Daisy, Daisy...

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2008)

I watched this movie when I was 7 for the first time. I was fascinated. The sky seemed so very different that night. I won't forget that feeling, ever. Now after 20 years, I must say that the same old impression remained intact. Trust me, even a child of 7 can understand concepts like: endless space, human origins, humanoid robots (& robotic humans), murder (sempre), immortality, aliens, reincarnation... Each time I watched this movie again, I was eagerly waiting for 2 hours to see the last (fantastic) 30 minutes, and 29 more minutes to see the final, overwhelmingly "paralyzing" scene.
What is the scene? Is it some kind of hope... or simply  life and all that life represents? Is life bigger than everything, and is the human being bigger than the whole cosmos? Could it be the first, in fact  primordial  step after death? Is it "everything there is", the axiomatic state?
Why do I always have to wait for the end, for only a few seconds experiencing immortality? And the feeling, that after death wins the battle, it is life that stays, or outbreaks? (Socrat said that "life springs from the death.") Does that mean that one should die to become immortal? The whole galaxy and records of time narrow down to a tiny little fetus (no, it's not a baby)... completely motionless, eyes wide open (!), frozen in timeless, space-less... The Fetus Strikes Back! OK, that is more than profound, it is... well, the image of the fetus is HERE, in my mind, doesn't go away, and never will! The fetus is the ultimate destination! The fetus is GOD!
But why would all those aliens, angels, machines, life (?) forms... bring us back to the beginning of the completely SAME STATE OF EXISTENCE (more or less)? And the same story just to be a fetus, again and again... And forever. "Mommy, I don't wanna die!"... But when I DO die, I doubt that I will be a giant fetus staring at (or starring before) this earth? Or even worse, on my way back?! (I would use the light speed or teleport myself as far away as possible! But before departure, I would use a giant needle, puncture the earth, and blow it away!...joke) Anyway, I wanna live now! NOT after 2 hours and 29 minutes! NOT in a fetal shape! I'm a big girl! And whether I'm gonna have a baby to make myself feel immortal is MY choice! I'll get my own little bigger-than-life "fetus" once... and I advise that to everyone else!
But since I am female, and this interpretation of that archaic image could be due to that (the maternal instincts & sh*t), that might not have been the point Kubrick wanted to make (men probably interpret the fetus as themselves, which was my case as well, when I was 7, that is). It is supposed to be the offspring of a new, improved human race? Now, we all know that men are physically stronger, even through history, the majority of geniuses were male, blah blah... And Dave... is a perfect one. Only astronauts can be that healthy, strong, beautiful, intelligent, self-controlled  even to the extent to be able to conquer HAL's HUMAN impulses?! Dave succeeded to perforate the orbit of humanity and reach Jupiter. Dave is a superman! No, Dave is NOT a superman! He is not even a man! Dave seems to be the least human, even less than HAL. Dave reached those "superior" beings, to change the course of humanity, as the best genetic material on this earth, and once again, the changing of a course occurs, as in the "dawn of man". And there lies a hope. That's nice of him.
But wait, where is female in all that? Do aliens have a constructed womb? Because that symbol, in this case, would be the whole universe. I only got to see some kind of "aura" around the embryo. Does the fetus have a penis? I guess not, it doesn't need one. For it doesn't need female, that non-perfect creature. Everyone seems to be male in this movie, even HAL! Are they gay or what?
Freud would probably disagree and laugh at the idea of someone surpassing those disgraceful, degrading instincts and finding the way to transform into something that "neat" and "perfect", that doesn't derive from the filth, or "urges". But then again, Freud was not an "artist"? However... by casting one glance at the current phase and how distorted this world has become, I doubt that even aliens could do a lot about that. Even if "Dave" existed, which I also doubt. Well, if he did, I wouldn't let him go surfing the space, and copulate with a bunch of aliens. Tesla would advise him otherwise, so in the end I would probably have to make an ultimatum: "Me or him (them)  make a choice!". And that would leave me heart-broken.
The sad truth is, humans only reached the moon, stabbed a flag into it and came back here. "A small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind". Of course it's a giant leap, since humanity is smaller than a fly's hive, even a fly would cross that route quicker, and reach it's "destination"! (One of the best parodies based on the trip to the moon was depicted in "Baron Munchausen"!) How far did we get really? Not too far, it seems. We are still amusing ourselves in the slime. We can't cure a pimple. And we are still underestimating the power of the dark side. Ooops, I mean, the power of the nature.
Whether this movie would have such a significance in case the fetus didn't flash in front of our eyes in the end, is I guess, irrelevant. For it is perfect just the way it is. A pure, sublime fantasy. Along with the magnificent music, perhaps above everything else...