Space Odyssey second draft

Kellee Grahn
Space Odyssey Review
Second Draft


The Space Odyssey was very confusing to me. I’m not really into science fiction movies like that so it was hard for me to follow. It was known to be one of the greatest films ever made when it came out. “A Space Odyssey is so acclaimed by mainstream critics – it is one of the most eminently visual of all science-fiction films. Spaceflight had been depicted on screen before but never with such realism – there is the breathtaking visual poetry of the scenes where Stanley Kubrick shows us the docking with a space station and Moon landing where spaceships gracefully twirl and dock in freefall all to the sweep and lull of Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube waltz. This is why 2001 is great as science-fiction because it is a demonstration of what science-fiction can conjure in the visual medium .” I also have to consider the time period that it was made. They didn’t have all the special effects that we do, so for that time period, I think the viewers were impressed. I liked seeing how they thought the future was going to be. It was interesting to see what they thought was going to happen in 2001.
In the beginning, it went kind of slow. The movie had a lot of shots of deserted land for about ten minutes. Then we began to see violent apes with very little water and food. One morning, the apes wake up and see that there is a suspicious monolith outside their cave. After this discovery, the “Dawn of Man” begins and the apes slowly but surely begin to turn into humans. At one point, one of the apes finds bones from a dead animal. The scene depicts the ape’s thought process as he gradually puts two and two together and uses the bone as a toll of survival. I believe this was supposed to represent evolution and how far mankind has come.
Millions and millions of years later in 2001, things have changed. Technology is outstanding, and five scientists are on their way to Jupiter. These scientists are equipped with HAL. HAL is a remarkable computer that is thought of to never fail. However, HAL detects a problem with the communicating hardware and ends up being wrong. Dave Bowman and Frank Poole, who are two of the astronauts on the mission, talk about deactivating HAL. What they do not know is HAL can read their lips and from then on plots revenge on the two unknowing men. This is the major turning point because it turns this mission into a dangerous, and deadly operation.
Watching the movie, I had no interest in it. It was very hard for me to keep up with the plot and understand it. It wasn’t until I researched it after that I even fully understood it and what is was actually about. When I read the reviews of the movie, I taken aback at how amazing critics thought this movie was. Then I began to realize when this was made and slowly I began to understand the significance of this movie. In my generation, there is so much technology that can make special effects in movies look as if they are realistic. I decided I was being bias of this movie. For its time, 2001 The Space Odyssey was an exceptional film. Stanley Kubrick had to have a brilliant mind to think of all the futuristic technology. Man himself had not even landed on the moon yet in 1968 when this film was released. This shows that the technology such as HAL and most of the other interesting things that were depicted in the movie were imagined. Most of the technology shown in the beginning is white, which to me, makes it look new, modern, and clean. The people in the movie act like the technology is no big deal. They act like they have been around it forever. I think by the actors doing this, it made the technology seem even more realistic. Nothing goes wrong in the beginning and the astronauts have trust in their technology. On the other hand, as the movie goes on, we see that HAL not only fails the humans, but turns on them. People knew about the moon and space, and just a year later, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I thought that that was very interesting. However, 2001 A Space Odyssey was not about the moon, it was about landing on Jupiter which is an even bigger deal at that time.

space odyssey

Kellee Grahn
Space Odyssey Review
First Draft


The Space Odyssey was very confusing to me. I’m not really into science fiction movies like that so it was hard for me to follow it. It was known to be one of the greatest films ever made when it came out. I also have to consider the time period that it was made. They didn’t have all the special effects that we do, so for that time period, I think the viewers were impressed. I liked seeing how they thought the future was going to be. It was interested to see what they thought was going to happen in 2001.
In the beginning, it went kin of slow. The movie showed a bunch of apes and deserted land. The apes go from being just regular monkeys with barely any food to almost human like creatures. The one ape figures out how to use a bone as a tool and I think that was symbolizing the dawn of man. Dr. Floyd is one of the main characters. He goes up into space in a elaborate space ship. I don’t think that is how space shuttles look these days, but again, that was what they thought in 1968. I was really confused when he was in the all white building because I didn’t know if he was in space or on earth. Nobody was floating around or anything, but when he looked out the window, he saw space. That part was not clear to me. Floyd’s mission is to go examine an artifact on the moon. When they arrive on the moon, they see a tall column-like object. It looks like the same object that was discovered by the apes in the very beginning of the movie.
Dave, Frank and Hal are two men going on a mission to Jupiter. They discover that the antenna that lets them get in reach with the people on earth is going to break. This part was really hard for me to follow. I was very confused the whole time. Dave and Frank want to replace the unit but if they did they would have to deactivate Hal. Hal sees them talking about deactivating him. He ends up being deactivated.
The end was really weird. The column-like object shows up again, but there is a creature in it that I didn’t understand what it meant. I think they were trying to say that there was life on Jupiter. If I interpreted it right, that’s what they were trying to tell the viewers. My favorite part about the whole movie was how they though the future was going to be like. It was really interesting what they thought. I think I would have liked it better in 1968, because me and all of my peers have been exposed to so many special effects. It would have been a lot better if I didn’t know what the future was going to be like because I have lived through 2001 and I do not think that space was like that and I know that so far, no extraterrestrial life has been found on Jupiter.

Compiling a Portfolio (224-235)

I have never really made a portfolio before. I didnt even know what it was until I read this chapter. We made on in like fourth grade but I don't think that counted. We just compiled all of our drawings and report cards into it. I guess I always thought of it as something like a scrap book. When I tought of portfolios, english never really came to mind. In the very beginning of the chapter, it tells what I could possibly put in a portfolio. From that I got that all a prtfoli is is a collection of whatever you want. Almost like a journal. It also talks about labeling. I think that is important, because the folder shouldn's just have a jumble of papers in it that you don't even know what they are. I guess my definition of a portfolio would be this: A collection of little pieces all leading up to the final project. Something to show progression. I think they a re a great idea. I always kept my rough drats and outlines so I could see how to improve my final piece, but I never rrally thought of to organize it in a way that would make it a lot easier for me and anyone one else who needed to take a look at it.