OZ #13a

Page 45

Murnford recently pointed out that

The misleading notion that man is primarily a tool-making animal... will not be easy to displace. Like other plaus!Ole conceits. it evades rational criticism, especially since it flatters the vanity of modern Technological Man, that ghost clad in iron .. (The Myth of the Machine)

Thus, every sequence in the film shows people eating. Or, when not • eating, fighting. The images refer back always to the pre-historic visions of our ancestors chewing their raw meat and battling over the possession of a water-hole. On the •

second title. The lack, of a title between the anthropoids and the earlier space sequences emphasized continuity; this one states, in effect, that something more important than all the intervening human history must have occured on the Moon, but we'do not yet know what. However, we do have a firm picture of a hopeless, unchanging, backwardlooking 'human nature' tied to anim ality and to social rituals which technological advance has rendered ridiculous.

space-station, a polite but suspicious It was a notion which suited the encounter between Dr. Floyd (the Industrial Revolution, the great American Space Agency official on burst of tool-invention that created ' his way to the Moon) and a group our conditions of everyday liviA of Russians shows that evenarow, But its limitations have become the Cold War is not Over.TRe obvious in the age of computers and cybernetics which has followed. • ' fight on the Jupiter expedition be^tamesbetween men and their own Here, a new vision of thumarr pre-: Going towards Jupiter, the two rephistory has gathered fOrce, where. • breatiort•the HAL 9000 computer. resentative's Of this hopeless human , When we first see the.astronaut language is seen as the decisive cature, Bowman and Poole, are in Bowinan, he is running round,the transition from nature to culture. a vast spacecraft which is also a, Space-ship's centrifuge making boxAfter all, how could tOrikusing computer. This mechanical intelli. 'rug gestures. The two stewardesseS have become'established, as a dev% gence CHAO controlS every aspect oh the Moon-ship settle clotvn — eloping tradition within primitive of the craft. As it is programmed to • with a meal, of course —•to watch • societies, without a contexeof respond to voice instructions, the 'pjudo match on televisiOn., In'genculture•arid cornmunication?,` astronauts can 'converse- with it. eral, plere is an ingenious use of Speech, dreams, andtitUalsaKe, • .•It can even take conversational iniMore fundamental than irtnplenients: film-w ithin- film to accentuate the tiatives; as when it inquires how messa ge4 I thetver,Y first space • The. fact is simplNyvreore•e■ ilderit • Bowman •feelS about the 'mission. us, frOm withinQur webof,erectron- elikisade,ivesee'FloycliasleeP before •• I.t has tnotives — as We learn later, a srnall7novie:s6reenshowing a bhy-, ic.cdmmunicatioh anddurmind-. it becomes clear that there' • in,al.uturistiC auto.latiitg•automative ma4lines; sirnu was a hidden reason for the inquiry . mobile:vehicirkaParit, it might be., 2 ,• • into the astronaut's state of mind. In thesecond oar-40f tfie'film 7 • from l aity F4oilyw• od movie of'tfrie • • VI the course.of the same ConyersJupiterMissjqn.7' 19,,t2rick, shows L4ter;tfiere.a.re scenes of •ation , theCcimputer suddenly rephe $erfeCtly=a∎hOrc-of the facts' 4'eittiulthittbanalitY.wheia Floyd• • . orts a behind thiSchnjeinttit'Odel: l picgre:pheheshiS ghtkr•14,acit

n

. Nib

aboara.CO'mputer•;;;, ittl'a of, its Pwri, aPerTectcybemetitki - •••.'mach inei-i So'WhytheirChaic',id- : • -- of:thef irktiiirt?i•Thei artt . Eulogy - ,....Wer-is thatsti t,tiszirchatmliste. &If - . initte fitjaction Infthem'hip.IdiFI of .1,' -7t.hd'fifrri=s'ailtent . `:•.-:'. ; ,.• ,

..•

.

-

,.•

, ..

'

''..- i,‘.7' .47,,'.!•° . - ,. • - ...-:"

-

..

..

-

:,.

imoiroRi.45,71. EloArte..cdt i-

ij

-6.44.r534, 4 .41,46.

. p4

I n-spacet wt. ai•e%;arri ed. fi7ir.3f!'411 • . Toa circular sizacestition, then id. `Illeirrot5 • the Arteritan . i4oon• *se, • ''ica 'I ,ale.. -accompailint en f Of-thevoyage. '

.

...:.

on,'Eagthy•and 'afKesSage . ., . •• . ' to.tiSttopeut Poore from.til• r;c*:.:' . Repairi6 %this fault entails going ts•J;c0110:4-ti-ICtay,..tbefekirg•V•i., a ...‘ :outsideAtle craft -in ,a one-man space leaf) that fhere is in c ' joiff • 'd es.'`itvhichiLiey Ofti'.W .:nlachi;4:•....4.4 ' iji,it him. t4.i tiot .!1/2r,efifxs•fite.: -.faCkri4 fault ,itwas a pretext fOr oiiiii's'i r;is2,0t.i.tt ttiti lTietili.7...to.irt...*liggitjfigrid 9f ihetwo humans (and

t13.4 tithfretiiirnating on the voy-

;,.

.)%.4.iiii*.t. . v'...-Follit.. . ,'. •ag, e ):11Er.a , 4 .;-as HAI...puts it, 'I

-

*cflritfrbitont ;..cbrilln tret.you endanger, this mis4i.offrol survives alone, but wman 5 , h ts . tig V. -:.-a.C•eirlartifina`. " .!.in' g Q fits . get irrto HAL's brain t „ • rnenMes-to . . •...i •-,• ' '' -". 04eAtlitg-anf BS -..-.arftl•tlisatt.le theme-chine. '' ' ''?•k• 10 ,esCapiejtoilii,Arkh

is trsloAlbStrat7ss.vitetti,, evticatilie: • ':'':''. i--ailvelittilt1Pret'SIAlee .

.

.-

.t a :41

-.• ..

••••. • ..• ..

,

.

••••311en vte learn the truth. The corn'• •• '. ....., :......:. • • t :.ofthe'security 'anci,ocinfort Ot.lh 'Ii.- : A..• y .• clevicel'arcoOntekpartit ':00frAlkIVT4pkiffer a:.-Tefirifsrbrrit ••pelter neev.about the objectives of, .itiginiageswiihairunusualsound, lini4eiat•cill.40.13entag9ikenes'!ii; 7tihe'..mission.alt air:mg, as it had been .41Oth4 -Pgrarni-ned with the information . r' .trait — used b'3< 4.litict, ve.,1;16,;(. ffisP11,/fir pi ....!4:15r."Strehi-e7E before leaying. The.astronauts themthe tam. :.:go.tci.ihepeitirthe Thine Theyart ....fill-ifs -'again,emphasizes -'again selves did not — they were supposed of real novelty iii theattion." Tfev- • , .5w/stained by arfificiichicken s-, . in,Spacehanic$ really-Chang- • and harrtsandwiches on the way • to'find out on arrival at Jupiter. HAL had therefore to inquire and ad•MN/thing. The•cOrnplt and • ('T•hek.get:Oetter at it all tieticne' find out what Bowman (the commbeautiful Models, the extraordjnrY' saysone of ihe.crew). On arrival,

. 4....!"-past.-Titis

'realisrn'of these Seituendev— ttib analegy with the anthropoids is much* commented upon.— have the• . rubbed in as they crowd round the :same total effect. Zechnical mar- blaCk slab :Dr. Floyd reaches out vels are juxtaposed tohurnan ban- •• to touch it with the same gesture as ality, repeatedly. CfeVer enough to the dpe Chieftain, four million years• . • pretiously. escape from their own world$ a race of advPnced monkeys is carryThen,thereis an abrupt transition ing an outworn and still animal b6theJ4iter expedition, after the • heritage towards the stars.

ander) knew, before deciding how to reaRte its design :to meet the source of the alien intelligence itself, without human interference. The Moon monolith had given off a radio beam pointing towards Jupiter, like an instruction. Thus, the perfect and infallible intelligence man has created wants to approp-


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.