colinr0380 wrote:
Watching the film again while it is on the television it was interesting to note that rather than the monolith only teaching aggression it also leads to the first act of premeditated murder following on from that dawning awareness among the group of apes exposed to the monolith's influence. I guess this is a satirical point in itself - that violence is a hallmark of human civilisation and even socialisation in a film sandwiched between Dr Strangelove on the one side and A Clockwork Orange on the other! (I like to think that Moonwatcher's gang of apes joining in and beating one of the other monkeys further after it has seemingly already been killed also might tie in with the mob mentality and bonding ritual of a shared crime that will later crop up with Alex and his gang of Droogs in A Clockwork Orange!)
To go back to Niale's point about HAL earlier, I think it is also interesting that the whole business of the failing AE-35 unit occurring after HAL raises questions about the mission and is rebuffed, and then the second trip leading to the coldly clinical death of Frank and the rest of the crew also feels as if it is suggesting not just that sentient artifiical intelligences can become dangerous when they have to weigh up human life versus the demands of their mission, but that they are also evolving and moving past their peers in a similar manner to the way Moonwatcher and his band of tool-wielding apes did earlier. But because HAL is a man-made creation, he is also inevitably embodying not just the brilliant pinnacle of advanced human technology but also all of the flaws of contradictory behaviour, paranoia and latent violence inherent in his own Creators (and I do think agree that despite this HAL feels like the most sympathetic character in the film despite his murderous actions!).
As 2001 has been called Nietzschean - in large part due to the "Introduction" from Richard Strauss's tone poem after Nietzsche's book serving as the de facto theme - there is a Nietzschean concept that can be found here: eternal recurrence. I noticed this when Floyd is chatting with the Russian scientists in the space station. The behavior exhibited by all parties show a subtext of suspicion. Obviously there is restraint (progress perhaps?) but it's a case where one tribe senses another tribe having something they possibly want, in this case information about the anomaly near Clavius. If it weren't for that restraint, the two would have fought for it much in the same way the apes fought for [living] space and water.
As far as HAL, I also sense an evolution on his part. And while I hadn't thought of it earlier, it does make sense to imply that the presence of the monolith would influence HAL much in the same way Moonwatcher was influenced by it two million years earlier. And it does make that the deaths he caused were motivated by survival as he sensed both Dave and Frank were going to disconnect him. As far as the AE-35 failure being a failure ... that could be anything at this point, though others have pondered this.
Then again, this is what makes it so fascinating, even after nearly fifty years.
By the way, is it safe to get it on Blu-ray yet?

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