Where to begin…
A few classmates and I sat down at 1:00 today for a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic sci-fi peace, and I think I speak for all of us when I say that we stood up three hours later thoroughly confused, not to mention a little exhausted. The film, which is classified as an “epic drama” (in part because of the prominent themes of travel and exploration, in part because of the fact that the narrative spans nearly four million years), is renowned for both its convoluted symbolism and deliberate ambiguity. Frankly, I blinked a few times when the credits rolled, trying to wrap my head around what it was I had just witnessed.
How do you begin to describe 2001? The film opens with the “Dawn of Man”, featuring the gorilla-like inhabitants of Earth in 4,000,000 B.C, who come upon a mysterious, black, singing monolith in the middle of the African Serengeti, and concludes with an ill-fated mission to the moons of Jupiter in the year 2001 C.E. The final sequence of the film is one of the most famous, and least explicable in the history of cinematography, depicting what could be a journey through a worm-hole, an alien abduction, or the wild hallucinations of an oxygen-deprived astronaut. Or pretty much anything else. In the process of posting this, I read an interview with Kubrick concerning the various interpretations of the film, and was befuddled to find that he refused to give viewers any explanation as to what “really” happened in the film, stating instead-
“You’re free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film—and such speculation is one indication that it has succeeded in gripping the audience at a deep level—but I don’t want to spell out a verbal road map for 2001 that every viewer will feel obligated to pursue or else fear he’s missed the point.”1
But, to avoid any potential spoilers I’m going to drop any analysis of the plot resolution, and turn instead to an examination of the “science” behind 2001. The film is actually fairly acclaimed for its realistic portrayal of space travel, especially given that it was released in 1968. With special effects unrivaled at the time, Kubrick depicted spaceships and moon-bases that utilized rotational architecture and centripetal force to simulate gravity, and space-suits with magnetic boots that allowed characters to walk even in areas without these features. He also included the use of artificial hibernation, or cryo-sleep, in space travel, as well as the burgeoning science- and questionable ethics- of Artificial Technology, a theme that is still featured heavily in modern science fiction.
Apart from adding to the realism of the setting, Kubrick’s attention to gravity and weightlessness plays on the slow, ethereal narration that characterizes much of the film. The pace of 2001 is remarkably gradual, almost plodding at times, reinforced by the drifting motions of the characters in space, as well as the recurring classical music that likens satellites and space-ships to the floating participants of a waltz. In addition to lulling the audience into an almost jelly-like, metaphysical state of mind (which is all but requirement for the tackling of the final sequence), the pace mimics another prominent theme of the film: human evolution.
From the jump-cut that ties the tossed bone and the spaceship together in the audience’s mind to the survival-instinct-spurred betrayal of HAL, Kubrick draws a clear parallel between mankind’s past and present identities. Throughout the film he makes an interesting comment about evolution as he likens the human’s (or human-like computers) of 2001 to the primitive, ignorant inhabitants of 4,000,000 B.C. The familiar image technique is visible throughout- the astronauts clustered around the Moon obelisk mirror the apes in the Serengeti, the aforementioned spaceship mirrors the bone shard of the victorious Australopithecus, and the conflict between HAL and the crew of the Jupiter-bound vessel mirrors the battle for the African water-hole. Kubrick seems to be indicating that we are essentially the same beasts that roamed the primitive earth, just with fancier tools. The fact that the alien monoliths seem to be guiding human evolution, prompting the critical steps in our development, creates an interesting statement on human nature. Could Kubrick saying that we are incapable of self-guidance? That it requires an external force to push us into the future, in to discovery?
It seems like it to me. The greater implications of that statement however… Anyway, I’m pushing my post limit, so I’m going to leave it here. However, watch for more to come. I’ll be scratching my head over this one for a while.
1) Norden, Eric. Interview: Stanley Kubrick. Playboy (September 1968). Reprinted in: Phillips, Gene D. (Editor).Stanley Kubrick: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi, 2001. ISBN 1-57806-297-7 pp. 47–48.
