The chimp "war"

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by glatt

It's just that damn obelisk. They would have been better off just not trying to explain it.

Did Kubrick try to explain it? I thought most of the confusion was from the lack of explanation. The monolith story is pretty simple if you get it from other sources (the book, its sequels, and the movie sequel).

The monoliths spread through the universe looking for life, then accelerate the development of intelligent beings in order to bring them into contact with the monolith builders' civilization.

The one on Earth pushed the hominids towards the use of tools, the one on the Moon (may have been the same one) waited until humans were advanced enough to dig it up, and then pointed them to the one on Jupiter, which abducted one (the only one left, due to HAL's story), studied him, showed him a message from the alien civilization (the acid trip), and modified him to a new form of life (the space baby) more able to interact with interstellar civilization.

"Show, don't tell", is a good filmmaking rule, but sometimes a little bit of telling might be in order.