1. Who is the intended audience of the text?
The director has chosen to use less dialogue and no narration to present the story instead of ‘explaining’ the story. He let the audience to think and figure out the hidden messages in the film. According to Pierce, ‘the act of thinking itself is a process of interpreting signs’. (Pierce 1991). Thus, audiences are able to use their own imagination and understanding to the film to interpret the code or sign that are indicated in the film.
2. What is the intended message?
From the film, there is a scene shows that an ape throws a bone to the air after it is inspired to use the bone as a tool or weapon, and then followed by a scene showing an orbiting satellite. As the bone is flying in the air, it rotates in clockwise. The bone could be a symbol of the hour and minute hands of a clock. Thus the spinning of bone signifies the passing of time. Besides that, there is a match-cut that shows prehistoric bone-weapon to orbiting satellite. The top of the satellite has a bone shape feature that could connotates that the satellite is a weapon like the bone.
Moreover, the monolith itself is a symbolic sign. It represent the evolutionary step is being taken. It is like the source of inspiration and the power to make changes in life. The monolith also indicates the challenge that faced by human in the journey of exploration.
3. What cultural assumptions, or codes, are called upon to read this text?
& 6. How far does the text reflect or depart from dominant cultural values?
& 6. How far does the text reflect or depart from dominant cultural values?
The codes that could be read from the film are the props, setting and costumes. The tribes of apes were living in harmony before the monolith is implanted at their tribe. However, after an ape has discovered the usage of bones as weapon, the tribes of apes started to against each other for water and food. The ones who have power and authority are the survivors.
In the other scene of the film, it could be seen that the setting has become more advanced and futuristic. The human are free to travel through space and not showing any uncomfortable feeling. The film is produced in the 60s where the time is at the beginning stage of development of technology and space exploration. Yet, the film has showed the props, setting and costumes which are not exist in that era. The characters in the film able to converse through video call like how we use ‘Skype’ nowadays. The development of technology are not barely for survive but for the convenience in life.
4. What background information is important to read this text?
The film, 2001: A Space Odyssey is produced in the 1960s. That period of time is dominated by the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The 1960s was the decade which marked one of the peaks in the development of space exploration. On 20 July 1969, the United States’ Apollo 11 mission landed the first humans on the Moon for the first time in the history.
5. What sort of reality does the text construct and how does it do it?
& 11. What is the influence of this text on reality or humanity?
The reality that constructed from the film would be people would do anything for survival. Thus, human constantly creates and invent tools. The use tools are to solve problems and fulfill human’s needs. Eventually, this guides the people to the pursuit of new technology.
However, human’s thinking changes over time. They become violent and greedy gradually. The pursuit of greater power affects the humanity. Human creates and use more and more advanced tools to get the power that couldn’t be obtained by human means. They would never know that they are losing the skills they are good in and get control by the tools that created by themselves.
7. What are alternate readings?
Throughout the film, the appearance of the monolith, a black rectangular box is always very sudden and mysterious. Whenever the monolith appears, Gyorgi Ligetti’s music piece, ‘Requiem’ is played. We hear the music when the apes first encounter the monolith in the movie scene that we have chosen, ‘the dawn of man’. Ligetti’s music has the quality of mystery that able to evoke audience’s sense of timelessness. The music corresponds with the characteristic of the monolith, which is its mysterious makes its occurrence uncertain.
At the opening of the film, all we could see is an empty black screen with a classical music playing at the background. The scene is quite similar as the moment where the tribe of apes discovers a monolith is implanted and staring at it. We are looking at the empty black screen at the opening scene as if we are ‘the apes’ staring at the monolith as well. It shows a not so obvious sign which indicates we are like the apes, experienced the stage of human evolution in the past. We, human discover and use tools as weapon or power. It leads us to move towards a journey to find and explore new things like technology. The journey is not only leading to human evolution and development of technology, our human thinking also changes with the times. Human were once has the characteristic of being fear and curious about new things. Due to the curiosity, we were able to soar at the peak of human evolution.
8. Has this text been read extensively outside the intended audience? If so, does this reading differ, and why?
The 2001: A Space Odyssey is not an ordinary film that tells the story of human evolutionary stages in different time through visual and dialogue only. The various modes of denotation and connotation in film require thinking and some imagination. Hence, this is where the interpretation takes place when they are thinking about the meaning that wanted to express through the film. If the audiences do no understand the background information of the film, they may not able to analysis the implicit meanings.
9. What texts have influenced this text, and what texts have been influenced by this text?
The film is based on parts of various short stories written by a science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, whom later collaborated with Kubrick on the film’s screenplay. The most notably is “The Sentinel”, written in 1948 and first published in 1951 as “Sentinel of Eternity”. The story deals with the discovery of an artifact on Earth’s Moon left behind by ancient aliens.
Kubrick’s film has a he impact on subsequent sci-fi filmmakers. The epic blockbuster sci-fi movies, The Star Wars series is inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In Star Wars, Darth Vader’s amplified respiration may have been influenced by the scene in 2001 where Dave was outside the spaceship and only his breathing sound could be heard as background music.
10. How did, or will this text’s meaning change over time?
For me, I think the meaning of the film will not change over time even though the film is produced in the 60s. The film has showed the stage of human evolution as well as the development of technology in different era. It is exactly like what we are undergoing at the moment. The signs indicated in the film actually let us to know and understand better on the past, knowledge and experience of ancient people on the discovery of new technology.
12. How does this text relate to your own values?
Through this meaningful film, it makes me think that the advancement of technology is really important in our life regardless of where we are. But, instead of gaining wisdom and knowledge of different aspect and practice it, the younger generations are seem to be merely learning the knowledge of using tool and using the tools for convenience. Just like in the film, man has to learn to walk again in space. We are gradually losing the basic living skills as relying on the tools too much
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**I have combined some of the questions to answer as i think they are related in some way. I am not sure whether my answers are off topic. if you think the answers are lack of something or need to be edited. pls do correct me. thx~~
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