Living
Space
2001:
A Space Odyssey is a 142 minute
science fiction space film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick
in 1968. The film has a dominant presence with its smart use of
lengthy shots, spectacular special effects, use of imagery, and the
precise attention paid to sound and movement. The dialogue in the
film is very limited and the communication of emotions become
possible in methods of repetitions of sound, such as the sound of the
astronauts breathing. Kubrick's
choice of music adds to the zero gravity effect by sending the
satellite stations floating through the camera shot almost like a
dancer may float across a stage. Throughout the whole film the zero
gravity special effect is done really well, at every opportune moment
it seems there is a way it continues to keep the viewer in space with
the cast. A great amount of attention was given to small material
details, such as the
special caps worn by the space stewardesses to keep their hair from
floating about their faces. Apart from the material aesthetic and
the way the film was presented by Kubrick there is the interpretation
that comes from the story by the viewer, each viewer is not certain
to have the same experience or interpretation. Kubrick consciously
made no explanations or attached any underlying meanings to the story
but that it is to be interpreted by the viewer, therefore creating
the possibility of no right or wrong answers.
The
story begins in a prehistoric Africa where an extraterrestrial force
has planted a single black monolith which happens to be very close to
a group
of ape-like beings who become curious of its presence. Their courage
grows as they approach the monolith and their fears start to subside
as they touch it and become more comfortable, eventually leading to
the evolutionary invention of the tool. The ape-like beings discover
the tool is good for a lot of tasks, one of which is winning a battle
with another group of ape-like beings that results in a murder. The
power balance between individuals can now be measured in possession
and use of tools. As
billions of years have passed man is now at his peak of technological
advancements and is now exploring with more confidence than ever
before, his confidence is placed in the hands of artificially
intelligent robots that control operated space stations. However
there are clues that all of the new technological advancements are
not entirely perfect, in one of the scenes a pen floats away from the
sleeping passenger on a space shuttle due to zero gravity. The pen
represents one of the many tools created in the evolution of
technology that has now gone out of the control of it's creator. The
space stewardess comes by to put the pen back in it's place,
literally and theoretically, she is doing her part in the
continuation of man's believed
control that
he has over his creations.
The fact that humans in space must relearn how to walk and move, to
use a zero gravity toilet, and must adapt to special space food also
shows that there is something to be weary of in space.
Showing
man's strength and need to explore, invade, and dominate the film
takes the viewers to the scene of another monolith being excavated
on the moon. Man, being the confident beings they are in this future
setting, have no fear of the monolith and walk right up to it with a
camera, a horrible radio signal sound is triggered and things get
fuzzy. The perspective of the camera at one point puts the viewer in
the space suit of an astronaut, humanizing this mistake of
technological indifference of
the much more advanced monolith. The radio signals towards Jupiter,
which leads to the
Jupiter Mission where the character HAL 9000 becomes prominent. HAL
9000 is the central nervous system of the spaceship on the Jupiter
Mission, HAL has started showing growing characteristics of
human-like intelligence. In HAL's perspective it
is far more advanced than the humans that survive within its
intelligence. HAL is starting to see the humans as something
disposable, it has a plan to take full control over the operations.
HAL relates a message that the mission will fail, sending the two
astronauts out of the shuttle to repair a unit only to discover that
it is working correctly, once inside the astronauts, Dave and Frank,
have a conversation about shutting down parts of HALS controls if the
unit does not fail as predicted and how HAL may react. They try to
be sneaky but HAL can read lips and sees their conversation through
the pod windows. Frank then goes outside of the shuttle to work on
the unit again,
HAL sends a pods sweeping arm to smack Frank sending
him spinning out into space
grabbing for his air tube.
At
this point in the movie the rhythm
of the Franks
breathing are vital to the emotion of helplessness and the
suffocation effect of being out of ones element, like a fish out of
water, man cannot survive without technology in space. Computers,
however, can function without breathing, showing the power the
computer has over man in this environment. Dave goes to retrieve
Frank in one of the pods, named the Discovery, but once Dave tries to
return HAL has already taken over control and won't let Dave back
into the main shuttle. Dave now knows the extent of what has
happened, HAL has the upper hand here but Dave decides to position
the Discovery pod door next to one of the main shuttle's entry
points. Without his space helmet Dave is out
of his element with the
lack of oxygen but also the temperature is drastically lower, he pops
the Discovery door and shoots into the entry area, this part uses the
contrast of silence after a
loud noise to also emulate the loneliness that Dave will be destined
to. Once back inside Dave must now turn HAL's controls off, he ends
up doing this task using a simple screwdriver tool in HAL's main
system, cutting Dave's relationship with technology and forever
securing his fate of an unknown death. Technological
advancements almost
replaced the human that created and cultured it, ultimately raising
the question; without tools, what is
man?
Images
start to appear and travel into the unknown at an unknown speed of
time and space, colors and textures become more important then
locations or dates, it seems that every element or feeling can be
translated into light and movement.
Now free to create any
reality Dave finds himself in a strange room eventually discovering
himself over and over but at different stages of aging. He is
watching himself grow older and weaker, he walks in on himself at his
last supper scene where his older self accidentally knocks over a
glass, the glass breaks but what's
inside is still there, foreshadowing symbolism of the relationship
between the body and soul. The scene pans over to oldest Dave on his
death bed, hovering in front of him is a monolith. Oldest Dave
stares at the monolith in his last moments and then his soul is free
from its body, what appears next is an embryo
like star child. Dave's soul
can now be reborn into a new vessel, perpetuating
life and progress. Being reborn symbolizes the metaphysical
relationship between creatures and their environments, the journey of
life rather than creating or destroying life.
With
the theme of life traveling rather than being destroyed and created,
ideas and creativity also travel in the situation of their impact
over time in the form of a new film; Gravity. Gravity,
starring Sandra Bullock and
George Clooney, is not a
remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey,
but the two can be compared on their similar plots and styles.
Gravity, 90 minutes,
is remarkably shorter than 2001: A Space Odyssey's 142
minutes, showing the quicker pace newer films seem to have over older
films. Reviews commented on the film's ability of holding the
audiences' attention even with lengthy shots and lack of characters,
this shows just how different the audiences of 1968 might have been
when compared to 2013's. Length of the films set aside, Gravity
brings a new plot with new
characters, this time a female lead, Ryan Stone, who is played by
Sandra Bullock, is on her first mission in space, she is paired with
a veteran space traveler on his last mission coincidentally, Matt
Kowalski, played by George Clooney. Things
start to turn for the worse when a storm of debris from a Russian
missile heads their way while they are outside of the shuttle, they
cannot make it inside in time and get hit by the debris storm,
sending Stone attached to an armature of the shuttle spinning into
space forced to detach she is then spiraling alone into space. Her
breathing mirrors her emotions throughout the film, mirroring her
helplessness as well as loneliness and
her physical state with
lack of oxygen, the same
attention paid to the use of breathing audio in 2001: A
Space Odyssey.
Kowalski's
character has a self propelled pack enabling his efforts to save
Stone, leading to their perilous journey to find a safe station
before the debris storm returns. In their attempts Stone becomes
entangled in parachute straps with Kowalski only holding on by the
rope attaching them together, he detaches himself in hopes that Stone
will have better odds of survival alone, forever securing her fate of
loneliness. Stone is forced to embark on this mission with very
little knowledge or guidance, she narrowly escapes strings of bad
luck that seem to never let up for her. The
idea of Stone's character forever being alone is supported when its
revealed she lost her only daughter at a young age from a school yard
accident. The spectacular
special effects in the film are breath taking and the visuals are
only enhanced by the 3D element. By making Gravity
in a 3D version it gives the audience the feeling of zero gravity,
putting the viewer in the suit of Ryan Stone as she drifts through
space and her different emotions when paired with the audio. 3D also
adds to the experience
when any prop is experiencing zero gravity, for example there is a
reoccurring image of a pen floating, just as in 2001: A
Space Odyssey, the pen
symbolizes the unknown power of what humans have created and trust
with their lives in environments not suitable for human life, such
as space travel technology.
The pen is not the only connection to other imagery in films, the
image of the embryo/fetal
position used in the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey
is used in Gravity
also, when
Stone sheds her suit, suspended
in zero gravity inside a ship, she resembles an unborn baby floating
inside a womb, bringing the idea of her soul traveling beyond her
body into a new dimension, she represents the star child. Safe
inside the Russian Soyuz
Capsule she puts on a suit that has the number 42 on it, 42 can be
referencing “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” where the
number 42 is the “answer to the ultimate question of life, the
universe, and everything”. The
number 42 on the suit is foreshadowing her possible success in
survival when she is hit by yet another road block once the Soyuz
Capsule is aligned toward the Chinese ship she discovers there is not
enough fuel and begins to shut the oxygen flow off to die painlessly.
In what seems like the last moments of Stone's life, Kowalski
suddenly appears in a hallucination only to tell Stone of another
method to get the ship where it needs to be. The same use of silence
is in the scene when
Dave shoots
from the Discovery into the main shuttle entry is used during the
scene in Gravity when
Kowalski shoots into the Soyuz Capsule. The silence of loneliness is
contrasted with Kowalski's presence, then
again supported when it's apparent his appearance was only a
hallucination of Stone's. With the grace of luck she some how makes
it to Earth nearly drowning after landing in a lake, she finds her
way to shore and takes her first steps very weak and wobbly. Her
first steps signify her rebirth on Earth, the continuation of her
soul, her metaphysical energy.
The similarities of the two films is apparent in their themes of
helplessness, loneliness, and the threat of technology. The
aesthetics of both show great advancements in cinema and the
technical parts that join in the end to create something
that uses sight and sound in a way that creates a unique experience
for the viewer. The obsession with discovery and progress parallels
closely with obsession of the eminent disaster of said progress and
knowledge. By leaving the explanations of imagery in 2001:
A Space Odyssey open to the
viewer it gives permission for Gravity
to do the same, which it takes and spins into it's own completely new
creation but still relates strongly to
the same concepts and ideas
about metaphysics and humankind's metaphysical
relationship with it's environment.
