2001 Space Odyssey Notes

• 1969: era of civil rights movement 

• War in vietnam 

• People watching the movie were high on hallucinogens 

• Tone of movie is set in the beginning with black screen and musical backgrounds 

• Cinematography in the beginning scene is incredible, orange sun rising over the moon  

• Beginning clips remind me of the Lion King desert with the bright red/orange sunrise and  landscape- Africa 

• No computers 

• Africa landscape and desert-apes, lions, zebras, leopards 

• Apes growling, did not want to share, jumping, all about survival in the desert

• Young dancers played the apes 

• Shows the evolution of humans-aliens progressing into life on earth, apes evolving into human, humans evolving into star children 

• Gyorgy Ligeti music is of importance 

• Music that appears in more recent films, music of evolution? 

• Suggesting that something big is about to happen-short and sharp crescendo 

• Apes tearing and gnawing flesh and bones 

• Most famous transition in film 

• Tool-bone in Africa becomes another tool- satellite spacecraft

• The bone is symbolic of humanity's tools and our development of technology

• Common theme of evolution

• Voiceprint Identification 

• Furniture in 1969 extremely futuristic

• Providing artificial gravity 

• Video call Heywood and daughter on spacecraft

• Future of facetime 

• Cost of $1.70

• Exchange of Russians and 

• Heywood Floyd on his way to Clavius 

• Dr. Smyslov wanted him to check out the epidemic on Clavius 

• Artificial intelligence machine- Hal

• Connection to IBM, letters that come after H, A, and L 

• Metropolis- Hel

• Hal stands for "Heuristically programmed Algorithmic computer."

• Heuristic and algorithmic are 2 primary processes of intelligence 

• Hal represents evolution of technology 

• Hal’s crisis caused by a programming contradiction 

• Hal murdered a human

• Douglas Rain- the voice of Hal 9000

• Eerie and precise voice representing a robot 

• What if we replaced Hal 9000’s voice with Siri? How would it affect the movie? Would it?

• Response to Dave when he can’t answer a question: “I am sorry Dave. I cannot do that.” 

• Siri’s response in comparison: “i’m afraid I can’t answer that”

• Hal will not allow Dave to disconnect

• Hal can read lips 

• Hal’s gender: male  

• Star gate sequence  

• Filmed using slit-scan photography 

• Filmed paints and chemicals moving in a pool 

• Dave going into the brain of Hal 

• Stop Dave, will you stop Dave, I can feel it

• Repeated phrases by Hal 

• Hal’s song Daisy 

• Reminds me of a slow-motion horror movie song