2001: A Space Odyssey - Parker Sealy

Through this movie, Kubrick does a good job of exploring the evolution of humans. He begins with the dawn of man. Through showing the apes living their life, he is just showing evolution at its finest. The ape finally throws a bone up into the sky then it switches to space essentially showing the future version of a weapon much like the bone. This shows the sped up version of evolution. It goes through a long scene involving apes to the future in space using the same idea but with better, more advanced technology. Then we are introduced to the men in space. They are representing the exploration involved in evolution by showing all the new technology they are using. HAL 9000 was a good representation of what came out of the exploration of humans. Once the computer begins to mutate and revolt against the men in space, revolution begins. This has always been present throughout history and therefore, is a good way of explaining evolution. Then Dave goes into another dimension as the theme of transfiguration is introduced. This is where the monolith (which had been present throughout the movie) really makes its point. The process of evolution is really sped up a lot, as Dave grows older and older before the fifth theme is introduced. Mutation takes place when the Star Child is introduced. This star child represents mutation because evolution becomes too much and comes about too quickly that there is nowhere to go from there. The monolith represents the speeding up of evolution in these ways as it ends with Dave going through life rather quickly in a similar manner that he would go if it was at a normal pace minus the star child. I will be completely honest, I didn’t quite understand the film and will probably need to see it again before I will ever be able to elaborate on this but this is my small interpretation of the themes.