2001-Odisseia no Espaço, Kubrick, 1968
"(...)Sunrise appears thrice within the film and this isn’t simply through coincidence. Sunrise comes from Strauss’ tone poem of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra; a story explicitly concerning the journey towards the Ubermensch through the Eternal Return. At each point where the film uses the music, it is to mark this transition and creation. In the film’s opening visual sequence, it signifies the birth of the universe itself, making it the least applicable in this theory.
However the second and third time it comes into use, it seems to be explicitly referencing this transition. The second time is when an ape first learns to use a weapon, showing a montage of its gradual evolution into what would eventually turn into Homosapien. The last time it is used is in the film’s final sequence at the birth of the Star-Child. This is a film where the musical references are not just well-fitting but are philosophically in touch with the narrative itself. This is also what my next essay will chiefly concern itself with only with musical emphasis on Ligeti and its use in the in the blank opening sequence; a cinematic choice that has fascinated me ever since I first viewed the film."
Adam Scovell