2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) - EXPLAINED AND ANALYSED

the dawn of man on the African plains life is tough for the apeman food is scarce he is vulnerable to attack from other species and there is competition around watering holes a tribe of eight men are driven away from their watering hole by another tribe and they retreat to their shelter the next morning they wake up to find a strange humming foreign object placed before them the monolith they are at first extremely anxious as they investigate but calm down when they touch the monolith they gather around the structure almost worshipful and the scene ends with the entire group having made contact with it later on one of the eight men is near a skeleton where he suddenly thinks of the monolith and the realization hits him that he can use the boughs of disclosing as a tool this epiphany boosts the eighth man onto the next evolutionary step he then goes on to kill a tapir and feed on the meat the apeman is no longer a vegetarian and the problem with food scarcity is now solved the tribe of eight men are then seen eating meat knowledge has been communicated and the whole tribe has moved forward in their way of life the tribe then go back to their watering hole and use their boats to kill the leader of the other tribe that had previously usurped them they reclaimed the watering hole and the eight men now have everything they need to go on to become the masters of their environment in celebration of their victory in the battle over the watering hole one of the eight men throws a bone into the air and via a match cut we fast forward millions of years the technological age tools have gone from bones to spacecrafts man has moved from the earth and ventured into new frontiers dr. Heywood Floyd is on his way to the moon and has a brief layover at his face station mounts technological achievements are everywhere to see velcro equipped grip shoes voice print recognition video pieces and artificial gravity all of this is a combination of man's collective learning and knowledge that has been passed on through the generations using the written words and language as tools we watch dr. Heywood Floyd employ language as a tool in a scene where speaks with a group of Russian scientists the group engage in so she requires small talk before getting to the heart of the matter there have been rumors of an epidemic outbreak at the u.s. lunar base and the Russian scientist quiz dr. Floyd about it Floyd is polite but refuses to be drawn on the matter increasing the suspicion that there has indeed been an outbreak nation which has revealed that the rumor has been manufactured by the National Council of astronautic during Floyd's exchange with the Russian scientists he appears to be using his words to deflect suspicion but that is only the conversation at surface level there is another layer of communication between the parties as Floyd is aware his reticence will fuel further suspicion but despite all advanced sophistication he has not yet conquered face in this new environment man eats baby food has trouble walking and needs instructions on how to go to the toilet much like the eight men before their encounter with the monolith modern man is seen to struggle in the new environment he has ventured into it will take another evolutionary leap for that to change the monolith on the US lunar base Floyd gives a speech to his colleague and it is revealed that there has been a discovery a foreign structure has been uncovered on the moon this discovery is being hidden by the cover story of the epidemic and Floyd makes it clear that no one is to stray from the official party line the structure which they call tycho magnetic anomaly one tma-1 has been deliberately buried on the moon four million years ago but by who or what is not no fried along with a group of astronauts journey to tma-1 which is another humming monomyth the expedition group touched the monolith and then gather round to take photos but before they can sunlight strikes the monolith and a high pitch radio signal is emitted in the direction of Jupiter the eight bands encounter with the monolith was the trigger for his evolution into man man's encounter with this second monolith will trigger another step forward in his evolution the Jupiter mission 18 months later rejoined the crew of discovery one a spacecraft following the direction of the monoliths radio signal and bound for Jupiter however the two astronauts who are on board and active within the spacecraft dr. David Bowman and dr. Frank Poole are unaware of the monolith there are three other crew mates with women and pool but they are in hibernation in order to conserve resources during the long journey the crew had one other member a Hal 9000 an artificially intelligent supercomputer who have achieved sentience the fact that how seemed sound conscience and personality are discussed by Berman and pour'd there's a BBC reporter back on earth during an interview they admit that it seems as if Howe has feelings but whether or not those feelings are real they do not know this is an example of one of man's Follies arrogance they have built a supercomputer which they do not really understand while they're happy to use previous even and one of this was discovered dr. Freud congratulated his colleagues on the discovery although they do not know what the oneness is there is a lack of humility in his entire speech when the crew attempted to pose for a photograph with the monolith that lack of humility is again on display man versus machines as the Jupiter mission progresses vermin and poor stoicism become evident when receiving a wool birthday message from his parents far away on earth who listens intently but there is no outward sign of emotion on display when haula comes to quiz moment on any misgivings he may have about their mission Roman refuses to be drawn how on the other hand displays more emotion than either of the men hal is a new entity and he is not yet able to master or hide his emotion how many mistake in identifying an error with a device outside the spacecraft after retrieving the device and testing it Boeing report can find nothing wrong with it and their conclusion is backed by data from between Hal 9000 computers back on earth when how is confronted with his mistake he insists that the miscalculation must be down to human error he is unable to describe his distress and his manner raises concerns in both moment and paul who secretly plan to switch our house higher brain functions unbeknownst to them howl it reads this conversation switching off his higher brain functions is tantamount to his death in an effort to save himself how come it's multiple ladders when Paul is replacing the device how mistakenly identified as faulty how severs his oxygen tube and set him adrift in space Roman leaves the spacecraft to rescue his crewmate leaving his face helmet behind Holland hands off the life support to the hibernating crewmembers killing them all Roman manages to retrieve Paul's body but when he attempts to re-enter the spacecraft how refuses to let him in Roman formulates a plan he reluctantly release his pools body and makes his way to the ship's emergency airlock he manages to open the airlock and is able to re-enter the ship even without the use of a space helmet thereafter Bowman deliberately and methodically disconnects Hal who plead for his life Roman is not swayed from his purpose but as how regretted back to the state of childhood Berman encourages him to sing and nasty line 2001 is able to portray many of man's virtues through Berman and pull his empathy his bravery and his ingenuity he has come a long way from the apeman and is still in many way yet to be matched by machines Jupiter and beyond the infinite in the final moments of house disconnection a pre-recorded message trades for Bowman's it has dr. Floyd revealing details of the monoliths discovery he states that 18 months ago the first evidence of intelligent life off the earth was discovered the most common interpretation is that the intelligent life referred to must be aliens more developed than man but the language used in the film is interesting and the intelligent life could even be interpreted in other ways it could be a god or gods of being or beings that our human experience would be unable to describe for probrably the nature of what or who is leading humanity along disjoining is left ambiguous and the audience is allowed to interpret the film as they feel appropriate the spacecraft continues on and berming encounters for floating monolith he exits the spacecraft in an Eevee a pod and is pulled into a voyage beyond the infinite Roman is transported across vast distances of space and time via an interstellar gateway the Stargate sequence he first goes through a baltics of light and then witnesses strange cosmological phenomena the phenomena appears to symbolize birth and rebirth gas clouds take the shape of sperm and fetuses in the room indeed Bowman's original spacecraft also mimic the shape of a span after phenomena Roman encounters seven diamond shapes which lead him onward prior to this the shapes used predominantly in the film have been rectangular monolith shapes and circles with the introduction of a new entity perhaps come the new shape Berman continues to travel across landscapes that look similar to earth but the colors are unusual and unfamiliar and then finally he reaches the end of his journey the room Bowman exits his Evie a pod and finds himself in a clinical room which has been decorated in a neoclassical French style this style has been chosen deliberately the neoclassical movement coincided with the Age of Enlightenment and the decor is a nod to Bowman's own journey toward enlightenment as he transitions from human to something more there are sounds that seem to come from outside the room they could be the sound of the intelligent life that appears to be helping man along in several interpretations of the film the room in which Froman is kept has been likened to a lab or a zoo where a Bowman is a human specimen Berman Ages rapidly and the film illustrates this by switching perspectives from a younger Bowman to an older version finally bedridden and near death Berman encounters a silent monolith and he reaches out toward it this movement makes the gesture of Adam reaching out to God in Michelangelo's frescoes the Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel Bowman is then transformed into a star tog who looks down on earth additional observations symmetry throughout the film great care has been taken to ensure symmetry in the composition of shots reflecting the symmetry of the universe alignment alignment is also of key importance they act as triggers in the film moving the story forward the initial Sun Earth's moon alignment marks the beginning of the audience's experience of 2001 the second alignment marks the beginning of the ape man's evolution towards man the third alignment seems to trigger the moon one Ernest radio signal toward Jupiter which is the beginning of man's journey toward further evolution and the fourth and final alignment marks the opening of the stargate perspectives Kubrick often switches perspectives with no preambles during the confrontation between two groups of eight men over the watering hole the audience's point of view is switched from one tribe to the other when Bowman and Paul share their concerns regarding how the audience's point of view switches from the astronauts and over to house and as Berman ages the audience's point of view abruptly shifts from younger versions of Bowman to older versions of Romans shaped circle and one other shapes are used to liberally slap film EDA ports space stations and how are all circular while space station entrances buttons tables and screens are all one in this shape these circles and rectangles become familiar and our signature shapes of human technology when Bowman travels through the Stargate a new diamond shape is introduced these diamonds appear to be like shipped leading him on how Berman and Poole I've mentioned the film makes comparisons between artificial intelligence in humans using how Berman and Paul and it's not an accident that a symmetry of color is used to depict the three characters full employment on yellow and red spacesuits respectively while how the one eye is yellow and red conclusion so that concludes our explanation and analysis of 2001 a Space Odyssey the film is a story of humanity's evolution and is a philosophical wax Kubrick was famously reticent about offering up a definitive explanation for the movie encouraging audiences to interpret it for themselves so let us know your thoughts on the film in the comments below as always we hope you enjoyed this video and remember to subscribe to London City go for more film analysis videos

Channel: LondonCityGirl

Views: 405,928

Keywords: 2001: A space odyssey explained, 2001: A Space odyssey meaning, HAL, Hal Bowman Poole, David Bowman, Open the pod bay doors please HAL

Id: u-URy_Smyyk

Length: 15min 12sec (912 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/ZorroMeansFox]

Finally! After 50 years, someone's bothered to analyze this movie!

[u/ax_reddit]

Well, it's a space movie without aliens, but with a monolith. So the monolith is like a giant McGuffin on which mankind has adapted to its shape. I like the idea with the diamond shapes like a new dimension from all the circular and rectangular shapes.

[u/vrgr23]

Nothings shows disrespect to filmmaking more than cropping footage from classic films.