Space Odyssey 2.0 - Brief post with a film recommendation

 
The study of Kubrick leads one to branch out and examine the works of other directors. I find the works of Ridley Scott and Christopher Nolan to be especially interesting.

Nolan's Dark Knight series is arguably the best of the 'superhero' genre and there are many Kubrickian references in these films. Prime example, the use of the Rothschild estate, Mentmore, as the setting for Wayne Manor. But nothing prepared me for the complete homage that Interstellar is to Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001 A Space Odyssey.

I will only highlight some of the references as I highly recommend watching the movie on it's own merits and seeing for yourself.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen the movie, watch it first because there are definitely spoilers to follow.

In no particular order:

• The scene where Matt McConaughey goes to a meeting with his daughters teacher who insists the Moon landings were faked, not as a theory but this is being taught as history.
• The infamous bookshelf, in one of the close ups, we see a copy of Stephen King's The Stand. An apocalyptic movie with an apocalyptic book from the author who gave us The Shining.
•  The soundtrack, at peak dramatic moments, the held final organ note is reminiscent of Also Sprach Zarathustra from 2001.
•  The wormhole detected by NASA orbits Saturn, in the original Arthur C Clarke story for 2001, the monolith sent it's signal to Saturn, not Jupiter.
• The wormhole was placed there to help humanity, the monolith was sent to evolve humanity.
• The journey through the wormhole is eerily reminiscent of Keir Dullea's journey to Jovian monolith.
•  The scene where McCoanughey loses his ship and is floating in space mirrors the final scene of 2001 with the cosmic fetus.
•  In 2001 they have the AI computer HAL, in Interstellar there's the AI computer/robot TARS.
• Whereas HAL had an order and agenda which almost killed the main character, the Matt Damon character has a similar agenda.

This is by no means exhaustive, there are many more. I will possibly spend another post focusing on one or two that I have not included here. I do believe Christopher is aware of many of Kubrick's themes and possibly understands the overall message concealed in Eyes Wide Shut.

Till we talk again.