2001: A Space Odyssey
... of entertainment (i.e. films) and into something more expensive and unique (i.e. traveling). The same thing can be said for the society depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This society is obviously very advanced (videophones, deep space travel, moon colonies, etc.), which took them away from pleasures that we were able to enjoy in 1968, to something greater. In an attempt to beat out television, Hollywood was looking for interesting experiences, tricks, etc. to offer moviegoers something that they couldn’t get at home. Even though television had the capacity to create broadcasts from the moon and various science fiction adventures, they could not do so on the scale that widescreen presentation of 2001: A Space Odyssey could. The effect that was generated (especially in Cinerama) was simply engulfing and could not possibly be equaled by a 12 to 17 inch home display. The battle that Hollywood brought against television can be likened to that of the battle between man and machine in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both situations merited extreme actions in order for survival, but both also ended in a sort of peace. The peace that was created in Hollywood was a coexistence of film and television in which filmmakers sold the rights to television stations to rebroadcast. This same sort of peace was achieved in a different way in the film, by showing that the surviving astronaut had reached an understanding of himself (a kind of peace). Also, even though it is not specifically expressed in the film, I think that the society depicted in the film continued to use computers in light of what happened. 2001: A Space Odyssey was obviously set in space, but more important to viewers of that time was the idea of developing a colony on the moon. The society depicted in the film had done just that and provided a glimpse of the future for moviegoers. The idea of our need for expansion into uncharted territory is central to the idea of the American dream and ...