Post by swamprat on Apr 8, 2018 1:35:46 GMT
Happy 50th Birthday, ‘2001.’ Why every college kid needs to watch it
Mark Hinson, Democrat senior writer
Published April 7, 2018
Stanley Kubrick's visionary sci-fi masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released into movie theaters 50 years ago this month. Older, fuddy-duddy critics hated it while college kids across the globe fell in love.
The students got it because the film is a lot like the college experience — it's long, it's frustrating, it's hallucinatory, it's baffling, it's beautiful at times, and it certainly shows how a malfunctioning computer can really muck up your life.
And just as in "2001," when college is over and done in four (maybe nine) years, you'll wonder what it all meant.
Dear fresh-faced students of 2018, if you've never seen "2001" from start to finish, you need to add it to your must-see list.
It's required viewing, even if the only two things you learn are why all those annoying sporting events pipe in Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" to hype people up, and why computer geeks giggle when they say, "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."
Kubrick's 1968 movie is part of the cultural fabric, a cinematic milestone that should be experienced in its full, demanding entirety.
Now let us consider the allegorical parallels between "2001," in a scene-by-scene breakdown, and the typical American college journey these days:
"The Dawn of Man": "2001" opens in a barren desert, not outer space, 4 million years ago. It was the Pleistocene epoch. The soon-to-be humanoids are grunting, furry, ape-like creatures sitting around a cave picking nits off their noggins and eating grass.
College equivalent: Here's your dorm room. Meet the roommates.
"The Waterhole": A rival band of monkeys (Australopithecines) challenges another over drinking rights at the watering hole. The monkeys yell, whoop, jump and scream in an elaborate bluffing game.
College equivalent: Welcome to sorority and fraternity rush.
"The Monolith": At night, while the prehistoric primates are snoozing, a gigantic, rectangular, black stone slab mysteriously appears outside their cave. It makes a loud annoying noise that drives the monkeys crazy.
College equivalent: Your drunken neighbor upstairs comes home at 3:15 a.m. and cranks up Norwegian death metal bands.
"Monkey Bone": After the monolith leaves, one of the primates discovers that an antelope bone makes a nifty nightstick. The next day he takes the world's first weapon to the watering hole and bludgeons the hell out of a rival chimp.
College equivalent: That incident in which you crash a kegger at the football players' apartment complex will end with a visit to the walk-in clinic.
"Toss That Bone": After killing his opponent, the champ chimp hurls his new weapon skyward. The bone twirls in slow motion and then morphs into an orbiting satellite hovering over the Earth millions of years in the future.
College equivalent: You will wake up in advanced algebra class one day not knowing how you got there or what the professor is talking about.
"Space Snacks": During a commercial air flight to the moon, a stewardess serves a tray of non-solid food to a passenger. The food is sucked through a straw.
College equivalent: Eat up, ladies and gents, it's Spam chili night at the cafeteria.
"Phone Home": Aboard an orbiting space station, a scientist stops to use a video-telephone. He calls his daughter on Earth. It costs $1.70.
College equivalent: After repeated, late-night, beer-fueled phone calls to the Psychic Reading Hotline with questions about an old flame, you get a bill for $1,700 but don't recall talking to anyone.
"The Monolith Part II": Astronauts inspect a stone slab discovered on the moon. It looks just like the one that scared the monkeys. The monolith emits a painful, ear-splitting noise.
College equivalent: Your downstairs neighbor drops her leisure-and-recreation major to pursue her dream as an electric violinist for a band called Molly Stooltrigger and the Disgruntled Former Employees.
"Jupiter Mission": Silently cutting through deep space, the massive space cruiser Discovery is run by two human astronauts and a talking computer named HAL. The mortals fight off tedium by jogging, sketching, playing chess, using the tanning equipment and watching the BBC.
College equivalent: At one time or another, you will run out of beer, and the cable will be turned off. Worse, there's no Wi-Fi. You will be forced to jog, sketch and watch boring TV to kill time.
"HAL Has Issues": HAL predicts a transmission dish will go on the blink. The dish is checked and found to be in working order. HAL is disturbed that he has made a mistake. His make and model are supposed to be perfect. Thanks to either HAL's paranoia or flawed engineering, HAL begins killing his fellow crew members.
College equivalent: Thanks to a computer error, you will be dropped from your favorite class, overcharged on tuition and hounded like an animal by Parking Services' billing department. You think it's a conspiracy against you, personally, but then you'll never know for sure, will you?
"Disconnecting HAL": Weightless, Dave the astronaut floats into HAL's mainframe and slowly turns off the giant computer. HAL sings "A Bicycle Built For Two" while this happens.
College equivalent: In an attempt to download "muy caliente Cardi B nudie pics," your stoned roommate introduces a software-scorching virus into your laptop while listening to Lil Uzi Vert.
"The Trip": After HAL is turned off, Dave goes zipping through "infinity" thanks to a montage of fast-moving bright lights and psychedelic imagery.
College equivalent: "Hey, dude, wanna go to the Wanne Music Festal to hear Pigeons Playing Ping Pong?"
"Infinity": Dave ends up in a very well-appointed white room where he shuffles around, doesn't say anything, eats, breaks a wine glass and grows very old and gray. Meanwhile, a giant embryo bobs around in space for no apparent reason.
College equivalent: Welcome to the working world, kiddo.
www.tallahassee.com/story/entertainment/2018/04/07/happy-birthday-2001-why-every-college-kid-needs-watch/493335002/
Mark Hinson, Democrat senior writer
Published April 7, 2018
Stanley Kubrick's visionary sci-fi masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released into movie theaters 50 years ago this month. Older, fuddy-duddy critics hated it while college kids across the globe fell in love.
The students got it because the film is a lot like the college experience — it's long, it's frustrating, it's hallucinatory, it's baffling, it's beautiful at times, and it certainly shows how a malfunctioning computer can really muck up your life.
And just as in "2001," when college is over and done in four (maybe nine) years, you'll wonder what it all meant.
Dear fresh-faced students of 2018, if you've never seen "2001" from start to finish, you need to add it to your must-see list.
It's required viewing, even if the only two things you learn are why all those annoying sporting events pipe in Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" to hype people up, and why computer geeks giggle when they say, "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."
Kubrick's 1968 movie is part of the cultural fabric, a cinematic milestone that should be experienced in its full, demanding entirety.
Now let us consider the allegorical parallels between "2001," in a scene-by-scene breakdown, and the typical American college journey these days:
"The Dawn of Man": "2001" opens in a barren desert, not outer space, 4 million years ago. It was the Pleistocene epoch. The soon-to-be humanoids are grunting, furry, ape-like creatures sitting around a cave picking nits off their noggins and eating grass.
College equivalent: Here's your dorm room. Meet the roommates.
"The Waterhole": A rival band of monkeys (Australopithecines) challenges another over drinking rights at the watering hole. The monkeys yell, whoop, jump and scream in an elaborate bluffing game.
College equivalent: Welcome to sorority and fraternity rush.
"The Monolith": At night, while the prehistoric primates are snoozing, a gigantic, rectangular, black stone slab mysteriously appears outside their cave. It makes a loud annoying noise that drives the monkeys crazy.
College equivalent: Your drunken neighbor upstairs comes home at 3:15 a.m. and cranks up Norwegian death metal bands.
"Monkey Bone": After the monolith leaves, one of the primates discovers that an antelope bone makes a nifty nightstick. The next day he takes the world's first weapon to the watering hole and bludgeons the hell out of a rival chimp.
College equivalent: That incident in which you crash a kegger at the football players' apartment complex will end with a visit to the walk-in clinic.
"Toss That Bone": After killing his opponent, the champ chimp hurls his new weapon skyward. The bone twirls in slow motion and then morphs into an orbiting satellite hovering over the Earth millions of years in the future.
College equivalent: You will wake up in advanced algebra class one day not knowing how you got there or what the professor is talking about.
"Space Snacks": During a commercial air flight to the moon, a stewardess serves a tray of non-solid food to a passenger. The food is sucked through a straw.
College equivalent: Eat up, ladies and gents, it's Spam chili night at the cafeteria.
"Phone Home": Aboard an orbiting space station, a scientist stops to use a video-telephone. He calls his daughter on Earth. It costs $1.70.
College equivalent: After repeated, late-night, beer-fueled phone calls to the Psychic Reading Hotline with questions about an old flame, you get a bill for $1,700 but don't recall talking to anyone.
"The Monolith Part II": Astronauts inspect a stone slab discovered on the moon. It looks just like the one that scared the monkeys. The monolith emits a painful, ear-splitting noise.
College equivalent: Your downstairs neighbor drops her leisure-and-recreation major to pursue her dream as an electric violinist for a band called Molly Stooltrigger and the Disgruntled Former Employees.
"Jupiter Mission": Silently cutting through deep space, the massive space cruiser Discovery is run by two human astronauts and a talking computer named HAL. The mortals fight off tedium by jogging, sketching, playing chess, using the tanning equipment and watching the BBC.
College equivalent: At one time or another, you will run out of beer, and the cable will be turned off. Worse, there's no Wi-Fi. You will be forced to jog, sketch and watch boring TV to kill time.
"HAL Has Issues": HAL predicts a transmission dish will go on the blink. The dish is checked and found to be in working order. HAL is disturbed that he has made a mistake. His make and model are supposed to be perfect. Thanks to either HAL's paranoia or flawed engineering, HAL begins killing his fellow crew members.
College equivalent: Thanks to a computer error, you will be dropped from your favorite class, overcharged on tuition and hounded like an animal by Parking Services' billing department. You think it's a conspiracy against you, personally, but then you'll never know for sure, will you?
"Disconnecting HAL": Weightless, Dave the astronaut floats into HAL's mainframe and slowly turns off the giant computer. HAL sings "A Bicycle Built For Two" while this happens.
College equivalent: In an attempt to download "muy caliente Cardi B nudie pics," your stoned roommate introduces a software-scorching virus into your laptop while listening to Lil Uzi Vert.
"The Trip": After HAL is turned off, Dave goes zipping through "infinity" thanks to a montage of fast-moving bright lights and psychedelic imagery.
College equivalent: "Hey, dude, wanna go to the Wanne Music Festal to hear Pigeons Playing Ping Pong?"
"Infinity": Dave ends up in a very well-appointed white room where he shuffles around, doesn't say anything, eats, breaks a wine glass and grows very old and gray. Meanwhile, a giant embryo bobs around in space for no apparent reason.
College equivalent: Welcome to the working world, kiddo.
www.tallahassee.com/story/entertainment/2018/04/07/happy-birthday-2001-why-every-college-kid-needs-watch/493335002/
