2001

I went and saw 2001: a Space Odyssey on imax for the second time yesterday! I went to the early showing. It was phenomenal once again! Maybe even better since I'd just seen it and had things to look for. I also got a seat three rows forward and screen-distance was OPTIMAL! I was super-immersed! Talking with Mary Beth about it later, she wanted me to share some of my thoughts, as pertain to the use of color and the spacesuits especially. So basically it's just identifying Hal and control more generally with the color red. Of course Hal's "eye" is red and the room that serves as his brain is all red. And whenever there's a cockpit/control room, the lighting is red. Okay, so David Bowman's suit is the one that's red. You generally get the impression that Dave is the somewhat closest to Hal of the astronauts (also Dave is the commander) and the color generally aligns him with Hal (and relative role of control in the mission...and Hal being even moreso in control). Beyond color, this is pretty visually explicit in the way the suit is hung right behind Hal's terminal in the pod bay. It is very visually striking the way it is framed very deliberately in many shots, it almost seems to blend together with Hal. Then of course, he forgets his helmet when he goes to retrieve Frank. After he's able to make it into the emergency airlock he gets a helmet that's green. This separation of color (while of course just being visually striking, also I don't have a grasp on green specifically if there's anything beyond its being not-red...actually now that I think about it, it's the color opposite of red...dude! that definitely strengthens my opinions!...Mary Beth and I also talked a little about the stargate scenes with the alien landscapes with unnatural colors and how the two colors in each palate are generally opposite or close to it...definitely highly contrasting and often clashing)...my parenthetical clause took up so much space I'm starting that thought over...This separation of color highlight Dave's mental separation from Hal now that he's on his way to disconnect him. Now that he's been through what he has, he's definitely not of the same "head" as Hal. And he goes right to Hal's head to disconnect it, and that's the reddest thing in the movie. Another thing I'll throw in while I'm at it is the chess motif. Frank and Hal, of course, play chess early in their chapter. Then when Hal kills Frank, I noticed this time how much it all feels like a chess move. The white pod is strikingly reminiscent of a chess piece. The way it moves in a direct line feels like a chess move, knocking Frank off the "board." And just the way, as in chess, he seems like he's plotting a few moves ahead (his confidence in his abilities in the controlled space of the chessboard leading to his ultimate hubris...). Fuck it, some more stuff. I've started let's get them thoughts flowing. I wanted to try to make sense of the movie in relation to Homer's Odyssey, given that the word's in the damn title and it doesn't seem super-obvious straight away. Hal's single eye being an obvious link to the cyclops was my starting point. I didn't get a whole lot further, but I read some thoughts about that online and then got a few more of my own. Basically, in Homer and in Greek mythology in general, nothing really happens without the gods intervening. Hence, the monoliths (/aliens) serve as the Greek gods intervening and prompting things to happen to humanity. People pointed out "Bowman" relating to Odysseus being an archer. Though thinking about it, in many ways that relationship gets flipped and Hal is the most like Odysseus in many ways. He's the one truly in charge of everything in their voyage. He's the most cunning member of the crew and this leads to his hubris in making bad decisions that get members of his crew killed (which could have been avoided, though in some ways he's akin to the cyclops as he's the one actually killing them). One last thing, I think, about Hal. I've long noted (since the first time I watched the movie, I mean, it's pretty obvious and right out in front) that he movie depicts man's "progress" and the event that man actually becoming man, is discovering and using violence and weapons. The single defining characteristic of humanity being the creation of weapons and killing with these weapons. There's also many motifs about children and innocence throughout the movie and I'm not going to go deep into that. But as it relates to Hal, he's relatively young and innocent in the beginning of the film. And people talk about his emotions, whether he actually has them or just seems to. In some ways, he kind of has a reverse "evolution" ("de-evolution"? am I going to have to cite Devo here?) into humanity. He starts off super-human. He never makes mistakes and all that. But he's young and innocent and "grows" and becomes "truly" human by shattering that innocence and murdering and the accompanying mistakes he makes. Then he's human and comes the accompanying doubt and fear. Anyway, these are just some of the newer thoughts I've had with this movie, to mostly bypass the ones I've had for years and all that. But yeah, seeing it again (again) was magnificent! I probably wouldn't have set any of that down, so thanks for the prod, Mary Beth. What else? Last night I practiced a little more for my show tonight! (Actually it's coming up pretty soon, dang!) Then it's back to work today and well, I should finish gathering up for the show now.