johnny p
01-25-2008, 08:46 AM
I was questioning one minor part of the film, and it appears there is more debate about it than that, so I thought I'd share these random thoughts from a fan of the film...
Introduction
"Dave. Stop. Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it..."
2001: A Space Odyssey. Of all the science fiction movies ever made, this one stands as the pinnacle of the genre. 2001 took the realm of special effects to an unsurpassed degree of realism, and even today this film is the standard by which many movies are measured. Before 2001, futuristic gadgets such as computers or spaceships were designed primarily for flashy, gaudy effect of the type displayed in such movies as This Island Earth or Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. They were obviously fake, aerodynamically impossible, and described in silly pseudo-scientific terms that had no meaning at all. 2001 paid such attention to detail that it has been said a more realistic movie could only be made if it were filmed on location in outer space.
This film shattered the juvenile notion that all alien beings in the movies were "invaders" with antennae on their heads, whose sole reason for existence was to conquer Earth. The Aliens of 2001 were neither menacing, nor were they actors in cheap foam-rubber costumes. After 2001, aliens in the movies became more realistic-looking and believable. Later science fiction films with extraterrestrials, including Star Wars and E.T., owe their existence to it.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, 2001 was a box-office hit when it premiered in 1968. Hippies would go to the front row of the movie theatre and lie on the floor as its "cosmic light show" swept over them. Reaction to this film by the moviegoing masses was extreme: it was either loved or hated by critics and laymen alike. There was no middle ground.
The film's popularity has not waned over the years, although it is no longer used for "tripping". Today, 2001 stands as a triumph of science fiction on the silver screen. Other films have tried to imitate its style and its vision, such as Planet Of The Apes and Silent Running, but none have come close.
Yet for many people, the film remains a mystery. It has been called "slow-moving," "ponderous," and even "incomprehensible." Pauline Kael has called it "a monumentally unimaginative movie," while negative reactions to the film were emotional as the positive ones.
In 1984 the movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact was released to theatres, and a large portion of the film was spent explaining "exactly what happened" in 2001. However, the explanations offered in 2010 did not even come close to the mark, and the mystery of 2001 remains. Exactly WHAT was the movie about? Where did the Monolith come from? Why did HAL go berserk? Just what happened to Dave Bowman anyway? And what was the meaning of the ending, with the hotel room and the Star Child? These are only a few of the questions asked by people, many of whom have been puzzling the meaning of the film for years.
Arthur C. Clarke's novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is the most obvious book to turn to for anyone looking for the answers to the movie - but the novel is not the final authority on the film. Clarke's novel is based upon an earlier version of the movie screenplay; he and Kubrick co-wrote the story while the movie was in production, and Kubrick made many changes to the film after the novel was finished and before the movie was released. Therefore, there are passages within the novel that do not take place in the movie at all, and likewise there are elements of the film that are not found in the book. For instance, in the novel the spaceship Discovery travels to the planet Saturn and its moon Japetus, while in the movie the destination is Jupiter. Hal (the computer) opens the airlock doors and lets all of the air out of the spaceship Discovery while Dave Bowman is still aboard in the novel; in the movie he lures Dave into outer space and refuses to let him back into the ship. The idea of letting the air out of Discovery had been included in the screenplay to the movie (which is why we see Dave wearing a spacesuit and helmet during his attack on Hal's memory banks), but it was later cut.
Clarke himself was confused by many elements of the movie. He tried to offer concrete, rational explanations of some of the questions raised by the film in his book, and in doing so he took many creative liberties. However, the answers offered in the novel are often contradictory and even inaccurate. They do offer clues and, in some cases, explanations to the symbolism and behind-the-scenes action that takes place in the movie, but because of the differences between the novel and the film, the novel cannot be considered the last word on 2001. To discover the subtleties and concepts of the movie, the best course of action is to watch the film carefully and make your own conclusions.
The following essay is, therefore, merely my own opinion of 2001. Feel free to disagree with any of the arguments I put forth. I seek merely to enlighten those who claim not to understand 2001 at all, and to shed a little light on the mysteries of the film.
The Dawn of Man
The original theatrical screening of 2001 included a three-minute musical overture set against a blank screen. The music played during this prelude is Ligeti's Atmospheres, and its purpose is twofold. First, it is an eerie, unusual music that puts the audience into an expectant mood; the feeling is of something important about to happen. Atmospheres is repeated twice during the movie's running time, at certain key moments (the Intermission, and Dave Bowman's journey into the Unknown). The meaning of this music will become clear later in the film.
The tone of 2001 is set in the very first scene, before the opening credits themselves: Sunrise over the planet Earth. It's a breath-taking sight as the triumphant Also Sprach Zarathustra echoes through the heavens, the Moon moves away and the Sun rises in its dazzling brightness across the face of the Earth. This planetary alignment has always been significant to Man, and Kubrick makes the most of it here. "The mystical alignment of the Sun, the Moon, and Earth, or of Jupiter and its moons, was used throughout the film as a premonitory image of a leap forward to the unknown," he says. The image is repeated several times throughout the movie, to signify an important event in human history.
Filmguide to 2001 offers an additional explanation of this scene that makes sense: it may be the point-of-view of the Aliens themselves. Travelling through our Solar System, they come across a bright little planet teeming with life -- and this is what they have been looking for. There may be other possibilities, including one theory that says that the open credits are, in fact, the same scene that takes place at the very END of the movie. This view of the Earth could be the point-of-view of the Star Child himself, and we are seeing the world through his eyes. If this is so, then the entire movie becomes a flashback, finally ending with this exact same moment - and the same music, as the movie also ends with Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Daylight. The sun rises upon a vast desert, and with the credits we realize that this is the prehistoric era. It is the African landscape, and the land is in the midst of a drought - this becomes obvious when, in one scene, we see a pile of bleached bones on the ground. Some of those bones look like humanoid skulls - and that is exactly what they are.
The man-apes appear. They are our ancestors, and at first glance it's hard to believe that these creatures will one day evolve into the masters of the planet. In fact, the man-apes are not surviving. They're foraging for plants and bugs; they're scavengers, and they're not having much luck finding things to eat. Furthermore, they're obviously not very dangerous, for a group of tapirs is competing with them for the same food. They cannot even scare the animals away.
Their number is diminishing. As a leopard pounces upon one of the man-apes, the others flee in terror; they cannot defend their comrade, and they have no desire to anyway. In the harsh world of this prehistoric era, every creature must fend for himself, and he cannot grieve for anyone else. Besides, the man-apes are too weak from hunger to properly defend themselves.
These man-apes are not the only ones in the vicinity, however. As they are drinking from a pool of muddy water, another group of humanoids comes upon the scene. But the man-apes lack the strength and the natural weapons to defend their territory, and they are driven away by the intruders. They are not surviving, and it is obvious that they will die soon.
The novel 2001 states that one of the apes is called Moon- Watcher. This name is not important to the story, but it helps to identify the chief man-ape as the central figure here. It is he who will be the subject of the great experiment. The first signs of intelligence are appearing in him, but they may not be there for long - for Moon-Watcher, like the rest of his tribe, is starving to death.
That night, the man-apes huddle together under a big outcropping of rock. This is the best protection they have against the terrors of the night. But this night is different from many others. There is something else out there, something that even makes the great predators and hunters nervous. A leopard glances up from its kill, its eyes glowing in the dusk sky. (The glow of the cat's eyes was a lucky accident during the filming of the movie.) Other animals, normally silent, growl and roar as fear overcomes them. The man-apes sense this, and Moon-Watcher growls as well - though in his case, it is merely a gesture to show the world that he is not afraid, when inside he is just as scared as his fellow man-apes. In a close-up of his face, we see eyes that are definitely human - the same curious eyes that Moon-Watcher's descendants will have, four million years later.
The night falls.
As dawn brightens the sky, the great event takes place. The eerie strains of Gygory Legeti's unearthly Requiem resound, and the man-apes awaken. A look of outright terror appears on their faces. Something is wrong; they see something that strikes them dumb with fright.
Then the camera pulls back, and the Monolith appears.
The appearance of something so artificial, so PERFECT, in the prehistoric era of the man-apes is one of the greatest shocks of the entire film. This Thing has appeared, as if from nowhere. The man- apes flee in terror from it at first, but their curiosity overcomes them and they slowly approach it. It is Moon-Watcher who first performs the act that will be repeated twice later in the film: He reaches out to touch the Monolith.
There is something mystical and emotional about this scene: the man-apes, almost childlike in their innocence, running their hands over the smooth surface of the Monolith. They do not know where it has come from, nor can they comprehend the beings responsible for intruding upon their world in this manner. They only know that this is something new, and their curiosity is compelling them to find out what this new thing is. It's as if they have received a gift from the gods.
In fact, this is precisely what has happened.
Stanley Kubrick chose the rectangular form of the Monolith because of its simplicity and its perfection. There is no question upon viewing the Monolith that it is artificial -- it is the work of an intelligent mind. Its simple shape is likewise impressive, as it towers over to the man-apes, silently looking down upon them (and upon the audience, as well). Indeed, as the weird music reaches its peak, the "magical" alignment occurs once again: the Sun and the Moon in the sky together, rising over the silhouette of the ominous ebon form.
But at this point the scene suddenly changes, and the normal routine of life takes over once again. In the harsh world of the man- apes, the Monolith is quickly accepted as a part of the surroundings; they no longer pay attention to it. To quote the novel: "They could not eat it, and it could not eat them; therefore it was not important."
The man-apes continue their desperate search for food, as the Monolith silently observes them. They forage among the rocks and the stones, and they pick through the skeletal remains of other animals, whose bones have long since been picked clean and dried out by long exposure to the Sun.
Then something new takes place. For the first time, Moon-Watcher looks at the bleached bones with curiosity. With a faltering, hesitant grip, the man-ape takes one of the bones in his hand. He has obviously never done this before, as evidenced by his clumsy moves. But slowly, his grip on the bone tightens, and as the triumphant chords of Also Sprach Zarathustra sound, as if from the heavens themselves, Moon-watcher acquires that one trait that puts him above all the other creatures of the world: He takes the bone and uses it as a weapon, gleefully smashing the animal skeleton to pieces. An image of a falling tapir also flashes across the screen: This man-ape knows that what he is doing to these bones can also be done to live animals - and he has found a new source of food! The Moon-Watcher has taken the first step down the long road to Mankind.
One point in this scene is vital to the story of 2001: Of all the man-apes in all the world, it would be Moon-Watcher who, at this particular moment, first discovers the use of this tool to get food. It is no coincidence that he was in the shadow of the Monolith when this historic event took place. Furthermore, as Moon-Watcher was eyeing the dried bones, there was a single, abrupt flash back to the image of the Monolith. The fact that the man-apes discovered tools when the Monolith was present is not a coincidence: the idea was planted in their minds by the Monolith itself. It was the Monolith, and the Aliens who made it, who gave the use of tools to the man-apes, and the camera's focus on the Monolith and Moon-Watcher serves to associates the two with each other. At this time, the tribe was starving -- indeed, it might have died out completely within the next year or so. But now the man-apes have been given a gift; this gift would ensure their survival for the next four million years.
The next scene shows that the man-apes have put their new tools to good use, and that they have taken another step toward survival: they are no longer groping and scratching among the rocks for plants and little bits of food. They're eating meat. They've seen the potential food supply that could easily last for the rest of their lives; and so, in order to survive, the hunted have become the hunters. They have made their first kills, and with this new supply of food, the man-apes find themselves growing stronger. They are no longer weak with hunger - and now that they have the time and the energy to make their world a better place to live, they can at last overcome the obstacles threatening their survival. Through the use of tools, the man-apes can become the masters of the world.
As they are filling their bellies, the man-apes are oblivious to the other major change that has taken place. The camera pulls back and we realize with a shock what has happened.
As suddenly as it came, the Monolith has disappeared. Its purpose has been fulfilled.
Now once again, we are at the drinking pool. And once again, the other tribe is there, making their threats, trying to keep their rivals away from the water. But something has changed, as one group of man-apes - Moon-Watcher's tribe - is now carrying bone tools and weapons. The other tribe does not notice this, for they have not made the great intuitive leap that was needed to use tools. They merely think that the intruders are back, to be driven away again. So one of the Others (as the novel calls them) crosses the stream - and Moon- Watcher strikes him down with his bone club. Because Moon-Watcher's hunting skills are still minimal, he hits his foe again and again to make sure he is dead. The other members of the tribe join him in the brutal murder.
The Others are frightened out of their wits - something like this has never happened before! They flee in terror, and they are pursued by the fierce roar of Moon-Watcher and the other man-apes. If they ever come back to this water again, they will surely be killed.
Moon-Watcher has indeed become, as the novel states, "master of the world." He has conquered his enemies, and he is the lord of all he sees. In triumph, he throws his weapon into the air...
...where it suddenly becomes an orbiting satellite. In one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history, the story has shifted forward four million years, to the year 2001 AD.
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There is a great deal of symbolism in the scene of Moon-watcher and the man-apes conquering the Others. Among other things, it can be noted that:
The man-apes were given the use of tools by the Monolith, but they learn to kill other man-apes AFTER the Monolith has disappeared. Murder, apparently, is entirely a human invention.
The tool that the man-apes use to survive becomes a weapon of destruction. The new tools that the man-apes have gained are useful - they have saved the man-apes' lives - but they are also dangerous. Man's tools are always as much of a threat to him as they are a benefit, and this two-edged sword has never dulled, even after four million years of history.
The Making Of Kubrick's 2001 states that the first satellite to appear in the film is, in fact, a satellite carrying nuclear weapons. Man's desire to kill other men has not diminished in four million years, and it can even be said that the simple weapons of the man-apes have evolved, like Man himself, into the complex weapons of the year 2001. The sudden switch from bone to satellite shows how the two are actually very similar to each other in purpose: they kill.
As the novel states: "Man had been re-made by his own tools." Man has come to depend on his tools so completely that he is a slave to them. Without his tools, Man would not have survived, four million years ago. Even today, Man needs tools to continue his existence - but those tools threaten to destroy Man as well. This is one of the central themes of 2001: IS MAN STRONGER THAN HIS OWN TOOLS, OR ARE THE TOOLS REALLY THE MASTERS? The answer to this question lies further ahead in the movie.
TMA-1
The Blue Danube floats gently across the screen, calming the audience down and instilling an atmosphere of relaxation. Space-ships are travelling through the skies at a leisurely pace. The first ships to appear on the screen, according to Making of 2001, are the nuclear weapons platforms used by the superpowers of Earth. (The actual declaration that these are nuclear weapons was taken out of the final print of the film because it was merely an unnecessary red herring; Kubrick believed that details on the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were inconsequential and not important to the story of 2001). Even if the satellites are dangerous, however, their slow and easy movements lessen their threat. From this point of view, any apparent danger from them is so small as to be non-existent, and the satellites moving through the sky are mere decorations adding to the celestial backdrop. The apparent slow motion of the spaceships makes them seem as if they are travelling with elegance and grace - in fact, they are graceful indeed, as their movements are being precisely controlled.
The Space Station appears, turning serenely in its orbit, adding to the feeling of calm and order. Kubrick says that this sequence is "a kind of machine ballet." The scene is, in fact, very beautiful.
People have complained about this lengthy space travel sequence, saying that it is plodding and even "boring." The reason why this scene moves at such an unhurried rate is because Kubrick wanted space travel in 2001 to be as realistic as possible. If, as Roger Ebert mentions, the ships in 2001 merely "zipped around like props on Captain Video," the illusion of realism would be destroyed. The audience would not be admiring the care that went into the special effects; they would, rather, be laughing at such an unrealistic piece of "space opera." Kubrick has attempted to present a vision of space travel as it may happen in real life. Thus, we have the grandiose, awesome, and slow-moving spaceships of 2001.
Note also that, other than the music, the scene is completely silent. There is no sound in vacuum, and thus the spacecraft do not make a sound. Few science fiction films have bothered to obey this law of nature, and thus the spaceships of Star Wars and Star Trek zoom across the screen like the screaming fighters of a World War II action movie. 2001 stresses realism, however, and thus the ships are silent. This is just one of many instances in the film where sound - or lack of it - is used to enhance the effect of the picture.
Moving towards the Space Station is a Pan-Am shuttlecraft. This is the first of many corporate logos to appear throughout this sequence. Kubrick correctly guessed that corporate business would make its mark in space travel, and the first major attempts at making space travel a civilian activity would fall into the hands of the big businesses. As we move to the interior of the shuttlecraft, we see that civilian space travel is indeed a reality: the ship has seats for at least a hundred people. It doesn't look any different from the interior of a commuter train or a jumbo jet.
However, this particular shuttle is completely empty, except only for one passenger: Dr. Heywood Floyd of NASA. He has been sent, at great expense, on a special mission, and this shuttle is being used solely to take him into space. Exactly where he is going, and why, will become clear shortly. It is here that Kubrick begins to include another theme in the movie: the similarities between men and machines. Man has been completely re-moulded by his tools, since he first began using them on that day four million years ago - the tool-maker has been re-made by his own tools. He has come to depend on his machines so much that he is becoming a machine himself. The characters in 2001 are so machine-like that they seem incapable of feeling any kind of emotion. This is merely a reflection of what Mankind may actually be like today: machine-like. We are used to seeing movies where the characters are full of emotion - they may be violent or passionate or loving or murderous. But in real life, very few people are so intensely emotional - and thus, the realism of 2001 extends to its characters as well.
Heywood Floyd is asleep. Despite the grand spectacle of outer space outside his window, he has his television turned on - and he is still so bored that he has fallen asleep. Man's control over his environment through the use of tools has grown so complete that he is no longer excited by nature. Space travel is so commonplace that a voyage into outer space is merely another boring routine to be slept through.
In yet another display of the film's amazing special effects, a pen floats casually in the weightless environment beside Dr. Floyd, and his arm drifts aimlessly. Especial care has been taken in making every detail as accurate and as realistic as possible: the stewardesses walk on Velcro slippers to keep their feet on the ground.
The shuttlecraft aligns itself with the rotation of the Space Station and docks; Dr. Floyd leaves the shuttle and the first words of dialogue in the film are spoken:
"Here you are, sir."
Banal, pointless chit-chat, just as we hear in everyday life. The people of 2001 engage in meaningless banter and go through formal routines, just as they do on Earth. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
After meeting Mr. Miller and going through "Voiceprint Identification," Dr. Floyd heads for his next destination. The two figures pass through a strangely empty corridor. The Space Station is, in fact, an orbiting hotel, and except for the curvature of the floor it could easily be mistaken for any hotel on Earth. However, this place is strangely empty: there is obviously enough room to suit the needs of hundreds of people, but almost no one is here. Floyd stops off to make a phone call to his daughter, using a Bell "Picturephone;" this is another example of the care taken to make the Space Station look as realistic as possible. Aside from the use of the Bell Telephone logo, the phone booth even sounds like a phone booth. There is a hissing air conditioner that makes the booth look and feel like a cramped, small, enclosed space. Again, sound is used to enhance the visual image on the screen.
After making his phone call, Floyd encounters a group of Soviet scientists - and here at last the story begins to take shape. We learn why the Space Station is nearly empty: apparently, there is an "epidemic" at the Clavius Moonbase. From this, we can assume that the Space Station has been largely evacuated, and tourist activities halted, until the problem is properly dealt with. Unfortunately, Dr. Floyd cannot discuss the situation at Clavius with his friends at any length, for security reasons. Even amidst these startling plot developments, however, there is the pointless throwaway conversation that is used in everyday talk.
Dr. Floyd's conversation with the Russians is proof that in 2001, the Soviet states and the United States have settled into an uneasy peace (Kubrick couldn't have anticipated the events that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s-early 1990s). With this sequence, Kubrick does not have to spend time discussing the political situation of the future - it can be assumed by the audience. In 1968 when the film was released, the Soviet Union was considered "The Enemy" by the United States, and this scene was probably an optimistic view of the future. Fortunately, it seems that this vision has at least partially come to pass.
Now Dr. Floyd heads onward to the Moon. In addition to the tedium of space travel, we see more examples of human life in zero gravity. A waitress serves meals in liquid form, to be sucked through a straw so that food particles don't float all over the place. She brings the food trays to the cockpit where the ship is piloted, and in doing so she turns completely upside down and seems to walk on the ceiling. With no gravity, there is no need for the conventional vertical method of designing a spacecraft, with a set direction for "up" and "down;" in this case, the designers of the shuttle must have decided that the most convenient way (for mechanical reasons) to build the ship was to have the command deck at an angle differing from the passenger's quarters down below.
In what has been called the most obvious joke of the film, Dr. Floyd ponders the long, complicated instructions of a zero-gravity toilet. Since Mankind evolved in Earth's gravity, travelling into deep space with no gravity requires Man to suffer some hardships.
The shuttle approaches the Moon. There are figures moving on the lunar landscape below, and they see the ship coming in. (From this point of view, the shuttle vaguely resembles a human head. This was a deliberate design: it supports the symbiotic relationship between Man and his machines. The machine resembles a human, and the humans inside have become machine-like.) Finally, we come to Clavius, the American lunar base. Computers align the ship, and it settles down to a landing, where it is taken deep into the bowels of the Moon. The Blue Danube ends; the journey is complete.
Introduction
"Dave. Stop. Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it..."
2001: A Space Odyssey. Of all the science fiction movies ever made, this one stands as the pinnacle of the genre. 2001 took the realm of special effects to an unsurpassed degree of realism, and even today this film is the standard by which many movies are measured. Before 2001, futuristic gadgets such as computers or spaceships were designed primarily for flashy, gaudy effect of the type displayed in such movies as This Island Earth or Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. They were obviously fake, aerodynamically impossible, and described in silly pseudo-scientific terms that had no meaning at all. 2001 paid such attention to detail that it has been said a more realistic movie could only be made if it were filmed on location in outer space.
This film shattered the juvenile notion that all alien beings in the movies were "invaders" with antennae on their heads, whose sole reason for existence was to conquer Earth. The Aliens of 2001 were neither menacing, nor were they actors in cheap foam-rubber costumes. After 2001, aliens in the movies became more realistic-looking and believable. Later science fiction films with extraterrestrials, including Star Wars and E.T., owe their existence to it.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, 2001 was a box-office hit when it premiered in 1968. Hippies would go to the front row of the movie theatre and lie on the floor as its "cosmic light show" swept over them. Reaction to this film by the moviegoing masses was extreme: it was either loved or hated by critics and laymen alike. There was no middle ground.
The film's popularity has not waned over the years, although it is no longer used for "tripping". Today, 2001 stands as a triumph of science fiction on the silver screen. Other films have tried to imitate its style and its vision, such as Planet Of The Apes and Silent Running, but none have come close.
Yet for many people, the film remains a mystery. It has been called "slow-moving," "ponderous," and even "incomprehensible." Pauline Kael has called it "a monumentally unimaginative movie," while negative reactions to the film were emotional as the positive ones.
In 1984 the movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact was released to theatres, and a large portion of the film was spent explaining "exactly what happened" in 2001. However, the explanations offered in 2010 did not even come close to the mark, and the mystery of 2001 remains. Exactly WHAT was the movie about? Where did the Monolith come from? Why did HAL go berserk? Just what happened to Dave Bowman anyway? And what was the meaning of the ending, with the hotel room and the Star Child? These are only a few of the questions asked by people, many of whom have been puzzling the meaning of the film for years.
Arthur C. Clarke's novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is the most obvious book to turn to for anyone looking for the answers to the movie - but the novel is not the final authority on the film. Clarke's novel is based upon an earlier version of the movie screenplay; he and Kubrick co-wrote the story while the movie was in production, and Kubrick made many changes to the film after the novel was finished and before the movie was released. Therefore, there are passages within the novel that do not take place in the movie at all, and likewise there are elements of the film that are not found in the book. For instance, in the novel the spaceship Discovery travels to the planet Saturn and its moon Japetus, while in the movie the destination is Jupiter. Hal (the computer) opens the airlock doors and lets all of the air out of the spaceship Discovery while Dave Bowman is still aboard in the novel; in the movie he lures Dave into outer space and refuses to let him back into the ship. The idea of letting the air out of Discovery had been included in the screenplay to the movie (which is why we see Dave wearing a spacesuit and helmet during his attack on Hal's memory banks), but it was later cut.
Clarke himself was confused by many elements of the movie. He tried to offer concrete, rational explanations of some of the questions raised by the film in his book, and in doing so he took many creative liberties. However, the answers offered in the novel are often contradictory and even inaccurate. They do offer clues and, in some cases, explanations to the symbolism and behind-the-scenes action that takes place in the movie, but because of the differences between the novel and the film, the novel cannot be considered the last word on 2001. To discover the subtleties and concepts of the movie, the best course of action is to watch the film carefully and make your own conclusions.
The following essay is, therefore, merely my own opinion of 2001. Feel free to disagree with any of the arguments I put forth. I seek merely to enlighten those who claim not to understand 2001 at all, and to shed a little light on the mysteries of the film.
The Dawn of Man
The original theatrical screening of 2001 included a three-minute musical overture set against a blank screen. The music played during this prelude is Ligeti's Atmospheres, and its purpose is twofold. First, it is an eerie, unusual music that puts the audience into an expectant mood; the feeling is of something important about to happen. Atmospheres is repeated twice during the movie's running time, at certain key moments (the Intermission, and Dave Bowman's journey into the Unknown). The meaning of this music will become clear later in the film.
The tone of 2001 is set in the very first scene, before the opening credits themselves: Sunrise over the planet Earth. It's a breath-taking sight as the triumphant Also Sprach Zarathustra echoes through the heavens, the Moon moves away and the Sun rises in its dazzling brightness across the face of the Earth. This planetary alignment has always been significant to Man, and Kubrick makes the most of it here. "The mystical alignment of the Sun, the Moon, and Earth, or of Jupiter and its moons, was used throughout the film as a premonitory image of a leap forward to the unknown," he says. The image is repeated several times throughout the movie, to signify an important event in human history.
Filmguide to 2001 offers an additional explanation of this scene that makes sense: it may be the point-of-view of the Aliens themselves. Travelling through our Solar System, they come across a bright little planet teeming with life -- and this is what they have been looking for. There may be other possibilities, including one theory that says that the open credits are, in fact, the same scene that takes place at the very END of the movie. This view of the Earth could be the point-of-view of the Star Child himself, and we are seeing the world through his eyes. If this is so, then the entire movie becomes a flashback, finally ending with this exact same moment - and the same music, as the movie also ends with Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Daylight. The sun rises upon a vast desert, and with the credits we realize that this is the prehistoric era. It is the African landscape, and the land is in the midst of a drought - this becomes obvious when, in one scene, we see a pile of bleached bones on the ground. Some of those bones look like humanoid skulls - and that is exactly what they are.
The man-apes appear. They are our ancestors, and at first glance it's hard to believe that these creatures will one day evolve into the masters of the planet. In fact, the man-apes are not surviving. They're foraging for plants and bugs; they're scavengers, and they're not having much luck finding things to eat. Furthermore, they're obviously not very dangerous, for a group of tapirs is competing with them for the same food. They cannot even scare the animals away.
Their number is diminishing. As a leopard pounces upon one of the man-apes, the others flee in terror; they cannot defend their comrade, and they have no desire to anyway. In the harsh world of this prehistoric era, every creature must fend for himself, and he cannot grieve for anyone else. Besides, the man-apes are too weak from hunger to properly defend themselves.
These man-apes are not the only ones in the vicinity, however. As they are drinking from a pool of muddy water, another group of humanoids comes upon the scene. But the man-apes lack the strength and the natural weapons to defend their territory, and they are driven away by the intruders. They are not surviving, and it is obvious that they will die soon.
The novel 2001 states that one of the apes is called Moon- Watcher. This name is not important to the story, but it helps to identify the chief man-ape as the central figure here. It is he who will be the subject of the great experiment. The first signs of intelligence are appearing in him, but they may not be there for long - for Moon-Watcher, like the rest of his tribe, is starving to death.
That night, the man-apes huddle together under a big outcropping of rock. This is the best protection they have against the terrors of the night. But this night is different from many others. There is something else out there, something that even makes the great predators and hunters nervous. A leopard glances up from its kill, its eyes glowing in the dusk sky. (The glow of the cat's eyes was a lucky accident during the filming of the movie.) Other animals, normally silent, growl and roar as fear overcomes them. The man-apes sense this, and Moon-Watcher growls as well - though in his case, it is merely a gesture to show the world that he is not afraid, when inside he is just as scared as his fellow man-apes. In a close-up of his face, we see eyes that are definitely human - the same curious eyes that Moon-Watcher's descendants will have, four million years later.
The night falls.
As dawn brightens the sky, the great event takes place. The eerie strains of Gygory Legeti's unearthly Requiem resound, and the man-apes awaken. A look of outright terror appears on their faces. Something is wrong; they see something that strikes them dumb with fright.
Then the camera pulls back, and the Monolith appears.
The appearance of something so artificial, so PERFECT, in the prehistoric era of the man-apes is one of the greatest shocks of the entire film. This Thing has appeared, as if from nowhere. The man- apes flee in terror from it at first, but their curiosity overcomes them and they slowly approach it. It is Moon-Watcher who first performs the act that will be repeated twice later in the film: He reaches out to touch the Monolith.
There is something mystical and emotional about this scene: the man-apes, almost childlike in their innocence, running their hands over the smooth surface of the Monolith. They do not know where it has come from, nor can they comprehend the beings responsible for intruding upon their world in this manner. They only know that this is something new, and their curiosity is compelling them to find out what this new thing is. It's as if they have received a gift from the gods.
In fact, this is precisely what has happened.
Stanley Kubrick chose the rectangular form of the Monolith because of its simplicity and its perfection. There is no question upon viewing the Monolith that it is artificial -- it is the work of an intelligent mind. Its simple shape is likewise impressive, as it towers over to the man-apes, silently looking down upon them (and upon the audience, as well). Indeed, as the weird music reaches its peak, the "magical" alignment occurs once again: the Sun and the Moon in the sky together, rising over the silhouette of the ominous ebon form.
But at this point the scene suddenly changes, and the normal routine of life takes over once again. In the harsh world of the man- apes, the Monolith is quickly accepted as a part of the surroundings; they no longer pay attention to it. To quote the novel: "They could not eat it, and it could not eat them; therefore it was not important."
The man-apes continue their desperate search for food, as the Monolith silently observes them. They forage among the rocks and the stones, and they pick through the skeletal remains of other animals, whose bones have long since been picked clean and dried out by long exposure to the Sun.
Then something new takes place. For the first time, Moon-Watcher looks at the bleached bones with curiosity. With a faltering, hesitant grip, the man-ape takes one of the bones in his hand. He has obviously never done this before, as evidenced by his clumsy moves. But slowly, his grip on the bone tightens, and as the triumphant chords of Also Sprach Zarathustra sound, as if from the heavens themselves, Moon-watcher acquires that one trait that puts him above all the other creatures of the world: He takes the bone and uses it as a weapon, gleefully smashing the animal skeleton to pieces. An image of a falling tapir also flashes across the screen: This man-ape knows that what he is doing to these bones can also be done to live animals - and he has found a new source of food! The Moon-Watcher has taken the first step down the long road to Mankind.
One point in this scene is vital to the story of 2001: Of all the man-apes in all the world, it would be Moon-Watcher who, at this particular moment, first discovers the use of this tool to get food. It is no coincidence that he was in the shadow of the Monolith when this historic event took place. Furthermore, as Moon-Watcher was eyeing the dried bones, there was a single, abrupt flash back to the image of the Monolith. The fact that the man-apes discovered tools when the Monolith was present is not a coincidence: the idea was planted in their minds by the Monolith itself. It was the Monolith, and the Aliens who made it, who gave the use of tools to the man-apes, and the camera's focus on the Monolith and Moon-Watcher serves to associates the two with each other. At this time, the tribe was starving -- indeed, it might have died out completely within the next year or so. But now the man-apes have been given a gift; this gift would ensure their survival for the next four million years.
The next scene shows that the man-apes have put their new tools to good use, and that they have taken another step toward survival: they are no longer groping and scratching among the rocks for plants and little bits of food. They're eating meat. They've seen the potential food supply that could easily last for the rest of their lives; and so, in order to survive, the hunted have become the hunters. They have made their first kills, and with this new supply of food, the man-apes find themselves growing stronger. They are no longer weak with hunger - and now that they have the time and the energy to make their world a better place to live, they can at last overcome the obstacles threatening their survival. Through the use of tools, the man-apes can become the masters of the world.
As they are filling their bellies, the man-apes are oblivious to the other major change that has taken place. The camera pulls back and we realize with a shock what has happened.
As suddenly as it came, the Monolith has disappeared. Its purpose has been fulfilled.
Now once again, we are at the drinking pool. And once again, the other tribe is there, making their threats, trying to keep their rivals away from the water. But something has changed, as one group of man-apes - Moon-Watcher's tribe - is now carrying bone tools and weapons. The other tribe does not notice this, for they have not made the great intuitive leap that was needed to use tools. They merely think that the intruders are back, to be driven away again. So one of the Others (as the novel calls them) crosses the stream - and Moon- Watcher strikes him down with his bone club. Because Moon-Watcher's hunting skills are still minimal, he hits his foe again and again to make sure he is dead. The other members of the tribe join him in the brutal murder.
The Others are frightened out of their wits - something like this has never happened before! They flee in terror, and they are pursued by the fierce roar of Moon-Watcher and the other man-apes. If they ever come back to this water again, they will surely be killed.
Moon-Watcher has indeed become, as the novel states, "master of the world." He has conquered his enemies, and he is the lord of all he sees. In triumph, he throws his weapon into the air...
...where it suddenly becomes an orbiting satellite. In one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history, the story has shifted forward four million years, to the year 2001 AD.
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There is a great deal of symbolism in the scene of Moon-watcher and the man-apes conquering the Others. Among other things, it can be noted that:
The man-apes were given the use of tools by the Monolith, but they learn to kill other man-apes AFTER the Monolith has disappeared. Murder, apparently, is entirely a human invention.
The tool that the man-apes use to survive becomes a weapon of destruction. The new tools that the man-apes have gained are useful - they have saved the man-apes' lives - but they are also dangerous. Man's tools are always as much of a threat to him as they are a benefit, and this two-edged sword has never dulled, even after four million years of history.
The Making Of Kubrick's 2001 states that the first satellite to appear in the film is, in fact, a satellite carrying nuclear weapons. Man's desire to kill other men has not diminished in four million years, and it can even be said that the simple weapons of the man-apes have evolved, like Man himself, into the complex weapons of the year 2001. The sudden switch from bone to satellite shows how the two are actually very similar to each other in purpose: they kill.
As the novel states: "Man had been re-made by his own tools." Man has come to depend on his tools so completely that he is a slave to them. Without his tools, Man would not have survived, four million years ago. Even today, Man needs tools to continue his existence - but those tools threaten to destroy Man as well. This is one of the central themes of 2001: IS MAN STRONGER THAN HIS OWN TOOLS, OR ARE THE TOOLS REALLY THE MASTERS? The answer to this question lies further ahead in the movie.
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The Blue Danube floats gently across the screen, calming the audience down and instilling an atmosphere of relaxation. Space-ships are travelling through the skies at a leisurely pace. The first ships to appear on the screen, according to Making of 2001, are the nuclear weapons platforms used by the superpowers of Earth. (The actual declaration that these are nuclear weapons was taken out of the final print of the film because it was merely an unnecessary red herring; Kubrick believed that details on the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were inconsequential and not important to the story of 2001). Even if the satellites are dangerous, however, their slow and easy movements lessen their threat. From this point of view, any apparent danger from them is so small as to be non-existent, and the satellites moving through the sky are mere decorations adding to the celestial backdrop. The apparent slow motion of the spaceships makes them seem as if they are travelling with elegance and grace - in fact, they are graceful indeed, as their movements are being precisely controlled.
The Space Station appears, turning serenely in its orbit, adding to the feeling of calm and order. Kubrick says that this sequence is "a kind of machine ballet." The scene is, in fact, very beautiful.
People have complained about this lengthy space travel sequence, saying that it is plodding and even "boring." The reason why this scene moves at such an unhurried rate is because Kubrick wanted space travel in 2001 to be as realistic as possible. If, as Roger Ebert mentions, the ships in 2001 merely "zipped around like props on Captain Video," the illusion of realism would be destroyed. The audience would not be admiring the care that went into the special effects; they would, rather, be laughing at such an unrealistic piece of "space opera." Kubrick has attempted to present a vision of space travel as it may happen in real life. Thus, we have the grandiose, awesome, and slow-moving spaceships of 2001.
Note also that, other than the music, the scene is completely silent. There is no sound in vacuum, and thus the spacecraft do not make a sound. Few science fiction films have bothered to obey this law of nature, and thus the spaceships of Star Wars and Star Trek zoom across the screen like the screaming fighters of a World War II action movie. 2001 stresses realism, however, and thus the ships are silent. This is just one of many instances in the film where sound - or lack of it - is used to enhance the effect of the picture.
Moving towards the Space Station is a Pan-Am shuttlecraft. This is the first of many corporate logos to appear throughout this sequence. Kubrick correctly guessed that corporate business would make its mark in space travel, and the first major attempts at making space travel a civilian activity would fall into the hands of the big businesses. As we move to the interior of the shuttlecraft, we see that civilian space travel is indeed a reality: the ship has seats for at least a hundred people. It doesn't look any different from the interior of a commuter train or a jumbo jet.
However, this particular shuttle is completely empty, except only for one passenger: Dr. Heywood Floyd of NASA. He has been sent, at great expense, on a special mission, and this shuttle is being used solely to take him into space. Exactly where he is going, and why, will become clear shortly. It is here that Kubrick begins to include another theme in the movie: the similarities between men and machines. Man has been completely re-moulded by his tools, since he first began using them on that day four million years ago - the tool-maker has been re-made by his own tools. He has come to depend on his machines so much that he is becoming a machine himself. The characters in 2001 are so machine-like that they seem incapable of feeling any kind of emotion. This is merely a reflection of what Mankind may actually be like today: machine-like. We are used to seeing movies where the characters are full of emotion - they may be violent or passionate or loving or murderous. But in real life, very few people are so intensely emotional - and thus, the realism of 2001 extends to its characters as well.
Heywood Floyd is asleep. Despite the grand spectacle of outer space outside his window, he has his television turned on - and he is still so bored that he has fallen asleep. Man's control over his environment through the use of tools has grown so complete that he is no longer excited by nature. Space travel is so commonplace that a voyage into outer space is merely another boring routine to be slept through.
In yet another display of the film's amazing special effects, a pen floats casually in the weightless environment beside Dr. Floyd, and his arm drifts aimlessly. Especial care has been taken in making every detail as accurate and as realistic as possible: the stewardesses walk on Velcro slippers to keep their feet on the ground.
The shuttlecraft aligns itself with the rotation of the Space Station and docks; Dr. Floyd leaves the shuttle and the first words of dialogue in the film are spoken:
"Here you are, sir."
Banal, pointless chit-chat, just as we hear in everyday life. The people of 2001 engage in meaningless banter and go through formal routines, just as they do on Earth. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
After meeting Mr. Miller and going through "Voiceprint Identification," Dr. Floyd heads for his next destination. The two figures pass through a strangely empty corridor. The Space Station is, in fact, an orbiting hotel, and except for the curvature of the floor it could easily be mistaken for any hotel on Earth. However, this place is strangely empty: there is obviously enough room to suit the needs of hundreds of people, but almost no one is here. Floyd stops off to make a phone call to his daughter, using a Bell "Picturephone;" this is another example of the care taken to make the Space Station look as realistic as possible. Aside from the use of the Bell Telephone logo, the phone booth even sounds like a phone booth. There is a hissing air conditioner that makes the booth look and feel like a cramped, small, enclosed space. Again, sound is used to enhance the visual image on the screen.
After making his phone call, Floyd encounters a group of Soviet scientists - and here at last the story begins to take shape. We learn why the Space Station is nearly empty: apparently, there is an "epidemic" at the Clavius Moonbase. From this, we can assume that the Space Station has been largely evacuated, and tourist activities halted, until the problem is properly dealt with. Unfortunately, Dr. Floyd cannot discuss the situation at Clavius with his friends at any length, for security reasons. Even amidst these startling plot developments, however, there is the pointless throwaway conversation that is used in everyday talk.
Dr. Floyd's conversation with the Russians is proof that in 2001, the Soviet states and the United States have settled into an uneasy peace (Kubrick couldn't have anticipated the events that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s-early 1990s). With this sequence, Kubrick does not have to spend time discussing the political situation of the future - it can be assumed by the audience. In 1968 when the film was released, the Soviet Union was considered "The Enemy" by the United States, and this scene was probably an optimistic view of the future. Fortunately, it seems that this vision has at least partially come to pass.
Now Dr. Floyd heads onward to the Moon. In addition to the tedium of space travel, we see more examples of human life in zero gravity. A waitress serves meals in liquid form, to be sucked through a straw so that food particles don't float all over the place. She brings the food trays to the cockpit where the ship is piloted, and in doing so she turns completely upside down and seems to walk on the ceiling. With no gravity, there is no need for the conventional vertical method of designing a spacecraft, with a set direction for "up" and "down;" in this case, the designers of the shuttle must have decided that the most convenient way (for mechanical reasons) to build the ship was to have the command deck at an angle differing from the passenger's quarters down below.
In what has been called the most obvious joke of the film, Dr. Floyd ponders the long, complicated instructions of a zero-gravity toilet. Since Mankind evolved in Earth's gravity, travelling into deep space with no gravity requires Man to suffer some hardships.
The shuttle approaches the Moon. There are figures moving on the lunar landscape below, and they see the ship coming in. (From this point of view, the shuttle vaguely resembles a human head. This was a deliberate design: it supports the symbiotic relationship between Man and his machines. The machine resembles a human, and the humans inside have become machine-like.) Finally, we come to Clavius, the American lunar base. Computers align the ship, and it settles down to a landing, where it is taken deep into the bowels of the Moon. The Blue Danube ends; the journey is complete.