Emotion
The use of emotion and allegory in these two groundbreaking films is truly fascinating. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (2013) pose profound questions about humanity’s ability to shape its destiny and this is at the heart of both films. Both use space travel as a medium to tell their stories.
Space exploration has thrilled entire generations for over a century. Since World War II America and the Soviet Union had competed at all costs to win the space race. The Soviet Union got their first. Yuri Gagarin became the first man to journey into outer space and completed an orbit of the Earth in April 1961. America felt humiliated and was stung into action and J F Kennedy committed the superpower to send men to the Moon and bring them safely back within the decade. On 20 July 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first astronaut to walk on the surface of the Moon uttering the famous words: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
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Image 1: Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong working on the Moon. ©NASA 1969. Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html [Accessed 24 April 2023]
Image 2-3: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Available at: https://screenmusings.org/movie/dvd/2001-A-Space-Odyssey/pages/2001-A-Space-Odyssey-022.htm [Accessed on24 April 2023]
Image 4: Gravity. Available at: https://film-grab.com/2014/04/10/gravity/ [Accessed on 24 April2023]