Robotic Humans and the Humanity of Robots
The most obvious and thematically rich irony of the film, of course, is that aboard the Discovery space ship on its secret mission that will ultimately prove to be a rendezvous with the next evolutionary leap for the human species, the most human being on board is the ship’s computer, HAL. The great leap that took the ascent of man from their ape ancestors in to space travel in the blink of an eye has proven to be on that by the dawn of the 21st century has allowed technological advancement to reduce the need for communication between humans to a point at which they seemingly have lost the desire to communicate as well. The flesh and blood characters inhabiting the film are ironically more robotically lacking in personality than the assemblage of machinery given the power to talk in a soothing monotone. This make the computer no different from the humans except that at least he speaks, the monotone has interesting stuff to say.
Daisy, Daisy....
Stanley Kubrick is always just as precise in his selection of music to accompany his visual as he is in creating the visuals so it no mere happenstance that HAL’s death throws revert back to the song that represents one of the first bit of information with which his memory was programmed. The ironic counterpart of such lyrics as “give me your answer do” relative HAL’s commitment to keeping secret from the human passenger aboard the Discovery the answer to the questions they posed about the real truth of the mission and his final pathetic rendering of the lyric “I’m half crazy” as his deprogramming becomes the technological equivalent of Alzheimer’s is so heartbreaking as to underscore once again that the only character the audience is given a chance to identify with a machine.
The Gift of the Monolith
The most famous scene in 2001 is the of the bone being thrown into the air by one of man’s ape ancestors after the strange black monolithic structure chooses him to become the central figure in the next stage of evolution. The gift of the monolith is the spark of intelligence that is directly manifested in the evolutionary advancement created by the making and use of the first tools. The most primitive of tools resulting from this ability to see the bonds of decayed animals as something that should be kept to assist rather than discarded as useless were directed toward the most important consideration: getting something to eat. As man uses this spark of intelligence to create more sophisticated tools, he will ironically continue taking ever more steps closer to utterly subverting the evolutionary imperative of this gift of the monolith. The monolith’s gift is intelligence jumpstarts evolution, but man’s insistent desire to use that intelligence to create tools that kill each other threatens it even into 21st century as Russia and America remains locked in a pre-Trump state of antagonism.
Communications Breakdown
This reliance upon technology to fulfill tasks that used to require of humans effort and engagement with others soon proves to have had the effective a regression backward from evolution in the sphere of communication. The extent to which humans have forgotten how to communicate with each other is revealed in one of the film’s most searing ironic images: assuming their conversation is beyond the reach of the Machiavellian reach of HAL to learn whatever he needs to know, the astronauts give away their secret plan to unplug the computer for good ironically during the one time they really make effort to communicate with each other. The fact that HAL is capable of reading lips apparently was never communicated to them.
Visual Spectacle
Aside from the humanity of HAL, perhaps the most ironic aspect of 2001: A Space Odyssey is one that exists outside its narrative confines somewhat. The film is often considered sumptuous visual feast that is much closer to pure cinema that most other Hollywood products since the silent period. Upon its initial release into theater, a favorite mode of viewing film among its fans in the 1960s counterculture was under the influence of illegal drugs which is reputed to have enhanced the visceral visual experience in ways impossible for those who minds were not being altered by chemicals The irony is that for a movie which takes place almost entirely in outer space, few of its memorable images earning it the distinction of being feast for the eyes are related to the natural awe of to be seen from that location. The trippy light show at the end, the special effects inside and outside the spacecraft are all entirely imaginative and fictional. The even greater irony is that the experience of traveling through that awesome spectacle known as outer space is presented as tedious and boring and anything but an exciting feast for the eyes.
