Different fields have representatives that can be called myths. Although there are different understandings of the word myth, no one can deny the height of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
For half a century, 20 years have passed since the future Stanley Kubrick had imagined.
As Woody Allen said, “In the director’s pantheon, the top two seats belong to Orson Welles and Stanley Kubrick.”
Talking about this movie, I hesitated again and again.
Whether we are qualified and capable, it is really embarrassing to speculate about Kubrick, who is truly worthy of the title of master.
So today I just want to talk about what kind of territory “2001: A Space Odyssey” has opened up in the field of sci-fi genre films.
What is science fiction?
This question is enough to make countless people scratch their heads.
No matter scholars, filmmakers or fans, they have tried to provide general definitions to cover all kinds of samples that already exist or are about to be born.
But they often fall into their own deadlocks due to the inherent mixing and variability of science fiction.
But it is undeniable that science fiction and the word “change” are closely related.
The 1960s was a period of time that was constantly changing.
The scientific facts achieved at that time can easily surpass the craziest dreams in those whimsical minds only decades ago.
The space race, the nuclear shadow, and the fierce rivalry between the two superpowers made President Kennedy promise to NASA that their budget will not be capped.
Kubrick just finished “Dr. Strange-love” at that time. He is conceiving a new work together with an Englishman named Arthur Charles Clarke-“2001: A Space Odyssey”.
But before, or only twenty years ago, the term science fiction did not exist.
Before the 1960s, most of the so-called science fiction films were just money-making works that took advantage of the development of technology to show off their strange tricks to the audience.
Usually aliens invade, mad scientists and so on now appear to be extremely vulgar.
The shadow of the Cold War and the panic on the communist camp also led mainstream commentators at the time to regard films such as “War of the worlds” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” as political fables.
In other words, it is either to satisfy the teenagers who have grown up in space adventure comic books, or it is the middle class who is anxious in the metaphor of the Cold War.
No one cared, and no one had the ability to change the status quo until “2001: A Space Odyssey” appeared.
Out of political ideals and propaganda considerations, NASA, which was disturbed by the moon landing, brought in Kubrick.
NASA promised a lot of money to support it, asking the film to be as realistic as possible and show the audience the real situation of the moon landing.
NASA also sent experts to join the production, and even branded equipment such as General Electric and Boeing were also selected.
As a result, this work was already considered to be a sky-high price at the time, and it really took shape.
In front of Kubrick, there is still a question that needs to be solved urgently, that is, what kind of story does he want to make this movie?
Like all great works that really promote the genre, a story that can be fully displayed on a small screen, even if it is exquisite and self-consistent, cannot compare to a truly mammoth masterpiece.
So, Kubrick and Clarke set their sights on the universe together.
But as the two greatest directors and greatest sci-fi writers in history, they never intended to repeat the old dramas sung by their predecessors.
What they care about is the ultimate destiny of mankind, and propositions that are still cutting-edge today.
A series of philosophical debates on the origin of human beings, evolution of life, and intelligent AI.
The black field for the first five minutes has been deleted in many versions. But it happens to simulate an immersive experience of entering an unknown space.
Before “2001: A Space Odyssey” appeared, it was difficult to imagine that classical music and science fiction could merge into a perfect combination.
With the first rays of sunlight appearing above the dark celestial bodies, the movement of “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” composed by Richard Georg Strauss makes its symbolic meaning particularly prominent.
The end of the song, ushered in the opening “The Dawn of Man”.
A group of Australopithecines, our ancestors, rumored and drank blood, was ignorant and savage.
The appearance of the black stone stele gave this group of apes their minds.
The bone club swung down fiercely symbolizes the dawn of wisdom. Repeatedly knocked, evolved again and again, and finally thrown into the sky.
Thus, one of the greatest montages in film history was born.
The bones jumped and cut the spaceship, and the sky turned into a sky.
The lens is only a few seconds, concise to the extreme but no lack of elegance, condensing tens of thousands of years of civilization history.
Some people say that the film is too slow. On the contrary, if you only project your gaze on the outer time of the lens, it is naturally difficult to appreciate the violent inner span.
Time jumped to the space age.
It is the first time that the audience can appreciate such a vivid visual spectacle with the naked eye.
Nowadays, the common scene of weightlessness is very important to show the space environment.
But at that time, it took some fantastic ideas to realize it under the technical conditions.
The special effects department found a large piece of round glass, then glued the pen with the newly invented double-sided tape, and slowly turned the glass to create this famous lens.
Next, the whole film shows for the first time an extraterrestrial world-the moon landing.
From the design of the lunar module to the realization of the entire lunar landing process, all the details are connected with the real lunar landing plan in the future.
In a sense, the audience in 1968 saw the rehearsal of the greatest step of mankind a full year in advance.
With the help of Clarke’s contacts, Kubrick was able to refer to a large number of real equipment drawings in the early stage, even including the prototype of the moon landing device in a top-secret state.
This makes the details shown in Clarke believable.
Before Kubrick had decided where to point the camera, the main props were already well-designed.
Each module of the spacecraft must be checked by scientists before it can pass.
It is more dramatic because Clarke is “too real.” Since the movie was released, there have been conspiracy theorists claiming that Kubrick had made two science fiction films.
One is “2001 A Space Odyssey” and the other is “Apollo 11 Moon Landing.”
They believe that under the coercion and lure of the U.S. government, Kubrick filmed them in the studio enough to make a fake and real moon landing video.
What’s more, according to the behind-the-scenes documentary of “The Shining”, he claimed to have found the hint hidden in it: Danny was wearing an Apollo 11 sweater.
The moon landing itself is not the key, the key lies in the second contact with the black stele by humans.
The earthlings who broke through the constraints of gravity finally finished a journey and faced a new starting point.
The second chapter “Jupiter Mission”, the highlight of the whole film, the artificial intelligence “HAL 9000” officially appeared.
This AI, which only shows people with mechanical sounds and red lights, has become the first image of the other to be emphasized in history.
The film also puts forward one of the most important motifs in the history of science fiction movies-worries about “post-humans”.
In essence, sci-fi works all appear in a posture that praises rationality, but worries about the risk of losing control of rationality are everywhere.
The emergence of HAL 9000 reminds a problem that humans cannot ignore-being replaced.
When all the concepts that define human beings, such as the mind and spirit, are inherited by things that have no human form, the traditional concept of “human” is at risk of becoming obsolete.
Recalling the contemporary landscape within reach, the boundary between fiction and reality is becoming increasingly blurred.
In subsequent works such as “Blade Runner”, “Short Circuit” and “Artificial Intelligence”, this questioning has also been further presented.
During the flight, HAL 9000 unexpectedly made a prediction error.
The crew, who was surprised by the fact that this never-faulty computer actually changed, privately planned to shut down HAL 9000.
Unexpectedly, their every move will be seen by HAL 9000.
The HAL 9000, which already possesses a part of humanity, was designed to kill the other crew members under the impulse of self-preservation, leaving only the pilot David Bowman.
In this scene, Kubrick creatively used a widescreen format to show the pilot’s working status in space.
The use of this wide-screen technology also made “2001: A Space Odyssey” the technical criterion for subsequent science fiction movies.
Appropriately show the sense of space, the abstract emptiness is embodied as the vast sky on the screen.
Only the bottom noise and gasping sound are left, creating a secluded depression of no man’s sky.
The pale aerospace equipment is lined with a dark background, making the audience realize that the seemingly infinite space can also become a prison.
When the astronauts left the spacecraft and officially entered the universe, we have only really experienced that the narrow and closed space capsule is actually stable and safe.
At the same time, the starry sky scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey” also provides a model for latecomers.
While breathing the aftertaste of paint, the staff in the graphics department drew the stars on the film frame by frame.
Each star must be perfect, able to withstand the test of astronomers, and not chaotic like random graffiti.
In the performance, “2001: A Space Odyssey” also has its own unique features.
In order to reflect the mechanization of the character’s spiritual level, Kubrick asked the actors to converge in their performances as much as possible.
This is also used for reference by many later science fiction movies.
For example, in “Cargo”, the protagonist, who has been in a steel prison for a long time, walks, sits, sits and has a stiff knot, and only the turning eyeballs still have a trace of popularity.
When humans fight against artificial intelligence, the first thing that comes to mind is to cut off energy.
David Bowman came to the center of HAL 9000 through an emergency airtight cabin. HAL 9000 actually begged for mercy like a dying man and sang to him.
As a result, an artificial intelligence that is more human-like than humans is officially fixed in the history of film.
Previously, most people believed that computers were just machines that acted on the command line, and their complexity was only reflected in the difficulty of their work.
People cannot and never imagined that they can also develop self-awareness.
At the same time, computer-generated speech has also become an essential element for later films to create a sense of science and technology.
The synthesized voice created by Bell Speech Laboratory was introduced into the design concept of HAL 9000.
When HAL 9000 was about to be demolished, it sang “Little Daisy”, which was also the first song created by computer-synthesized speech.
Chapter Three “Jupiter and Beyond Infinity”.
HAL 9000 died down completely, and the pilot found himself at the mission destination.
The black stele appeared again, leading the pilot through the time and space tunnel full of strange colors.
This channel that can draw people beyond infinity can now be easily achieved with computer special effects.
And 50 years ago, there were no special effects available, and the difficulty can be imagined.
Kubrick found two animators in Canada, and the space documentary they produced attracted Kubrick’s attention.
So, Douglas Trumbull, who was only 23 years old, became the special effects director of the film.
They originally planned to only stay on the set for the first half of the year, but in the end they stayed for 3 years.
The famous tunnel scene in the film comes from Douglas Trumbull, and its scientific name is “Slit Scan”.
Since then, the special effects director won an Oscar with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and “Blade Runner”.
Even 50 years later, in the movie “The Tree of Life” starring Brad Pitt, he used the same method to create a visual landscape.
The pilot who passed through the tunnel found himself in a room that was clearly handed by people on earth.
Immediately, he grew old like a child with Progeria. When he was dying, the black stele reappeared.
The pilot who wanted to reach out and touch him suddenly transformed into a fetus.
Kubrick made a special trip to consult with astrophysicist Carl Edward Sagan.
The other party believes that depicting aliens in human images is out of anthropocentric arrogance and wishful thinking.
Kubrick accepted his suggestion and only hinted at the existence of aliens in the plot, but never showed it in detail.
So there is the final lens, human beings face the real extraterrestrial civilization, just as we build monkey mountains for monkeys in the zoo to make them feel safe.
The same goes for the series of illusions experienced by pilots.
Against the background of the final movement, I wonder if it can be called a human foetus, watching the universe and the audience in front of the screen, speechless for a long time.
Kubrick, who has always refused to explain himself, has never given any clear indication of the ending.
“2001: A Space Odyssey”, an epoch-making and expensive spectacle, brings the theme of science fiction works back to the stars and gives a specific picture of space travel and the future.
But also because of its mysticism and obscure philosophies, “2001: A Space Odyssey” has become an isolated monument, which is admired by future generations and is difficult to surpass.
Such an unknown plot also made “2001: A Space Odyssey” controversial on the first day of its release.
Film critics denounced it as a lullaby full of false Taoism and lengthy and out of control, and even the film’s fame depends on the hippies who cheered the leaves.
But it didn’t take long for the value of “2001: A Space Odyssey” to be recognized.
The most powerful voice praised “2001: A Space Odyssey” so that the carrier of film is finally qualified to stand on the same level as the predecessors of literature, drama, etc., to discuss any profoundness and the future.
We can say that the appearance of “2001 A Space Odyssey” directly created a batch of box office miracles such as “Star Wars” in the future.
Even if it is debated whether “Star Wars” is a science fiction to a blushing neck, there is no denying the significance of its appearance.
It is its huge box office potential that has won the attention of Hollywood and has led to the emergence of a large number of works.
It allowed sci-fi movies to grow into today’s towering trees after experiencing the subsequent “contending of a hundred schools of thought”.
If the previous Hollywood was a kind of assembly line to provide predictable pleasure, it was pieced together with a large number of action scenes and repeated use of sci-fi elements.
So 50 years ago, “2001 A Space Odyssey”, which was born out of the sky, was a deliberately designed super sensory experience.
“2001: A Space Odyssey” broke through all the traditional narrative frameworks, refuted the limited cognition of human beings mercilessly, and projected poetry and depth into the future.
Unfortunately, even though some people still look up at the starry sky, no one dares to take risks anymore.
