Parents, loneliness, and "2001: A Space Odyssey"

There I sat: in the darkness of a movie theater surrounded by stoned film students at a screening of “2001: A Space Odyssey” when it became very clear to me that I was watching this movie wrong. First of all, I was decidedly not high – even my professor opened his lecture with “this movie makes no sense to me. The first time I saw it, I was stoned, and it made perfect sense. But no longer.” This was more of an arbitrary choice out of respect for the sanctity of cinema than a mistake, but where things really started to go south was when I realized that I couldn’t stop thinking about Dr. Frank Poole’s parents.

Yes, his parents. I really don’t think this was what Kubrick intended when he made this. And I call myself a film major! Look, there are thousands of ways to look at and analyze 2001. It literally becomes too much if you think about the film from too many angles. Franks parents – they popped up on screen to wish him a happy birthday and honestly, I was thinking about them until the credits rolled. They were so, so normal in a beyond weird situation. They were one of the few reminders throughout the film that anyone on earth existed at all. I commented that the film felt very lonely, with space being so desolate coupled with the fact that all Frank and Dave have for company is HAL. Loneliness is especially evident in the aforementioned birthday scene, where Frank’s parents are so far away his listening to their message is almost pointless. Hearing them sing happy birthday is comedic, maybe even sad – the idea of a birthday seems as far away as Earth is. 

When Frank sees the message from his parents, we view his response as apathetic, surmising that HAL is eerily more human than him. But perhaps because Frank has already resigned himself to the failure of the mission, he has accepted the reality of his likely death and therefore sees no meaning in a message from parents who are now incomprehensibly removed from his life. Given HAL’s comment to Dave that he wonders if he is apprehensive about the mission (“…forgive me for being so inquisitive, but during the past few weeks I’ve wondered whether you might be having some second thoughts about the mission”) this idea would make sense. 

As I watched HAL interfere with Frank’s ship and oxygen, sending him hurtling off into space, my mind immediately jumped to his parents. When Dave was flying through space and time towards Jupiter, I thought of his parents. When HAL unplugged the life-support systems of the scientists in hibernation? Parents. Parents, parents, parents. I couldn’t help it – the couple on the video screen had really stuck with me. They seemed like people one would know, and now their children were ending up in black holes, other dimensions – whatever it was, it stressed me out for their sakes. I would want an explanation for what happened and outer space allows for none.

And as far-fetched and dramatic as it sounds, I think I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey as in part a metaphor for the experience of leaving home. Frank’s parents do not understand what Frank is going through on the ship and I do not think that Frank could convey his feelings to them even if he tried. All both parties can do is exist in their separate worlds and send the occasional video message. It’s a bleak thought.

All of this is more of a reflection of how my own brain works than anything Kubrick wanted for his audience, but nevertheless it was interesting to note how I impact my own cinematic experiences regardless of directorial intent. We see what we want to see, or however the saying goes.