Space Odyssey Notes

Below are my Space Odyssey notes. I'm not the best note taker during movies, because I find it distracts me from actually watching the movie and then I end up missing parts. Instead of typing what was happening, I tried to document the parts of the movie that seemed important and had symbolic representation.


NOTES: 

  • End of the 1960s, beginning of the 1970s

  • ppl were high on hallucinogens

  • Apes and cheetahs brutally fighting 

  • Very graphic and violent 

  • Not sure if there is symbolism behind who is the cheetah and who is the ape (coming back after watching the movie, maybe a symbol of the fight between humans and technology?)

  • Apes start making noise at the mysterious man made sculpture that appears

  • Rectangular in shape 

  • Apes start attacking each other and fighting over the resources

  • Fighting with bones of other animals

  • Pans to a spaceship with facial and voice recognition

  • Fully automated with everything controlled by technology

  • Americans are meeting with Russians in space in the middle of the cold war

  • Everyone at the meeting is a white male except for a single white woman


HAL- ‘ It's always humans… always done to human error’


“No case of an insignificant human error?”

“I wouldn’t worry myself about that”

“I’m sure you're right Hal”


Brown haired guy has a ‘bad feeling about him’… 


“If he were malfunctioning, I’d see no other choice but disconnection…” 

“We’d have to cut his brain functions and figure out the mission under ground-based computer control”


HAL is reading their lips


When he was falling/dying in space, complete silence versus guy in pod with machines whirring (comparison between silence and noise of machines)

Long fall? Kept panning back? A reference to the pace in which technology will take over, slowly but steadily 


‘Computer malfunction’ stress and beeping of that versus silence when camera pans on red circle of HAL

‘Life functions terminated’


HAL is first killing machine in history -teacher said that 

Lens is symbol of surveillance 



“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”

I knew you and frank were planning to disconnect me and im afraid thats something I can’t allow to happen”

“I could see your lips move…”



Human is stuck and helpless, machine still whirring 


The noise of him trying to get back into the pod was loud, but the silence was deafening 



He’s inside the brain of HAL

HAL is trying to say his work will be of quality, and asks Dave repeatedly to stop

A machine saying “I’m afraid, Dave”

Red signifies danger, surrounded by red while trying to turn off HAL

Pre recorded message praises HAL and says he contains information no other being knows; foreshadowing


Pretty frightening to watch on a screen in a classroom in front of my computer at 8am, so couldn’t imagine what it would have been like watching manipulating technology in a theatre in the 70am

Didnt know what i was looking at sometimes, but still scary and impressive visuals 

Just random shapes and clouds but has such a dark and omniscient tone 

Smoke at the end resembles the nothingness of the little red dot from HAL



BLINKING OF THE HUMAN EYE VS STILLNESS OF RED DOT when he's flying through the sky at the end of the movie

Blinking shows sign of life 

The Colours at the end were fascinating.. I know less than nothing about cinematography, but this is the first movie i’ve watched where the visuals were my favourite part

Still confusing, but i think that’s the whole point and the colour adds to the distortion you're supposed to be feeling alongside Dave



Babies eye at the end is similar to eye of hal

Moon at the end also resembles eye of HAL looking down on earth, irony that planet


Didnt realize how many classic songs and soundtracks from cinema first came from this movie

 

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