2001: A Space Odyssey
2001 Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick starring by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood is a fascinating movie that is hiding the whole story of humanity beginning of prehistoric times.
It is an Academy Award winning movie, a “countdown to tomorrow, a road map to human destiny, a quest for the infinite.” (http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/video_detail/2001/).
2001: A Space Odyssey Opening
The director explores the Darwinian theory of evolution making it a base and an excellent beginning of the movie.
Trailer of the 2001: Space Odyssey
The movie shows how apes evolved coming from eating a low protein diet and having no social organisation to protect before the prey to first kill and taste of red meat what significantly changed their style of life. It helped to adapt to changing environment and grow their brains creating a very first concepts of building hierarchy. Firstly, the most striking thing is the implication of the music of the spheres. Within seven mln years 3-4mln years ago) in a world of homo-erectus the origins of the state began to spread its influences (Rousseau). Also this is the era when the origins of language came from. The moon-watcher is the monkey that seams to be interested in something that is outside of her understanding. The music of the spheres seems to have always been there regardless being noticed or recognised or not (Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer).
When an odd shaped, perfectly geometrical object appears (subjective, metal object) the monkeys are curious, scared at the beginning but eventually decide to explore it, experience empirically. The scene symbolises the first contact with the noumenal world in connection with the music of the spheres (which is in fact a creation of intellectuals. By exploring the object they obey the rules of logic.
Question here arises, do the things exist themselves or are they only part of our minds, and when do we say that something exists? In today’s world if new types of plants or animals were found by scientists, they didn’t exist for us before we named them. Did they exist despite not being discovered? Do things unknown or unexplored for us are classed are existing ones or not? And with the moment they are found do they change or stay the same but only named? Kant explores the two concepts; the object has two matters for him. When the object is perceived (discovered, explored) it becomes phenomenal, and when it is not perceived it is noumenal.
Our intuition and logic proves that there is a numeral world, by act off observing an object changes its nature.
Every time the planets lined up above the object it symbolised the progress, thinking and exploring (Homo-erectus, discovery of a tool using, killing other animals with it). That is when origins of war come from, fight for dominance and power. At this stage of the movie we can already notice forms of organised communication.
Bone thrown up is the breaking moment, “ leaps millenia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever conceived) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted realms of space, perhaps even into immortality. "Open the pod bay doors, HAL. 'Let the awe and mystery of a journey unlike any other begin.' " (http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/video_detail/2001/).
During the mission from the moon to Jupiter human’s main weakness is also exposed, an unconditional part of human’s life - breathing as a limitation to exploring space. Humans have to be on earth to function normally (artificial creation of gravity on the ship). Oxygen supply is controlled by a computer programme, Hall an artificial human’s logic. Humanity has to be overcome (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche), and so the main character, Dave (Zarathustra) to survive, has to kill Hall, he has to kill the logic to make a next step in human’s evolution (become a superman).
2001: A Space Odyssey- Ending
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV
