I know this may seem like a dumb question, but it's been a while since I watched this movie, and some details from my memory are a bit foggy.
So when Dave enters what seemed like a vortex of psychedelic colors...that was supposed to represent what it looked like to land on Jupiter?
Nah I believe it was Kubrick's representation of a dimensional shift (wormhole?). In the book, which isn't necessarily Kubrick's interpretation, it's a "star gate" which leads Bowman on a tour through alien civilizations before dumping him in a menagerie where he's studied by the monolith makers.
I really don't think Kubrick was thinking that literally; to me the movie is meant to show us an abstract "enlightenment". Kubrick was pretty tight lipped about the whole thing so we may never know for sure.
What you're thinking about may be the sequel 2010 where, someone correct me if I'm wrong, we learn that Bowman reached the monolith orbiting Jupiter, looked inside, uttered the cryptic words "My God, its full of stars" and vanished.
Thanks for responding!
You provided a pretty good explanation. I know some people say that Stanley Kubrick is overrated...but still, I find some of the symbolism and mystery in his films to be quite interesting. Like you said 'we may never know for sure'.
To quote Airplane, "What a pisser." Yeah I know art is subjective, and it's up to the viewer to interpret, but I'd pay good money for Kubrick to explain it once and for all. I read the Arthur C Clarke books (2001, 2010, 2061) which follow 1 possible explanation, but I'm convinced Kubrick had something else in mind.
I've had a mild obsession with tracking down any interviews Kubrick has ever given on the subject, and the only clues I ever found were 1) it touches on his personal belief in God/gods but is ultimately a mystery, and 2) No, he was NOT on drugs when he did the final scenes haha
PS I recommend the movie 2010 even though it takes a different approach. It catches a lot of heat for being a sequel to such an un-sequelable movie, but I think Hyams did a great job (he also directed Capricorn One & Outland).
I don't know if you've been following the recent science news that Jupiter's red spot is shrinking/rising, but that's so close to something that happens in 2010, it's absolutely creepy.
> I read the Arthur C Clarke books (2001, 2010, 2061) which follow 1 possible explanation, but I'm convinced Kubrick had something else in mind.
True. If there were any two completely different types of story-tellers it would be Kubrick and Clarke. Kubrick was working in a completely new medium telling a story that I am not sure he even understood, and maybe that is his genius - not being heavy-handed and nailing everything down. I thought "Interstellar" did a great job or this as well, though the beginning and a lot of it was fairly cheezy.
Clarke on the other hand is such a literalist. His books are all engineering and process. Kubrick is emotions and subconscious. The teamwork really created something wonderful and at just the right time for me as a kid to appreciate the wonder of.
Jupiter is a gas giant. You cannot land on it. If the radiation and gravity would not pulverize you long before reaching it, the gas pressure sure will do the job.
shareOh trust me, I know all about the science surrounding planet Jupiter. I find outer space downright fascinating. But then again...I thought maybe that was supposed to be the point. I assumed that all of those psychedelic colors and what-not, might have been the gases on Jupiter. And even though Jupiter has no discovered or confirmed landing point, I thought maybe that was supposed to be the representation of the whole scene. Diving into the unknown.
share> Diving into the unknown.
That is pretty close I think.
That is described in the book as the wonders of the universe being revealed to him, that transformed him into the "Star-child". It was not done very well, but the sequence was, monolith on Earth that transformed apes into intelligent creatures; monolith on the moon that sent the message to the ???? whatever they were aliens, Star-children, whatever that humans had space travel and technology; finally, monolith orbiting Jupiter that Bowman tried to land on and then went through and said ... "My god, it's full of stars." That was the whole light show thing, and the white room was supposed to be some kind of reference point while he made the transformation.
That is my understanding.