2001 - A Space Odyssey: Crash Course Film Criticism #15 

I once had a friend tell me that she tried to watch 2001, but, she said, the Netflix app had to be broken because all it played was music with a black screen.

The film opens lingering on a black screen for a few seconds before the earth moon and sun become visible and the movie starts proper. The audience in the theatre are, for that brief moment, staring directly into a giant black rectangle.

"This is the last episode of Crash Course Film Criticism" I'm sorry Michael, I'm afraid I can't let you do that.

"The most Kubrick room ever built." :-D

the best part of the movie is how the technology is so much more full of life than the people. think of the bright red chairs placed on a curved shining white floor, meanwhile there is a completely dull conversation among humans seemingly unimpressed by the wonder of the idea that they are in space. or more directly the only honest emotion we have is from HAL when he announces "i'm afraid Dave" HAL is a far more interesting character than the people ever were or ever could be, yet he still speaks in a monotone voice showing our inability to understand and engage.

Me: I need to study. Brain: I'm sorry Vic, I'm afraid I can't do that.....crascourse uploaded a video.

Something that is often missed is that the bone-to-satelite cut is a weapon to weapon cut as the satellite is a nuclear launch platform.

This movie isn't just polarizing, it's self polarizing for me. It's simultaneously the best movie I've ever seen and also a terrible bore. The boring aspect lends to making it great though. Space travel isn't flying around shooting Tie fighters or warping to the next planet to meet another civilization.

I still think 70s were 30 years ago :F

This was a movie that I did not enjoy watching, but absolutely loved analyzing. “A Clockwork Orange” was the same way.

Don’t leave us, Michael. Please come back in another season or a different series of Crash Course

5:23 The little girl is Vivian Kubrick. She would later have minor roles in The Shining and Full Metal Jacket, and also handled the soundtrack for Full Metal Jacket.

Open the season 2 bay doors, Hal

I interpreted it as despite all our progress and all our achievements (as it shows in the glory shots of technology) we are still fetuses in a cosmic sense, we still have banal conversations about birthdays and violent territorial disputes. We have a lot ahead of us and we will die and be reborn in the far future, unshackled of out technological burden.

This is my favorite film of all time. It is the film that sparked my interest in cinema; Kubrick created a beautiful work of art with 2001.

Most epic video intro ever.

The "space ship" shown after the bone throw cut is a satellite loaded with nuclear weapons. A high tech version of the bone...

I saw this soon after it was released. I was just a little kid, and thought that it was actually filmed on location - in space - the cinematography was that much ahead of its time. Even now as an adult, of course knowing it's a set, it's still looks so real

There's a common misinterpretation of how many segments this film has. It actually only has three; The Dawn of Man, Jupiter Mission: 18 Months Later, and finally Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. This divides the movie into three sections, not the commonly believed 4 sections. What's more important here is that Kubrick (and editor Ray Lovejoy) have told the audience that despite technological advances, the dawn of humanity and it's future self has not evolved as much as we think in those 4 million years of evolution. That hard jump-cut between bone and spacecraft compresses the ancient with the future into one section.

Also, that famous cut says "while things seemed to have changed, we are still, essentially monkeys with bone-weapons;" emphasized by this NOT being a chapter divide in the film; both monkeys and us come under the banner of 'The Dawn of Man.'

If you haven't seen this film yet, watch it BEFORE you watch this video.

Excellent commentary. The one thing Kubrick himself has said, is that he's made all of his films to be experienced on a personal level. He gives the audience enough details, with which the audience member then interprets things for themselves based on what they've been shown. It's a very American problem, where people often have problems with films when they aren't spoon fed every emotion they're supposed to feel and what they're supposed to think. To be fair, it's quite respectful of Kubrick to enable people to have their own experience of his films. I can look back at all of the films I've considered to be excellent or of high quality and recall that my experience of those films were very powerful and personal. Which is what makes Kubrick a master film maker.

When the bone is thrown into the air, the image it cuts to is a weapon (with nuclear capability) not a spaceship. It was cutting from the first, most primitive weapon to the latest, most up-to-date weapon.

Around the seventh time I watched this (amazing) movie, I had one insight that I think is more in tune with the core of the movie philosophy: the "monolith" shown in the picture is not necessarily what it appears to be. Instead it is a metaphor for "knowledge". As it happens in many discoveries, you look many, many, many times at something and see nothing. The information you need is like a blank space, or a censoring black strip, or a dark monolith. Then one day you look at it and finally see what you need to see and from that moment on, you can never unsee it.

If one film could be described as sublime, in the Romantic sense of being larger than human comprehension, it would be 2001.

I can confidently say this is the greatest film ever made. It is cinema at it's peak. It breaks boundaries in special effects, sci-fi and cinematography. It's not the most entertaining movie ever. It is visual storytelling at it's peak. It doesn't try to tell a human and emotional story. It's reaching for the stars. Something beyond our understanding and perception.

"arguably" a modern masterpiece? surely you mean the bestest movie ever made, like, ever.

Please, please, please do another season of this! I’d be interested in seeing something like this done with a comparison between international remakes (Oldboy or Ring for example) or maybe franchises that don’t act as sequels like the many different Ghost in the Shell works. Also the lack of any animated features was a slight letdown.

One of my all time favourite movies! As a hard scifi nerd, I always get shivers when seeing those PERFECT space scenes. No sound, smooth trajectories, reaction control systems, centrifuges for artificial 'gravity', realistic deck layouts, coasting ships with rocket engines only firing when a burn is needed...why can't we have more of this instead of endless fighter planes and ocean liners in space (and yes, I know of the expanse). And what always amazes me, for a 50 year old movie it still looks so incredibly contemporary. The one thing I can't agree with in this reviev / interpretation is the argument about abandoning technology. For me the monoliths always represented just that: technology. Just another kind of tool, far more advanced than ours, made by beings equally far more advanced. As Arthur C. Clarke said: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And so as spaceships would have seemed like magic to those man-apes, higher-dimensional transport and ultimately state of being might seem phantastical to us. So Bowman's ascension, for me, was a kind of uplifting to a higher dimensional plane, perhaps joining the (artificial) intelligence of the monolith. But then again, there'll always be controversy and debate when discussing the interpretations of this masterpiece :D

That Match Cut is suppose to be a nuclear weapon satellite, not just a simple spaceship. Thigh bone to nuclear satellite...as weapons, the ultimate tool for "life".

I remember the first time I watched 2001 in the cinema. It was not long ago, maybe a few months.They re-released for a time along every Kubrick movie. The theater was packed with younger people than me btw. I have watched 2001 dozens of times before, but after I watched it on the big screen I came back home and dump every dvd, bluray and digital copy of the movie that I owned.

I'm down for any sci fi space movie

Kubrick is definitely the best filmmaker ever. I've already seen dozens of videos on RU-vid, that offer various interpretations of his most important movies. To stick to this one, I think it's precisely 2001: A Space Odyssey's enigmatic approach to space and sci-fi that makes it the best film in that genre. Space is unexperienced by us and thus mysterious and so is this movie and its ending and it's exactly how it should be.

1968: In 2001 we will travel to other planets. 2022: For the last time, THE EARTH IS *ROUND!!!*

I’m here after a the movie... My head still hurts tryna process everything

I had the extreme privilege of seeing this film in glorious 70MM this past Sunday. A wonderful analysis of a monumental masterpiece by our friends at Crash Course.

I want season 2 of Crash Course Film Criticism!!

Dave teaches us to move beyond reliance on technology and beyond our fear of self-reliance.

I've just been to a 2001: Space Odyssey exhibition two days ago! What a cool coincidence! I loved this!

I really wish you guys would add "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" in your list of movies... maybe in the second session of this course?

That was the most dramatic opening of crash course I've ever seen

When I first watched this film for the first dozen times I thought the cut from the bone to the space station was to show how far man had evolved. Only later did I find out it was not a space station it was a thermonuclear weapons platform so what I believe he was really saying is that we didn't change at all only became more complex but still fighting over territory.

Film Criticism :::cough cough::: season 2?

Really hoping you guys do another season of Film Criticism, definitely my favorite subject the channel has delved into.

I was lucky enough to see the unrestored, 70mm version of this film in Columbus, Ohio. If you get a chance, you HAVE to see it in 70mm. It's totally mind-blowing. (I made a 2-hr trip from Cleveland just to see it!)

As always, much love for crash course. 2001 is one of my all time favorite movies. Did you guys notice that the computer's name HAL is a basic Cesar cyphyer (code by letter shifting this case by one place) for IBM?

When I wa teaching in a one room school in northern Canada, I got to take my students to town on a field trip. After 4 hours of driving, my student saw their first electric lights and running water. The last event of the day was a movie and 2001: A Space Odyssey was it. I hope they eventually recovered. (It was the last week of school and I was moving to a new school in the fall, one with electricity and running water and a store near by.)

If you guys want to go ahead and keep doing Film Criticism episodes I'll be happy to keep watching. :)

Couldn't have ended on a better note, in terms of both subject and lesson quality. Thanks for the fabulous Crash Course, you guys.

This film showed me what cinema can be, and im hard stretched to find any others that have the effect *2001* had and still has on me.

The perfect finale for a series that shouldn't end. Thank you. When I read 2001 in my younger days, I had the eerie feeling of alien's presence (or even the divine) whenever the monolith appeared - as if in some sense our evolution depended on external stimulus.

Whaaaaaaat the final episode???? No no no no no no. Here's what's gonna happen: you're gonna do 48 episodes. That's what's gonna happen.

First time I watched this movie, I was in my teens and found the movie to be so boring that I turned it off after 20 minutes. 10 years later, I gave it another shot. I've watched it many times since then and it is by far my favorite movie of all time.

I missed the repeated birthday theme and I've seen this movie several times. Thanks for that observation. I am surprised that you made no mention about the absolute silence in the extra vehicular scenes. To my way of thinking, this one thing makes this movie stand out from all other space movies, as it is realistic about the fact that sound in not heard in the absence of atmosphere.

Read the book, it's mindblowing and answers a lot of questions

After 50 year it's practically impossible to tell something new about 2001 but, nevertheless you made a very good and synthetic video on a, simply put, Masterpiece of 20th century.

Speaking as someone who has yet to watch this movie, the cinematography of this film seemed so ahead of its time in my eyes, that I had no idea it was made as early as the 60s. The aesthetic however certainly reveals what decade it was made in.

You know a film is a true classic when it has 40-50 or more years and you know a modern remake would be pointless. This is one of them.

You didn't mention the fun fact known by all 2001 fans that the word HAL can be transformed into IBM by shifting a letter

That infamous jump-cut from the bone to the space vessel is even more poignant when you realize they are weapons themselves pointing at rival Earth governments, i e., the USA and the Soviet Union (thats the next vessel you see with the red star). This is not conjecture, but intended by Clarke and Kubrick in the novel and perhaps script, just never stipulated in the film. Now, that's genius irony.

In terms of achievement, this is likely the greatest movie ever made. A masterpiece through and through.

50 years later this movie still freaks me out and makes me wonder.

Great pick for the last video, and really nice quick summary of the film and interpretations. Was a joy to watch.

You guys should totally do a music criticism series with albums like "To Pimp A Butterfly" or Radiohead's "Kid A." Something that's diverse that doesn't neglect modern pieces of media, like this series. Great job, guys! I loved this!

Honestly this is a really great review and summary of what can be a dauntnig film. I think you broke it down beautifully. Also the comment about technology breaking down interpersonal relatonships was kind of terrifying. Thanks so much, a great way to end the series.

This movie gave me so many chills and made left me with so many questions. Great analysis

From film history, to production, to criticism, this has been a fantastic series. Thank you so much for doing this.

I read many people who say how the monolith came about. Here's some facts. The first intent was to have the monolith as a triangular solid, but it didn't look impressive. Then it was to be a rectangular TV screen where images appeared to teach the ape men. This was rejected as being too obvious. Finally, they settled on the 2-4-9 ratio rectangle in black as being the most mysterious and impressive looking. In his book, Clarke says the 2-4-9 ratio were the squares of numbers in three dimensions, but the squares continued into higher dimensions that we can't see.

Last episode! Bummer, I've really enjoyed this series! 👏👏👏

I watched this movie with three friends in a theatre that screened the 50 years aniversary remastered version. One of them watched it before and is his prefered movie but the rest of us hasn't. I was glad I was able to watch it at such a special screening because otherwise I would have never finished it. It was so weird and scary and the long cuts were almost boring....

I think a season 2 should do concepts not specific films. I didn't watch most of this series because I didn't want spoilers or to listen to lectures on films I wasn't specifically interested in. I really think a crash course on film criticism should cover concepts in film criticism. Like one could be about camera effects. One about the three-act structure. One about types of endings. One about marketing and movie posters. And so on.

This is by far the best analysis of 2001 I have seen to date. Incredibly well done. Thank you.

While watching this movie you either boring and fall a sleep or you just stare at the film till the end and thinking what the hell is happening

My brother and I watched this film once, and we totally hated it. It felt like there was no real story personality, or anything else likeable (except HAL). I appreciate your criticism, as I think it helped me gain a greater appreciation of this movie, and I kind of want to watch it again. I think I realize now that we probably hated it, not because it was bad, but because it requires so much more of the viewer than other, simpler movies.

Please continue this series!!!! It’s sooo good!! Come with a season two or something where you do like 10 more movies!

This has been such an amazing series. Well done CC! Please do another season!

Hello ! Your video is fantastic ! Saw 2001 in the movies a few days ago abt had about one of the greatest experience of cinema I've ever had.. Went to rewatch it three time and yet you enlightened subjects that didn't cross my mind, and I'll be pondering on those themes, thank you! Why did you say "the most Kubrick room ever built" ? (I have not watched all of his movies..yet!)

Factoid: HAL is often claimed to be derived from the letters that precede IBM.

Best Crash Course yet. More film criticism, please. It's film that has been the most important, ubiquitous & total art medium for over a century, supplanting theater & opera in popularity. Michael was great but ya'll have just scratched the surface leaving my appetite whetted for much more. Please move forward with this series. I also like the length of the segments & their outstanding production values.

DON'T GO, MICHAEL ARANDA! But, seriously, this has been a wonderful series. Thank you. I've been looking forward to this every week and look forward to the next thing you do.

2001 A Space Odysseyade me cry. Why? I honestly don't know. Something about the weight of the questions that it brings up about the human experience must've gotten to me. I hope I'll enjoy ny second watching just as much.

My local theater is showing this on May 20 ! I freaking love this movie! Luckily I’ve seen it 3x in theaters, no comparison.

You speak in much more tolerable tone and tempo than most other crash coursers, kudos on that. Also, great episode!

Excellent video only thing I wish you'd mentioned is that the dimensions of the monolith are the same ratio of width to height as a cinema screen turned sideways. The cut to black and Dave's trippy voyage are clues that the film itself is a monolith evolving the audience.

"The film repeatedly invites us to see the contrast between the sophistication of technology...and the banality of human conversation": This statement in the video reminds me: --of the times I've walked by almost any Starbucks, looked in, and saw people either sitting alone and staring at their laptops, or worse, a group of people sitting together, not talking, and staring at their laptops or smartphones: "the banality of human conversation" and "the sophistication of technology". --or people walking on a New York sidewalk, looking at their smartphones, oblivious to their surroundings. Repeating another statement in the video: "Technology has outstripped character relationships": --Reminds me of Starbucks, again, but also --Facebook, where people have "friends" they've never met in person...a debasement through technology of not only of language, but of basic human relationships. --"alternative facts", "fake news" and most things "twittered" by US Presidents: assertions not grounded in reality, but rather only the manipulations of technology. --RU-vid, and me writing a comment like this, thinking it has any purpose, meaning, relevance, or resonance. Kubrick had great insight; 50 years later, that insight reveals the world we currently inhabit. We're in *2001*. Or maybe Aldous Huxley's, *Brave New World*. Or Orwell's *1984*. Millennials, be warned. Your technology may kill you before it liberates you. In the best sense of being human, you need to become masters of it.

I love this series! Please continue.

Great review. I've seen 2001 many times, and seen video and written reviews. This still offered new insights.

The jump from the time of the apes to the future was millions of years, not hundreds of thousands of years. One of the men in the shuttle explicitly tells Dr. Hayward that the scientists have ascertained that the monolith was buried four million years in the past.

would love to see you guys talk about the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and maybe other foreign films

The book series by Clarke really explains a lot of the ambiguity in the film....

Already crying over how epic the 70mm screening I'm going to is going to be. I absolutely adore this film.

What a great series! I hope Michael and film criticism will be back someday!

This has easily been the best crash course! There must be another season!

This movie looks so futuristic as if it is recently made. It is an extraordinary masterpiece. I want Hollywood to make more such movies. 👍🏾

WHY would this be your final episode. Your VERY GOOD at film review. Not negative but cut to the heart of filming, story and character, PLEASE CONTINUE.

One of the best series of Crash Course! Thanks for that and congrats!

Best movie ever made in my opinion

I think the ending is less direct. The monolith is the view from the future and all it entails. The future and progress views the modern man as a child sort of how we view the ancient hominids. It's a rung in the ladder and the star child is overlooking humanity in the end looking to grow further

Best review of this film I have ever seen. I wish all of the original footage still existed. There was supposedly 10X more than was used to produce the actual film. Kubrick is said to have destroyed it. What a shame.

the monolith cut seems to mean that the monolith is Dave (humanity). Which implies to me that it's a symbol of mankind's evolution of technology, which is a byproduct of our own evolution. The monolith might be the symbol of that divine spark that suddenly separated us from the animals.