{"id":686,"date":"2018-07-30T11:14:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T16:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/?p=686"},"modified":"2018-07-30T11:14:00","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T16:14:00","slug":"2001-a-space-odyssey-and-a-clockwork-orange-kubrick-at-his-apex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/academics.winona.edu\/povwinona\/2001-a-space-odyssey-and-a-clockwork-orange-kubrick-at-his-apex\/","title":{"rendered":"2001 A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange: Kubrick at His Apex"},"content":{"rendered":"

2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em> (1968)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just as he had obsessed over the potential for nuclear war and self-destruction by the human race, Kubrick similarly\u00a0became interested in the prospect of extra-terrestrial life.\u00a0 After reading everything he could on the subject, he decided to pair with acclaimed science-fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke and adapt a film from his short story “The Sentinel.”\u00a0 While sci-fi films had had some popularity in the 1950s, often weaving Red Scare xenophobia into their plots and themes, a true masterpiece about space and space travel had yet to be made, and special effects technologies were still too rudimentary to adapt many stories to screen.\u00a0 But Stanley Kubrick’s meticulous production control was about to change all of that with what would become the apex of his career–and for some, of all of cinema: the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With 2001<\/em>, Stanley Kubrick crafted one of the most important landmark films in cinematic history.\u00a0 Its reputation and respect in the film community is well-known. Steven Spielberg said \u201cThe way the story is told is antithetical to the way we were accustomed\u00a0to seeing stories.”\u00a0 Alfonso\u00a0Cuar\u00f3n called Kubrick’s work that of “someone who was very concerned with the language of\u00a0cinema.” And Claire Denis spoke of the film’s unique approach to science fiction: “You knew it took place in space, but I didn\u2019t expect that kind of strange reflection on humanity.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The screenplay for\u00a02001: A Space Odyssey<\/em> would consist of four segments, all connected together by the mysterious “monolith” which drives the human race into an evolutionary tumble.\u00a0The opening segment begins with a grand shot of the Earth, Moon, and Sun in perfect alignment. Kubrick’s precise and exact framing is established from the start and his use of classical music revolutionary. Next, the “Dawn of Man” segment shows “man-apes” from four million years ago, struggling to survive and evolve among other predators and ape groups.<\/p>\n

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The first monolith inspires the “Dawn of Man”, in perfect symmetry<\/p><\/div>\n

When the presence of the monolith placed in front of them by some unknown being introduces the idea of use a bone as a tool, the man-ape takes its place on top of the food chain, and the evolutionary process to what we know now begins.\u00a0 What is also discovered is man’s affinity for violence and death with said tools, and, as a consequence, the urge that would re-occur and plague society its entire existence.\u00a0 With the tumble in the air of a bone, Kubrick match cuts it with a satellite orbiting Earth, an advancement in storyline millions of years, and\u00a0one of the boldest match cuts in film history.<\/a><\/p>\n

With more than a half hour of the film already passed, Kubrick\u00a0 shows the physics of space and space travel, as in the prior scene without dialogue.\u00a0 A Pan-American spaceplane carries Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) to the Space Station 5 for his mission to discover a monolith buried on the moon.\u00a0 The sequence is deliberately slow, with the mechanics of each shot and frame display a poetic feel of imagery.\u00a0 Space crafts float through the frame with The Blue Danube<\/a>\u00a0hypnotizing the audience.\u00a0 Long takes show the flight attendants carrying items throughout the space plane in centrifugal long shots.<\/p>\n

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Kubrick’s cinematography and set design at its most distinctive<\/p><\/div>\n

Half of the film’s dialogue is presented in this next sequence, as Dr. Floyd engages in small talk with the Soviets about his mission and his briefing to his crew about their upcoming visit to the monolith on the moon.\u00a0 When they finally arrive, the location is desolate and eerie, with large panels of light flooding the screen and the slow motion walk of the scientists accompanied by the morbid music of Requiem for a Soprano<\/a>, the leitmotif for the monolith in the film.\u00a0 After the scientists touch the moon monolith, a high-pitched frequency is emitted from it and the scientists fail to stop it.<\/p>\n

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The 2nd monolith discovered on the moon shows Kubrick’s elaborate set design<\/p><\/div>\n

The film abruptly enters its third act, set 18 months later on a mission to Jupiter (which we will later learn was where the moon monolith was sending the humans to the Jupiter monolith).\u00a0 On the space craft\u00a0Discovery<\/em>, Kubrick again slowly and deliberately shows the daily routines of scientists Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood).\u00a0 Kubrick uses elegant cinematography to show their mundane daily tasks, using a tracking shot to follow Frank as he circles around the exercise room of the space craft.<\/p>\n