2001: Space Odyssey defines Sci-fi
Written by Ryandira Bagus Rahardjo
“2001: Space Odyssey” released in 1968, this Sci-fi/Adventure movie was directed by the one and only Stanley Kubrick and written by Stanley Kubrick himself alongside with his partner Arthur C. Clarke. This movie has some kind of unique way to actually tell their story in summary, the synopsis itself describes that this movie was about an imposing black structure provides a connection between the past and the future in this enigmatic adaptation of a short story by revered sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. When Dr. Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and other astronauts are sent on a mysterious mission, their ship’s computer system, HAL, begins to display increasingly strange behavior, leading up to a tense showdown between man and machine that results in a mind-bending trek through space and time. People tend to think that this movie was so mind-blowing but at the same time makes us wondering what kind of movie was this all about, With a $10.5–12 million budget they were trying to adapt the narrative to be as minimal as possible, they even hit the box office for like $146 million. But why people think that this movie was so important? Let’s dive in deeper, shall we?
Ton of people actually dig in deeper into this movie because of the “cutting-edge” narrative structure of this movie, since its premiere in 1968, the film 2001: Space odyssey has been analysed and interpreted by numerous people. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, wanted to leave the film open to philosophical and allegorical interpretation. The “Multi-pretation” structure has been adapted so many times in today’s era of cinema, but back then? It was way ahead of time, a lot of people said that the more you see this movie, the more you get it. In an interview for Rolling stones magazine, Kubrick said “on the deepest psychological level the film’s plot symbolizes the search for God, and it finally postulates what little less than a scientific definition of God” meaning that this movie itself has revolves around many interpretations such as Religious, alchemical, historical and even evolutionary. With the minimalistic characters, we can see where all of the budget all goes out. For me personally, the set design, cinematography and a long take for an establishing shot in this movie was phenomenal. Actually I interpreted this movie as a evolving movie where you could see there was a lot a evolution involve, even in the end we could see that David’s character played by Keir Dullea, after travelling through a psychedelic “Star-Gate” or whatever it is, its awakens to find himself in a decorated bedroom, where he ages rapidly, before being transformed into an unborn child.
“The idea was supposed to be that he is taken in by god-like entities, creatures of pure energy and intelligence with no shape or form,” said Stanley Kubrick himself.
Considering the fact we’re discussing one of the most influential movie at all time, the colour in every scene was inhence something beyond at that time. In the 40’s and 50’s, the art-cinema didn’t intend to actually explore the colour as much as this movie does. John Alcott, the great cinematographer who worked with Stanley Kubrick for some time, speaks at length about Kubrick and his additional work on 2001: Space Odyssey, for which he took over as lighting cameraman from Geoffrey Unsworth in mid-shoot, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, the film for which he won his Oscar, and The Shining. Kubrick promoted Alcott to lighting cameraman in 1968 while working on 2001: A Space Odyssey and from there the two created an inseparable collaboration, in which they worked together on more than one occasion. In 1971, Kubrick then elevated Alcott to director of photography on A Clockwork Orange.
For the cinematography itself it has a lot of variation in every scene, they use a lot of Dutch Angles, Mundane scene, Dynamic angle, and a lot of shifting rotation throughout the entire movie. The cinematography and the color composition match blended in so perfectly, there was a lot of long take with a lack of dialogue in the scene, Kubrick wanted us to actually interpreted the film as slow as possible, so we can feel how quiet out there on the space.
We started the movie with an abstract kind of storytelling, the scene started on how life was going on earth, an ape discovers the tool in the form of a bone. The entire first act was going on for like 30 minutes, for me actually I thought it was kinda boring especially for the 8–10 minutes, all black, no words at all, until I realize the meaning of the scene it actually leaves the audience to “fill in” the visual experience themselves. These iconic directors describe their experience, as children, watching “2001: A Space Odyssey” for the first time in the theatre, discuss how its style and form influenced their own movies, and how it was very unique and “out of the box” for its time.
Stanley Kubrick was a great director in the way he allowed the audience to view, infer and make their own assumptions about what the movie meant.
For me personally the last 30 minutes was a little confusing and strange but art-wise it was very beautiful indeed with how we actually interpreted the scene in their own way. Lot of fan theories and ideas throughout this movie.
It took me a few watching of 2001 to understand the ending was about the next evolution of humanity, but never realised how HAL is the obstacle to attain this evolution. AI is already controlling us in some ways right now. The battle against the machines is not even started and we’re kind of losing already. The ape who interacted with the monolith was Moonchild, the first prehistoric human ancestor to reach the next stage of evolution. Bowman became Starchild, who was the first modern human to reach the next stage of evolution.I think the monolith has an ability to enhance consciousness. Broadening the primitive ape’s mind causing it to create tools, and allowing HAL to achieve the instinct of self preservation. The reappearance of the monolith could have also been a test between humans and artificial intelligence. If HAL had been able to complete the murders it could have been HAL that went through portal.
You were not supposed to understand it. This is alien technologhy, it is beyond our understanding. If you come away confused which you will, then that’s the exact feeling that Kubrick was trying to evoke.
According to the actor, Keir Dullea, the wine glass scene was not in Kubrick’s original plan. He told Dullea to act as if he heard a sound coming from the bed. Dullea thought that was kind of boring and , as an actor, wanted to act. So he proposed that he was going to act clumsily, knock the glass over, reach for it and notice his older self on the bed. Kubrick thought that that was brilliant. He may have grasped the deeper meaning that so many people attribute to the glass breaking or, he may have just simply liked more movement in that one scene.
Kubrick is not my favorite director but his ability to make complex films without pandering to the audience is something that I deeply respect and to know this movie was made with just 10-12 million budget was absolutely astonishing. This movie just defines sci-fi in general and how art should be consumed and represent, the mixture of art and cinema was great just because there was a fine line between great cinema and great art for me but this movie walks through the line perfectly, I know this way a weird way to actually describe it but I guess you got the point. My Interpretation was simple, here Kubrick basically tells us that this movie was not the type of movie who goes right or wrong, A or B, dead or alive, it was basically all of them combined. When you got one answer for the movie, it may not be it. Why? Because this movie was deeper than that, it’s not the kind of movie you were going to explain in just one sided point of view. Kubrick said the protagonist get brought into another dimensional area, he died and reborn, the movie was a quite one so you can felt the emptiness around the character and the editing was simple but nonetheless important with how the plot is moving on every single scene, every single take, the definition of perfection was there the whole time and we knew it.