2001 A Space Odyssey Rough Draft 1

Evaluating something is very difficult to do when one does not understand the subject. After watchign 2001 A Space Odyssey, a science fiction film directed by Stanly Kubick in 1968, I had many unanswered queestions. To fully understand this movie, I had to do some research online. Even then, many parts of it were still vague. I believe this is how Kubick intended for it to be. This would be the reason that he chose to have very little dialogue in this film. He tried to tell the story through imagery. Some things were very well represented, while others were never explained, and are still disputed about today.
Personally, I had a hard time sitting through the film. Most of the time, I sat in silence, wondering, "what is going on?" I found it very interesting that Kubick started the movie out with apes. This obviously symbolized the theory of evolution. I am sure that when this movie came out, this simple start of the story provoked many positive and negative feelings. At the time this movie was produced, evolution wasn't something that was accepted very much yet. This was a brave step, in my opinion. In this beginning segment, the first monolith is discovered by the apes. It was neat to see how Kubick believed we began to evolve, using tools as weapons.
Just after showing the monkeys beginning to use tools, the movie jumps millions of years ahead in just a few seconds. A simple plot line begins to play out as a scientist is brought to the moon to examine a monolith that was found. This part of the movie is vague, but that is expected. I woudl assume that the next segment of the film would begin to answer the many questions I had rolling around in my head, but it only posed even more confusing subjects. At the end of this part of the movie, the sun strikes the monolith as scientists are tryign to take a picture with it When this happens, a horrible shrieking sound is produced.
In the third section, we are introduced to Hal 9000, as scientists jouney to Jupiter. Hal 9000 is the ship's on board computer system. It speaks and runs more of the ship's operations. When I first saw this, I could only think about the funny jewelry store commercials with the GPS systems talking to the driver. I find it interesting that nearly 35 years ago, Kubick was able to make a prediction about takling computer systems. It must have sounded funny at the time, but it was a realizeic guess of how things might be in the future. In the movie, scientists fid out there is some sort of error causing the ship to fail within a certain amount of time. After examinging all of the equipment, they find out the error is in the hal 9000, which was supposed to be flawless. Hal 0--- speaks to the scientists, insisting that the problem is not with him, but in human error. Hal makes a suggestion to fix the problem. Hesitantly, the scientists agree to Hal's idea. The scientists talk in private, discussing how they will have to shut Hal down if the idea fails. Hal reads their lips without them knowing. This reminds me of the Disney movie "Smart House", where a home computer security system goes crazy and locks the whole family inside the house. I did not realize that there were so many movies and ideas that probably spawned from 2001 A Space Odyssey.
After a brief intermission, the film resumes as the scientists begin to try to fix the ship's problem. During this, Hal tries to eliminate the scientists that plotted to shut him off. He does so by knocking him witht he oxygen hose. Another scientist goes out to save him. When they return, Hal refuses to let them inside. I find it funny that when the second scientist goes out to save the first, he does not wear a helmet. Obviously, Kubick had hopes that sceince technology would allow us to do such a thing in space in the future; however, that has not happened. The scientists sneak into the ship and try to get to Hal's memorty center to disconnect him. Hal tries to reason that everything will be okay, but is ignored. When Hal is shut off, a prerecorded message begins to play. it explains that intelligent life had been found somewhere other than Earth. It talked about the monolith and why it was burried.
In the last segment of the movie, one of the scientists leaves the ship and finds a third monolith orbiting Jupiter. This is when the "Star Gate" is introduced, as the scientist travels through a colorful tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, the scienist finds himself in a strange room, watching an older version of himself dying. As he is ready to die, a monolith in the room changes him into a fetus, which begins to light up and float away, to the next Earth. This is the end of the movie. Confusing, right? Strangely, I like that I don't exactly know what everything is. It keeps me wondering. It makes me think about all of the possibilities of what it could mean. I think this is one of the reasons that this is though of as such an influential and important film. Nobody really knows what Kubick was thinking when he directed it... and I think he wanted it that way.