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A Space Odyssey 2001: A Space Odyssey Peter Krämer BFI Film Classics The BFI Film Classics is a series of books that introduces, interprets and celebrates landmarks of world cinema. Each volume offers an argument for the film’s ‘classic’ status, together with discussion of its production and reception history, its place within a genre or national cinema, an account of its technical and aesthetic importance, and in many cases, the author’s personal response to the film. For a full list of titles available in the series, please visit our website: <www.palgrave.com/bfi> ‘Magnificently concentrated examples of flowing freeform critical poetry.’ Uncut ‘A formidable body of work collectively generating some fascinating insights into the evolution of cinema.’ Times Higher Education Supplement ‘The series is a landmark in film criticism.’ Quarterly Review of Film and Video Editorial Advisory Board Geoff Andrew, British Film Institute Laura Mulvey, Birkbeck College, Edward Buscombe University of London W illiam P. Germano, The Cooper Union for Alastair Phillips , University of Warwick the Advancement of Science and Art Dana Polan, New York University Lalitha Gopalan, University of Texas at B. Ruby Rich, University of California, Austin Santa Cruz Lee Grieveson, University College London Amy Villarejo, Cornell University Nick James, Editor, Sight & Sound Zhen Zhang, New York University This page intentionally left blank 2001: A Space Odyssey Peter Krämer A BFI book published by Palgrave Macmillan © Peter Krämer 2010 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN on behalf of the BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE 21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN www.bfi.org.uk There’s more to discover about film and television through the BFI. Our world-renowned archive, cinemas, festivals, films, publications and learning resources are here to inspire you. Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. Series cover design: Ashley Western Series text design: ketchup/SE14 Images from 2001: A Space Odyssey, © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Dr Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, © Hawk Films; Spartacus, © Universal Pictures Company/Bryna Productions; How the West Was Won, © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/© Cinerama; 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, © Walt Disney Productions; Gone with the Wind, © Selznick International Pictures; Planet of the Apes, © Apjac Productions/20th Century-Fox Film Corporation; Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Columbia Pictures Corporation; Star Wars, Lucasfilm Ltd/20th Century-Fox Film Corporation; Avatar, © 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation/© Dune Entertainment III LLC; 2010, © MGM/UA Entertainment Set by Cambrian Typesetters, Camberley, Surrey Printed in China This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 ISBN 978–1–84457–286–1 Contents Introduction 7 1 The Novel 13 2 Origins 18 3 Development 24 4 Trends 32 5 Transformation 41 6 The Film 55 7 Impact 86 8 Influence 94 Conclusion 99 Acknowledgments 104 Notes 105 Credits 115 6 BFI FILM CLASSICS 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 7 Introduction In the final images of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a very old man raises his arm to point at a black rectangular slab in front of his bed. The next moment he is gone, and instead a giant foetus with wide- open eyes hovers in a luminous, transparent bubble above the bed. There is music, and the camera moves towards the black monolith and through it into the blackness of space. The Moon can be seen and then also the Earth. The foetus floats towards the Earth before it turns around to look at – us. Image and music fade out to leave us in total darkness and silence. Thus ends a story which has moved from the origins of humanity millions of years ago to the exploration of space in the twenty-first century, tracing the transformative impact of several monoliths – appearing on Earth, on the Moon, near Jupiter and in front of that very old man – on pre-human, ape-like creatures and on human beings. From the first moment it was presented to the public in spring 1968, the film has generated a passionate debate about its qualities and meanings among regular cinemagoers and professional critics.1 Many people sent letters to Kubrick to tell him about their responses to 2001, most of them regarding the film – in particular its ending – as an optimistic statement about humanity, which is seen to be born and reborn.2 The film’s reviewers and academic critics, by contrast, have tended to understand the film as a pessimistic account of human nature and humanity’s future.3 The most extreme of these interpretations state that the foetus floating above Earth will destroy it.4 This understanding is derived from a particular interpretation of the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was published a few months after the film’s release. Both the novel and the film are the result of an unusual collaboration between the film-maker Stanley Kubrick and the 8 BFI FILM CLASSICS science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke that started with a letter Kubrick sent to Clarke in March 1964. Together they wrote the film’s story in the form of a long, novelistic treatment, which they then developed into a screenplay for a big-budget movie and also into a bestselling novel published under Clarke’s name. The novel offers explanations for many of the film’s mysteries, but also raises new questions about the intentions of the extra-terrestrial beings behind the monoliths and of the foetus they create at the end. The fact that the novel closes with the foetus exploding nuclear weapons in Earth’s orbit allowed for a deeply pessimistic reading of the story, which was not, however, what Clarke and Kubrick intended. Thus, when, in July 1968, the science writer Jeremy Bernstein, who had been one of the film’s greatest supporters, sent the page proofs of his book review to Kubrick, it contained the claim that Clarke’s novel ‘comes to a Strangelovian close’ as the foetus ‘watches over the nuclear destruction of the Earth’.5 This refers to Kubrick’s previous film, the nuclear comedy Dr Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), which ends with the explosion of a nuclear ‘doomsday device’ that will destroy all life on the Earth’s surface. Kubrick left a note on Bernstein’s proofs: ‘The book does not end with the destruction of the earth.’ Kubrick pointed out that the foetus destroys nuclear weapons, not humanity. In his 1972 book about the writing of 2001, Clarke commented: Many readers have interpreted the final paragraph to mean that he [the foetus] destroyed Earth, perhaps in order to create a new Heaven. This idea never occurred to me; it seems clear that he triggered the orbiting nuclear bombs harmlessly … But now, I am not so sure … We have wasted and defiled … the beautiful planet Earth. Why should we expect any mercy from a returning Star Child?6 Clarke’s comment is clearly informed by the environmental movement gathering momentum in the early 1970s, and it thus indicates how open his novel is to divergent interpretations arising 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY 9 from changing historical circumstances. This applies even more to the film, which is constructed with little regard for the conventions of Hollywood storytelling. Instead of following the actions of a single protagonist or group of protagonists, pursuing a well-defined set of goals, the film tells three different stories, each with its own protagonist(s) whose goals are not always obvious: ape-like creatures – or hominids – who are difficult to tell apart from each other and whose behaviour can therefore be puzzling; a scientist travelling to the Moon, whose motives for doing so are revealed only at the end of his journey; two astronauts on a spaceship to Jupiter, one of whom goes on a further, utterly mysterious journey after reaching the planet. Instead of outlining clearly how one thing leads to another, 2001 breaks down the cause-and-effect chain of events, both at the level of the film as a whole – it is, for example, difficult to determine how its three stories are connected to each other – and at the level of individual scenes, such as the ending.
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