On Watching Theology, Joe, Duke, and Melissa take a single film and examine it closely, looking at the assumptions and ideas in the story. Every episode considers the theological, philosophical and thematic elements of a film, listening closely to what the author has to say, and interacting with those ideas. (It's more fun than it sounds).

Joe watches too many movies. He grew up in central Washington, earned his B.A. in Education and Fine Art, an M.A. in Theology and is currently completing an M.A. in English Literature. He's smuggled film classes into each degree. He is interested in writing, theology and hopes to one day compose the ultimate Joe Versus the Volcano commentary track.

Melissa has a B.A. in History and an M.A. in English with an emphasis on Film Studies. She has taken classes on everything from silent to romance to post-colonial films and much in between. Her research and interests lie mainly in feminist film theory, women in film, Hitchcock and the studio era. At the end of the day, however, she just loves films; from Notorious to Die Hard!
Duke enjoys the way movies can tell stories like no other medium. He is an amatuer critic that loves the atmosphere of the theater and the taste of overpriced popcorn. He loves a good story and appreciates the effort and skill of good story tellers. He is a nerd at heart and a sucker for heist movies. He hopes to see every good movie and lampoon every bad movie ever made before he dies.

Contact the hosts at mail@watchingtheology.com for more information.

Show DescriptionWatching Theology

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Watching Theology July 31st, 2007

wt_2001.jpgSomehow, Stanley Kubrick managed to entrance two generations of movie-goers with his adaptation of an Arthur C. Clarke short story. From the famous defensive appeals of a computer named HAL to the birth of some cosmic star child, 2001: A Space Odyssey created more interpretations and questions than any kind of special answers. Still, there's nothing wrong with looking at the structure of the movie, the notes of Clarke and our own best guesses. On this episode, we follow the mysterious monolith, the human race and the lost evolutionary links that were all defeated by the ascent of humanity.
Watching The Directors next edition: August 7 - Barbara Kopple and Michael Moore
Next WT edition: August 14 - Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man (2005)

Print This Post | Email This Post | Digg This! | Download MP3 | Play in Popup

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 1:03 am and is filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)”

Andrew August 1st, 2007

Fascinating as always, but I have to ask, is it your intention to go beyond film into literature? I know that the book is of the film but in using the book as a part of your analysis it seems to me that you're going beyond the film to something else.
Just a quick one on the Constantine thing - I haven't seen the film, but I enjoy listening to your stuff anyway. I'm not a Catholic, but have worked as a teacher at a Catholic school (and me an atheist too!) for many years. This spear that you referred to is unknown to me and I think it may well be another form of the caricature of religion (particularly catholicism) that often appears on screen - TV and film. I'd be wary about reading too much into any religious or theological perspective based on any one particular film.
But hey, what do I know?
Love your work …

Andrew

Daniel August 3rd, 2007

I really enjoyed your thoughtful analysis of one of my favorite movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I had never really thought about this incredibly deep film in terms of theology until listenening to this episode. Like most people I didnt fully understand 2001 the first time or even the second time I saw it. I just knew that it was a work of art. After doing some research I found a very interesting website devoted entirely to explaining one interprtaion of the films meaning. The site explains the entire movie segment by segment in a simple and visual way. You can find it at http://www.kubrick2001.com

Eric August 6th, 2007

I had tried to watch 2001 once when I was a teenager and once in my 20's and couldn't sit though it the first two times. After listening to the WTD on Kubrick and this episode of WT, I did rent it and watched all the way through for the first time… and found it to be thought provoking, visually stunning and as now see why it is so well thought of in film circles. I liked the two middle sections (the moon and the Jupiter Mission) best. Of course like with Carpenters Halloween and Die Hard it's hard to see why it was so ground breaking when I have seen so many films that have come after that play with the same ideas, images and sense of wonder… Of course it made me think of some of those films, The American Astronaut (which I think you have mentioned once or twice) and Event Horizon being the two that came to mind first. …

I also was inspired by your previous WT to go back and watch The Virgin Spring, which I had watched years back because it was the inspiration for The Last House on the Left. It was great o revisit and what stood out to me in this viewing was the landscape of Sweden which reminds me so much of Upper Michigan where my father grew up…

Leave a Reply

Most Popular Stuff

Comments

Hubie

This was a very good program. So sad to have lost the Monk so soon. Oh, well I’ll have...

The Internet Monk

Bruce Szwast

Thanks...

“Killing the Indian in the Child” & Forgiveness - Maracle & Boone on SBE

Susan

Esther: I’m sorry to hear this, and yet it’s very common. We put...

Why I Went Back to Church

Esther

The trouble comes in when we become too sure of how “the church” should...

Why I Went Back to Church

Steve Boone

I thought...

“Killing the Indian in the Child” & Forgiveness - Maracle & Boone on SBE