2001:A Space Essay
It's a Miracle
positive and negative thoughts shape us and bowman reaching perfection
by confronting his negative side to eliminate human error.The key to
understanding my theory is understanding the elements Kubrick used to
tell the allegory.
He use HAL as an entity that represents authority.HAL made a prediction
that the mission failure was human error.The allegorical ending has a
middle aged bowman looking around,doesn't see the bowman in the present
tense and spills the water.The water represents human error.The lakes
and ocean represent human error of different scales.The contrasting
colors are metaphors for negative and positive thoughts.The diamonds are
family with 2 dominant members that are parental.The monolith is there
with 2 statues facing different directions which represent life choices.
Kubrick uses contrast throughout the film.He contrasted circles with
squares and rectangles.The circles are metaphors for tunnel
vision(narrow perspective).The rectangles and squares are thoughts that
are framed. Also contrasted the ultra realism in the beggining to the
strictly artificial ending.The ending uses contrasting color also.
The alignment of planets are metaphors for an epiphany.The moon
represent isolation or banishment.Also the movie accents the visual
elements on cue with the music.
The allegory is told with
rectangles,squares,music,color,environment,water,all of them in contrast
with each other.It heavily uses geometry as a metaphor for perspective
verses reality in the begginng of the film with circles being tunnel
vision and squares and rectangles being reality.There is triangles in
only one scene.The arrival at the moonbase and the triangles are
metaphor for strength as they are the strongest geometric shape ask any
first year engineer student.
Kubrick broke the elements down to their simplest form.Here is my
interpretation.
The begining is simple,the monolith shaped the primitive thoughts of the
primates.The rectangle is a metaphor for shaping the primates
thoughts.They were afraid to touch the monolith because with self
awareness comes the fear of death.
Shuttle docks with space hub
The space hub represents tunnel vision.There is a left and right side
and the right side is incomplete.The docking bay is rectangular like the
monolith.
>inside is white with red furniture
White is purity and red means not to trespass.A circle is infinity.
>talks to child on monitor.The moon is in
> rectanguar window going in circles
The moon represents isolation from society,its going in circles which
represents infinity.The rectangular window is his thoughts shaped by
life experiences. He's talking to his child so we are talking about
generational sin.I will use the word sin even though this film is
secular because it's a term that is generational.Human error is another
metaphor you can use.Religions try to protect civilization by
confronting sin.An example is if somebody is abused by parents they will
rebel against authority.It could take generations for the sin to weed
itself out.This film is generational in scope and my later comments will
bear this out.
>talks about unkown origin of artifact and
> is not in the liberty to discuss
He's talking about repressed memories that causes character flaws.The
alien is a metaphor for human error.
>rendvous with moon
Further isolaton from society
>Woman walks with zero G in circular
> room 180 degrees
Isolating yourself is backwards and anti-social
>round shuttle lands on moon through
> sphere to square pad
tunnel vision narrows perspective by framing your thoughts into a square
>monolith said to be deliberately
> buried.It's excavated into a circle
buried monolith metaphor for repressed memories
>excavation rectangular ramp
Still keeping with rectangular framing of thought.An upright rectangle
is narrower horizontally than it is tall.A metaphor for a narrow
perspective.
>jogging in circles among coffin like
> chambers on spaceship with HAL's
>red eye watching
The circles represent infinity and the coffins represent sleep a
metaphor again for circular logic and repressed memories.HAL's eye is
sin or negativity that leads to human error.
>Hal ponders what is on the moon and the
> atteana goes bad
Again the moon is isolation or anti-social and the atteana is a
disconnect from
society.
>The astronauts go through a tunnel in
> zero G, one makes 360 degree turn
>and bowman makes 180 degree turn.The
> astronaut picks the middle pod from
> three and returns with atteana relay.
The middle pod is chosen and the atteana has 3 discs.The middle being
larger.It's a relationship between 3 people that caused the sin or human
error.The middle being the dominate factor
>Atteana from bowmans perspective is
> good.Hal's perspective is it's human
> error
When he entered tunnel he made a 180 degree turn in zero G room.Bowman's
perspective is wrong.Hal eye still represents sin and is saying it's
human error.
>Bowman talk in middle pod and say they
> are getting a bad feeling
They are admitting a problem for the first time in a social manner but
are excluding HAL which at this point can even be a metaphor for
rejection of god or society,anybody that judges you.The cause of the
problem is still unknown.
>intermission starts
Strategic placement of intermision.It's like saying at this point your
on the road to saying the glass is half full and not half empty
>picture of ship in space
Metaphor of isolation from any evironment
>astronaut lost(tumbles through space)
Metaphor for it will get worse before it gets better
>While Bowman retrieves body the coffin
> chambers die
Metaphor for turning your back on society(anti-social)
>Hal says mission to important,you were
> going to disconnect me.
Metaphor for misdirected priorities.
>Bowman exposes himself to vaccum
Metaphor for a disconnect with your environment
>Hal gets disconnected,goes through
> psychosis,becomes more primitive and
>recalls his first memory
metaphor for regression and exploring who you are
>Earth message says contact with alien
> artifact imminent
Metaphor for confronting true self which is alien to larger society
>Monolith lines up with Jupiter and moons
Jupiter is biggest planet with most
moons.Metaphor for sins and negativity being largest factor shaping your
personality
>lightshow starts,
>Bowman closes eyes
Metaphor for resistance
>Kaleidoscpe begins with squares and
> rectangles then becomes more abstract
Metaphor for higher thought
>Bowman begins to look with only right
> eye then colors are horizontal
Right eye metaphor for negative thinking.Bowman still resisting
>colors look less abstract
Metaphor for resistance preventing higher thinking
>Bowmans eyes turn yellow green
Bowmans perspective is changing,resistance is futile
>Bowman blinks then there is an
> explosion
Resistance is futile
>Images start to look organic then
> become just a point of light
Metaphor for being human,he is regressing to his roots
>Bowmans eyes change color
His perspective changes again
>images turn to 7 diamonds,with 2 larger
> diamonds and various smaller
>ones.They are immersed in a sea of red
metaphor for family with dominant parents and siblings.The red is sin or
learned negativity.
>eyes change color again.The light show
> turns to a sky
Bowmans perspectve changes again and realizes the importance of his
family.The sky is the largest environment you live in.
>Bowman blinks.Images turn to a canyon
> with pools of water.Landscapes
>turn to oceans and lakes.
The dysfunctional family is like a canyon.The pools of water and oceans
are like islands of negativity and human error.
>Bowman blinks then returns to normal
> color
Reality is coming back and he is evolving to purity
>Pod is in white room with brown furniture
White is purity and the brown is an earthy color.A metaphor for being
grounded in reality.
>Bowman still wearing red suit and has
> eyes wide open
Still wearing his armor of negativity but becoming aware of his personal
circumstances.
>walks into a bathroom with a sink and
> bathtub
Metaphor for washing his soul of negativity to become pure without human
error
>walks through small door to find middle
> age self.Middle age self has
>back turned to him.Middle age self looks
> around and doesn't see him.Middle age
> self drops glass and looks at it.
Metaphor for human error predicted by HAL which was a metaphor for being
judged by god or society.
>middle aged bowman sees old man
> bowman dying then monolith appears in
>front of 2 statues facing opposite
> directions.
Metaphor for judging oneself and taking responsibility for your choices
>dying bowman turns into space baby on
> brown bed
bowman is enlightened by facing his negative side
>right eye of baby shows.Music starts
> again
His transformation into purity without error is beginning
>moon shows then earth
Metaphor that the population of earth goes through the struggle of
finding out who you are and we all have a negative side restricting us
and isolating us and making human error.
>space baby shows left eye then its a
> frontal shot
Bowman reaches a state of perfection.The left eye is a perpective he
never reached before and a positive one.
The end
Remember to watch it widescreen in it's original version and carefully
look at the contrast in geometry and colors.Water is human error
predicted by HAL.The key to the allegory is the contrast which is
perception vs reality when represented by geometry and positive vs
negative when represented by color.Pay careful attention to the ending
noting which eye faces the camera and when he blinks and the eye color
changes.The music is important to the allegory and is right on cue with
elements in the movie.Watch it again with this new perspective and let
me know your opinions.All are welcome,Thanks
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