Table of Contents to the 2001: A Space Odyssey analysis

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!








There is a button that links to this table of contents, at the bottom of each post in the analysis.

part 1 - Introduction and plot synopsis

part 2 - The hidden plot: Heywood Floyd is an alien

part 3 - The 'Dawn of Man' is set in Mexico, not Africa

part 4 - Bowman suffers a brain injury when he is 'ejected' from his EVA pod into the emergency airlock of Discovery One

part 5 - Hints from David Lynch; color symbolism; women in space as 'prostitutes'

part 6 - Tarantino, Mann, and Lynch: Allusions to Kubrick's philosophy of periodically making light of serious situations in his films

part 7 - Tarantino: Depiction of the alchemical nigredo - each appearance of the monolith is accompanied by a nigredo

part 8 - Hints from the films of Michael Mann: a reference to the Dawn of Man being set in Mexico

part 9 - More from Mann: Bowman goes into a trance while watching Heywood Floyd on the video monitor

part 10 - Tarantino: Poole and Bowman represent yin and yang; Bowman fails to save the feminine

part 11 - The hidden plot (cont'd): The relationship between Bowman and Floyd (Bowman assumes Floyd's 'alien identity')

part 12 - Tarantino and Lynch: A Space Odyssey has a circular narrative

part 13 - Mann: Bowman moves through the circles of Hell

part 14 - The symbolism of the diamonds in the stargate, and of the Discovery One spaceship

part 15 - Lynch: A Space Odyssey contains a 'movie within a movie'

part 16 - Bowman experiences the beatific vision while in the stargate

part 17 - The physical meaning of the stargate

part 18 - More on Bowman's brain injury: In addition to suffering a subdural hematoma, Bowman also suffers a subarachnoid hemorrhage

part 19 - The hidden plot (cont'd): The events at TMA-1

part 20 - More hints from Mulholland Drive

part 21 - The relationship of A Space Odyssey to the Hannibal Lecter movies; the entities that HAL represents

part 22 - Mann: The 'Jonah and the whale' allegory

part 23 - HAL is like a golem; this links him to Hannibal Lecter

part 24 - Kubrick's statement about the Jews and Nazis

part 25 - Tarantino: Bowman's (drug) 'trip' through the stargate

part 26 - The meeting at Clavius; the monolith's shape: the reason it is rectangular instead of square

part 27 - More on alchemy in the movie; Kubrick is depicting an unsuccessful citrinitas, and thus, an incomplete alchemical process

part 28 - 'Faked' aspects of the Jupiter mission film: There are hints in the movie that part of the Jupiter mission film (the 'movie within a movie'), is being recorded on the space station instead of on Discovery One

part 29 - By designing A Space Odyssey as an allegory for both Homer's The Odyssey, and Jonah and the whale, Kubrick was trying to draw attention to the fact that both of these tales have a common underlying source: The Epic of Gilgamesh.

part 30 - Water symbolism

part 31 - Mann: Death of the Holy Spirit

part 32 - The alien wants to unite with Bowman in order to become Mercurius

part 33 - The HAL computer as Shakespearean

part 34 - Tarantino: Kubrick on casual acceptance of violence

part 35 - The aliens are 'stealing' diamonds from Earth

part 36 - Hints from The Silence of the Lambs

part 37 - Numerical clues in the movie; the '5 + 3' ogdoadal system

part 38 - Lynch: The unconscious confronts the intellect

part 39 - St. Augustine versus the Manichaeans

part 40 - Kubrick's 'child abuse' theme: HAL is like someone who has been abused as a child

part 41 - Elements of Hindu philosophy in 2001; more on the manipulation of Bowman's psyche

part 42 - Certain parts of the movie depict dreams

part 43 - We link Bowman's assimilation of his own shadow, to his experience as Jonah in the whale

part 44 - Mann: Depiction of the tension between containment and liberation

part 45 - More information on Melusina, the feminine aspect of Mercurius. The alien who 'combines' with Bowman represents Melusina

part 46 - More on the correspondence with Pulp Fiction

part 47 - The aliens represent the 'evil feminine' (e.g., radical feminists)

part 48 - The partially-faked mission film's intended audience is Generation Y; Kubrick was predicting that this generation, and all subsequent generations, would be 'brainwashed' by radical feminists working in concert with powerful men in the entertainment industry and news media

part 49 - Kubrick gives us a warning: Defy misdirection, such as that given by persons in power, certain parties in the entertainment industry and news media, and certain special interest groups

part 50 - Hints in the movie poster

part 51 - The conception allegory; the unconscious as a 'womb'. At least part of the movie is taking place 'inside' Bowman's unconscious

part 52 - Reference to the game of billiards is being made in the movie

part 53 - Kubrick is employing the billiards reference to make a point about the effect of one's attitude in life on the course of one's life, and about the relationship of this to randomness in the universe

part 54 - The fact that the monolith contains diamonds, is linked to the Pulp Fiction briefcase contents

part 55 - The movie contains a numerical reference to the biblical books of Proverbs

part 56 - Clarification on the meaning of the end sequence

part 57 - Fundamentals of chakras; application of concepts from Vishuddha (throat) chakra to the movie

part 58 - The correspondence of 2001 with Joseph Campbell's monomyth

part 59 - Kubrick believed that all civilizations have a common source

part 60 - The reason the aliens need diamonds; final observations

Eyes Wide Shut analysis - part 1: Introduction and plot synopsis

WARNING: THIS ANALYSIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!

[Image at left from the Wikipedia 'Eyes Wide Shut' page; "Eyes Wide Shut poster",[a] licensed under fair use via Wikipedia.]













Welcome to the analysis of Stanley Kubrick's 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut. Buttons at the bottom of each post enable navigation through the parts of the analysis. Regarding the appearance of possible anti-Semitism on this blog, please see the 'Disclaimers' section near the bottom of this page.



Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), a young couple from New York, go to a Christmas party, given by a wealthy patient, Victor Ziegler. Bill meets an old friend from medical school, Nick Nightingale, who now plays piano professionally. While a Hungarian man tries to pick up Alice, two young models try to take Bill off for a tryst. He is interrupted by a call from his host upstairs, who had been having sex with Mandy, a young woman who has overdosed on a speedball.

Above left: At Victor Ziegler's party, Bill (standing on left) meets and old friend from medical school, Nick Nightingale. Above right: Bill with two young models at the party.


The next evening at home, while smoking marijuana, Bill's wife asks him if he had sex with the two girls. After Bill reassures her, she asks if he is ever jealous of men who are attracted to her. As the discussion gets heated, he states that he thinks women are more faithful than men. She rebuts him, telling him of a recent fantasy she had about a naval officer they had encountered on a vacation. Disturbed by Alice's revelation, Bill is just then called to the deathbed of the father of a now-engaged female friend, who impulsively kisses him and tells him she loves him. Putting her off, Bill takes a walk and meets a prostitute named Domino, and goes to her apartment.

His wife phones as he begins to kiss Domino, after which he calls off the awkward encounter. Meeting Nick at a café, Bill learns that Nick has a following engagement where he must play piano blindfolded. After Bill presses for details, he learns that to gain admittance, one needs a costume, a mask, and the password.

Nick and Bill converse at the Sonata Café.



Bill drives late at night to a costume shop. He offers the owner, Mr. Milich, a generous amount of money to rent a costume, and while searching, Milich catches his teenage daughter with two Japanese men and expresses outrage at their lack of sense of decency, and threatens to call the police.

Bill then takes a taxi out to a country mansion (shown at left) where a quasi-religious sexual ritual is taking place. One woman takes Bill aside and warns him he does not belong there, insisting he is in terrible danger due to the fact that the other attendees suspect he is an outsider. Bill is then interrupted by a masked porter who tells him that the taxi driver who is waiting outside wants to speak with him. However, the porter takes him to the main room where the masked, red-cloaked Master of Ceremonies confronts Bill with a question about a second password which Bill is unable to answer. The Master of Ceremonies insists that Bill "kindly remove his mask", then asks that he remove his clothes. The masked young woman who had tried to warn Bill now intervenes and insists that she be punished instead of him. Bill is ushered from the mansion and warned not to tell anyone about what happened there.


Just before dawn, Bill arrives home guilty and confused, where his wife Alice is now awake, crying, and tells him of a troubling dream in which she had sex with the naval officer and many other men, while laughing at the idea of Bill seeing her with them. The next morning, Bill goes to Nick's hotel, and the desk clerk tells Bill that a bruised and frightened Nick checked out a few hours earlier after returning with two large, dangerous-looking men. Nick tried to pass an envelope to him when they were leaving, but it was intercepted, and Nick was driven away by the two men. Bill goes to return the costume — but not the mask, which Bill has misplaced — and Milich, with his daughter by his side, states he can do other favors for Bill "and it needn't be a costume."

Bill talking with Milich and his daughter.


The Japanese men leave; Milich implies to Bill that he has sold his daughter for prostitution. Bill returns to the country mansion in his own car and is met at the gate by a man with a note warning him to cease and desist his inquiries. At home, Bill thinks about Alice's dream while he watches her tutor their daughter.

That evening, Bill goes to the home of the prostitute with a gift. Her roommate greets him, telling him Domino has just tested positive for HIV. Bill leaves, and then notices that a man is following him. After losing the man, Bill reads a newspaper story about a beauty queen who had died of a drug overdose. Bill wonders if the woman discussed in the article is Mandy.


After Bill examines what is revealed to be Mandy's body at the morgue, Ziegler summons Bill to his house and tells him he knows all the events of the past night and day. Ziegler was one of those involved with the ritual orgy and his own position with the secret society has been jeopardized by Bill's intrusion. Bill asks about the death of Mandy, whom Ziegler has identified as the woman at the party who'd "sacrificed" herself to prevent Bill's punishment, and about Nick. Ziegler insists that Nick is safely back at home in Seattle, but does not know where to contact him. Ziegler also insists that the "punishment" had nothing to do with Mandy's death; she was an addict and had died from another accidental drug overdose. Bill does not know if Ziegler is telling him the truth, but says nothing further.

Above left: Bill looks at Mandy's body at the morgue. Above right: Victor Ziegler tries to comfort Bill.

When Bill returns home, he sees the rented mask on his pillow next to his sleeping wife. He breaks down in tears (as shown at left) and as Alice awakes, he decides to tell her the whole truth of the past two days.


The next morning, Bill and Alice go Christmas shopping with their daughter. His wife muses that recent events do not define their life and they should be grateful they have survived and are still together and that she loves him. She then answers when asked what to next, saying that they need to, in her own words, "fuck", as soon as possible.[b]

We will begin to analyze the movie in part 2.


a. Poster for Eyes Wide Shut: The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Warner Bros., the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
b. Wikipedia, 'Eyes Wide Shut'. Web, n.d. URL = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_wide_shut.

Eyes Wide Shut analysis - part 6: A basic explanation of the hidden plot

Earlier in the analysis, it was stated that there is a 'hidden plot' in Eyes Wide Shut whereby Bill Harford is being 'led' through the events we see him experience, that at least some of his experiences are dream-, drug-, and/or trance-induced, and that the purpose of having him undergo these events is to 'condition' him so that he comes to associate philandering with trouble and death, so that he will remain under his wife's full control. This hidden plot is explained in more detail below.



    

    

Top left: When the movie starts, Alice, here shown dancing with a man at Victor Ziegler's party, has already been suspecting for quite some time that Bill might be considering being unfaithful to her. Therefore, she has worked out a plan with Victor whereby Bill is to be set up to undergo a series of experiences that will 'teach him a lesson'. We, the audience, are effectively 'dropped into' this preexisting situation at the beginning of the film. Alice sees Bill appearing as if he might cheat on her at the party, with two young women he has met there. Alice knows Victor is going to have Bill brought up to his bedroom. Top right: Bill, accompanied by the aforementioned two women, gets the call-out to go to Victor's bedroom. Bill doesn't know that he is being led along. Above left: In Victor's room, a situation has been set up whereby it appears to Bill, as if Victor has been having sex with a high-end prostitute who has now passed out from drug use. Thus, we see that right from the start of the carrying out of Victor and Alice's plan, Bill is to associate philandering with trouble. Above right: After the (supposed) prostitute who was in Victor's room has been 'rescued', and Bill and Alice get home from the party, they both get high, then Alice sets Bill off with her tale of sexually desiring a naval officer she once saw, how she was willing to give up everything to be with this stranger. Alice telling Bill this functions as a lead-in to the rest of her and Victor's planned sequence of events. After this point, almost everything we see happen to Bill is 'induced' upon him while he's under the influence of drugs, or in some other trance-like state.



    

    

Top left and right: The situation with Marion is a set-up, in the sense that Marion offering herself to Bill is intended to lead him to associate cheating with desperate, unstable women with death (Marion's father, lying on the bed, has just died). Above left: 'Domino' (the woman at the door in this shot) is someone Victor has hired (through other people) to help with the plan to lead Bill along. The indications that she's not a real prostitute include the fact that she doesn't require money from Bill upfront. Note that Domino's dress is purple in color; purple is obtained by mixing red with blue. Earlier in the analysis, it was described that red is used in the film to represent 'Satanic' forces, i.e., evil elite Jews, and that blue represents the 'evil feminine'. Above right: Later in the movie, when Domino's roommate comes on to Bill, then tells him that Domino has been found to be HIV positive, an association between risky sex and disease is created in Bill's mind.



    

Above left: This situation with the costume store owner's teenage daughter and two strange men, has as its purpose to make Bill averse to considering having sex with underage females, and also to make him averse to having 'kinky' sex (note that one of the men in this scene at the store, is wearing a woman's wig). Above right: This hotel clerk behaves in an overtly 'gay' manner while interacting with Bill, leading Bill to see sex with other men in a negative light too.



    

    

Top left: Nick is to lead Bill to the ceremony at Somerton. Top right: Bill, a newcomer to Somerton, is allowed to walk unimpeded throughout the mansion (wearing a mask, as shown), and observe the orgiastic and other strange goings-on. Subsequently, Mandy, the woman who earlier 'played' the prostitute at Victor Ziegler's party, appears to 'save' Bill from being punished at the ritual at the mansion by sacrificing herself, and before Bill leaves, he is given a stern warning not to tell anyone about the things he has seen there. Above left: Later, Bill returns to the Somerton mansion with the intention of investigating what went on during his earlier visit there. However, he can't get past the entrance gate, and he gets his second and final warning to forget what he saw there earlier. The man delivering the warning note to Bill already knew that Bill was to show up at the mansion on the day that he did. The point is that all the things at Somerton have been prearranged, to create a 'loose sex'-danger association deep within Bill's psyche. Above right: The contents of the warning note given to Bill.



        

    

Top left: Not only does the death of Mandy (whose body is shown here lying in a morgue) indicate that Victor is having the co-participants killed off after they've done their part in helping to lead Bill along, but it also re-enforces the infidelity-death link in Bill's mind. Top right: This man, who has been following Bill, has been instructed to make his presence known to Bill at the point shown. Above left: Victor admits to Bill that the ritual was a staged event. Victor pretends not to know the exact fate of Nick, who has, in fact, been done away with, like the others, so that there won't be any witnesses as to what the elite, such as Victor, are capable of. The fact that the pool table in this scene is red, symbolizes that Ziegler himself is an evil elite Jew. Above right: As planned, Bill breaks down in the end and tells his wife everything, and is from this point onward completely under her control.

The whole series of events depicted above, taken together, is meant to convey to the film's audience the idea, that some women deceive and manipulate men in order to control them, and also, to get across the idea that certain evil elite Jews have ordinary people under their control.