Forced Perspective in 2001: A Space Odyssey

Aryeh Sklar

Forced Perspective and Explicit Photography in “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” was groundbreaking in a number of ways. From its computer-generated visual effects to its bending of the conventions of the sci-fi genre, the film was a sight to behold, and many of its filmmaking methods are still used today. Broken into essentially four different yet connected acts, they all seem to surround a mysterious black monolith.

The film begins (after the famous title sequence of the sun, moon, and earth) with the “Dawn of Man”, which “recreates” the evolutionary change of our ancestors to the use of tools, after the appearance of a strange black monolith. Then, we are almost instantly transported to space, where we view the slowly spinning space station floating around the earth. In this act, we meet Dr. Heywood Floyd, played by William Sylvester. We learn that he is visiting the space station under secretive circumstances, and this secret is revealed when goes to the moon and holds a meeting to discuss his intentions and the fears of those that have discovered a monolith on the moon who have out of communication with their families. The scene begins with a photographer (or perhaps some tester with a lens), and the scene itself switches between a forced perspective and a regular shot, and this is our cue to look a bit closer. After this scene, we watch the journey to the moon where they attempt to examine the monolith found there. Again, the scene features photography, and forced perspective. These two scenes will make up the bulk of our analysis, our thesis being that Kubrick wants to show that cinema lies to us, as does its human creators. Like any good lie, forced perspective is there to indicate that we are being lied to even if we don’t know it. The black monolith represents true evolution in cinema - how things ought to be, and we will see that a white monolith will represent the opposite of that. Kubrick leaves us with the cynical message about the human condition and its illusion. Have we truly “evolved”? And is our cinematic creations any better?

We begin with the meeting scene, 39:25 - 43:45. The first shot is a medium shot of a room, the people’s backs to us as they face the front of the room. At the far end is a lectern, looking quite small from the distance, and leading up to it is a U-shaped desk with important-looking people sitting around it. The camera is sitting ever-so-slightly to the right, slightly off-center. Why is that? Well, the first movement is from a person holding a device to view others with (and, by the way, he looks like a young Kubrick). He moves from the left, his device pointed straight at us. Our camera angle is looking at him, as well. This alerts us to a funny feeling of being watched, even as we watch them. This is a scene about cinema. He moves to the right, now standing, over us and the people there, the audience. We look to the people immediately in front of us because he is. At 39:42 the camera shifts again to show him on the left of the desks. We are directed to watch him, as he watches the, and as we watch them. Again, his presence and the direction of the shot shout to us as to the scene’s meaning.

After the man leaves, Dr. Halvorsen (played by Robert Beatty) gets up to introduce Dr. Floyd. The camera is repositioned to its original spot, still slightly off. The lectern is not in center, and we are made to feel that something will be off about those who speak at it. When Dr. Halvorsen goes to it, he is very tiny. This is the forced perspective of the scene, one we can detect. The audience is made large, and as one approaches the lectern, one gets smaller. As a scene about the illusion of cinema, we should realize that the “windows” are exact shape of a horizontal monolith, yet opposite the color of the one we’ve seen already. This is because the black monolith represents evolution, man’s ability to use tools for his benefit. But the people we will soon see approach this white screen and inhabit it will use it the wrong way - to control popular opinion, even the opinion of the audience in the room. We will find out soon that they wish to keep the secret of the monolith hidden until they figure out how to tell the people of earth, since they are “not ready” for the information as is. The people on the sides there are even part of the “film screen”, displayed in front of white screens just like he is, because they agree to go along with the illusion. There is a white screen behind us as well (which we will find when the camera switches sides at 41:25. This means we are part of the movie, part of the control of information and propaganda that is the cinema. The forced perspective isn’t just to show us how people become part of the film (like Halvorsen and Floyd do when they stand at the lectern). It also shows us that we have to doubt what our eyes see here, because it makes them look small, yet we were made to watch them shrink from the large people immediately before us when they stand at the lectern.

The next shot is a mid-shot of Floyd. He is to the right of the frame, still ensconced in white, part of the lying cinema experience. In front of him is a black frame, and the American flag. This is where humans and film begin to lie to the American people. In this shot, he acknowledges the difference of views as to how to go about maintaining secrecy while the government examines the object they found.

When the camera switches at 41:25, Floyd’s back is to us, and we can see the white screen on the other side. He declares his shared concern about the cover story they concocted because of “security concerns”, that he recognized that it was even a “matter of principle” to not lie to the American people and their families in particular. The reason for the switch is to show that that part is the truthful aspect. The liar at the lectern, for a brief moment, is expressing a truth - truth is a matter of principle, and it affects our family, friends, society. There is a blame on the American government (which Kubrick parodies in Dr. Strangelove as well) that Kubrick supposes they would first try to control the information. So, while Floyd exposits the concerns and problems with the “cover story”, the camera faces his back to the audience. As opposed to the beginning of the scene, the camera points rightward instead of leftward. The next shot is an opposite to this. The camera is on the right side of the room, facing leftward, as he begins to lie again, as the controller of information again, saying that he found the cover story “personally embarrassing myself”, yet still asserting the need for information control. He says, “However, I accept the need for absolute secrecy in this. And I hope you will too.”

The next shot explains why he feels this way, pitting him on the white screen against the American flag on the black screen. He feels the American people are not yet ready for this kind of information, they would be culturally shocked “without adequate preparation and conditioning.” Isn’t this what cinema does? It conditions us to think in certain ways, and to believe in certain things, as tools for other people’s agendas?

And then we are back to the long shot. “Anyway, this is the view of the council.” We are back to viewing this from the viewpoint of the original shot, where the government people sit. We are back to the forced perspective. Which is funny, because the scene is a discussion about a forced perspective, so to speak. Members there are against this secrecy and lies, but they are told to follow the perspective of the council, basically, “for the good of the people.”

Using the theory of each shot I have just explained, the entire scene comes together quite nicely. The next shot is back to the mid-shot, where he tells them that they should come to him if they have any suggestions or concerns, which he will be happy to “include in his report”, a report which will discuss how and when to tell the American public the information of the existence of aliens. This is him pitted against the American flag again, and, as above, it is about the lie humans and cinema represent. When the shot switches to his back again, same as last time, he is being truthful again. “Well, that’s about it. Any questions?” After asked how long the cover story will have to be maintained, the shot the camera switches to is parallel to the pronouncement that there is a need to lie to the people for their own sake. He answers the question by saying that it is up to the council to decide. Again, he mentions the need for a “full study to be made” about the situation. After this, the shot is back to the mid-shot, where he mentions the requirement of signed oaths to secrecy, the purpose of which is to control those who dissent from giving information. The government against the people. To emphasize this, the last shot of the scene features Dr. Halvorsen stand up, and his size is huge in comparison to Floyd and the rest of the people. Halvorsen and Floyd stand on the two ends, with the American flag in the middle.

We shall now look at a second scene featuring photography and forced perspective, the monolith moon scene, at 48:48 to 52:10. In the interest of space (pun unintended), we will not examine here the shot compositions of the scene, but we will notice the motifs of the white monoliths here and their impact on the scene. The lights being used to illuminate the area of the black monolith are one of the first things we notice about the scene. Instead of round lights, or lights of a different color, these are white, luminous rectangular lights, twelve on each stand. The forced perspective here is the landscape outside of the dug-out area, which was actually just background models. The moon seems huge, and the monolith and lights seem small. But when the astronauts enter, the area seems huge. This is the area of the cinema, where it can be used appropriately, as represented by the black monolith stuk firmly in the ground, or it can be used inappropriately, like the lights that are on shaky tripods. The point of this scene is to show that the atsronauts pick the white monolith lights instead of the black monolith, unfortunately.

When we are in the first-person view shot of minute 50:00, it seems we are directed to be more concerned about the lights than of the black monolith. The lights are in the center of our vision, and the black monolith is relegated to the right corner. At 50:20, the low angle shot as the astronauts move down explicitly includes the lights as a major part of the shot. At minute 51:00, the photographer stands directly underneath the lights. At 51:10, Floyd approaches the black monolith to touch it, and to his left is again the lights, shining on him. If you look carefully at how Kubrick directs us to his hand touching the black monolith, at 51:20, it looks as though Floyd is touching the white light hitting the monolith instead of the monolith itself. It's almost as if a film of white covers it. And, of course, the lights are still in the shot as well, his arm the separation between it and the monolith. At 52:10, what occurs immediately prior to the shrill ring the astronauts hear? It is the photographer trying to get everyone in the picture, as if they are some happy family, and he motions for them to get closer together. His hand moves in front of the white light, as if activating it, and the shrill call of the black monolith tells them they have done something wrong, but they do not comprehend it.

The forced perspective of the moon as the backdrop tells us that the human condition is such that humans lie, will lie, and can't help themselves. The cinema, as a tool of human advancement, should be used to tell us the way things are, but we use it unwisely and end up telling people how to think, convincing them of a truth, hiding real information from them. The forced perspective is the white monolith.