2001: A Space Odyssey (1 Viewer)

[Ben Motley]

Ah Seth, you have restored my faith in humanity indeed

!
Actually y'all, if you are a Funkateer, you can very easily sum up 2001 in eight words...
"Free your mind, and your ass will follow."

------------------
M. Hyde

 

[Jack Briggs]

Peter, where are you getting these amazing images?
Two coins vis. the Man/God thing: Though 2001 is "spritual" (as in, the human spirit), and though Arthur Clarke joked in 1968 that MGM had just financed the "first $10 million religious movie," bear in mind Mr. Kubrick's agnosticism and Mr. Clarke's atheism.
The godhood being alluded to here is humanity's own ascendancy toward the top of the evolutionary ladder, which the unseen aliens had been helping jumpstart at critical juncture's in homo sapiens' history.
As Mr. Clarke has said often, "Any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic."
Nice discussion, guys. Really good comments here. I'm enjoying this thread.
------------------

 

[Johan Kuno]

(Mr Briggs is a faster typer than I am. He beat me to the "spiritual" theme. But, hey, two posts about it really should get the message across.)

quote: And as I have stated before, I think Kubrick was on the deist track and Clarke was on the theist track. Since it's Kubrick's film, not Clarke's, Kubrick wins. Clarke joins a long distinguised group of authors who are upset by what Kubrick did with "their" material.[/quote]
It was never a competition. Both men agreed it was a spiritual film rather than religious one. Since Clarke repeatedly has remarked on the many follies of religion, I understand how one can perceive this as a difference of opinion between him and Kubrick. But in reality it is only a matter of semantics.
But, by all means, the two gentlemen did not agree on every little subject regarding the film, though both were very proud of the outcome. Clarke is not at all upset about "his" material being distorted. In fact, you find several “injokes” in Clarke’s literature clearly showing a close friendship between the two. From the top of my head I remember a reference to the ultimate movie version of Napoleon (something Kubrick was obsessed with).
During his last trip to the UK, Clarke had the opportunity to see this newly restored (and gorgeous) version of the film, and, in his own words, he called it awesome. This coming from a man over 80 years of age -- not a teenage "dude".
Or to put it plainly: Clarke likes it!
------------------
Kuno, DVD Forum

 

[Cees Alons]

So many thorough explanations, and nobody even explained HAL's name to those youngsters?
Cees

 

[Johan Kuno]

HAL
Heuristic ALgorithmic
Isn't that common knowledge?

There are a bunch of IBM logos in the film too, but old Hal is, how should I put it, "one step ahead"!
------------------
Kuno, DVD Forum

 

[Coressel]

HAL:
He's All Love.
Hibernating Astronauts in Limbo.
Here's to the After Life.
Heart And Lungs.
Hypnotic Acoustic Lounge-lizard.
Hybrid Abstract Lubrication.
Hark, A Lune.
Have A Lupine.
Had Any Lately?

 

[DarrylWHarrisJr]

Man, did I start a good thread...I never realized how much of an impact this movie has. I have shared some of your thoughts amongst my friends, and they're like how. Now we are all going to get together and view this movie.
BTW we are film students and our cinematography professor loves this for the shots, but my script writing professor refuses to discuss this movie. Boy we can't wait for monday morning!! LOL!
------------------
no need for an interview, just study my work...

 

[Jack Briggs]

Re Cees's question, vis. the HAL acronym and what it stands for:
I know the answer, and I point you to both Coressel's post and Johan Kuno's last post. One of them is correct. The first to guess which one of them answered correctly--is it Johan or Coressel?--wins a free smiley face icon.
(Here I am, bringing such a well-discussed thread down to the level of cheap humor. ...)
------------------

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Heuristically-programmed algorithmic computer.
Actually it's
H + 1 = I
A + 1 = B
L + 1 = M
Clarke and Kubrick deny this, just like Orson Welles said any comparison between Charles Foster Kane and William Randolph Hearst was mere coincidence....

 

[Jack Briggs]

Here you go, Dennis:
Actually, I believe Mr. Kubrick and Mr. Clarke. With Mr. Welles, however, there was a lawsuit issue he had to be wary of--hence his denials of any similarities between his Charles Foster Kane and the very real William Randolph Hearst.
------------------

 

[andrew markworthy]

In addition to the monolith = revelation imagery, there's also the imagery of dawning light just further to ram the message home. [Incidentally, anyone buying Also Sprach Zarathustra expecting a great piece of music is in for a disappointment - the music you hear in the film is the start of the piece; thereafter, theme never returns and the rest of the music isn't all that hot (if you want Richard Strauss at his best, try something like the Alpine Symphony, Metamorphosen or the Four Last Songs)].
BTW, in Clarke's book it's clear that the race of beings which planted the monoliths picked a large number of planets containing 'promising' species, and that a lot failed. 'All' they did was provide an opportune boost to development; the aim was not to 'control' a species nor to direct it along a specific path, and as just noted, without rigid control some species 'failed'. The reason the apes were chosen was that they had the capacity to develop into a sentient species capable of e.g. tool use. The wild cats in the movie might have found this a little trickier.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The key to the next step of evolution in ape-time was the opposable thumb.
------------------
PatCave ; HT Pix ; Gear ; DIY Mains ; DIY CC ; Sunosub I + II + III ; DVDs ; Link Removed

 

[Bill Huelbig]

To Jack Briggs: I'm at work now so I'm using your 2001 title frame to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the exact day, hour and as close as I can come to the minute (it was a 1:30 PM show, June 15, 1968) when I first saw 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. No other movie gets this treatment, because there's no other movie like it and never will be. Other people would call it craziness, but I figure you'd understand.
--Bill

 

[Jack Briggs]

Indeed I do, Bill.
(The first showing I went to was at 8:00 p.m. That was an awesome year, you know. It was in 1968 that this masterpiece of masterpieces debuted--and the same year astronauts orbited the Moon for the first time. Incredible.)
------------------

 

[Peter Kline]

And the year I first smelled the stench of marijuana in a movie theatre!

------------------

 

[Rich Malloy]

"Stench"?

 

[Seth Paxton]

And it was the year I was born. Boy things were good for the human race that year.

Also, regarding the Nietzsche reading. Make sure to pick up a companion "helper" book to explain some of the meanings and imagery. FN was intentionally vague with the intention of excluding all but the "worthy" readers who could understand and would take the time to understand.
Elitist, I think, but he still has some interesting thoughts that will change how you watch 2001 forever (for the better to me).

 

[Jack Briggs]

Yes, Peter, I must echo Al here: "Stench"?
------------------

 

[Peter Kline]

At the time, I thought that the weed smelled terrible.

------------------

 

[Jack Briggs]

It musta been da cheap stuff that was so prevalent then. Today's high-grade ... oh, let's stop this!
------------------