones who would be truly panic-stricken. One major affect that the discovery of a vastly superior technology from a vastly older and more powerful species would have, if it were publicly known right away, would be a huge loss of face by scientific and government authorities. Human authorities of many kinds would tend to be undermined by the discovery as it became evident that "the emperor wears no clothes." But then, many ordinary people actually know this already. On the other hand, knowledge that a godlike extraterrestrial superintelligence intervened in our evolution and might do so again would come as shock at first -- the more so to people accustomed to a sense of elite standing, authority, or power. Wishful thinking?
Charles - Or maybe we're supposed to believe that "they" have such knowledge, but in reality they have neither control nor much knowledge in this area. Or, maybe it's all to distract us from other things.
Seemed like everyone in that room had a whole lot of questions, but were smart enough bureaucrats to not say anything and let Heywood's friend Bill ask the non-question "How long are we going to continue the cover story".
The whole set does. Everything is at a 90degree angle. Nature is curved and with irregular angles, intelligence makes everything controlled with hard straight edges. Like the Monolith.
I think it's rarely noticed because it's a rectangle. They occur naturally all the time. If Kubrick made no conscious effort to include them, they would still be present as a matter of course and if you looked, you would see them. If you look closely, you also see circles / spheres throughout the movie. Sorry, but I just don't think it means anything.
I honestly found the introduction the best part of the movie. The set up is great, the sets are amazing, the aesthetics, I find myself captivated by the first half hour or so than the rest of the movie.
Someone wrote a long interesting letter to Kubrick that was published in 'The Making of Kubrick's 2001' by Jerome Agel. Kubrick's response was that the writer was very perceptive. The letter proposed that it was all this overzealous secrecy that drove HAL nuts. Computer ethics does not permit them to lie and withhold information from humans, which is what HAL was forced to do with regard to the crew of The Discovery. Therefore, the responsibility for the failure of the mission lies with these stupid bureaucrats, not with HAL.
That wasn't in a letter. That was already in early drafts of the screenplay, but the general public didn't get to hear about it up until either Clarke published the book to "2001" or to "2010". Kubrick just removed the explanation from the final film in order to make it more enigmatic and poetic.
@@tlatosmd Yes, you're right, Kubrick did everything he could short of providing a narrator to show the secrecy angle and how it was affecting HAL. I enjoyed the film enormously even without the overt explanations provided by the novel. I think Kubrick decided to let Agel publish that fan letter in his book to show us a good example of someone who had figured it out without reading the novel. It was a well-written and very detailed fan letter.
"Cultural shock and social disorientation" Love how he just chucks that out like "it's a rainy day out there..."..... I.E it'd FREAK FAARK out of everyone
I have read that Stanley Kubrick found the words "cultural shock and social disorientation if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public without adequate preparation and conditioning" in a U.S. Government report recommending how to react if alien life were to be discovered. In the early years of the space age, there was a belief that alien contact was a possibility.
"Now I'm sure your'e all aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural shock and social disorientation, contained in this present situation, if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public, without adequate preparation and conditioning. Anyway, this is the view, of the Council." 2:39 Dr. Floyd is quoting the 1961 Brookings report to NASA, a report which Stanley Kubrick was well aware of.
Good point. I've only known of the think-tank known as the Brookings report for the last 5 years. I discovered it quite by accident, but it helped explain a great many things.
@@calql8er In 1965 most Americans believed in God. Now, most Americans are atheist with science as their new God. Kubrick wouldn't have foreseen that. Now, if their isn't space aliens, then life is pointless to the Atheist. Now, the cultural shock is nihilism.
He’s a communist, like the Democrats. He wants to condition the brainless riff raff so they don’t smash windows and steal stuff, unless it’s a communist protest in which case it’s A ok.
He’s a communist, like the Democrats. He wants to condition the brainless riff raff so they don’t smash windows and steal stuff, unless it’s a communist protest in which case it’s A ok.
When the Clavius chief went to sit down, he reached to unbutton his jacket, as most men do when sitting down. However, I never noticed before the rip of Velcro when he did it. No buttons. Very futuristic.
@@sukakozel734 Gravity is not a petty issue, and there's no way of 'solving' it. But it would have been extremely difficult in 1968 to realistically simulate human movement under lunar gravity.
@@hughluckock8332 Then the scene should have been staged another way. Seeing them walking briskly back and forth completely breaks the spell. I was twelve years old when I saw this in the movie theater and I was confused about where they were supposed to be because everything up to this point, including on the space station, had seemed so realistic. Then this scene came along. _Aren't they supposed to be on the moon? Why are they walking like they're on Earth? I don't get it._
@m2heavyindustries378 No ....but art has way of imitating real life events..things once laughed off as "conspiracy theories: have a tendency to be found out to be true..and movies like 2001 show what lengths the elite and powerful are willing to keep everyone in the dark.And this hypothesis keeps rearing it ugly head.."every few years".. Thank you for your comment..it seems to prove my point..
I've always had this feeling that this meeting has happened sometime in the past...or something like it... This always stuck in my mind...even from the first time I saw it in 1970....fast forward to 2020 and this seems not that far-fetched!!!
William Sylvester is remarkable in this role -compared to his other films he is in a different level of acting -due to the director no doubt. He comes across as a technocrat used to moving in the highest levels of goverment confronted with something beyond his understanding - but still he tries to deal with it by following the structures he knows. The half chuckle in response to "Bill's" question is like a tennis player returning a serve - showing the structure and Bill's place in it. Acting like he had almost forgotten to instruct the staff to sign a security non-disclosure but with the undelying implication that they must do it demonstrates where the real power lies - excellent !
watching this when I was young I really looked up to him - we see that he's a family man, and that he's very friendly with all his colleagues, and he's the guy you want when it comes to the big game. I read the tension in the room as being synonymous with my excitement in watching it - look at those lucky people, living in the future! Working on the moon! Explorers! Watching it now that i'm older, I see the tension in the room in a new light; they're scientists, they're family people; and just like the tribe in the beginning of the film, they're jealously guarding the pond from the other tribes. They might be scared of the one with the bone, but they will follow him. But they are scared. And their ability to grasp of the monolith has not changed in the slightest.
Clever. It looks like the front of the room and the back are actually the same wall, the crew just rearranged furniture and shot seperately, enabling the cameras to stay in the same place.
Dude if that set was incomplete I would ask why? It's not like Kubrick had to cut short on budget by not finishing the other side of that room just to keep the damn cameras fixed..! 🍷🤷♀️
Impressive how they already had artificial gravity working in the room. Otherwise they'd be moving around like the Apollo astronauts. Joking aside, one of the best sci-fi movies ever. I very much enjoyed the sequel, "2010 The Year We Make Contact"
What if they do have an an experimental warp coil under the base providing artificial gravity by increasing the mass beneath them to earth standard. It would be powered by type of fission reactor fueled by hilium-3 which they could collect from on the moon itself making it cheap to refuel.
I always believed it was a fault of the movie that not even a lighthearted mention is heard about Floyd having to walk in 1/6 G. One idea for overcoming the special effect lapse of his normal walking could have been that as a newcomer, he has been issued special heavy shoes and undergarments to make the moon's gravity seem more Earth-like.
@@madvulcan8964 I don't know about the first part but I do know HE-3 would solve all the world's energy needs with no waste products. If we quit fighting and work together we have a chance. If not, we're doomed. Cheers.
No artificial gravity was necessary. The moon's gravity is 1/6 of Earth's. I made a video showing a whole lot of technical errors. I included this scene. You're right, walking would look entirely different. So would sitting down. And that little hop that the photographer did was way too fast for the moon. Of course, since this was done on Earth, the only way to make ballistic/gravitational movements more realistic would be to slow the playback down. Then, other movements would look unnatural. Thing is, though, most people (including space movie directors) seem to think that all movements should be slower in weightlessness or low gravity. You'll notice that they (correctly) didn't do that in this movie.
@@agena6594 have you read "1900 or the last president" They're either following that book or the writer was a time traveller. It was written in the 1880s I think.
My best guess is Kubrick's (And Clarke's) vision of future advancement in space (giant space station, moon bases) ) was about 200 years too optimistic. But, oddly enough, we do have the wherewithal to get to Jupiter now. Everything depicted on the "Discovery One" could be built today, with the gravity centrifuge, probably nuclear powered, being the hardest and the pods the easiest. (Or even improved) Two exceptions, however: Hibernation capsules and HAL. (Good!) I figure cost of 1-2 trillion dollars should do it.
No Kubrick was right on. We tax transfered our wealth from productive to non productive work. The trillions and trillion spent on this could have easily made us an interstellar species by now.
I would assume not creating a Space Shuttle and just improving a Apollo spacecraft could have saved the government billions and probably have planned Mars expedition around early 1990s. Also Columbia and Challenger would not have existed and they would be alive today.
Those at the meeting appear to have adapted to the Moon's lower gravity quite well. To be fair to Kubrick he didn't dwell on that point at the excavation-site scene, and his use of a handheld camera in some of the weightless scenes onboard Discovery got the job done nicely.
Huh, I never saw so deeply into this scene before. Kudos to the people in the comment section here - you are a cut above the average RUclips commenter.
TECHNICAL FLAW: They are in 1/6th moon gravity but, move like they are on Earth. I honestly didnt catch it until a few years ago after seeing the film 20 times
Technical flaw due to the limitations of filming in Earth gravity. Other than that, I love 2001: A Space Odyssey and its cousin, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (Odyssey Two).
I never understood why people think the public would "freak out" if there was proof of alien intelligence. I think people would get excited for a while but then go back to normal like we've always done. People never change for long in general.
If it was proof of an intelligence that stands to us as we do to our cats and dogs, or to to chimps even, it would be hard for many of us to come to grips with. If it turned out that an extraterrestrial intelligence intervened in our evolution, and might still be doing so, how would you tell people that? Maybe you'd bring it in gradually from the fringe.
“I don’t know, Bill. I suppose it will be maintained as long as it’s deemed necessary by the council.” He travels a quarter of a million miles to them that.
The whole business of an entire launch just to get Floyd up there, reeks of panic - that's what I love about it. All those empty seats on the Orion and the Ares....
Probably the only room without bugs in the Earth/Luna system. If the camera man had a tiny camera like that, perhaps microphones were just as small. Russia and her Allies could sneak in little bugs everywhere. Still a paranoid era from the sixties thinking what the future is like….still rings true today 60 years later.
Fun Fact Watch the remake of Battlestar Galactica and you will see these chairs again (both shows were produced in England). Also in Battlestar Galactica, the cockpit of Colonial One (from the pilot) was a Space Shuttle simulator that they used.
1:13 - Floyd kindly grabs the shoulder of a colleague as if to say 'I don't have time to say it. But I respect/like you. And it is good to see you here.' Subtle little touches like that impress me about films. It shows the director/writer cares about the world they are creating for us. ☮
Yes the main thing is that protocol should be followed and organization-approved communications should be the official line... and that no one should lose their cool or show emotion.
I do not think they would view it as a second coming. They would view the monolith as a problem to be solved like a math equation. Does one get emotional about a math problem?
I am amazed how Kubrick predicted digital photography..... 30 years before it really became practical... although cameras have not advanced as radically in design as the camera this photographer used...
Just watch this scene without music or sound and try and give and how and why the camera moves the way it does how long the takes are how the characters are seated and how that changes. You will have a whole new meaning to watching a film.
FWIW, I'm old enough to remember all this as actual modernist office furniture. Much of the computer equipment in the movie is modelled on IBM's iconic mid-60's style. I even remember the wild red chairs on the space station. At the time, it was the height of futurist, modernist design.
Here we have the Brilliance of Kubrick - unlike then next movie - _2010_ . If you compare the Roy Scheider version of Heywood Floyd - they are completely different people. Roy is meant to be a kind of "Every Man". A good person out to deal with incredible things. Look at _"I didn't know!!!!"_ Yes - of course he knew - or at least in his previous _2001_ incarnation he knew. The version of Heywood Floyd played here by William Sylvester, is the epitome of a bureaucratic man as are the rest of the men here. The way they talk, the way they act. The chair arrangement in the conference room. All of this speaks to what Mankind has become - as does the display of Technological Achievement before and after. Look at how they're riding out to look at the Monolith while discussing the nature of the the box lunches provided. Look at how they all line up for a picture in front of the Monolith. Contrast these men with the Man Apes at the beginning of the movie. To Clarke - there really isn't that much difference - compared to the Beings that built the Monolith. This was Clarke's view of Mankind. Just a bunch of silly apes when compared to a Civilization that could travel between the Stars. If you look at the depiction of humans in _Rendezvous with Rama_ - Clarke holds them in complete contempt. The Space Ship is just transiting our Solar System as a Way Point on it's journey else where - and all the things that the Humans do = are irrelevant to it. You _might_ say that in _2001_ Clarke has the Beings that created the Monolith turn Man Apes into Mankind - and then in _2010_ save them from self destruction. As always - Humans are just dumb apes trying to cope and doing a poor job of it. .
What gets me in this scene is Kubrick showing us (just on the brink of satire) how empty and ludicrous modern formalities have become. Applause... a rise from a seat... travel to the opposite end of the space... and the use of a podium... all of these are logical if one is giving a written speech from a raised platform in front of a massive crowd. In this case, it's a scriptless pseudo-murmur, directed to ten people in a level room where the seating arrangement makes the view of Floyd equally accessible if he just stays in his initial position. In fact, the change of perspective part-way through shows what's not immediately obvious in the grand symmetry of the first shot: The room is actually quite small and the seats in the "front row" are empty. Humans have gotten so used to doing things outside of survival, they've lost their instinct for context.
Meh.. sometimes the point of a format isn't to be the absolute most efficient way to do something.. it's so people recognize the format, all know their roles in the given context, and so can focus on the business at hand rather than wondering if they're doing things right.
You are so right. This clip certainly points out how much the American dialect has declined in the last 45 years. This was from a time when Americans spoke clearly and precisely and with excellent elocution. It's probably indicative of the decline of education in America.
There's nothing wrong with the American dialect, because 1) there isn't a "single" dialect in the U.S., and 2) it's been changing since English and Spanish was first spoken in North America. Don't confuse the rose-tinted past you put on a pedestal with reality of American linguistics.
They walk around as if they're on earth. That affects my suspension of disbelief. Watch how the apollo astronauts moved to get an idea of what they should look like in this scene. Weighing one sixth of your normal weight, and everything including you falling back to the ground at one sixth the speed, very noticably affects the way you walk.
The Apollo astronauts were in bulky and massive suits. Much of the stereotypical "moon walking" came from when they wanted to move large distances quickly. When they were just tooling around an area their motions were less exceptional. What it would be like in an ordinary room with street clothes, but lunar gravity, is certainly outside my experience. You wouldn't be moving slowly, and you would probably learn quickly not to move in a way that would launch you up to the ceiling all the time. The main issue is that you still have your same inertia that you have on earth once you get moving, but less downwards resistance to help you break against the floor. It would be something that you learn. What it would look like to walk is probably subtly different, rather than some silly cavorting around the room.
How do you know they're not inside a rotating unit to create earth-like gravity for convenience? They seem to have solved the energy problem in the film by means of cold fusion.
William Sylvester is a good actor (although directed like Dullea and Lockwood to underplay in the film). It is hard to square this version of Floyd with Hyams' version (written specifically with Scheider in mind). I get that Kubrick's point is that humanity has gone as far as it can by '2001' and that humans are almost machine like in a lack of wonder, even if they are capable and efficient (as Floyd and Bowman are), but it still leads to a kind of sterile feel to the film, until Poole is killed by HAL and Bowman has to deal with the consequences alone.
Totally agree. Every time I watch this movie, I find Sylverster's portrayal of Floyd FAR less relatable than Schneider's. Of course, he's the protagonist of _2010_ and just a sinister bureaucrat in _2001._
Count -- I actually found William Sylvester's Dr. Floyd far more believable for a scientist who's moved up to the "National Space Council" so is more administrator now than scientist. Sylvester's Floyd was a rather bored, even bemused, scientist-turned-bureaucrat. About what I'd expect. Roy Scheider was WAY too "Hollywood". He was far too emotional, intense, and even irrational (and that was as the part was written). And of course his portrayal (again, as written) was simply not in keeping with Clarke's version in the 2001 book or movie. Evidently since in 2010 Floyd would be the main character, they figured they had to "spice it up" (especially since 2010 veered so far astray from the 2001 vision, and right into the standard action-adventure film genre). So I actually could relate far more to Sylvester's portrayal than Scheiders (who could have been interchanged with any number of action-adventure movie hero-types....let's see, who was big in 1984 when 2010 was made? Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Richard Gere, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell... Like Scheider, all much too "Hollywood"). Instead of the cheat of totally changing Dr. Floyd's personality, they should have simply had another character to star in 2010.
I totally agree with your interpretation of emotions being totally held under cover in Kubrick's "2001". As we all know about the Nietzschean tenets behind the film, compare this machine-like quality of people to Nietzsche's Age of Last Man, the one just before the advent of the Superman.
I think this scene is symbolic picturing."Majestic 12".having a meeting brief about what's yet to come & what ever you discover on the Moon...just keep in mind you all took the oath of silence....👽👽👽👽👽👽😎
The distracting thing in this scene is the fact that the actors walk around the room like they would on earth. On the moon, each step would probably send them about six feet with each stride and they would bounce around like grasshoppers. Same thing for the scene of the astronauts walking down to the monolith at the dig site.
Welcome to the world of Chaos Magic - when artwork with a powerful emotional and intellectual focus applied to it eventually manifests into reality. Look at all the Simpson scenes which became real.
wow it looks so 80's, it's so unfamiliar to me apart from distant memories when I was younger, yet still after the 80's being born in 92. It has a liminal quality to it, the color selections and mid-century modern style just has something slightly off about it to me.
@@Mario_N64 Yeah you're correct, don't know why I stated '80's' specifically - I guess because that's the era that came before me and a lot of the styles and designs from the late 60s lingered on into the 80's in fashion and interior. Only about 10 years difference isn't a ton of time
I like how Floyd is familiar enough with the military person to actually grab his shoulder as he passes by. Its one of the few moments of actual human physical contact and suggests a closer tie between the military and Floyd's agency.
I was a federal employee for 24 years. Everyone formerly worked at everyone else's employer, or they all play handball after work, or they all trained together at the Institute of such and such.
Fact or fictional I cannot bear the idea that the world's people will lose their shit on the day real contact is announced. Seems that the "leaders" have to grow up, not the people.
@@dougg1075 100% agree. There are many that could go about their daily lives after such knowledge is learned, maybe even live better but sadly the majority of humanity would go insane.
@@dharmaqueen7877 That is an important mindset to have for sure and it is good to cultivate a critical mind. I guess the big challenge is to figure out what one will find persuasive, which clearly varies wildly from person to person.
For me, Floyd represents the worst in bureacracy. He'd rather people worry about a plague on the moon rather than announce the discovery of ET. And why does he keep the most important discovery in history a secret? it's NOT to prevent cultural shock. It's for military purposes. The top guys in government hope to learn from aliens how to improve weaponry. It's the old, "keep the people in the dark... they['re assholes anyway mentality.
Oh really, how perceptive of you... Like how does anything right now has to do with this. "Conditioning" in the context of this scene meant be sure public opinion would be ready to handle the *truth*, not to get them to gobble a lie.
This is a good scene, but my favourite scene is towards the end of the film when Heywood Floyd informs Bowman about the mysterious monolith and the real reason for the mission. That scene is riveting. Brilliant voice acting by William Sylvester.
Worse choice to play Heywood Floyd was the casting of Roy Scheider in the sequel 2010: The Year we Make Contact. He just didn't capture the essence that William Sylvester brought to the role.
I agree that his scene is very significant, but the last part of the movie doesn't really fit into this interpretation. It may simply show how little human systems really control. I see it more as an evolution from violence to information to superhuman evolution.
That sounds like a better interpretation to me. Humans tried to control their encounter with aliens but all it did was backfire when Hal goes crazy, and turn irrelevant when Bowman enters the portal.
I always enjoyed this scene knowing this is all taking place on the Moon underground. A homey touch of normalcy on a hostile alien world. I suppose it complicates the drama if totally accurate, but they all are functioning it seems in gravity equal to Earth's rather than the 1/6th gravity of the Moon in comparison. Why aren't they all bounding about when they walk or seeing pens and other conference room objects here float a bit when moved?
If you didn't know, the photographer is a young Stanley Kubrick. Look at photos of Stanley when he was a still photographer for Life Magazine. He looks EXACTLY like the man on the moon. I think this was the only conceit Stanley enjoyed adding to his movie. I think he would have loved to be a photographer at a moon base. This was his way of vicariously having the thrill.
In Carl Sagan's book/movie, we saw how Ellie's prompt release of the discovery of extra terrestrial intelligence impacted the world, and how it met with objections from those who wanted to keep it secret. Here we have an alternative idea of the discovery of extra terrestrial intelligence, and how keeping it a secret might impact the world. Which would be the wiser course of action?
Having seen the movie on loads of occasions, struck me for the first time that given the briefing is supposed to be on the moon, there should only be 1/6th gravity, yet everything moves as though under normal 9.81 metres per second per second acceleration. Given the great pains they went to for the zero gravity scenes on the Pan Am space plane, seems an odd slip up by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke.
came here looking for this comment. This always irritated me - it would have been iconic if we have them in office wear bouncing around in the office, it would show that now matter how earth-like we make a base, you can't get away from gravity, or the lack of. Proper gravity would have made this scene truly iconic. They make the same mistake on "For All Mankind" on Apple TV - bounce around outside on the moon, walk completely normally in the moon base.
As I recall, Kubrick and his team had some discussion about the 1/6 gravity question. It was more difficult to resolve than microgravity, and of course, unlike microgravity, no one yet had any experience moving around in it in 1966-68. In the end, they seem to have decided that it was an inaccuracy they could live with. Space Station V presented the same problem: as conceived, the station only provided lunar-level gravity, not 1G. But the same problem there, too: How do you model movement in 1/6 gravity? Not so easy to answer in 1967.
Ah well, at least in the space suits scenes when they walk on the moon it also looks like it's Earth's gravity. It's not annoyingly inconsistent like how in "Moon" when they're out to walk everything is lighter and slow moving like it should be, but then inside the lunar base there's perfect Earth gravity. There's no explanation given about artificial gravity, and in fact people even assume that (SPOILER... for an over 10 years old film) Sam's clones start to rot and decompose because of the Moon's lower gravity... WHAT LOWER GRAVITY??? This shit makes no sense.
Might have been to say that there is a dangerous situation at Clavius base on moon, and that it was being handled but would take some time, which would not have been untruthful
Adds the security oaths like a jaunty after thought. Just enough subtle irony to let them all know who is in charge, who represents "The Counsel". Any further questions? In private if you like?
The greatest meeting scene in the greatest movie of all time ! (The 2nd greatest is in Schindler's List where Oskar Schindler announces that the war is over and gives the guards a choice....)
William Sylvester was the nephew of TV actor Raymond Bailey, who played the greedy banker Milburn Drysdale in The Beverly Hillbillies. That was a polar opposite production in esoteric level, which makes it hard to associate the two.
Another take: The National Council of Astronautics and the elites represented by it projected their own sense of loss of control occasioned by the monolith onto the public. They are the ones who would be truly panic-stricken. One major affect that the discovery of a vastly superior technology from a vastly older and more powerful species would have, if it were publicly known right away, would be a huge loss of face by scientific and government authorities. Human authorities of many kinds would tend to be undermined by the discovery as it became evident that "the emperor wears no clothes." But then, many ordinary people actually know this already.
On the other hand, knowledge that a godlike extraterrestrial superintelligence intervened in our evolution and might do so again would come as shock at first -- the more so to people accustomed to a sense of elite standing, authority, or power.
Wishful thinking?
Excellent
Thanks. I tried to fix a typo in there, but there's a glitch and the edit won't post. S/b 'effect' not 'affect'.
Elites want to control everything. Especially knowledge. They already have tons of it about ETs but will not release anything.
Charles - Or maybe we're supposed to believe that "they" have such knowledge, but in reality they have neither control nor much knowledge in this area. Or, maybe it's all to distract us from other things.
@@charlesphillips430 easy to spout nonsense without proof. My first grader can do that.
Seemed like everyone in that room had a whole lot of questions, but were smart enough bureaucrats to not say anything and let Heywood's friend Bill ask the non-question "How long are we going to continue the cover story".
To which Floyd gave the non-answer 'As long as the Council deems necessary'
I just love how the white lighting areas mimic the Monolith. Kubrick has this shape throughout the film and rarely is it ever noticed.
The whole set does. Everything is at a 90degree angle. Nature is curved and with irregular angles, intelligence makes everything controlled with hard straight edges. Like the Monolith.
I think it's rarely noticed because it's a rectangle. They occur naturally all the time. If Kubrick made no conscious effort to include them, they would still be present as a matter of course and if you looked, you would see them. If you look closely, you also see circles / spheres throughout the movie. Sorry, but I just don't think it means anything.
Where are these natural rectangles in nature?
Look around the room where you are right now.
How many rectangles are there?
Hum the square song while you're doing it
I honestly found the introduction the best part of the movie. The set up is great, the sets are amazing, the aesthetics, I find myself captivated by the first half hour or so than the rest of the movie.
Someone wrote a long interesting letter to Kubrick that was published in 'The Making of Kubrick's 2001' by Jerome Agel. Kubrick's response was that the writer was very perceptive. The letter proposed that it was all this overzealous secrecy that drove HAL nuts. Computer ethics does not permit them to lie and withhold information from humans, which is what HAL was forced to do with regard to the crew of The Discovery. Therefore, the responsibility for the failure of the mission lies with these stupid bureaucrats, not with HAL.
That wasn't in a letter. That was already in early drafts of the screenplay, but the general public didn't get to hear about it up until either Clarke published the book to "2001" or to "2010". Kubrick just removed the explanation from the final film in order to make it more enigmatic and poetic.
@@tlatosmd Yes, you're right, Kubrick did everything he could short of providing a narrator to show the secrecy angle and how it was affecting HAL. I enjoyed the film enormously even without the overt explanations provided by the novel. I think Kubrick decided to let Agel publish that fan letter in his book to show us a good example of someone who had figured it out without reading the novel. It was a well-written and very detailed fan letter.
Exactly which was clarified in the sequel
Trivia: Shift HAL by one to get IBM
@@armanddefrank7984 Right? Hardly a newsflash
"Cultural shock and social disorientation"
Love how he just chucks that out like "it's a rainy day out there...".....
I.E it'd FREAK FAARK out of everyone
I have read that Stanley Kubrick found the words "cultural shock and social disorientation if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public without adequate preparation and conditioning" in a U.S. Government report recommending how to react if alien life were to be discovered. In the early years of the space age, there was a belief that alien contact was a possibility.
Legend has it they’re all still stuck at Clavius under the epidemic cover story.
"Now I'm sure your'e all aware of the extremely grave potential for cultural shock and social disorientation, contained in this present situation, if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public, without adequate preparation and conditioning. Anyway, this is the view, of the Council." 2:39
Dr. Floyd is quoting the 1961 Brookings report to NASA, a report which Stanley Kubrick was well aware of.
EXACTLY!!!!
Good point. I've only known of the think-tank known as the Brookings report for the last 5 years. I discovered it quite by accident, but it helped explain a great many things.
They would Never let a find like this out!
How much more conditioning would the public require? After years of space operas, Star Trek, etc. I think we are big enough to handle it.
@@calql8er In 1965 most Americans believed in God. Now, most Americans are atheist with science as their new God. Kubrick wouldn't have foreseen that. Now, if their isn't space aliens, then life is pointless to the Atheist. Now, the cultural shock is nihilism.
for some reason these scenes at the base are my favorites
Heywood Floyd acts like an Inquisitor, a Surgeon, and a Saviour, simultaneously.
Reminded me of General Schwartzkopf's briefing at the end of the Gulf War.
and a politician
He’s a communist, like the Democrats. He wants to condition the brainless riff raff so they don’t smash windows and steal stuff, unless it’s a communist protest in which case it’s A ok.
He’s a communist, like the Democrats. He wants to condition the brainless riff raff so they don’t smash windows and steal stuff, unless it’s a communist protest in which case it’s A ok.
When the Clavius chief went to sit down, he reached to unbutton his jacket, as most men do when sitting down. However, I never noticed before the rip of Velcro when he did it. No buttons. Very futuristic.
That was a hell of a speech, Heywood.
deliberately buried...huh. Coffee?
It'll beef up morale a helluva lot. (In the book by Arthur C. Clarke.)
I have watched these two scenes with Wm. Sylvester many, many times. They are sooo understated yet revealing
Indeed. "Adequate preparation and conditioning"..that's what we're going through now
Heywood draws out the image of the rectangle while he is sitting at the table.
That video camera was unheard of when I first watched this movie.
There were 16mm home movie cams in the 50s...
There were video cams before the movie came out.
Facinating...
👽
@@larrysouthern5098 Spock is that you?
@@Gromit801 But video cameras were,quote larger than today's microwave ovens.
Remember, this lunar gravity. 1/6 Earth gravity. They should be bouncing when they move.
It's supposed to be a future. They assumed we solved those petty issues when we didn't even solve how we could live peacefully with each other...
@@sukakozel734 Gravity is not a petty issue, and there's no way of 'solving' it. But it would have been extremely difficult in 1968 to realistically simulate human movement under lunar gravity.
@@hughluckock8332 Then the scene should have been staged another way. Seeing them walking briskly back and forth completely breaks the spell. I was twelve years old when I saw this in the movie theater and I was confused about where they were supposed to be because everything up to this point, including on the space station, had seemed so realistic. Then this scene came along. _Aren't they supposed to be on the moon? Why are they walking like they're on Earth? I don't get it._
In 2024 this clip still sends chills up my spine...to me there has been meetings like this in the last 50 years .and there probably still are...
Do you come back every few years because you have nothing better to do with your life?
@m2heavyindustries378 No ....but art has way of imitating real life events..things once laughed off as "conspiracy theories: have a tendency to be found out to be true..and movies like 2001 show what lengths the elite and powerful are willing to keep everyone in the dark.And this hypothesis keeps rearing it ugly head.."every few years"..
Thank you for your comment..it seems to prove my point..
@@m2heavyindustries378 That was uncalled for and very rude.
I've always had this feeling that this meeting has happened sometime in the past...or something like it... This always stuck in my mind...even from the first time I saw it in 1970....fast forward to 2020 and this seems not that far-fetched!!!
Agreed, most important, or "central" scene of the entire film.
William Sylvester is remarkable in this role -compared to his other films he is in a different level of acting -due to the director no doubt. He comes across as a technocrat used to moving in the highest levels of goverment confronted with something beyond his understanding - but still he tries to deal with it by following the structures he knows.
The half chuckle in response to "Bill's" question is like a tennis player returning a serve - showing the structure and Bill's place in it.
Acting like he had almost forgotten to instruct the staff to sign a security non-disclosure but with the undelying implication that they must do it demonstrates where the real power lies - excellent !
It's clear that he wasn't expecting anyone to dare to ask a question.
watching this when I was young I really looked up to him - we see that he's a family man, and that he's very friendly with all his colleagues, and he's the guy you want when it comes to the big game. I read the tension in the room as being synonymous with my excitement in watching it - look at those lucky people, living in the future! Working on the moon! Explorers! Watching it now that i'm older, I see the tension in the room in a new light; they're scientists, they're family people; and just like the tribe in the beginning of the film, they're jealously guarding the pond from the other tribes. They might be scared of the one with the bone, but they will follow him. But they are scared. And their ability to grasp of the monolith has not changed in the slightest.
My God!The room!It's full of monolith shaped rectangles!
Clever. It looks like the front of the room and the back are actually the same wall, the crew just rearranged furniture and shot seperately, enabling the cameras to stay in the same place.
Dude if that set was incomplete I would ask why? It's not like Kubrick had to cut short on budget by not finishing the other side of that room just to keep the damn cameras fixed..! 🍷🤷♀️
God, Now would'nt that need for the actors to practically repeat all their actions & lines.
"Wild walls" all movies sets are built to be pulled apart when the camera needs to be somewhere specific
I think the photographer's suit is the key to the hidden message of the film. Remember, Kubrick signed off on that suit.
Great film even today! Better than some new ones.
Hell of a speech Floyd
Time for a sandwich.
@@daneriksson8947 Deliberately buried!
Impressive how they already had artificial gravity working in the room. Otherwise they'd be moving around like the Apollo astronauts. Joking aside, one of the best sci-fi movies ever. I very much enjoyed the sequel, "2010 The Year We Make Contact"
Yes that was a great movie also.
What if they do have an an experimental warp coil under the base providing artificial gravity by increasing the mass beneath them to earth standard. It would be powered by type of fission reactor fueled by hilium-3 which they could collect from on the moon itself making it cheap to refuel.
I always believed it was a fault of the movie that not even a lighthearted mention is heard about Floyd having to walk in 1/6 G. One idea for overcoming the special effect lapse of his normal walking could have been that as a newcomer, he has been issued special heavy shoes and undergarments to make the moon's gravity seem more Earth-like.
@@madvulcan8964 I don't know about the first part but I do know HE-3 would solve all the world's energy needs with no waste products. If we quit fighting and work together we have a chance. If not, we're doomed. Cheers.
No artificial gravity was necessary. The moon's gravity is 1/6 of Earth's. I made a video showing a whole lot of technical errors. I included this scene. You're right, walking would look entirely different. So would sitting down. And that little hop that the photographer did was way too fast for the moon. Of course, since this was done on Earth, the only way to make ballistic/gravitational movements more realistic would be to slow the playback down. Then, other movements would look unnatural. Thing is, though, most people (including space movie directors) seem to think that all movements should be slower in weightlessness or low gravity. You'll notice that they (correctly) didn't do that in this movie.
Yup I bet you all thinking what I’m thinking..
This scene is so different to me now.. It's like they're using movie plots to make happenings.
@@agena6594 have you read "1900 or the last president"
They're either following that book or the writer was a time traveller. It was written in the 1880s I think.
@@miami-xv8cq what are those books about?
@@maggs131 I've shown you the door, it takes you to walk through it, my friend. Look it up.😉
@@agena6594 Watch fight club. See things happening.
My best guess is Kubrick's (And Clarke's) vision of future advancement in space (giant space station, moon bases) ) was about 200 years too optimistic. But, oddly enough, we do have the wherewithal to get to Jupiter now. Everything depicted on the "Discovery One" could be built today, with the gravity centrifuge, probably nuclear powered, being the hardest and the pods the easiest. (Or even improved) Two exceptions, however: Hibernation capsules and HAL. (Good!) I figure cost of 1-2 trillion dollars should do it.
No Kubrick was right on. We tax transfered our wealth from productive to non productive work. The trillions and trillion spent on this could have easily made us an interstellar species by now.
@@newsmansuper2925 that’s pretty optimistic. We don’t even have a reasonable alternative to fossil fuel for everything.
I would assume not creating a Space Shuttle and just improving a Apollo spacecraft could have saved the government billions and probably have planned Mars expedition around early 1990s. Also Columbia and Challenger would not have existed and they would be alive today.
1965 and 1966.
Stunning production values for 60 years ago.
Fun Fact:
Two of Andy and Red's pals in Shawshank Prison...Heywood & Floyd.
Those at the meeting appear to have adapted to the Moon's lower gravity quite well. To be fair to Kubrick he didn't dwell on that point at the excavation-site scene, and his use of a handheld camera in some of the weightless scenes onboard Discovery got the job done nicely.
Huh, I never saw so deeply into this scene before. Kudos to the people in the comment section here - you are a cut above the average RUclips commenter.
TECHNICAL FLAW: They are in 1/6th moon gravity but, move like they are on Earth. I honestly didnt catch it until a few years ago after seeing the film 20 times
Technical flaw due to the limitations of filming in Earth gravity. Other than that, I love 2001: A Space Odyssey and its cousin, 2010: The Year We Make Contact (Odyssey Two).
I never understood why people think the public would "freak out" if there was proof of alien intelligence. I think people would get excited for a while but then go back to normal like we've always done. People never change for long in general.
That's just it. Depending on the intentions of the visitors, going back to normal may not be a possibility...
If it was proof of an intelligence that stands to us as we do to our cats and dogs, or to to chimps even, it would be hard for many of us to come to grips with. If it turned out that an extraterrestrial intelligence intervened in our evolution, and might still be doing so, how would you tell people that? Maybe you'd bring it in gradually from the fringe.
“I don’t know, Bill. I suppose it will be maintained as long as it’s deemed necessary by the council.”
He travels a quarter of a million miles to them that.
The whole business of an entire launch just to get Floyd up there, reeks of panic - that's what I love about it. All those empty seats on the Orion and the Ares....
Probably the only room without bugs in the Earth/Luna system. If the camera man had a tiny camera like that, perhaps microphones were just as small. Russia and her Allies could sneak in little bugs everywhere.
Still a paranoid era from the sixties thinking what the future is like….still rings true today 60 years later.
My honorary membership in the National Council of Astronautics allows me here.
Have you signed your Loyalty Oath yet?
Fun Fact
Watch the remake of Battlestar Galactica and you will see these chairs again (both shows were produced in England).
Also in Battlestar Galactica, the cockpit of Colonial One (from the pilot) was a Space Shuttle simulator that they used.
1:13 - Floyd kindly grabs the shoulder of a colleague as if to say 'I don't have time to say it. But I respect/like you. And it is good to see you here.'
Subtle little touches like that impress me about films.
It shows the director/writer cares about the world they are creating for us.
☮
It's the urbane banality that fascinates me, these are senior technocrats that are not going to be fazed by any 'second coming'...
Yes the main thing is that protocol should be followed and organization-approved communications should be the official line... and that no one should lose their cool or show emotion.
I do not think they would view it as a second coming. They would view the monolith as a problem to be solved like a math equation. Does one get emotional about a math problem?
@@stevenmarler5154 Top Mathematicians do regularly.
Nowadays the scientists would spend years arguing about burying the artefact again
The furniture is amazing. I'm truly brought back to the sixties when I see these scenes.
Very enigmatic scene.
love the room's design... wouldn't mind having some of my business meetings in a room like that
They should’ve brought William Sylvester back for the sequel.
Yes! Roy Scheider was a terrible choice. He completely changed the character. Maybe they figured Sylvester was too old.
@@Astrobrant2 William Sylvester’s Floyd was a smooth and cool character. Scheider’s Floyd was super angry, verging on unstable.
I am amazed how Kubrick predicted digital photography..... 30 years before it really became practical... although cameras have not advanced as radically in design as the camera this photographer used...
Just watch this scene without music or sound and try and give and how and why the camera moves the way it does how long the takes are how the characters are seated and how that changes. You will have a whole new meaning to watching a film.
I know right especially the multiple angle shots.. A more than commendable effort for its time.
I don't get it
The photographers plad suit is very unique
A Clockwork Orange time period suit.
Notice that the wall panels are similar in shape to the monoliths, which are similar in shape to movie screens.
And a white monolith at the podium. Interestingly enough it is in the center of the shot. A contrast to the black monolith seen throughout the film.
FWIW, I'm old enough to remember all this as actual modernist office furniture. Much of the computer equipment in the movie is modelled on IBM's iconic mid-60's style. I even remember the wild red chairs on the space station. At the time, it was the height of futurist, modernist design.
A very futuristic shape known as a rectangle.
calamagrostis88 also notice, how hatch doors at Discovery space ship are shaped like coffins, symbolizing dead end of man kind.
calamagrostis88 Kubrick's brilliance
Here we have the Brilliance of Kubrick - unlike then next movie - _2010_ .
If you compare the Roy Scheider version of Heywood Floyd - they are completely different people. Roy is meant to be a kind of "Every Man". A good person out to deal with incredible things. Look at _"I didn't know!!!!"_ Yes - of course he knew - or at least in his previous _2001_ incarnation he knew.
The version of Heywood Floyd played here by William Sylvester, is the epitome of a bureaucratic man as are the rest of the men here. The way they talk, the way they act. The chair arrangement in the conference room. All of this speaks to what Mankind has become - as does the display of Technological Achievement before and after.
Look at how they're riding out to look at the Monolith while discussing the nature of the the box lunches provided. Look at how they all line up for a picture in front of the Monolith.
Contrast these men with the Man Apes at the beginning of the movie.
To Clarke - there really isn't that much difference - compared to the Beings that built the Monolith.
This was Clarke's view of Mankind. Just a bunch of silly apes when compared to a Civilization that could travel between the Stars. If you look at the depiction of humans in _Rendezvous with Rama_ - Clarke holds them in complete contempt. The Space Ship is just transiting our Solar System as a Way Point on it's journey else where - and all the things that the Humans do = are irrelevant to it.
You _might_ say that in _2001_ Clarke has the Beings that created the Monolith turn Man Apes into Mankind - and then in _2010_ save them from self destruction.
As always - Humans are just dumb apes trying to cope and doing a poor job of it.
.
I've seen those chairs in other sci-fi movies and TV shows (the Battlestar remake in 2003)
What gets me in this scene is Kubrick showing us (just on the brink of satire) how empty and ludicrous modern formalities have become. Applause... a rise from a seat... travel to the opposite end of the space... and the use of a podium... all of these are logical if one is giving a written speech from a raised platform in front of a massive crowd. In this case, it's a scriptless pseudo-murmur, directed to ten people in a level room where the seating arrangement makes the view of Floyd equally accessible if he just stays in his initial position. In fact, the change of perspective part-way through shows what's not immediately obvious in the grand symmetry of the first shot: The room is actually quite small and the seats in the "front row" are empty. Humans have gotten so used to doing things outside of survival, they've lost their instinct for context.
Meh.. sometimes the point of a format isn't to be the absolute most efficient way to do something.. it's so people recognize the format, all know their roles in the given context, and so can focus on the business at hand rather than wondering if they're doing things right.
Kubrik did not foresee the degeneration of the American accent which has taken place since the movie was made.
You are so right. This clip certainly points out how much the American dialect has declined in the last 45 years. This was from a time when Americans spoke clearly and precisely and with excellent elocution. It's probably indicative of the decline of education in America.
There's nothing wrong with the American dialect, because
1) there isn't a "single" dialect in the U.S., and
2) it's been changing since English and Spanish was first spoken in North America.
Don't confuse the rose-tinted past you put on a pedestal with reality of American linguistics.
You mean the continuation of the degeneration of the british accent?
No one can predict the language of tomorrow.
I was gonna say, the same character is much more relatable when played by Roy Schneider in the sequel.
They walk around as if they're on earth. That affects my suspension of disbelief. Watch how the apollo astronauts moved to get an idea of what they should look like in this scene.
Weighing one sixth of your normal weight, and everything including you falling back to the ground at one sixth the speed, very noticably affects the way you walk.
The Apollo astronauts were in bulky and massive suits. Much of the stereotypical "moon walking" came from when they wanted to move large distances quickly. When they were just tooling around an area their motions were less exceptional. What it would be like in an ordinary room with street clothes, but lunar gravity, is certainly outside my experience. You wouldn't be moving slowly, and you would probably learn quickly not to move in a way that would launch you up to the ceiling all the time. The main issue is that you still have your same inertia that you have on earth once you get moving, but less downwards resistance to help you break against the floor. It would be something that you learn. What it would look like to walk is probably subtly different, rather than some silly cavorting around the room.
Its only a movie a Sci-fi movie folks.
@@getvnews1918 Tbf the rest of the movie tries very hard (and succeeds) to be scientifically accurate so the original post raises a legitimate point/
@@benhsuan4817 TRUE! I still watch this GROUNDBREAKING SCI-FI FILM. even George Lucas was inspired by this film it in some sort of manor.
How do you know they're not inside a rotating unit to create earth-like gravity for convenience? They seem to have solved the energy problem in the film by means of cold fusion.
William Sylvester is a good actor (although directed like Dullea and Lockwood to underplay in the film). It is hard to square this version of Floyd with Hyams' version (written specifically with Scheider in mind). I get that Kubrick's point is that humanity has gone as far as it can by '2001' and that humans are almost machine like in a lack of wonder, even if they are capable and efficient (as Floyd and Bowman are), but it still leads to a kind of sterile feel to the film, until Poole is killed by HAL and Bowman has to deal with the consequences alone.
Totally agree. Every time I watch this movie, I find Sylverster's portrayal of Floyd FAR less relatable than Schneider's. Of course, he's the protagonist of _2010_ and just a sinister bureaucrat in _2001._
+CountArtha *Floyd wasn't **_sinister_** in 2001. He's always been a good guy.*
Count -- I actually found William Sylvester's Dr. Floyd far more believable for a scientist who's moved up to the "National Space Council" so is more administrator now than scientist. Sylvester's Floyd was a rather bored, even bemused, scientist-turned-bureaucrat. About what I'd expect. Roy Scheider was WAY too "Hollywood". He was far too emotional, intense, and even irrational (and that was as the part was written). And of course his portrayal (again, as written) was simply not in keeping with Clarke's version in the 2001 book or movie. Evidently since in 2010 Floyd would be the main character, they figured they had to "spice it up" (especially since 2010 veered so far astray from the 2001 vision, and right into the standard action-adventure film genre). So I actually could relate far more to Sylvester's portrayal than Scheiders (who could have been interchanged with any number of action-adventure movie hero-types....let's see, who was big in 1984 when 2010 was made? Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Richard Gere, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell... Like Scheider, all much too "Hollywood"). Instead of the cheat of totally changing Dr. Floyd's personality, they should have simply had another character to star in 2010.
I totally agree with your interpretation of emotions being totally held under cover in Kubrick's "2001". As we all know about the Nietzschean tenets behind the film, compare this machine-like quality of people to Nietzsche's Age of Last Man, the one just before the advent of the Superman.
Here it is the end of 2024 and this still gives me pause..what a year and I wonder what surprises "they" have in store for us...Happy new Year>>
Heywood is portrayed by William Sylvester in 2001. In the 2010 sequel, the role is taken over by Roy Scheider.
I think this scene is symbolic picturing."Majestic 12".having a meeting brief about what's yet to come & what ever you discover on the Moon...just keep in mind you all took the oath of silence....👽👽👽👽👽👽😎
Head Alien🛸
The 2 empty seats at the table must be the members who did not share the view of the Council
The distracting thing in this scene is the fact that the actors walk around the room like they would on earth. On the moon, each step would probably send them about six feet with each stride and they would bounce around like grasshoppers. Same thing for the scene of the astronauts walking down to the monolith at the dig site.
Welcome to the world of Chaos Magic - when artwork with a powerful emotional and intellectual focus applied to it eventually manifests into reality. Look at all the Simpson scenes which became real.
Everyone is paid to reenact the simpsons clips. No wizardry, to time travel, just puppies in strings.
Bruh
wow it looks so 80's, it's so unfamiliar to me apart from distant memories when I was younger, yet still after the 80's being born in 92. It has a liminal quality to it, the color selections and mid-century modern style just has something slightly off about it to me.
I've always felt it was classic 60s modernism. The skinny suits are the dead giveaway.
@@Mario_N64 Yeah you're correct, don't know why I stated '80's' specifically - I guess because that's the era that came before me and a lot of the styles and designs from the late 60s lingered on into the 80's in fashion and interior. Only about 10 years difference isn't a ton of time
Deliberately buried
Apparently the moons gravity is exactly the same as earths since they move about without any gliding or bouncing.
The place they are in probably provides unnatural gravity, like real spaceships do irl
@nicksterj don't forget that this movie is science FICTION. Maybe in the world of 2001 something like this was actualy invented
the book even made this scene more awesome.
I like how Floyd is familiar enough with the military person to actually grab his shoulder as he passes by. Its one of the few moments of actual human physical contact and suggests a closer tie between the military and Floyd's agency.
I was a federal employee for 24 years. Everyone formerly worked at everyone else's employer, or they all play handball after work, or they all trained together at the Institute of such and such.
"(kindness and the Virtue Diligence), and hair not crowns of life." ~ St. Claudia
The white walls, the podium and the shape of the room all have the same dimensions as the monolith.
So does my cigarette pack. .
Cool! Nice catch.
That photographer couldn't move like that in a 1/6 G environment, he'd hit his head on the ceiling. Should have slowed down that clip.
0:24 “I’m through now.” Yes, in a suit like that, a person would be through.
THIS WAS IT!! THE ONE MEETING!! THE BEST PART OF THE MOVIE!!
Xd is that sarcasm
Fact or fictional I cannot bear the idea that the world's people will lose their shit on the day real contact is announced. Seems that the "leaders" have to grow up, not the people.
37Dionysos on the contrary it takes much less than that these days to make people.. lose their shit.
@@dougg1075 100% agree. There are many that could go about their daily lives after such knowledge is learned, maybe even live better but sadly the majority of humanity would go insane.
If the current climate is anything to go by, a significant body of people wouldn't even believe it to be true.
@@dharmaqueen7877 That is an important mindset to have for sure and it is good to cultivate a critical mind. I guess the big challenge is to figure out what one will find persuasive, which clearly varies wildly from person to person.
This whole speech is a threat.
They are on the moon, but they walk as if there were earthly gravity.
As David Icke said - ' a handful of men '!
Dr. Floyd reminds me of Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music.
For me, Floyd represents the worst in bureacracy. He'd rather people worry about a plague on the moon rather than announce the discovery of ET. And why does he keep the most important discovery in history a secret? it's NOT to prevent cultural shock. It's for military purposes. The top guys in government hope to learn from aliens how to improve weaponry. It's the old, "keep the people in the dark... they['re assholes anyway mentality.
We are currently in the preparation and conditioning phase.... phase H
Oh really, how perceptive of you...
Like how does anything right now has to do with this. "Conditioning" in the context of this scene meant be sure public opinion would be ready to handle the *truth*, not to get them to gobble a lie.
What will you guys do when running out of letters for new phases?
HIL-9000 sure helped everyone to stay quiet
If they're at the Clavius base, why aren't they moving in 1/6th G?
I'd love to see people prance around a room like this in 1/6th Gravity! They are on the MOON, remember???????
I like the camera. Who knew the camera today would look just like the black obelisk that appeared to early man
This is a good scene, but my favourite scene is towards the end of the film when Heywood Floyd informs Bowman about the mysterious monolith and the real reason for the mission. That scene is riveting. Brilliant voice acting by William Sylvester.
Worse choice to play Heywood Floyd was the casting of Roy Scheider in the sequel 2010: The Year we Make Contact. He just didn't capture the essence that William Sylvester brought to the role.
I agree that his scene is very significant, but the last part of the movie doesn't really fit into this interpretation. It may simply show how little human systems really control. I see it more as an evolution from violence to information to superhuman evolution.
That sounds like a better interpretation to me. Humans tried to control their encounter with aliens but all it did was backfire when Hal goes crazy, and turn irrelevant when Bowman enters the portal.
I always enjoyed this scene knowing this is all taking place on the Moon underground. A homey touch of normalcy on a hostile alien world. I suppose it complicates the drama if totally accurate, but they all are functioning it seems in gravity equal to Earth's rather than the 1/6th gravity of the Moon in comparison. Why aren't they all bounding about when they walk or seeing pens and other conference room objects here float a bit when moved?
True, it's been 20 years, but I don't recall electric screwdrivers being used to photograph people in 2001.
If you didn't know, the photographer is a young Stanley Kubrick. Look at photos of Stanley when he was a still photographer for Life Magazine. He looks EXACTLY like the man on the moon. I think this was the only conceit Stanley enjoyed adding to his movie. I think he would have loved to be a photographer at a moon base. This was his way of vicariously having the thrill.
Spot on! i agree absolutely! :)
He was a photographer for Look, not Life.
@@andyadler I stand corrected. Thanks.
Stanley's trademark camera wide shots his directing trademark
In Carl Sagan's book/movie, we saw how Ellie's prompt release of the discovery of extra terrestrial intelligence impacted the world, and how it met with objections from those who wanted to keep it secret.
Here we have an alternative idea of the discovery of extra terrestrial intelligence, and how keeping it a secret might impact the world.
Which would be the wiser course of action?
I love everything, every scene, in this well researched movie. A hallmark production...every detail taken into account.
except gravity
Sixties design was soo cool.
All that's missing from this scene is Darth Vader.
They could foresee talking computers (which we really dont have) but couldnt foresee smartphones.
Or how to portray 1/6 gravity on the moon
Dr. Heywood Floyd was the good chairman NASA
NO ONE is walking like it's 1/6 earth normal gravity. That's really pretty lame.
The photographer in the plaid suit should be a meme.
Having seen the movie on loads of occasions, struck me for the first time that given the briefing is supposed to be on the moon, there should only be 1/6th gravity, yet everything moves as though under normal 9.81 metres per second per second acceleration. Given the great pains they went to for the zero gravity scenes on the Pan Am space plane, seems an odd slip up by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke.
I thought this was on the rotating station
came here looking for this comment. This always irritated me - it would have been iconic if we have them in office wear bouncing around in the office, it would show that now matter how earth-like we make a base, you can't get away from gravity, or the lack of. Proper gravity would have made this scene truly iconic. They make the same mistake on "For All Mankind" on Apple TV - bounce around outside on the moon, walk completely normally in the moon base.
As I recall, Kubrick and his team had some discussion about the 1/6 gravity question. It was more difficult to resolve than microgravity, and of course, unlike microgravity, no one yet had any experience moving around in it in 1966-68. In the end, they seem to have decided that it was an inaccuracy they could live with. Space Station V presented the same problem: as conceived, the station only provided lunar-level gravity, not 1G. But the same problem there, too: How do you model movement in 1/6 gravity? Not so easy to answer in 1967.
Ah well, at least in the space suits scenes when they walk on the moon it also looks like it's Earth's gravity.
It's not annoyingly inconsistent like how in "Moon" when they're out to walk everything is lighter and slow moving like it should be, but then inside the lunar base there's perfect Earth gravity. There's no explanation given about artificial gravity, and in fact people even assume that (SPOILER... for an over 10 years old film) Sam's clones start to rot and decompose because of the Moon's lower gravity... WHAT LOWER GRAVITY??? This shit makes no sense.
Purpose of artistic en-devour is not to give you Mendeleev's table of elements, but to give experience of aesthetic pleasure.
Might have been to say that there is a dangerous situation at Clavius base on moon, and that it was being handled but would take some time, which would not have been untruthful
Adds the security oaths like a jaunty after thought. Just enough subtle irony to let them all know who is in charge, who represents "The Counsel". Any further questions? In private if you like?
Wonderful movie the reason I have such love for SC-Fi
relevant now more than ever....
The greatest meeting scene in the greatest movie of all time ! (The 2nd greatest is in Schindler's List where Oskar Schindler announces that the war is over and gives the guards a choice....)
Fantastic scene from the best film ever made
William Sylvester was the nephew of TV actor Raymond Bailey, who played the greedy banker Milburn Drysdale in The Beverly Hillbillies. That was a polar opposite production in esoteric level, which makes it hard to associate the two.