Example 4: "2001: A Space Odyssey" (USA, 1968)

The film 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, besides being a modern epic unto itself, includes allusions to Homer's The Odyssey. Aside from the obvious reference in the title of the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey is largely about one man's return to home. This man is an astronaut and scientist named David Bowman. He can be equated to Homer's Odysseus. In the film, Bowman kills HAL 9000, an intelligent supercomputer who wreaks havoc while on the crew's mission to Jupiter by killing one of the astronaut's piloting the space craft and all of the crew members who are in hibernation. HAL 9000 represents the Cyclops, particularly because he is embodied by a single glowing red eye. In order to shut down HAL 9000, Bowman has to enter the main-frame type area of the spacecraft, which I think resembles a cave, where HAL's "brain" is kept. Bowman inserts a key to kill HAL 9000, similar to Odysseus's use of a stake to blind the Cyclops. I think Kubrick does a really great job with the rendering of this scene. It is haunting, particularly with HAL's pleas in the background and the song he sings just before his death. I encourage all of you to watch this fantastic film if you haven't seen it already. Here is a link to the scene I described (unfortunately embedding was disabled): http://youtu.be/px0c4Tgg6gg