2001: A Space Odyssey... I don't get it

Eric SS · 12-11-2003, 01:47 PM

OK, I like Kubrick's films but I just saw this movie for the first time yesterday from start to finish.

I really don't get it...

OK, it opens with a bunch or early men learning that you can use things as tools and weapons. Basically it shows us in our first stages of being able to reason I think.

And of course, it shows HAL 9000 being able to reason I think towards the end of the movie. If that is the case, I understand those two phenoms and how the intro to the movie was a precursor to what the movie was about.

However, I DON'T understand AT ALL how the monolith falls into the movie and I also do not understand the end of the movie. It just seems like about 30 minutes of the movie could have been cut out.

Anyway, can anyone explain any of it better to me? Am I at least on the right track with how Kubrick is showing how man first started to reason and "became conscious" and how computers first became conscious?

Thanks

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Idjiit · 12-11-2003, 01:53 PM

I'm embarassed to say that I don't really "get" or like this movie. The original Solaris, however, rocks.

cky3396 · 12-11-2003, 01:54 PM

didnt happen to watch the movie in the humanities building, did you?

Eric SS · 12-11-2003, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Idjiit
I'm embarassed to say that I don't really "get" or like this movie. The original Solaris, however, rocks.

I didn't really like it either becuase it just seemed to long. It would have been a great movie (IMHO) without all of the Kubrick weirdness in it.

Eric SS · 12-11-2003, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by snoogans
didnt happen to watch the movie in the humanities building, did you?

??

I saw it on Turner Classic Movies last night.

WagonMonster · 12-11-2003, 01:57 PM

I think you just need to smoke more pot.

I didn't get it either

WRSport · 12-11-2003, 01:58 PM

Ohh my, you guys have got to be kidding!

2001 is an insanely deep movie.

I have never heard of a person not liking the movie.

I will post more later when i have time.

Kaiser · 12-11-2003, 01:59 PM

Here's a little something I wrote in college for my SciFi movies class, Eric. Maybe it'll help:

10/24/93
Prof. Strate
The Sci-Fi Film

Reaction to 2001: A Space Odyssey

Well, I still don't understand what the hell Kubrick had in mind with the end of this movie. Every time I see it, though, I think I understand just a little bit more of the film. That is, of course, except for that drug induced cinematic hallucination at the end. No, that, apparently, is never to be really understood by me. Given this wordy disclaimer, I won't be delving too much into my reactions to that part of the film, because they invariably lead to "DAMN IT!! IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!! AAAGH!!!"

As a science fiction film, 2001 is an absolute work of art. No matter how little sense certain parts of the movie sometimes made, I have always loved the way Kubrick blends form, music, motion and sound together to create a film experience that is unlike any other I have ever had. In the scenes where the monoliths are placed in line with the Moon and Sun (or the Earth and Sun), there is a sense of anxiety and excitement created when we hear the rising cacophony of what seems like a thousand mumbling voices. The music of Richard and Johann Strauss seems almost destined to be matched to the image of spaceships floating through space. And when the astronauts are on spacewalks, the only sound the viewer hears is their rhythmic breathing -- no music, nothing. Simple, yet effective, because that alone should convey the mood; there is no need for a sixty piece orchestra to tell us how it must feel to walk in space.

2001 is simultaneously realistic and surrealistic. Unlike Star Wars and others like it, 2001 deals with technical details in a realistic manner. The spaceships are silent while traveling through space, because there isn't any physical medium to carry sounds in space. The astronauts are always weightless unless acted upon by "imitated" gravity (centrifugal force, in this case -- compare this to most other science fiction movies where gravity is created through seemingly magical means). These and other details make it the movie scientifically accurate, i.e., realistic, but the surrealism comes about when, for example, we see a particularly long lasting shot of the Discovery floating past, or the pod flying past the ship, and all we hear is silence or near-silence.

We expect something to happen, but the minutes drag on and an uneasy feeling creeps into our minds as a whole lot of nothing happens. Too much nothing. It is these long scenes that so many find dull and tedious, but that I think scream impending and inevitable disaster. And it's during these drawn out scenes that I think HAL is pondering the truth he's being forced to withhold from Bowman and Poole, and what consequences will come about because of it. HAL himself (itself?) is surrealistic; we must constantly remind ourselves that what we are hearing is not a biologically living thing. His voice and personality, though, are more human than the comparatively cold astronauts he inhabits the ship with. This seeming contradiction gives him a less than real, dream-like, quality.

Speaking of HAL, my read on why he lost his digital marbles is this: he didn't want Bowman and Poole to "jeopardize the mission," as he says, because the monolith had to do with new forms of life. Clearly some intelligent life forms created these monoliths, and HAL saw this as a very important thing. He himself was, virtually, a new life form. He didn't possess a body, but definitely a mind, and possibly even a soul. He wanted to preserve his own life, in addition to contacting another new life form.

Even if its ending makes little sense to me, I think the movie as a whole has to do with intelligence and how it relates to where life begins.

Eric SS · 12-11-2003, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WRSport
Ohh my, you guys have got to be kidding!

2001 is an insanely deep movie.

I have never heard of a person not liking the movie.

I will post more later when i have time.

That's why I am asking about it.. it was too deep for me and I want to understand it.

driggity · 12-11-2003, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WRSport
I have never heard of a person not liking the movie.

Then you only talk to pretentious snobs that want to sound smart.

cky3396 · 12-11-2003, 02:01 PM

ahhhh, ok. i thought maybe there was a chance your in my film class.. we watch the movie yesterday

at any rate. the monolith symbolizes the time when man is ready to take the "next step"..

first man makes that step in evolution. the use of tools.

on the moon, man is ready to investigate the monolith and why it sends signals towards jupiter.

after bowman "beats" hal, he is ready to undergo yet another step (the monolith shows up again, floating in space?) - understanding of life? the stargate sequence represents many things also. sex, etc

there are many many interpretations of this film. it has a reletively simple plot, but the meanings for what goes on is very subjective

Bonzo · 12-11-2003, 02:04 PM

i liked 2001

i also liked 2010

<<<

Eric SS · 12-11-2003, 02:04 PM

Kaiser: Pretty much the first 85% of your paper is exactly how I felt. You lost me with that last paragraph about HAL losing his marbles but it makes sense.
Thanks!

Kaiser · 12-11-2003, 02:06 PM

Doesn't make much sense to me either, Eric, ten years later.

imprezton · 12-11-2003, 02:06 PM

I think the Monolith is a Tower of Babel.

WRSport · 12-11-2003, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by driggity
Then you only talk to pretentious snobs that want to sound smart.

Yeah that must be it

Eric SS · 12-11-2003, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WRSport

Yeah that must be it

I think thats it for me in this thread.

Why? I'm curious to hear your deep thoughts on it.

Snoopy · 12-11-2003, 02:10 PM

The monolith occurs whenever the humans achieve or do something significant. The apes learned to use an object as a a weapon and a tool. I never got to see the rest coz I always fell asleep or changed the channel.

driggity · 12-11-2003, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WRSport

Yeah that must be it

Oh come on. Tons of people dislike this movie. Almost as many as say they like it just because they think they should.

WRSport · 12-11-2003, 02:25 PM

Hmm I guess I'm older and was not aware that the current younger generation was blowing this movie off.

I honestly suggest reading the books if you are curious. (Dont bother with the 3rd book 2061)

At the very least try watching both 2001 and 2010 and try to appreciate when these movies were made.

I've never thought of 2001 as anything other than a true "work of art".

I guess I will have to pop in the dvd again and offer my own views on the work.

Danny5 · 12-11-2003, 02:35 PM

Wow - lots of interesting stuff here, but unfortunately, I think the real reason was missing here...

In 2001, the monolith is the alien artifact that FORCES progression. We would all be stinkin apes in caves still, if the monolith hadn't jumped started our small animal brains, forcing us to use tools.

Years later, the monolith jump starts us again, by being discovered on the moon, humanity realizes there is something else out there. We turn our vast resources to building a ship to go to Jupiter because the monolith is transmitting to the giant planet.

The giant monolith is found by 1 survivor, who is taken in to be transformed into Humanity's contact for the alien species. The last 30 minutes of the film are the directors interpretation of his transformation into an evolved being.

Its a theory of life that has been used before. How can humans be so intelligent? The answer is that some outside force has meddled in our development to create the semi-intelligent race we are today. Its a good read, and it is a great movie.

-Danny

lucien2 · 12-11-2003, 02:37 PM

Hamburger Helper dulls the brain.

orbit03 · 12-11-2003, 02:38 PM

I had one of the best naps ever while watching this dumb movie.

jmonusko · 12-11-2003, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WRSport
Hmm I guess I'm older and was not aware that the current younger generation was blowing this movie off.

I honestly suggest reading the books if you are curious. (Dont bother with the 3rd book 2061)

At the very least try watching both 2001 and 2010 and try to appreciate when these movies were made.

I've never thought of 2001 as anything other than a true "work of art".

I guess I will have to pop in the dvd again and offer my own views on the work.

There's also a 4th book, 3001.

I liked the concept of 2061, but it wasn't that good. It tie up a lot of loose ends, though. I only read 3001 because i'd already read the first 3.

RigdenZW · 12-11-2003, 02:44 PM

So.. which is better? The book? Or the movie?

Usually it's the book. But from what I've seen of 2001.. it' has a really intense atmosphere.

12-11-2003, 01:47 PM	#1
Eric SS Sooby Guru Member#: 1914 Join Date: Jul 2000 Chapter/Region: SWIC Location: 2013 335i, 2011 G37 coupe Vehicle: 2000 2.5RS w/ EJ22T swap and N20. gone. : (	2001: A Space Odyssey... I don't get it OK, I like Kubrick's films but I just saw this movie for the first time yesterday from start to finish. I really don't get it... OK, it opens with a bunch or early men learning that you can use things as tools and weapons. Basically it shows us in our first stages of being able to reason I think. And of course, it shows HAL 9000 being able to reason I think towards the end of the movie. If that is the case, I understand those two phenoms and how the intro to the movie was a precursor to what the movie was about. However, I DON'T understand AT ALL how the monolith falls into the movie and I also do not understand the end of the movie. It just seems like about 30 minutes of the movie could have been cut out. Anyway, can anyone explain any of it better to me? Am I at least on the right track with how Kubrick is showing how man first started to reason and "became conscious" and how computers first became conscious? Thanks * Registered users of the site do not see these ads.

12-11-2003, 02:25 PM	#20
WRSport Scooby Specialist Member#: 2060 Join Date: Aug 2000 Chapter/Region: BAIC Location: Bay Area Vehicle: 00 2.5RS Coupe 01 black boxster hardtop	Hmm I guess I'm older and was not aware that the current younger generation was blowing this movie off. I honestly suggest reading the books if you are curious. (Dont bother with the 3rd book 2061) At the very least try watching both 2001 and 2010 and try to appreciate when these movies were made. I've never thought of 2001 as anything other than a true "work of art". I guess I will have to pop in the dvd again and offer my own views on the work. Last edited by WRSport; 12-11-2003 at 02:33 PM.

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12-11-2003, 01:53 PM	#2
Idjiit Scooby Specialist Member#: 5310 Join Date: Mar 2001 Chapter/Region: South East Location: Raleigh, NC Vehicle: 08 Highlander 95 Miata M	I'm embarassed to say that I don't really "get" or like this movie. The original Solaris, however, rocks.

12-11-2003, 01:54 PM	#3
cky3396 Scooby Newbie Member#: 28044 Join Date: Oct 2002 Chapter/Region: SCIC Location: Burbank Vehicle: 95 Ford Bronco XLT Black	didnt happen to watch the movie in the humanities building, did you?

12-11-2003, 01:57 PM	#6
WagonMonster Scooby Guru Member#: 3781 Join Date: Jan 2001 Chapter/Region: NESIC Location: San Francisco Vehicle: 2012 Fiat 500 Sport 2009 Subaru Forester X	I think you just need to smoke more pot. I didn't get it either

12-11-2003, 01:58 PM	#7
WRSport Scooby Specialist Member#: 2060 Join Date: Aug 2000 Chapter/Region: BAIC Location: Bay Area Vehicle: 00 2.5RS Coupe 01 black boxster hardtop	Ohh my, you guys have got to be kidding! 2001 is an insanely deep movie. I have never heard of a person not liking the movie. I will post more later when i have time.

12-11-2003, 01:59 PM	#8
Kaiser Scooby Specialist Member#: 7170 Join Date: Jun 2001 Chapter/Region: NESIC Vehicle: Aut Kaiser, aut nullus.	Here's a little something I wrote in college for my SciFi movies class, Eric. Maybe it'll help: 10/24/93 Prof. Strate The Sci-Fi Film Reaction to 2001: A Space Odyssey Well, I still don't understand what the hell Kubrick had in mind with the end of this movie. Every time I see it, though, I think I understand just a little bit more of the film. That is, of course, except for that drug induced cinematic hallucination at the end. No, that, apparently, is never to be really understood by me. Given this wordy disclaimer, I won't be delving too much into my reactions to that part of the film, because they invariably lead to "DAMN IT!! IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!! AAAGH!!!" As a science fiction film, 2001 is an absolute work of art. No matter how little sense certain parts of the movie sometimes made, I have always loved the way Kubrick blends form, music, motion and sound together to create a film experience that is unlike any other I have ever had. In the scenes where the monoliths are placed in line with the Moon and Sun (or the Earth and Sun), there is a sense of anxiety and excitement created when we hear the rising cacophony of what seems like a thousand mumbling voices. The music of Richard and Johann Strauss seems almost destined to be matched to the image of spaceships floating through space. And when the astronauts are on spacewalks, the only sound the viewer hears is their rhythmic breathing -- no music, nothing. Simple, yet effective, because that alone should convey the mood; there is no need for a sixty piece orchestra to tell us how it must feel to walk in space. 2001 is simultaneously realistic and surrealistic. Unlike Star Wars and others like it, 2001 deals with technical details in a realistic manner. The spaceships are silent while traveling through space, because there isn't any physical medium to carry sounds in space. The astronauts are always weightless unless acted upon by "imitated" gravity (centrifugal force, in this case -- compare this to most other science fiction movies where gravity is created through seemingly magical means). These and other details make it the movie scientifically accurate, i.e., realistic, but the surrealism comes about when, for example, we see a particularly long lasting shot of the Discovery floating past, or the pod flying past the ship, and all we hear is silence or near-silence. We expect something to happen, but the minutes drag on and an uneasy feeling creeps into our minds as a whole lot of nothing happens. Too much nothing. It is these long scenes that so many find dull and tedious, but that I think scream impending and inevitable disaster. And it's during these drawn out scenes that I think HAL is pondering the truth he's being forced to withhold from Bowman and Poole, and what consequences will come about because of it. HAL himself (itself?) is surrealistic; we must constantly remind ourselves that what we are hearing is not a biologically living thing. His voice and personality, though, are more human than the comparatively cold astronauts he inhabits the ship with. This seeming contradiction gives him a less than real, dream-like, quality. Speaking of HAL, my read on why he lost his digital marbles is this: he didn't want Bowman and Poole to "jeopardize the mission," as he says, because the monolith had to do with new forms of life. Clearly some intelligent life forms created these monoliths, and HAL saw this as a very important thing. He himself was, virtually, a new life form. He didn't possess a body, but definitely a mind, and possibly even a soul. He wanted to preserve his own life, in addition to contacting another new life form. Even if its ending makes little sense to me, I think the movie as a whole has to do with intelligence and how it relates to where life begins.

12-11-2003, 02:01 PM	#11
cky3396 Scooby Newbie Member#: 28044 Join Date: Oct 2002 Chapter/Region: SCIC Location: Burbank Vehicle: 95 Ford Bronco XLT Black	ahhhh, ok. i thought maybe there was a chance your in my film class.. we watch the movie yesterday at any rate. the monolith symbolizes the time when man is ready to take the "next step".. first man makes that step in evolution. the use of tools. on the moon, man is ready to investigate the monolith and why it sends signals towards jupiter. after bowman "beats" hal, he is ready to undergo yet another step (the monolith shows up again, floating in space?) - understanding of life? the stargate sequence represents many things also. sex, etc there are many many interpretations of this film. it has a reletively simple plot, but the meanings for what goes on is very subjective

12-11-2003, 02:04 PM	#12
Bonzo Scooby Specialist Member#: 2307 Join Date: Sep 2000 Chapter/Region: MWSOC Location: West of Rd Am	i liked 2001 i also liked 2010 <<<

12-11-2003, 02:06 PM	#14
Kaiser Scooby Specialist Member#: 7170 Join Date: Jun 2001 Chapter/Region: NESIC Vehicle: Aut Kaiser, aut nullus.	Doesn't make much sense to me either, Eric, ten years later.

12-11-2003, 02:06 PM	#15
imprezton Scooby Specialist Member#: 22958 Join Date: Aug 2002 Chapter/Region: SWIC Vehicle: 2008 She cheat me and taked my salts!-Crees	I think the Monolith is a Tower of Babel.

12-11-2003, 02:10 PM	#18
Snoopy Scooby Specialist Member#: 700 Join Date: Jan 2000 Chapter/Region: MAIC Location: BANNED! Vehicle: 99 Impreza RS Silverthorn Metallic	The monolith occurs whenever the humans achieve or do something significant. The apes learned to use an object as a a weapon and a tool. I never got to see the rest coz I always fell asleep or changed the channel.

12-11-2003, 02:35 PM	#21
Danny5 The Emperor Protects Moderator Member#: 13 Join Date: Jun 1999 Chapter/Region: SWIC Location: Glendale, AZ Vehicle: 2012 Chevy Sonic Black	Wow - lots of interesting stuff here, but unfortunately, I think the real reason was missing here... In 2001, the monolith is the alien artifact that FORCES progression. We would all be stinkin apes in caves still, if the monolith hadn't jumped started our small animal brains, forcing us to use tools. Years later, the monolith jump starts us again, by being discovered on the moon, humanity realizes there is something else out there. We turn our vast resources to building a ship to go to Jupiter because the monolith is transmitting to the giant planet. The giant monolith is found by 1 survivor, who is taken in to be transformed into Humanity's contact for the alien species. The last 30 minutes of the film are the directors interpretation of his transformation into an evolved being. Its a theory of life that has been used before. How can humans be so intelligent? The answer is that some outside force has meddled in our development to create the semi-intelligent race we are today. Its a good read, and it is a great movie. -Danny

12-11-2003, 02:37 PM	#22
lucien2 Scooby Specialist Member#: 1519 Join Date: May 2000 Chapter/Region: MAIC Location: Baltimore, hon! Vehicle: 1998 Volvo V70R Silver	Hamburger Helper dulls the brain.

12-11-2003, 02:38 PM	#23
orbit03 Scooby Specialist Member#: 2300 Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Erie, PA, USA Vehicle: 2002 Impreza WRX Banana Pudding	I had one of the best naps ever while watching this dumb movie.

12-11-2003, 02:44 PM	#25
RigdenZW Scooby Specialist Member#: 4531 Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Austin, TX Vehicle: 2001 2.5 RS Sedan Silverthorne Metallic	So.. which is better? The book? Or the movie? Usually it's the book. But from what I've seen of 2001.. it' has a really intense atmosphere.