Film Analysis: A Space Odyssey
A Space Odyssey
2001 a space odyssey is a story about extraterrestrial life, space voyage, the future, homicidal sentient robots, and above all else a story about evolution. The monoliths are a tool created by an alien race to help assist in evolution; they are the cornerstone of evolution for humankind. It was there at the dawn of man and gave humanity an extra edge to help adapt and evolve from primates to intellectual humans that are capable of space travel. The mysterious black rectangles have been planted around our universe as mile marker for evolution and one has just been discovered on the moon. After further investigation of the strange object, it is revealed to have been buried under the moon's surface over 4 million years ago. …show more content…
18 months later after the discovery of the moon's monolith a voyage is set course for Jupiter where it is believed another monolith is waiting to be found.
A Space Odyssey was directed by Stanley Kubrick and written as a book by Arthur C.
Clarke simultaneously as the movie was being produced. The movie was distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM for short and was first screened on April 2 1968, the total run time of the movie is 2 hours and 29 minutes. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating of this movie is “G” for general audiences. I find this rating quite fitting as there is not any cursing throughout the film and only a few people die during the movie. The movie is split apart into 3 different sections each with different characters and settings. The first section takes place at the dawn of man in a hot African desert landscape and centers around a group of ape like creatures as they learn to adapt and evolve in their environment. The second section taking place on the moon as a monolith has just been discovered under the lunar surface, and the third and final scene takes place on the “discovery one” spacecraft, the first manned mission to Jupiter. The “main” protagonists even though we don't see them until an hour into the movie is Dr. Dave Bowman played by Keir Dullea, and Dr. Frank Poole an astronaut played by Gary Lockwood who are the only 2 out of the 5 passengers on the Discovery one to be awake for the voyage. Other notable characters are HAL 9000 portrayed by Douglas Rain the artificial intelligence antagonist that's always depicted as a red camera lens, Dr. Heywood Floyd the astronaut sent to the moon to investigate the strange monolith, and the femur wielding ape at the beginning of the movie played by Daniel
Richter.
The overall quality of this movie is superb after watching it easily became one of my favorite movies of all time. Everything about this movie works from the somewhat confusing plot to the beautifully selected soundtrack and everything in between and my favorite thing in the whole movie is the stunning cinematography. The cinematography is absolutely amazing and was so cutting edge at the time the film released in 1968 that it still upholds today and also the film featured no CGI whatsoever it relied solely on practical effects. For example, in one scene, we see a pen floating in zero gravity on a spaceship and to create this scene Kubrick just used a pen, double sided tape, and a large glass plate. In another scene, we see an astronaut going for a jog up the walls of a circular zero gravity room but in actuality, Kubrick had a large human sized hamster wheel constructed for the shot. In addition, the score for this movie is done so well for example during one scene as a ship floats through space classical ballet music plays in the background and the contrast between classical, elegant, futuristic, and scientific is so marvelous.
After reading countless reviews online, I found this movie had mixed views despite being one of the top rated movies of all time. Some people like me said they loved this movie while others disliked it and said it was “over rated.” I myself was quite fond of this movie; It was interesting from beginning to end. The writing, acting, use of practical effects, and cinematography where all amazing, I would rate this movie a 4.5 out of 5 stars, but in my opinion i don't see the average person watching this movie and appreciating it. i feel like, as some critics said, most people would be bored with this movies slow pace and confusing storyline. I feel like to appreciate this movie one must not be deterred away from the fact that a 2 and a half hour movie has less than 40 minutes of dialogue, they must be able to interpret what parts of the movie mean, and go in knowing it won't all make sense. To quote Arthur C. Clarke the writer of the novel “If you understand ‘2001’ completely, we failed.”
2001 a space odyssey is a story about extraterrestrial life, space voyage, the future, homicidal sentient robots, and above all else a story about evolution. The monoliths are a tool created by an alien race to help assist in evolution; they are the cornerstone of evolution for humankind. It was there at the dawn of man and gave humanity an extra edge to help adapt and evolve from primates to intellectual humans that are capable of space travel. The mysterious black rectangles have been planted around our universe as mile marker for evolution and one has just been discovered on the moon. After further investigation of the strange object, it is revealed to have been buried under the moon's surface over 4 million years ago. …show more content…
18 months later after the discovery of the moon's monolith a voyage is set course for Jupiter where it is believed another monolith is waiting to be found.
A Space Odyssey was directed by Stanley Kubrick and written as a book by Arthur C.
Clarke simultaneously as the movie was being produced. The movie was distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM for short and was first screened on April 2 1968, the total run time of the movie is 2 hours and 29 minutes. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) rating of this movie is “G” for general audiences. I find this rating quite fitting as there is not any cursing throughout the film and only a few people die during the movie. The movie is split apart into 3 different sections each with different characters and settings. The first section takes place at the dawn of man in a hot African desert landscape and centers around a group of ape like creatures as they learn to adapt and evolve in their environment. The second section taking place on the moon as a monolith has just been discovered under the lunar surface, and the third and final scene takes place on the “discovery one” spacecraft, the first manned mission to Jupiter. The “main” protagonists even though we don't see them until an hour into the movie is Dr. Dave Bowman played by Keir Dullea, and Dr. Frank Poole an astronaut played by Gary Lockwood who are the only 2 out of the 5 passengers on the Discovery one to be awake for the voyage. Other notable characters are HAL 9000 portrayed by Douglas Rain the artificial intelligence antagonist that's always depicted as a red camera lens, Dr. Heywood Floyd the astronaut sent to the moon to investigate the strange monolith, and the femur wielding ape at the beginning of the movie played by Daniel
Richter.
The overall quality of this movie is superb after watching it easily became one of my favorite movies of all time. Everything about this movie works from the somewhat confusing plot to the beautifully selected soundtrack and everything in between and my favorite thing in the whole movie is the stunning cinematography. The cinematography is absolutely amazing and was so cutting edge at the time the film released in 1968 that it still upholds today and also the film featured no CGI whatsoever it relied solely on practical effects. For example, in one scene, we see a pen floating in zero gravity on a spaceship and to create this scene Kubrick just used a pen, double sided tape, and a large glass plate. In another scene, we see an astronaut going for a jog up the walls of a circular zero gravity room but in actuality, Kubrick had a large human sized hamster wheel constructed for the shot. In addition, the score for this movie is done so well for example during one scene as a ship floats through space classical ballet music plays in the background and the contrast between classical, elegant, futuristic, and scientific is so marvelous.
After reading countless reviews online, I found this movie had mixed views despite being one of the top rated movies of all time. Some people like me said they loved this movie while others disliked it and said it was “over rated.” I myself was quite fond of this movie; It was interesting from beginning to end. The writing, acting, use of practical effects, and cinematography where all amazing, I would rate this movie a 4.5 out of 5 stars, but in my opinion i don't see the average person watching this movie and appreciating it. i feel like, as some critics said, most people would be bored with this movies slow pace and confusing storyline. I feel like to appreciate this movie one must not be deterred away from the fact that a 2 and a half hour movie has less than 40 minutes of dialogue, they must be able to interpret what parts of the movie mean, and go in knowing it won't all make sense. To quote Arthur C. Clarke the writer of the novel “If you understand ‘2001’ completely, we failed.”