oe Stajkowski
2001 : A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, 2001:A Space Odyssey, is said to be one of the greatest movies ever to be created. People of all different statuses have argued this bold statement for many years. Some say it is quite boring, while others say it is a movie with a deeper meaning that most people simply cannot grasp.
I am one of these people. I cannot seem to understand this movie. I may be biased towards the film from the beginning because I am not a huge fan of science fiction movies.
From the beginning I could already tell I was not going to enjoy this film. The first few scenes depict the evolution of man. There is what seems to be a colony of apes wondering around with no words what so ever. A certain ape soon finds a bone and starts banging it on other bones. He quickly finds out that this bone can be used as a weapon. Kubrick slowly takes us through how apes learn new things and evolve.
Next the movie quickly jumps forward millions of years and is now in a space scene. It is where Dave, the main character is introduced. Dave and his crew are sent on a mission, but there is a catch. They are actually on a mission they don’t even know they are on. They are secretly being sent to explore a moon of Saturn. This part immediately threw me off. I was confused at what the main story line of the film was now. This may be due to the fact that I have previously never heard anything about this movie so I didn’t know what to expect. I do believe if I understood the deeper meaning of this film I would think it was a good movie.
Hal is a super-computer in the film who helps navigate the ship. This is one of the deeper meanings of the film, how technology is evolving so fast. Hal turns evil when he feels the humans are trying to terminate him and turns into a murderer. Hal is eventually shut down and Dave, the main character is sent into a crazy situation. In the very beginning of the movie the apes find a giant black slab, I still don’t understand what it is. Dave is actually sucked into one of these slabs and put into an odd world. He wakes up in a nice hotel looking room. I think this is where they try to depict immortality. The slab is in the room where he wakes up and he is all alone. I think the slab represents God and it shows him what immortality is like.
