Monday, August 29, 2011

2001 analysis - part 6: Representation of gold; rel. to 'Pulp Fiction'

CATEGORY: MOVIES



This section of A Space Odyssey's lunar lander, shown during Heywood Floyd's flight to the moon, is reminiscent of the interior of a bank vault or gold bullion depository. The color gold is being used to represent gold bars (e.g., the segments pointed to by the white arrows - click image to enlarge), symbolizing that Floyd is moving something of monetary value to the moon.



Pulp Fiction's Ringo, with gun in hand, looks inside of the black briefcase (being held by Jules), while he's robbing the customers in the diner the two men are in. Note how the shape of, and connections between, the segments of the cushions of the diner seat-backs (e.g., as indicated by the white arrows at the far left of the screencap), are similar to those of some of the gold segments surrounding the passageway in the above screencap from 2001. As discussed in the Pulp Fiction analysis on this blog, each of four characters in Tarantino's movie (Jules, Ringo, Vincent, and Marsellus) holds his own belief regarding what is in the briefcase; Ringo believes it contains gold. (Jules himself never physically looks inside the case during the movie, but he believes it contains enlightenment (in the Buddhist sense)).


      





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