Film Analysis (2001: A Space Odyssey | Goodfellas) [Part 4]

There is a lot of interesting mise-en-scene in 2001. For example, the first 19 or so minutes of the film take place on prehistoric Earth. All of the realistic backgrounds in this section were meticulously composited ‘in-camera’ using pioneering front projection with retroreflective matting: a technique used long before the adoption of green/blue screens to combine foreground action with background footage. Front projection involves using a one-way (half-silvered) mirror to reflect the projected image onto the highly reflective backdrop and then balancing the reflected light cast on the subject with external lights to combine the foreground and background elements. This technique, still in its infancy at the time, had only been used on smaller scale sets before so, to scale the practice to a small sound stage, it required a custom projector and seamless retroreflective material that was custom-built or improvised: respectively. Although chroma-keying (‘green screening’) has been the standard since the 1990s, a derivative of this technique has recently has had something akin to a resurgence. The use of rear-projected LED screens and real-time rendering, especially with the release of Unreal Engine 5, may once again allow for actors to respond to the environment around them and be more accurately, physically, lit ‘in camera’. The majority of actors in this scene, save the pigs and two infant chimpanzees, are dressed in realistic ape costumes and makeup and exhibit primate behaviour. Richter and the other ‘man-apes’ studied apes at London Zoo and analysed footage of gorillas and apes for months to accurately mimic their movements. 

At the beginning of my chosen scene, Bowman tries to reason with HAL. Above the chin, Bowman is illuminated by the different coloured lights emanating from the terminal in front of him. When he realises that HAL is unwilling to open the pod bay doors through fear of being disconnected, he promptly abandons the idea of reasoning with HAL and, as he considers how to enter the ship and then explains this to HAL, he is consistently bathed in red light; highlighting his, equally sinister, intentions. 

Dr. David Bowman in an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) pod. “I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do…” [HAL] 

GIF demonstrating the lighting changes: https://64.media.tumblr.com/644ee1a957d9b09ef230715abdce8b73/ae2f2ae88e3c6b05-54/s540x810/02f75a6e2f4217c667e858d62377c608b094ae76.gifv 

Bowman‘s body language is stiff and controlled: although it is obvious from his voice that he is struggling to remain calm in the situation as, in addition to jettisoning himself into the airlock without a helmet, he must let go of his deceased crewmember, Frank, both literally and emotionally, as he will not be able to save him. Red is used extensively throughout this scene; in Bowman‘s bright red spacesuit, the red lights of the unpressurised airlock, the all-seeing red eye of HAL and in the glowing oblong red circles found in HAL’s processor core. All colours apart from red or black are washed out from most of the sets. As is the case of the entire film, dialogue is quite redundant, with around 88 dialogue-free minutes. HAL often contributes the most insightful or interesting lines of dialogue; therefore, when HAL’s circuits are slowly disconnected, even though HAL is incapable of feeling any real guilt or accepting any responsibility for their actions, we strongly feel the frustration inherent in the irony of this dichotomy: humankind has appeared to devolve back into the ape-like mentality seen at the beginning of the film, killing the more sophisticated ‘bone’ they have created. Kubrick’s interpretation of how a computer’s higher ‘brain’ functions would dissolve as they are disconnected is incredibly compelling. After initially pleading with Bowman to stop, HAL reveals that they are afraid and then repeats “my mind is going”, “I can feel it” and “there is no question about it” until these higher brain functions are completely shut off. This gives a sense of injustice and brutality about the way Bowman must slowly and methodically disconnect HAL. After these functions have shut down, HAL then reverts to delivering the type of formal introduction, stating information such as when they became operational, that we would expect a user-friendly computer of today to do when reset. This demonstrates the fact that they have devolved and now operate at a much lower epistemological capacity or order of consciousness. According to Robert Kegan’s constructivist interpretations of consciousness, with categories adjusted for a non-human mind, HAL has moved from the second order of consciousness (they have wishes and desires that can act independently (and a self that is separate) from the other crewmembers and have ‘human’ instincts of self-preservation) to the lowest order of consciousness (they are an extension of the crew and the ship (a tool, such as the bone that the ape used) and they have no real self-awareness beyond what they are pre-programmed to say.) 

Shots of Bowman, inside the pod, are neutral, medium shots, which contrast the extreme close-up shots of HAL’s eye and wide shots of the pod in space. When Bowman is in space, the claustrophobia of being trapped in a small space pod is accentuated by the long and static shots of the interior and exterior of the pod. After Bowman enters the Discovery One, the camera becomes handheld as Bowman heads directly towards HAL’s processor core; in dirty over the shoulder shots, highlighting the sense of repressed anger and vengeance Bowman must feel for his fallen crewmember, and in low angle shots that emphasise Bowman’s dominance, now that he has entered the ship, as he fills most of the frame and appears taller. Past this point, all close-up shots of HAL’s eye have Bowman’s reflection in them: showing us that, now Bowman has entered the ship, HAL is powerless to stop him and can only passively observe as they are disconnected. There are multiple angles in the processor core, which are disorienting. There are wide shots of the scene from directly above and below a weightless Bowman, showing all the reflections of the many lights in the metal cage off Bowman’s suit: allowing Bowman’s actions to be viewed from many different surfaces. 

The lighting in the scene is completely artificial, emanates from several sources and is principally red and white. Dim green and blue lights from the instruments in the back of the pod give some backlighting to Bowman but mainly function purely to show some of the background detail. The light from the main control console, in front of Bowman, illuminates his minimal facial expressions; creating an uncomfortable performance, to the point where the pod’s movements are a welcome relief. 

We would expect Bowman, as the protagonist, to have a deeper understanding of the situation and try and reason more with HAL instead of repeatedly calling out ‘HAL’ and then taking a long time to give simple and ineffectual responses: similar to the chess game between crewmate Poole and HAL, where Poole took far longer than HAL to make a move that turned out to be wrong, could not spot why he had lost and may not have understood HAL’s clear explanation as to why: resigning anyway. This shows that humans have become outstripped by artificial intelligence and have become emotionally hollow and slow-witted. As Bowman enters the ship, he brings the eerie red light with him which replaces the calm mood of the empty ship. This rush to revert the ship into the manic rhythm of human life once again highlights the inherent problems humankind still faces in this stage of its evolution. 

While Bowman is inside the pod, there are the sounds of the machines running and Bowman’s dialogue. However, this is cut with wide shots of the outside of the pod where, due to the vacuum of space, there is no sound at all: creating a jarring sonic experience. This juxtaposition is furthered by the piercing siren when the explosive bolts on the door are about to fulminate, set against the silence of the airlock before it seals. Additionally, beyond this point, the diegetic sound of Bowman’s shallow breathing dominates the film’s audio: underscoring this effect. The breathing also drowns out HAL’s reassuring voice: indicating that Bowman is tired of HAL’s deception. There is no music during this scene, as is the case with most speaking parts of the film, so the audience’s attention is entirely focused on Bowman’s breathing and HAL’s assuages. Sound is always parallel to the on-screen action. When shutting down, HAL’s final act was to sing the song ‘Daisy Bell’ for Bowman; a tribute to the IBM 704, specially programmed by John Larry Kelly, which was the first computer to synthesise human song: singing 17 seconds of the same lay. This solidifies the concept of HAL reverting to being a 20th century user-friendly, non-conscious, computer, as opposed to completely shutting down after they fully relinquish their consciousness. 

The pace of editing initially in my scene is slow and features extended shots of the interior and exterior of the pod. There are few sound bridges here, as HAL’s voice only occasionally overlays shots of the ship, all cuts are straight and continuity rules are obeyed. When we enter the ship, however, the editing style changes with the camerawork. Shots are still mostly quite long, with lots of action and multiple lines of dialogue per shot. Some continuity rules are broken; namely, when following Bowman, the 180-degree rule is broken several times, such as when Bowman ascends the ladder to the processor core, and eyelines are not matched when HAL looks through multiple lenses at Bowman. The scene has no elements of non-continuity.