One of my favorite films.
I just like the way that it plays out like a jigsaw puzzle that the viewer has to put together. Nearly every time I watch it I discover something new.
a few examples-
Man is chosen as a viable candidate for a dominant species and is granted the ability to further his evolutionary journey for survival by an advanced race.
THe monolith doesnt actually teach prehistoric man exclusively how to create a weapon from a bone, but rather it remooves the blinders from man to free his creative thinking process.
Eventually man reaches, what he believes is his evolutionary apex, and no longer feels the urge to further his progress. He now relies on his machines more as a means of convenience rather than a means to further his evolution.
in the beginning of the film prehistoric man gained the means to discover tools. The one clan that had tools had the upper hand over the clan without tools. THe same principal plays out later in the film when we see Floyd keeping this knowledge of the mooin monolith from the other countries of the world.
When the monolith on the moon is discovered it sends a beacon to that signals man has reached the appropriate evolutionary point (space travel) and is ready for the next step.
The monolith now spurs man on his next evolutionary step which requires him to journey further than he ever has before.
During the trip, it's once again pointed out that he has become too reliant on his tools.
We see hints that HAL, one of man's inventions, is trying to become more human and take his own evolutionary steps. Hal tries to understand the meaning of art and creative thinking by asking Dave about the illustrations he is creating on board the Discovery. THis is the one human trait that HAL does not have, which would aid him on his next evolutionary step.
Dave is so complacent that Hal doesnt even really need beat dave at chess. He merely tells dave that he will win in X amount of moves. Dave assumes HAL is virtually perfect (once again, a misconception of mans supposedly "superiorority" and evolutionary apex) and doesnt even bother to question whether HAL would really win or not. Dave simply assumes HAL is flawless and gives up.
Later in the trip, just like prehistoric man, Dave must once again rely on his creative thinking (not on his tools) to best Hal and ensure his survival.
Im still not sure whether the malfunction of the antenna was caused by the monolith as a final test to see if man still had that creative trait and worthy to take the next evolutionary step, or if it was simply a natural occurance.
Im guessing a random detail like this wouldn't be in Kubricks film if it wasnt intentional though.
Once dave deactivates HAL and ensures his survival and his motivation to evolve even further, Kubrick then takes it upon himself to imaging what that next evolutionary step for man might be.
Kubrick and Clarkes idea is that man now evolves into a being that somehow does not conform to the laws of spacetime. He ages but yet does not age, he exists in a vacuum where time and space do not effect his mortality.
Quite a leap from simple technology to a being whos inherent natural traits can circumvent that laws of physics, but I guess it opens up the question, what is next for man.
I could go into pages of other small details that are hidden in the film but theres no real pinpoint way to explain why I like it so much.
I can say that I like the film so much that I recently made an ilustration inspired by 2001 -
