No narration at all, in the entire film. Kubrick paints visuals for us to interpret. I saw the film the first time when I was maybe 12, 13. I could understand what was happening with the apes, without dialogue. The Monolith appears to one tribe, they become more intelligent and also more savage - an irony Kubrick is fond of. Evolution is Darwinism; survival of the fittest. Exact parallel late in the film, with the battle between HAL and Dave Bowman.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
Watched it again on my new Widescreen HDTV. Colours and detail are outstanding for a 38-year old film. Until we get more advanced space travel, this will never look dated, other than a few costumes.
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
I was hoping to find a forum on this. I'm enjoying lots of your perspectives on it. I love this movie and I think it may be the greatest movie of all time!!!!
Man........... this is the most subtle movie ever. I can't believe you guys are saying this is boring. Instead of Hollywood cliches, this movie is totally up for interpretation, and there is so much symoblism. The whole premise of the movie is out of control, too. This movie was completely ahead of it's time, and if it was made now, would still be decades ahead of it's time. What an unbelievable triumph. If the movie seemed hard to follow, you should watch it again. I think it's the greatest movie of all time!!!!
P.S. If anyone has any questions about what this or that meant, send me a private message and I'll be more than happy to take you through it. I know the film can be intimidating to comprehend.
Gender: Male Location: Sailing the seas of cheese.
One of my fav all time films! I don't know how many times I've watched this film. I do admit though, I still get a bit confused when that giant unborn fetus appears, floating in space.
It's arguably the best film of all time, the run time flew by for me. The visuals are fantastic, even for our day in age. I've seen a lot of Kubrick films, this being my favorite. My favorite scene was the one done in technicolor, amazing!
Personally, I thought the ending's meaning was pretty obvious. But I could see how one would disagree.
So what happend was, the monolith saved humanity. It saved humanity by practically forcing mankind to use it's best technology ie (hal3000) to go to the most challenging place yet. So they go to the place, and the monolith knows that the HAL3000 will turn on them "malfunction". By defeating the HAL3000 mankind has basically defeated human stupidity, thus meaning that it will become a new generation of super intelligence and will not endanger itself again. in conclusion, we will become a level 3 society and able to survive anything that is perceived as a possible threat. At the last ten minutes of the film, the man aged whilst time-travelling to get to his destination and all the characters you see are the same man getting older untill he dies in that bed. then, the monolith< >(alien species/technology) was able to rebirth him, so that he was young enough to time travel back to where he was before he first time travelled. Then he was his normal age again and able to travel back home. If you really think about it, there are a number of ways the man could have gone home. Overall it is a real eye opener of a film and if everyone wasn't so damn ignorant and really took heed of what it means, then we would have no need for such an incident as what happend in the film to happen. basically what I am trying to say is, THIS FILM IS A WARNING FOR US TO GET OUR ACT TOGETHER NOW! And stop; religions, war, greed etc etc. We can do it, but sad to say I don't think we humans will because there are to many idiotic humans in this universe. If you believe in the multiverse theory, then maybe I can cheer you up if you are still following me.......there is a guaranteed parallel universe out there where we are lucky enough to have realised the error of our ways. I personally think in this universe it is too late for us, we have come so far but still we have not grown out of stupidity. Now we are doomed.
I just got back from seeing it in the theatre.
Doesn't matter that I've owned the DVD for several years (and the widescreen VHS before that.) This was a restored 35 mm print that has made the rounds of theatres up here for several years. I've never seen a good quality print in the theatres - before this, it was a 16 mm pan-and-scan projection at college, and an old, inferior print at an old theatre in 1994.
It's amazing to be with an audience so rapt with attention. So many scenes with perfect silence in space, and no one talks or moves. And I could feel myself getting wide during the stargate corridor sequence - I just gave myself over to it, as the theatre rumbled with the soundtrack!
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"I'm not smart so much as I am not dumb." - Harlan Ellison
KMC Community Forums
Feb 7th, 2006 11:52 AM
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hmmm....
