2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968; d. Stanley Kubrick, w. SK + Arthur C Clarke)

Sunrise over earth (Let There Be Light in film of repeated awakenings orchestrated by demigod director), seen from space (film taking long-view, circles + crescents also in moon, Jupiter, space pods + HAL eyes, vs Monolith slab: passive mandalas vs aggressive thrust of knowledge).

THE DAWN OF MAN (out of darkness of animal kingdom): sunrise, now seen from earth (cosmic consciousness coming near; curiosity of beginning "Space Odyssey" on earth meaning inner space), over barren land (primitive, undeveloped consciousness), bones, apemen (last 2 consc’ss taking flesh), other animals – and a marauding tiger! (evolving humans [Kansas Board of Education notw/standing] vexed by instincts) – Fade to Black (prolog à la infant recording basic info in btwn bouts of sleep, during which time mind processes + assimilates material); leaping/screaming war btwn 2 clans over waterhole (beginnings of differentiation/individuation) scares one pack (FtB) off to their caves, one ape regarding moon (the pilot-light of consc’ss during sleep, moon reflected light of imagination, he quality that will prosper clan/Self) (FtB); wakes to find Monolith in midst (artificial construct: break from animal origins, + developmental mile-marker), over which sun rises (w/ crescent moon: synchronous readiness + desire prompting/permitting advance) – JUMPCUT (shock of dev’t, mind jolted out of elliptical consc’ss) – as Moonwatcher, remembering sun over slab (intelligence a halo over abstract thot), uses bone as weapon (unconscious mind utilizing remnants of daylife for new purposes; convergence of moon/unconsc + sun/rationality yielding invention), hurled into air on triumph over water-usurpers (reliable food supply freeing time/mind for other pursuits).

Bone turns into spaceship (conviviality on-board btwn Yank + Soviets [rival clans] suggesting entire earth secured as food-source) hovering over planet at sunrise (THE DAWN OF ~ ?: man achieving opening cosmic perspective) + docking w/ station (shades of Strangelove airline-coitus in otherwise sex-free film not w/o its violence: Eros guiding principle or consciousness in which film takes place – desire to ascend fulfilled in Stargate cosmic orgasm yielding spacechild embryo) thru portal (mimicking screen dimensions: movie as similar transport, to take humanity to next level [monolith upended 70mm frame]), where passenger Heywood Floyd (bkwd name the individual having superceded patrimony) laying over on trip to moon (he Moonwatcher’s dream come true, transcending earth à la sleeper/body); wishes daughter Happy Birthday (day ahead: fem Odyssey in offing – the next great adventure at dawn of Wmn’s Mvmt) + evades Russians’ curiosity regarding occurrences on moon (phone lines out: inaccessible unconscious for maddeningly sane, bland, polite humans, moon having long lost mystery – till recently) before disembarking for sub-lunar meeting room (deep in unconsc, where folks still + again superficial + blah), arrival observed by astronauts on barren surface à la opening Serengeti: time about to restart.

Board welcomes Floyd (from National Council of Astronautics: regional authority on matters cosmic, aka ego), who notes success of epidemic "cover story" (allegorical backdrop to Oedipal story, this one free of restricting father figures, allowing for greater advancements; as Odyssey, minus also infidelities along journey away from Mother Earth; cf Kubrick’s own millennial self-retort, Eyes Wide Shut) while he prepares report to Council (Self, he 1st of 2 emissaries into unknown/unconscious) on revelation of discovery (dream-censor allowing only select info to filter from subconsc into dream so to avoid waking sleeper before "mission" accomplished); shuttles to Clavius excavation site (vs earthly digs, un"moon"ing not history but future), eating en-route (running joke of processed spacefood cfg opening struggle) while debriefed on object’s burial 4m yrs before (archetype similarly implanted in archaic unconsc; cf derivative Exorcist + its archeological dig + lost-world opening – significantly, minus the exultant ending) then delving pit to confront Monolith (cipher/variable: investigating symbol buried in satellite-subconscious since origin of species – desire to better/improve which sets humans apart from animals), which emits whine when touched (as by ape + eventually old man: connecting, basic element behind "mundane" small-talk [heavy on the Antonioni]) + photographed (recorded/committed to memory, as tho forging link to archaic [archeological] recollection: aligning sun + moon, above).

JUPITER MISSION, 18 MONTHS LATER "Discovery" ship resembles sperm cell (woman – peripheral in her actual presence – frontier being explored in culmination of masculine Odyssey, journey away from earth-wife aka feminine origin), astronaut Frank Poole jogging past 3 suspended-animation crew-mummies (sperm containing death, sleeping counterparts to 3 active dream-representations), he + fellow-animate Dave Bowman (both characterless non-heroes à la all since Moonwatcher: farther man evolves from animal-self the less his sense of wonder + uniqueness; or, individuality stripping down in preparation for rebirth) watching news recap of mission (talking head "anchor" of rational consciousness broadcasting from remote earth/ego): mostly EPK on HAL computer (similar "rat’l consc’ss" as anchor), which mimics human thot (his actions allegorical for his creators’) only faster (what happens to him eventual fate of Man/crew) – "foolproof + incapable of error" à la unsinkable Titanic, He "constantly occupied" (cf Shining’s "All work + no play" Jack Torrance: effect of prolonged concentration on superficial thot, à la smalltaking FloydPooleBowman + dreamless mummy crew).

Dave sketches sarcophagi (artistic temperament prepping him for Beyond the Infinite, film itself dream self-portrait) + jaws w/ HAL about latter’s reservations (vocalizing doubts D can’t express, on mission), especially rumors about moon dig (developing intuition of a subconscious He not entitled to: origin of His breakdown), warning him of impending telecom failure (Own isolation; mind about to disconnect from mothership earth/consciousness on dream-descent); meets w/ Poole to talk in private (own suspicions of HAL: moon = mind, something there similarly calling attention to self in order to further intellectual development) when telecom checks out okay (inability to admit error ill omen for men dependent on Him [word up, George W], or sign He’s deceiving [like I said]), He reading their lips (men cutting selves off à la "failing" instrument: trouble when one half of mind stops communicating w/ other) just before

INTER/MISSION (non-REM sleep, subconscious having disconnected from consciousness, during which material turned up in dream filters down to decay/be processed by psyche).

While replacing unit (restoring communications: REM/dream recommencing), pod turns on + disconnects spacewalking Poole (psychic other ½ gone, 1st step in coming leap), radio going dead (mind’s disengagement from rational base) + 3 sleepers exterminated (transcendence o/t physical, following mental-rational) when Dave goes out to retrieve body (removed from core Self), having to reenter via emergency airlock (struggle btwn ir/rational as ego disintegrates in anticipation of transfiguration) when HAL refuses admission (censor again locking out threatening material ["This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it"]: will to live vs. inevitable dissolution, releasing Frank partial submission to latter); decommissions HAL (own failing reason), prompting pre-recorded message (à la recovered memory) disclosing nature of mission (Clavius-style signal from Jupiter: teleological call farther from earth/Self both desire for betterment + self-destructive estrangement from Gaia/femininity).

JUPITER + BEYOND THE INFINITE Harmonic convergence over Jupiter ("the supreme god": Nietzschean ["Thus Spoke Zarathustra" theme] transcendence o/t mundane Last Man to become übermann) w/ planets, pod + Monolith (latter plane cfg spheres: continuum bridging/superceding mandalas, + universal overseeing the eternal) sends Dave on lightshow Ultimate Trip (closeup eye becoming galaxy bcg nova bcg egg, w/ sperm-pod headed twd: conceiving own cosmic vision), resolving w/ Victorian room seen thru porthole (fin-du-dernière-siècle womb collision of old, new + otherworldly); sees self standing in room (dissociation following disembodiment + achievement of objectivity), then becomes that self (serial transcendence rapid superceding of previous vision) + sees face in mirror (aged: becoming faster-thinking HAL; or, he HAL taken human form), then at dinner table (thru door, repeatedly crossing thresholds), then in bed (sleeping, eating, evacuating: regressed to pre-verbal physical level), reaching up to Monolith at foot of bed (like similarly-shaped reflections: inner life made tangible, touching which sets off Advancement) + turning into embryo (w/o fem participation: Man having reached end of self, become alien in isolation + insularity) which moves into space (wide-open womb – from which birth impossible) + hovers over earth (returning Moonwatcher’s gaze: become Sentinel, existence now mise en abyme + palindrome of looking w/o comprehension) till turning to regard Us (correspondence: we all Moonwatchers watching alien-self watching us watching it watching… [photographer-turned-director Kubrick’s nirvana endless, uninvolved observation]), next step superevolved Man removing self from equation to witness next step in evolution: Wmn’s accession to place of power + influence.