2001: A Space Odyssey - Meaning of the monolith revealed 3 of 3 (2011 update)

A collection of updates to my Meaning of the Monolith Revealed video from 2007. Includes comparisons between book and film, the relationship between Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke, exact monolith measurements compared to the cinema screen, production history and more metaphors contained within the film.

Written and narrated by Rob Ager.

A Clockwork Orange analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buCPMOjS4L0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diFQn1n0wEw
The Shining analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEulbcXkgjo
Bladerunner analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chG6IBalw-o
Psycho film analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvtuiEmHXCc
Full Metal Jacket analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdfCTAqO9pw
Pulp Fiction analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJdonxKZSF0
Big Lebowski analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqBsY4JvaJA

View my channel and visit my website for more film analysis videos.

http://www.collativelearning.com/

Full 47 minute video is available on the Kubrick Decoded: Volume 2 DVD. See website.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• 2001:
• space
• Odyssey
• Rob
• Ager
• film
• analysis
• Stanley
• Kubrick

[DimmedDiamond]

IN SUMMARY: The monolith is a machine built by aliens to speed up evolution of sentient creatures, because the aliens were lonely.

[robag88]

@DimmedDiamond IN SUMMARY: you didn't watched the video :)

[palebluedot4ev]

the meaning of the film really is that obscure if you watch carefully several times. there's clearly a logical structure to the film. those who know what i mean have described watching the film as a symphony, which is i think apt. keeping watching and you'll get it :)

[robag88]

@palebluedot4ev If you say you "get it", but can't describe what you get then you probably didn't get it.

[palebluedot4ev]

@robag88 that does not follow. I didn't reveal the structure because I feel that would ruin the experience for other viewers who don't understand the structure yet.

[robag88]

@palebluedot4ev But you did elaborate ... you said people who get it describe it as a symphony. That's just a single word label, it doesn't mean someone gets the film. After forty plus years there are still lots of logical structure aspects of 2001 that go over people's heads ... and that's why it's worth verbalizing interpretations of the film to coax people along. This video only touches on one aspect of a more complex hidden narrative.

[robag88]

@TheHauntedAngel Am I literally using it wrong?:)

[juicyd99]

Rob I'm too stupid for this shiz...Just tell me what it MEANS!!! lol, love the vids man

[rippspeck]

Holy moly, you, robag88, blew my mind.

Granted, I've only seen the movie twice but I've been obsessed ever since I first watched it a few years back. I'm absolutely stunned by your hints and interpretations.

I just ordered this incredible film, can't wait to rewatch it with this new knowledge!

[lutten2]

I like to think that there are alot of hints to shift paradigm. In space, there is no up and down, shown with the crew(wo)man walking on the walls,the runner running through the workplace cabin. Also the photographer shifting his camera 90 degrees in between snapshots tells us to turn our heads . We are basically looking at the monolith standing because that is how it's presented to us on Earth and Jupiter. In space, it can be viewed at any angle, and that's why this film is set in space

[Duffy82076]

CONTD: As for the science of this on a less reality dominated fictionalized story, the hotel is within a hypercube, where time gets funny, and every walk across ages him. It must kill the old life & bring the mind/soul/astral into a form where it can thrive. Surpassing ability of a brain which can understand this new power, but no ability to practice it. BUT, killing him is not meant as murder: Aging him out over a day is the best way to get him ready to crossover, as well as establishing trust.

[Duffy82076]

CONTD: on place on the floor, not the ceiling. That's where something is there for perspective. Light, though effective, is coming from the wrong place. Book-wise, blue food within packages, although familiar, we not quite readable--continuing the theme of props. SCI-FI: The screen could also be obviously a passive alien suggestion to the audience of what the relationship is between the fictional characters & their alien encounters, as it is to the movie screen characters & their magic screen.

[Duffy82076]

The hotel suite fits your idea very well. He's in a montage, and keeps looking at the camera, or in this case, the monolith. Or, a step in your direction, the movie screen. He almost grows bored with this, realizing he has a spy watching him do mundane things. He evolves/ages thru the montage. Then, he understands why it had to happen this way in the end.

As for the hotel suite itself, he has a temporary breakdown: It's a representation of a hotel, but light tiles are there for film illuminant

[Monoaux]

One thing I've always notice was how much the excavation site looks like a film set. Thanks for making more connections! With the mirrored theme of the set I'd liked to thing that Kubrick was suggesting that we ourselves are on stage.

[AtomFishProductions]

You are the monolith of YouTube

[crapshooterblues]

I love this interpretation, and it ties in with my theory of the film. I always felt that we, the viewer, were one in the same as HAL. We had an all seeing eye into the film and the idea that HAL is held into a monolith like shaped connects us the viewers with the monolith as well.