20/05/2024
Kubrick on final scenes of “A Space Odyssey“ and “Shining“
In his interviews, Stanley Kubrick consistently refused to answer the questions about the meaning of the mysterious final scenes in his two masterpieces, “2001 : A Space Odyssey” and “The Shining”, stressing that it was up to the viewers to form their own interpretations and that any subsequent interpretation by the author would spoil their authentic impressions. But, nevertheless, there are some rare exceptions, where Kubrick agreed to explain what he meant with those highly intriguing endings. Here are excerpts from a 1980 phone call interview with a Japanese producer.
Q : Japanese people love your films, especially “2001 : A Space Odyssey“. But people are wondering what is the meaning of the last scene - you know, the old man who is lying on the bed, in that big room. Could you give us an answer ?
A : Well, I try to avoid doing this ever since the picture came out, because when you just say the ideas they sound foolish, whereas if they’re dramatized one feels it. But I’ll try. The idea was supposed to be that astronaut Bowman is taken in by godlike entities, creatures of pure energy and intelligence with no shape or form - and they put him in what I suppose you could describe as a human zoo, to study him. He spends his whole life from that point on in that room, and he has no sense of time. It just seems to happen, as it does in the film. And they choose this room which is a very inaccurate replica of French architecture, deliberately so. Inaccurate because one was suggesting that they had some idea of something that he might think was pretty but weren’t quite sure, just as we aren’t quite sure about what to do in zoos with animals, to give them what we think is their natural environment. And anyway, when they get finished with him, as happens in so many myths of all cultures of the world, he is transformed into some kind of super-being and sent back to Earth, transformed and made into some sort of superman. And we have to only guess what happens when he goes back. It is a pattern of a great deal of mythology. And that is what we were trying to suggest.
Q : I see. And could I ask you the same question about “The Shining“, the last scene ?
A : It’s supposed to suggest a kind of evil reincarnation cycle, where he [Jack] is part of the hotel’s history, just as in the men’s room, he’s talking to the former caretaker [Grady], ghost of the former caretaker, who says to him, “You are the caretaker ; you’ve always been the caretaker, I should know I’ve always been here.“ One is merely suggesting some kind of endless cycle of this evil reincarnation and, um, also … well, that’s it, and it's the sort of thing that I think is better left unexplained, but since you asked me I tried to explain.
