Timewave 2013 --Articles

By Jay Weidner

This Article is now available in Spanish

It is important to remember that , unlike Citizen Kane and other great films, '2001' was a smash hit. It was actually the first film where repeat business kept it going for months at the box office. Nowadays it is common for a person to see a film like 'Titanic' or 'Star Wars' a number of times. Hollywood accountants depend on this for their decisions. '2001' took an entire generation by storm. It was the late '60's and the largest generation on the planet was seeing the film on a ritualized basis. Cinerama theaters across the country reported scores of 'drugged-out' hippies flocking to the theater on a nightly basis to 'trip out' on the film.

Strangely though, no one in the audience really seemed to know what the film was about. The film seemed to cause everyone to come away with a different interpretation. And no one could adequately explain the last 25 minutes. It was generally agreed that this was the most controversial part of the entire movie. Indeed many thousands of hours were taken up in coffee houses and dormitories, in universities and colleges, discussing the various possible meanings that the ending was describing. Everyone agreed that it had something to do with transformation, but no one knew really much more than that. Even Arthur C. Clarke, who helped Stanley write the script, didn't understand the unusual ending. And Stanley wasn't talking. He steadfastly refused to discuss what '2001' was about to anyone. In the rare interviews that he did give, concerning the film, he again refused to discuss the content at all. Most critics at the time thought that Kubrick simply did not know how to conclude the movie so he contrived this ending. I can assure you that this is not so. The ending to the '2001' explains everything that Stanley is conveying in the rest of the film. Without the ending, the film would be nearly worthless. It is in that ending that Kubrick reveals his deep inner profound knowledge of alchemy, gnosticism and the ancient view of the spirit domain.

Reading through many critical reviews of the film I find it amazing that no one really understands what is happening. There are some very erudite explanations that do cover parts of the plot, yet no one really gets it. The late film critic, Paulene Kael, so thoroughly misunderstands the film that she calls it: 'a monumentally unimaginative movie'.

A description in a movie guide calls it a 'science fiction drama about a computer who takes over a spaceship'. This is like saying that the works of art on the ceiling at Sistine Chapel are 'some paintings about the Bible'. Even today, in the year 1999, while this is being written, I still find no one that understands the film. Looking through hundreds of web sites devoted to '2001' I fail to find even one reference to the esoteric or alchemical nature of the film. Scanning through esoteric and alchemical websites also fails to find anyone who understands the true esoteric nature of the film.

It is almost like Stanley built this film so that people at some future date would finally understand it, possibly in the year 2001?

As an aside it is important to not underestimate Arthur C. Clarke's important contributions to '2001'. After all the script is ostensibly based on his short story 'The Sentinel'. Written in 1953, it tells the story of a group of astronauts who discover an artifact on the moon that is left by an alien race. Truthfully though the movie is more properly based on Clarke's novel Childhood's End. This fabulous novel is a science fiction treatment of an essential Gnostic ideal or mythology. There can be no doubt that Kubrick had read Childhood's End and understood it's real significance. By aligning himself up with Arthur C. Clark, Kubrick was able to bring in these Gnostic, alchemical ideas through the convention of science fiction.

It has always been a mystery as to where Arthur C. Clarke came up with the idea for Childhood's End. He insists that he knew nothing of gnosticism or ancient magical traditions when he wrote the book that many have proclaimed to be the best ever written in the genre of science fiction. Whatever Clarke wants us to believe is not the subject of this essay. Suffice to say that Clarke was a well-read individual. It appears odd that he wouldn't have known of the Gnostic traditions. Kubrick, unlike Clarke, proves that he knows what he is doing at every step and this is the real reason why he is not talking about the film to anyone.

Stanley himself invented many of the special effects in '2001'. The images of real people moving around inside the windows of the flying spacecraft was an ingenious invention that revolutionized the way movies would look from then on. Even Steven Spielberg and George Lucas admit what they owe to Stanley for his ground breaking technical breakthroughs. Like Citizen Kane, the vision and power of the film changed the way that all of cinema would look after it. This is true, especially, for science fiction films, which all seem to pay homage to '2001' in one-way or another.

Let's begin with a description of the film so that we can place everything in context. The very first shot of the film is a magical sun-earth-moon alignment. We are witnessing the end of a lunar eclipse. The sun is pulling away from this rare alignment. The shot is taken from just beyond the moon's point of view. The Earth is rising over the moon, with the sun rising over the Earth. The soundtrack is the 'World Riddle' theme from Strauss', 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'. Right away, from the beginning, Kubrick is showing the viewer the relationship between the writings of the philosopher Frederick Nietzche and his film, between transformation and extinction. The Zarathustra essays by Nietzche are his most revealing and magical. Zarathustra is the great prophet of the Zoroastrians, who are the early holders of the great alchemical tradition. Kubrick is saying that this film echoes the words of Zarathustra who taught of the great transformation from the mundane to the angelic. This is one of the most dramatic openings in the history of the cinema. It is important to note that these magical, celestial alignments are dotted throughout the film and that they hold a key to the main theme.

Even after a superficial analysis of '2001' one realizes that Kubrick is never doing anything in the film that is spontaneous. Every shot has a meaning that Kubrick is attempting to convey in a truly magical way. 'If you see this film, you will be transformed', he seems to be saying from the very beginning. 'The Riddle of the World' will be explained to you. And the first answer to this great question has to do with these stunning, magical alignments of celestial bodies. One of the main tenets of alchemy is that planetary and celestial alignments cause dramatic events to occur on Earth. One of the most dramatic of these alchemical alignments are solar and lunar eclipses. From the very beginning of the film there is this magic moment when three worlds line up. Something amazing is about to happen. But what is the major event that occurs on Earth because of the lunar eclipse? I believe that it is the film itself that is being conjured by this solar/lunar magical alignment. Every time that '2001' is shown - this lunar eclipse precedes it - like an astrological, celestial marker.

The next shot in the film is a sunrise taken from down on the surface of the earth. Where are we? and when are we? Kubrick answers the question with a subtitle: The Dawn of Man. This is the first of four chapters in the film. In alchemy the process of the transmutation of the spirit goes through four stages, or realms. Kubrick also breaks the film into the four aspects. In the 'green language' or the 'language of the birds' of alchemy, many of the messages and writings can be broken down into this type of four-part transmission. The quatrains of Nostradamus, the inscription on the mysterious cross at Hendaye, and many other examples show that this secret alchemical language unfolds this way for a reason. This is the first of four parts in the film. Each separate part will expand out into more vast realms that mirror those of alchemy and the Great Work.

The next few scenes in Chapter One show a typical day in the life of the apemen who thrived on Earth millions of years ago. They forage for food, cower from their enemies (mostly portrayed by a leopard) and they exist in a meaningless, never-ending sequence of events, that are mostly concerned with survival. Kubrick has no romantic feeling for these man/apes. In a sense they go about their business without any knowledge of the outer universe. Their only quest is for food and water. Kubrick even creates a scene of a pathetic wrangling between two tribes of the apemen over a watering hole. There is no violence in this scene, only grunts and gestures. The apemen do not know how to be violent, not just yet. The apemen go to sleep in their cave with the cries of the nocturnal carnivores filling their ears. It is a dark and lonely universe that Kubrick reveals. There is no magic here.

But the magic is there. It waits until the dawn of the next day to appear. This scene is perhaps the most compelling and beautiful that has ever graced the screen. The lead apeman wakes up to catch the first rays of the sun coming up over the horizon. As he opens his eyes he sees something that is totally impossible. In a world of scrub bushes, sharp rocks and dangerous animals, the apeman has never seen anything like the object that stands before him. Standing in the middle of the tribe of apemen is a black, stone monolith. It stands about 12 feet high. Its rectangular edges are flawless and exquisite as it stands like a sentinel in the middle of the sleeping apemen.

The soundtrack is playing Ligeti's 'Requiem' and 'Lux Aeterna', which sounds like a psychedelic Gregorian chant. This is a religious and spiritual moment of great importance. Kubrick is not hiding this in any way.

The leader of the apemen begins to become frighten. He jumps up and down and begins grunting and chattering as he beholds the magnificence of this monolith. The other apemen are awakened by his noises and they too see the black monolith. The entire tribe starts going completely crazy. They dance and scream as they frightfully contemplate this strange and beautiful arrival into their mundane existence. The leader of the apeman is beside himself. He carefully crawls over to the monolith. He attempts to touch it, but his fear is so great that he pulls his hand back. One more time, as the music on the soundtrack becomes more numinous, he attempts to touch the absolutely pure and straight edge of this visiting slab of rock. Slowly he gathers the strength necessary and his fingers touch the smooth sides. Kubrick gives this moment an indefinable sensuality. The way that the fingers of the apeman brush gently along the smooth sides of the monolith are as sexual as this film is going to get. With the sacred music mixing with the magical alignments, Kubrick is saying that this is a great spiritual moment. As soon as the lead apeman has gotten up the nerve to touch the monolith, Kubrick cuts to a dynamic shot of the monolith lying directly under a magical moon, sun alignment. This scene is occurring just after a solar eclipse. The sun and the moon have just parted from their eclipsed point. Once again an eclipse has preceded an intiatory event. This is exactly what Kubrick is attempting to tell us. The monolith appears when there are certain magical alignments of the sun, moon and stars. Again this is of a deep alchemical significance. Kubrick is telling us, flat out, that the sun, moon and stars are directing our destiny.

This is the first time in the film that the black monolith appears. When one considers the entire film it becomes apparent that this is, really, the story of the black monolith. In fact, Kubrick magically cuts out all of human history in the famous shot where the bone turns into a spaceship. In this cut Kubrick completely dispenses with everything that has happened to the human race and goes directly to the very next human encounter with the monolith. He does this throughout the film. The only story that he is concerned with telling is that of the monolith. The first time that this black stone appears in the film it is revealed in a very religious and spiritually styled motif. This stone, this monolith, has invaded the apeman's reality and he will be forever altered by this encounter. The monolith is a turning point in the history of man. It is directly intervening with our history. It is directing us on a path that it has chosen. Kubrick shows us that we don't have all that much to do with these grand decisions. They are being made elsewhere. Someone else is making them. But who? Is it God? Aliens? A false god? And these interventions are not necessarily majestic, noble and wonderful. Kubrick is clearly showing that this intervention is a descent, in a way, both for the ape and for man.

The next episode, after the monolith appears, is the famous scene where the apeman leader is sitting in a pile of animal bones and realizes - again clearly defined by Kubrick as an intervention into the mind of the apeman by the monolith - that the bone can be used as a weapon. To the music of the World Riddle theme, again from Strauss' 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra', the apeman suddenly understands that he can kill animals by using the bone as a club. The very next scene shows that the apemen are no longer scrounging for seeds and leaves, instead they are eating raw meat, presumably from an animal that they have just killed with their bone club. Kubrick clearly shows this action in a way that makes the meat appear extremely repulsive.

Finally, he ends the first sequence with another confrontation between the two ape tribes by the water hole. This time, though, the leader of the apemen now has a bone club in his hand. The other tribe goes into their ritualized shouting and gesturing in order to show that they can dominate the water hole. The leader of the other tribe runs up. He yells at the apeman who holds the bone in his hands. The leader of the tribe of bone-wielders places both hands on the 'handle' of his weapon and strikes the other ape in the head, killing him instantly. The leader of the rival apemen falls down to the ground motionless. This stuns and frightens the apemen in the rival tribe and they run away. Kubrick then shows the other apemen in the tribe come forth and pound their bone weapons on the body of the dead rival apeman. Kubrick pulls no punches here. He wants you to know that this first murder is an act of cowardice. He shows the meek apemen pounding their bones on the dead body and acting as if they had done something incredible in this act of murder.

The leader of the apemen, the first murderer, howls victoriously and throws his bone into the air. This is where Kubrick magically transforms the bone into a spaceship and rejects all of human history in one-twenty-fourth of a second. In his audacity, Kubrick is telling us that all of history is meaningless. He dispenses all of civilization as if it were insignificant. And, in a way, that is the complete point. He is telling us that the apemen's encounter with the monolith and whatever is about to happen in this film is vastly more important than all of the wars, famines, births, marriages, deaths, disasters, discoveries and art of the last 4 million years.