2001: A Space Oddity

When I was playing with the website, I decided to have it make a photo of my favorite breed of dogs running around flowers. More specifically, a westie puppy running around a field of sunflowers. The photo appeared and to be honest, it kind of freaked me out how quickly it take whatever I wrote and make it a photo. 

While I was using the website, it kept bringing me back to watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even though it was not my first time watching the movie, I saw more things in the film than ever before. 

Like I said before, this was not my first viewing experience watching the movie. A few years ago, I watched a movie with my dad. I mentioned it to him and he said it was one of his favorite movies. So, one night we sat down and watched it. However, I fell asleep after the apes discovered the monolith and Haywood is flying to the moon. I am still confused about how none of the loud noises and music didn't woke me up. My dad also fell asleep during the movie. It was not that he was bored, it was really late at night. Besides that, I woke up at the end of the movie, and let's just say I was very confused. The main character becoming old and then a fetus boggled my mind. After watching the movie the first time, I said to my dad that it was the most boring I have ever seen and that I don't ever want to watch it again.

Well, I had to watch it for my class. I can say that my feelings have slightly changed. I don't find the movie boring anymore. I actually enjoyed it and I was in awe the whole time because of the elaborate sets and amazing cinematography. However, I still don't get the ending! It bothers me every time I talk about this movie. However, as I did research on the ending, it turns out Stanley Kubrick stated that he doesn't like to really explain his movies and wants the fans to figure it out. However, he finally explained it. He even says, "I’ve tried to avoid doing this ever since the picture came out. When you just say the ideas they sound foolish, whereas if they’re dramatized one feels it, but I'll try." He went on to do his own interpretation of the ending. 

Overall, my idea for the movie has changed, yet the ending will always bother me because I don't understand it. However, that is what makes not only Kubrick's movies but any other films unique and makes the experience.

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Down below are my notes on the movie:

Include information about Stanley Kubrick and the screenwriter Arthur C. Clarke

Inspired by a short story by Clarke

Released in 1968

• Before the moon landing 

About a group of astronauts going to space with a spacecraft named HAL-9000

IMDb: After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins - a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer H.A.L. 9000.

Orf of Planets

The beginning is kind of like an opera (kind of a mess going into a symphony)

Starts with the Dawn of Man 

• Where apes (before they evolved into humans) discover fire and learn how to communicate with each other 

• A giant black block appears while the music plays

• A monolith

• Wiki: In Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series, Monoliths are machines in black cuboids whose sides extend in the precise ratio of 1: 4: 9 built by an unseen extraterrestrial species whom Clarke dubbed the Firstborn and whom he suggests are the earliest highly intelligent species to evolve in the Milky Way.

• After they touch the monolith, the apes become more evolved and learn how to use tools (the beginning of technology)

• Kills animals for food with the tool

• They begin to stand on two feet and learn to kill with the bones (weapons)

• Learns to protect and defend 

Transition: one tool becomes the spaceship

This is supposed to be set in 2001 

• Planes fly to the moon

• The plane is empty 

• Maybe many people have been to space 

• Pan-American Plane

Facial and Voice identification 

The place he enters is the Hilton

Picturephone = Facetime

He meets up with people after his call with the Russians 

Odd things have been happening at Clavius

• Monolith

No solid foods 

• You have to drink it 

National Council of Astronautics

Lux Aeterna 

• Used while they go to the monolith the first time

• Creates a feeling of fear and unease 

It was buried 4 million years ago

• Was it buried to hide or to wait for people with the technology to discover it?

The monolith is the thing that was buried 

• The astronauts reflect the group of apes discovering it for the first time

They try to take a photo of it but its magnetic field is so strong

• Similar shot from the beginning

• Discovering the monolith and the sun peaking in

18 months later…

• They are on the Jupiter mission

Hal-9000 appears for the first time 

• Brain and nervous system of the ship

• Never made a mistake while on the trip

• Incapable of error 

• He enjoys working with people (sure Jan)

• Conscious 

• He is like “the sixth member of the group”

• Genuine emotions? They don’t know

Reflects when the apes touch the monolith

• More advanced technology (HAL 9000)

They are put into hibernation for the over billion-mile trip

HAL: Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer

IBM

POV of HAL

• Fish eye 

HAL says there are some extremely odd things happening during the mission

Very strange stories before they left

• Monolith

A satellite is about to fail 

• Maybe this is the work of the Monolith?

Orange astronaut suit going into mission control

• This will be important in the end of the movie when Dave tries to escape Hal after he tries to take over 

Hal has an ever-seeing eye

• He’s always watching 

Hal suggests having the satellite fail to track the mistake

• Suspicious 

Difference between Hal and the twin 9000

• Human error

• He claims he would never make a computer mistake 

Dave is nicer to Hal than Frank

• Frank is always asking questions to Hal and casting doubt on Hal

• Dave is nice and polite to him

• ‘

Hal is not responding to their commands 

Hal is always in the shots

• Long shot of just Hal

Hal is reading their lips and reading what they are saying 

Hal is trying to kill Frank

• The pod he was in was controlled by Hal

Hal claims he doesn’t have enough information on why Frank is spiraling 

Hal is killing everyone who is in hibernation 

• Life functions terminated

“I’m sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that”

• Hal won’t let Dave come into the ship

Dave is shutting down Hal

• As he is shutting, he is becoming more like the computer in the beginning

• He claims he is afraid and feels scared —-> introducing himself

Dave is now learning about the monolith 

Dave is now traveling to Jupiter 

Another black monolith appears traveling around Jupiter 

Dave is traveling through the monolith?

• It looks like he is going through data

The transition from Dave’s eye to a black hole

• Looks like his eye but inverted 

I think this is inside the monolith

In one of the shots, it looks like the place at the beginning of the Dawn of Man

• Or maybe it's just the Grand Canyon

After he goes through whatever that was, he lands in a room

• Very bright in colors

• All kinds of the same color

Dave now appears old and the pod is gone

Dave sees someone with him 

• It is him even older than he appears now

Elder Dave looks back and acts like he doesn’t see anything 

• Dave is going through his stages of life

• Astronaut Dave became elder Dave

Light is coming from the floors

The heavy breathing is back and elder dave notices something

• He sees a Dave on his deathbed

The movie starts with the Dawn of Man and ends with the “dusk”

Dave is going through his whole life in minutes

The monolith appears in front of Dave as he is dying 

The monolith represents the beginning of technology 

• When Dave sees it, he becomes a fetus

Fetus Dave is now in front of a plant (maybe Earth)

• Representing maybe the dawn of something new??

The end?