I just finished watching 2001 A Space Odyssey, and as always the first thing I do after seeing a movie is to visit its wikipedia page to read the plot and interpretations of the movie. Even for movies that weren’t meant to be particularly deep, I always read up. The quote by Kubrick was given when asked for an interpretation of 2001. By and large, I totally agree. Since we are all different, we all pursue our own intellectual thoughts.

So the question on my mind is what was this monolithic block? One of the reasons I always read up on a movie is because I’m afraid I missed the point, which Kubrick pointed out. I’m afraid to make connections, which differ from the director/author’s intentions. But just like how Tarantino has his interpretations on the song “Like a virgin” (which perhaps wasn’t the song writer’s original intentions), shouldn’t we all have our interpretations on things? Maybe this is why 2001 is highly acclaimed.

As for what I got out of the movie, I guess it was the special effects. For a film made in 1968, it is pretty spectacular. The “Dawn of man” was particularly boring for me (and I kept thinking back at The Simpsons awesome parody of it) and the lack of dialogue and prolonged cinematic effects didn’t do it for me. I loved the HAL 9000 portion of the movie, and finally understood all The Simpsons references made to it. The only thing gripping about the movie was the monolithic block, and trying to figure out what it is. I’m truly a mystery fan boy, with favourites such as The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown.

The block will remain an enigma, just like the intentions of the movie. My overall interpretation of the movie? Computers will eventually get smart enough and take over us (which it has probably achieved already on my part, since I spend a crazy amount of time in front of a computer).

Another segment of the documentary dealt with our biological clock and the circadian cycle. Our bodies are actually synchronised with the circadian cycle (24hr), which helps explain the concept of jet lag since we need time to adjust to the new time zone. Our biological clocks determine when we become tired and hence it is very important to maintain a biological clock that is in sync with the 24 hour clock. Interestingly, it was shown how 11 and 13 year old children have altered biological clocks due to the hormones present in the body at those respective ages. An eleven year old would sleep at 9pm and wake up around 7am. However there is a 2 hour delay in a thirteen year old, and consequently they sleep at 11pm and wake up around 9am, which would make waking up for school very difficult. A bright light therapy was described in the documentary where a shining light was used to help reset a person’s biological clock, since our bodies actually use light as a stimulus to synchronise our biological clocks.

I am glad that I was able to catch the documentary showing as it will definitely make me think about my own sleeping patterns and how sleep isn’t as disposable as I make it to be. Time to sleep on it