Space Odssey

Probably one of the most complex films I have ever watched, with messages and ideas embedded in every scene, making it hard to watch it for entertainment value, instead I found myself analyzing it constantly. Two scenes in particular left a rather strong impression upon me. The first being the scene where Dave is disengaging H-A-L who has betrayed them by murdering Frank and boycotting the mission, this leads Dave to shut H-A-L down and in the process he is shown to be dismantling human logic, by destroying the computer built by man comprised of human knowledge. Now this struck me as mirroring the first scene, as man is having to start from the beginning and develop alone without the aid of technology, is this commenting on technologies overwhelming grip over the human race? Or is the film saying that we don't need technology in order to advance? Either way I couldn't help but feel that this film was slightly opposed to technology, because it eventually showed it betraying man, also by featuring food in paste form, new age toilets etc it conveyed technology as being responsible for creating a bland and sterile existence.

The second scene is the apes discovery of the bone as a weapon; which results in their progression and the act of war. This I thought was a very truthful representation of how we as humans have progressed, which is what I feel the film was trying to show, in particular how we use acts of war to get what we want and define our progression, for example the Iraq war which in my opinion was a war created to obtain their oil, and enable the continuation of our own progression .The use of an obelisk I found also to be very interesting as the obelisk symbolizes in Egypt the beginning, where the first rays of light shone on the earth, this is significant as its appearance at the beginning and later on in the film poses the question: are we really advancing? Or are we just constantly rebuilding after failed attempts to progress?