Kubrick’s 2001: A Area Odyssey set a brand new customary for visible results and single-handedly reinvented the science fiction style. On the identical time, it compelled the movie trade to take sci-fi severely, elevating its standing from low-cost B-movies to mainstream cinema.
In Kubrick’s definitive biography, Kubrick: An Odyssey, there’s a point out of how studio govt Lew Wasserman instructed Kubrick that spending over one million {dollars} on science-fiction movies was an unattainable thought—it was simply one thing you don’t do.
No query, 2001: A Area Odyssey was wildly misunderstood at its launch, however Kubrick’s most likely nonetheless chuckling from the nice past, together with his movie now hailed as a timeless sci-fi masterpiece.
Let’s analyze this cult basic Stanley Kubrick film and perceive why 2001: A Area Odyssey is a cinematic gem.
Story Evaluation
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For these of you who’ve seen 2001: A Area Odyssey, you already know this movie is just not everybody’s cup of tea.
In response to Roger Ebert, who attended the LA premiere of the movie in 1968 on the Pantages Theater, the primary screening fully polarized the viewers. Apparently, many individuals, together with actor Rock Hudson, even walked out in the course of the movie.
The movie didn’t care to satisfy the viewers’s expectations by giving them straightforward leisure cues or perhaps a clear narrative. On the identical time, the fixed ambiguity left the common cinephiles stressed. In a single day, Hollywood had handed its judgment that Kubrick, in his obsession with particular results and set items, had missed the mark on delivering a cohesive movie.
However those that stayed to complete the film knew what the others had missed.
2001: A Area Odyssey includes a four-act construction, allegorically related: the Daybreak of Man, the lunar excavation, the Jupiter mission, and the transformation of astronaut Dave Bowman.
Kubrick collaborated with revered creator Arthur C. Clarke and special-effects skilled Douglas Trumbull for the narrative and world-building to think about a world 50 years into the longer term and its area expertise.
The narrative travels by time. In 2001, 5 astronauts and the sentient laptop HAL 9000 got down to search the origins of a mysterious alien monolith on the moon, influencing humanity’s evolution. As they strategy the unknown, HAL shows unusual habits that results in a tense showdown between man and machine, culminating in a closing act typically interpreted as an allegory for man’s place within the universe.
Roger Ebert known as 2001 a silent movie in lots of respects in his evaluate. The dialogue is sparse, and an important and emotional ones come from HAL, the pc, because it sings “Daisy” or pleads for its life earlier than Dave.
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“Dave, Cease. Cease. Will you? Cease, Dave. Will you cease, Dave? Cease, Dave. I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave.” HAL’s flat, monotonous, mechanical cry for mercy exudes helplessness, concern, and a way of abandonment in ways in which break my coronary heart each time I rewatch the movie.
In an interview with Joseph Gelmis (who later wrote the e book,The Movie Director as Famous person), Kubrick defined his course of. When requested why “the pc” was extra emotional than human beings in 2001, Kubrick stated that one of many largest causes was that he thought of HAL 9000, a sentient laptop, the central character within the astronaut phase of the story.
“If HAL had been a human being, it could have been apparent to everybody that he had the most effective half, and was essentially the most attention-grabbing character; he took all of the initiatives, and all the issues associated to and had been brought on by him,” Kubrick instructed Gelmis.
Visible Design and World Constructing
I can completely relate to the kick Kubrick should have felt conceptualizing a world 50 years forward sooner or later for 2001: A Area Odyssey. A number of years again, I labored on the core artistic crew for a political drama set in 2050, and let’s simply say, taking part in a futurist is one hell of a thrill experience.
The movie’s depiction of area journey, plane interiors, and area expertise displays the honest analysis that went into it. Kubrick’s choice to painting the monolith, the extraterrestrial creature, as a black, rectangular object was well-thought-out and rigorously researched.
Kubrick conceptualized the whole lot within the Sixties, however the majority of his predictions about expertise sooner or later and area journey, resembling pill computer systems, video calls, and teleconferences, have come true.
I generally keep awake at night time desirous about HAL 9000, a voice-activated AI robotic conceived by a filmmaker within the Sixties that options speech recognition, pure language processing, and facial recognition.
Nearly 70 years later, we’ve developed to reside in a world foreseen by Kubrick.
‘2001: A Area Odyssey’Credit score: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Trumbull’s groundbreaking visible results mixed with Kubrick’s visible genius create a formidable future world that options life like area fashions, zero-gravity sequences, and the well-known “star gate” sequence—one thing that was fairly unimaginable again within the ‘60s. In his evaluate, Ebert stated that the sequence on the moon appeared as actual because the precise video of the moon touchdown a yr later.
Talking to Gelmis, Kubrick revealed that he was very clear from the start that the monolith’s visible depiction must be “as mindboggling because the being itself.”
In Kubrick’s thoughts, the monolith was an extraterrestrial being past human creativeness, “and that is one of many causes we stayed away from the depiction of organic entities, other than the truth that really superior beings would most likely have shed the chrysalis of a organic type at one stage of their evolution,” Kubrick instructed Gelmis.
Themes and Interpretations
Kubrick deliberately left the movie ambiguous and open to interpretation. As he stated in his interview with Gelmis, “I didn’t need to attempt for ambiguity; it was inevitable,” one thing that he truly appreciated.
Kubrick believed {that a} movie like 2001 couldn’t have a single interpretation, and a sure diploma of ambiguity helps the trigger in narratives like these “as a result of it permits the viewers to ‘fill in’ the visible expertise themselves.”
Though Kubrick stated that “the movie turns into something the viewer sees in it,” he additionally stated in his interview with Gelmis that the idea of God is on the coronary heart of this movie.
Total, the movie explores advanced themes of human evolution and future. Probably the most frequent interpretations of the ultimate act is an allegory of human conception, loss of life, and rebirth, symbolized by Bow’s journey by the “star gate” and his transformation into the “Star Youngster.”
To consider 2001 as a mere sci-fi film is to underestimate its cinematic nuance. Kubrick doesn’t care about explaining his visible language to his viewers; as an alternative, he makes a philosophical assertion within the shadows of grandeur.
He doesn’t ask us to narrate to Dave Bowman or type any reference to some other characters. The movie clearly delivers its message, entrusting the remaining to the viewers’s intelligence.
In the event you’ve already watched the movie, tell us your interpretation of Kubrick’s 2001: A Area Odyssey.
