Posted on 12/16/2010 5:09:59 PM PST by KevinDavis
Man began as primitives.
The Obelisk appears.
Man learns, or begins to, even if what he learns is how to use a bone as a club.
He then teaches. He teaches others primitives how to use the club.
The day comes when that knowledge has to be applied. These learned beasts use their knowledge, and are led, to a victory over other primitives.
In their celebration, one throws the bone in the air, and as it turns over and over in the air, the scene cuts to a space craft turning in a similar manner.
The Obelisk is their when man emerged from being an animal, to something more than that.
On the moon, in the Tycho crater, an obelisk exactly the same as the one at the birth of man’s ability to learn, use tools, lead other men, is discovered in the Tycho crater.
The men, now with the ability to travel to the moon, approach the obelisk, and at the moment they touch it, a signal goes across the galaxy.
Man is ready.
The Discovery, shaped very much like a sperm cell, is sent to Jupiter. Like sperm, only one ‘cell’ survives the journey - Dave Bowman.
At the end of the movie, man is reborn into the next stage of his evolution.
There you go.
Hey, you found my avatar!
In Orlando in 1968, I remember the movie starting with a panel discussion of life beyond earth.. It might have just been something the theater put together, but it put the movie in context before it’s first showing.
The true brilliance of 2001 is that, in 1968 when it was made, the original Star Trek was cutting edge of how people saw space and futurism.
Though the short story on which it was loosely based was written in 1948, 2001 itself was a contemporary piece that tried to emphasize the reality of space, with Clarke doing the science and science fiction parts, and Kubrick flushing out the artistry to depict them.
Much is made about the extremely long descent through the Jovian atmosphere, but you have to wonder how much of that was trying to be honest, compared to the dramatic convenience of just “beaming down.”
It was terribly expensive to try and create the illusion of zero gravity, but it was almost an imperative for them to show that space is not like Buck Rogers, or Flash Gordon, or Star Trek.
Hal, please open the pod bay door, for the last DAMN time.
Dave said that, “Something is going to happen...something wonderful.”
Is this it?
...there ya go.
RE: 17 MORE minutes? Like it wasn’t enough of a crushing bore already?
ROFL....actually it’s 17 more minutes of apes pounding on bones.
I’ve had the old version on DVD for years... and just saw the new restored version on whatever channel that was a few weeks ago. I’ll have to get the new DVD.
It makes so much more sense now. Metropolis has always been held out as an “ahead of it’s time...” masterpiece of early sci-fi... and frankly, I didn’t want to say it before but I always thought it was choppy and confusing. Now... we find out that there’s a reason for all that choppiness. Some very important story and plot elements were edited out. After re-editing and restoration it all makes a great deal more sense. It’s a different film. IMHO.
I was really impressed with the curators that undertook the restoration, both in Argentina and Germany. They take their work very seriously. It’s refreshing to see people still that committed to preservation of important works.
Me too. First showing, front row, center seat. I think I was the only one in the theater who wasn't stoned.
I thought that Clarke and Kubrick decided that world wasn't yet ready for Jar Jar Binks and removed him from the movie.
They found Frank Poole floating in space and revived him, not Bowman heh.
They called the obelisk in the crater the “Tycho Magnetic Anomaly” and dug down to see what it was. The obelisk sent out the signal when sunlight fell upon it for the first time since it was buried. It was a pretty good alarm system to denote when humans had become advanced enough to leave their planet.
That was my first date too, at the “Motor-Vue Drive In Theater.” When the movie ended, I explained the plot to my date, took her home, and never saw her again.
Reading the book will explain everything.
This is from memory so please correct me where I’m wrong.
IIRC, just a few days after the initial roadshow opening, Kubrick re-edited the film because of negative reaction. He trimmed 17 to 19 minutes from it and also inserted the chapter headings which were not in the initial release.
Also, I believe that an earlier concept of the film included narration during the Dawn of Man portion. The person who was supposed to do the narration eventually became the voice of HAL.
17 minutes of HAL saying “Dave, I can’t let you do that.” “Where are you going Dave?” “Get out of my brain, Dave.” “I can’t fix that parking ticket for you Dave.” “You’re not going to get me to fall for solving an impossible math problem, Dave.”
Hey .. Was that you sitting next to me? 8)
This reminds me of when they released Star Trek: The Motion Picture on video with “12 extra minutes” of footage. Someone, somewhere actually sat down and watched that movie and had the reaction “this needs to be longer.”
I saw it at the Uptown in Washington (D.C.) in 1967. The long, long journey to the surface of Jupiter, or wherever, has seemed shorter when I’ve seen it since then.
No, I was two seats over.
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