Beyond the Screen - HNC Media (Clydebank) students

Discussion Page 8
A Screen Odyssey
Movie makers take inspiration from many sources. However, is
it possible that what they create can actually change the world
around them?
By Scott Dorman
Just fourteen months
prior to Neil Armstrong’s
iconic “small step for
man” in 1969, MGM
Studios released Stanley
Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space
Odyssey’, which promised
- and undoubtedly
delivered - “a majestic
visual masterpiece”.
Its production took
just over three years to
complete and, thanks to
the revolutionary filming
techniques employed, it
captured imaginations and
to this day stands as one
of the greatest science
fiction features of all time.
Kubrick recruited British
David Bowman: Portrayed by Keir Dullea in 1969’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey
science fiction (and fact)
writer and inventor Arthur
C. Clarke in developing
a scientifically sound
screenplay, with the author
simultaneously producing
a literary version of the
story. ‘2001’ is a cryptic,
trippy tale spanning man’s
evolution from primitive
ape-man to space-faring
humans first encountering
alien life. Each stage in the
evolutionary advancement
is curiously overseen by the
mysterious, haunting black
monolith, which - as is
argued by many a YouTube
user - could possibly
represent the cinema
screen itself. Is Kubrick
using it to emphasise the
transformative power of
cinema? Almost 50 years
on, the film is still massively
influential; former
US President Barack
Obama named it one of
his favourites, saying it
“captures the grandeur and
scale of the unknown”.