What is your favorite movie?

As once being an anthropology major, because I loved the subject not because I was studying to be rich, this movie is as good of a film about man that any can get in fictional form. Slow? Of course, our ideas and cultures are lagging compared to what could have possibly been done by superior creatures with intimate knowledge of the universe, which may be who we are in the future- ever working at picking up the pace through time travel and space manipulation. The big picture; like how many scenes were shot with hardly a close up to anything or anybody. Not much action or acting? Great, then the movie did it’s job with a tale such as this one- seen and made through rectangles and more rectangles….

Filmed 40 years ago, the foresight of technology was mindboggling. Considering we went to the moon with a 286, the HAL9000 was beyond any fortune teller. Could technology control man? But, the biggest question was the spirituality of the monolith? Was it representing good, evil, or a combination of both?

As revolutionary as Citizen Kane was in 1941. Odyssey was just so 27 years later. Cheap special effects, cheesy music, and absurd plotlines were the staple of Sci-Fi movies of the 50’s and early 60’s. Kubrick banished that in one fell swoop. Without the template of 2001 the success of all subsequent sci-fi blockbusters is in doubt. Just think, Close Encounters, Blade Runner, and the Star Wars saga might never have been made but for Kubrick/Clarkes vision.

The fact that this movie looks as futuristic, and as beautiful as it is today is nothing short of astonishing. The fact that we as a species have not evolved as, in my interpretation, the ending would imply is astonishing also- sadly so. A final thought, the fact that this film and its ending have been debated so intensely speaks for itself. Its vibrancy and uniqueness 40 years on- amazing!

Stanley Kubricks “2001: A Space Odyssey” is my favorite movie, because it is great, just great! I’ve never seen such a clever, great and genius movie like that. And the music is also great!

simply the best film ever made

To be one of the greatest of all time, a film must (among other things perhaps) inspire, innovate and intrigue. 2001: A Space Odyssey does all three eloquently. The film inspired every decent sci-fi film since. Many have forgotten, or don’t realize, that enormous “mother ships” entering and filling the wide screen was director Stanley Kubrick’s concept; long before Star Wars. And, on par with Citizen Kane, Kubrick pioneered or perfected many photographic techniques (before CGI). And, intrique? The dialog over the meaning and ramifications of the Black Monolith rage to this day. Many thanks to Arthur C. Clark, author of the original short story and expecially to Kubrick for leaving us the legacy of a spectacular vision of mankind meeting its destiny.

Best use of the tools of the cinema to tell a fascinating story through visual and aural means with a minimum of dialogue.

First part is an exquisite rendition of the very important theme in the book “African Genesis”, an underappreciated non-fiction book.
The movie contains the greatest visual metaphor ever portrayed: the transition from the whirling femur bone, realized by the ape to be a great weapon, into the turning space station. The space parogram was launched after Sputnik because of its national defense (weaponry) important. D. K. Heffner

The best science-fiction movie.

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey
2) Au Hasard Balthazar
3) Seven Samurai
4) Seconds
5) 8 1/2
6) The Shining
7) The Conformist
Tokyo Story
9) Les Enfants Du Paradis
10) The Man Who Shot Libert Valance
11) The Silence
12) Umberto D
13) La Regle Du Jeu
14) Jules At Jim
15) Wild Strawberries
16) Lawrence of Arabia
17) Spellbound
18) The Hours
19) The Double Life of Veronique
20) The Best Years of Our Lives

I saw it in its first release in the 60s and several times in all its re-releases. It’s a movie that must be experienced on the biggest screen with the best print and sound to be fully appreciated. It was way ahead of its time. Unfortunately, audiences today have been de-intellectualized by Hollywood which thinks everything has to be fully explained by the narrative. 2001’s ambiguity was central to the appreciation of the film as a piece of art. It compels you to challenge your mind and your perceptions. If that is too much for the viewer, just kick back and enjoy the special effects which have been rarely equaled.

The best movie in cinematic history? Hardly. I have always had a problem with this film’s ending — which makes absolutely no sense at all — and why HAL would want to murder the crew in the first place. Both of these elements of the film are not adequately addressed or resolved.

It was never adequately explained what went wrong with HAL that he wanted to murder the entire crew. What was he going to do when he got to Jupiter? He has no physical body to leave the ship, so what was he going to do when he got there? Even if it was a malfunction in his “reason” circuits, why was this never addressed and pointed out as the plot went along? All that the two crewmen intimated was that they thought HAL was malfunctioning, but they never addressed or resolved exactly what it was in HAL’s circuitry that was going wrong. They left it up in the air and unresolved.

The ending was ridiculous and made absolutely no sense at all and looks as though it was lifted from an entirely different movie. What did it all mean? The “star” trails that streak by inside the black monolith in orbit around Jupiter, the strange psychedelic lights whizzing by as Bowman flies over some weird landscape, Bowman in his spacesuit entering the dining room seeing himself as an old man, Bowman on his death bed and finally Bowman as an embryo floating in space. It all seems to be so odd and disjointed from the rest of the movie that was so realistic and of the “hard” science fiction genre in tone and plot. The ending, on the other hand, was so abstract and “Twilight Zone-esque” that it really doesn’t fit. From all I have read and seen about this vague, open-ended ending of the movie, the filmmakers (Kubrick and Clarke) deliberately left the ending unresolved. To me, this is a major cop-out. Why make a movie where you leave the ending to be a mish-mash that makes no specific point? In the end, the movie says NOTHING. It leaves it to the viewer to fill in an ending that he THINKS it was about. No, this movie falls apart in the end and all that beautiful mystery leading up to the climax, falls apart and falls flat. A totally dissatisfying way to end an otherwise interesting movie.

tHE FESH APPROACH TO SCIENCE FICTION. IT HELD UP PRETTY WELL WITH KEEPING UP WITH ORIGINAL STORY. THE CINEMATOGRAPHY WAS MARVELOUS, AND THE MUSIC WAS SUPERB.

The most beautiful film on the list. A work of art.

The fact that 2001 still hasn’t cracked the top 10 of AFI’s list is a real travesty. Kubrick is a true genius of cinema, and 2001 is clearly his greatest film. Kubrick ranks with Kurosawa and Welles as one of the greatest directors ever. What makes 2001 so great is that it is open to many different interpretations. John Lennon once compared it to a religious experience. So much is conveyed in the film without dialogue such as the nature of consciousness, human nature, and the struggle for survival across millenia. The direction, cinematography and soundtrack are flawless. If there is a year 3001, I am confident people will still consider this one of the the true greats of cinema.

Still the most “cinematic” movie in the history of cinema, “2001″ asks deep questions about humanity’s relationship to the universe, and poses vague and thought-provoking answers, leaving much to the viewer’s imagination and intellect. Absolutely uncompromising in its execution, and still visually spectacular in spite of the primitive (by today’s standards) tools used in its creation, this film stands apart. An utterly unique experience – try saying that twice about any hollywood-financed picture.

The first time I watched this two and a half hour film with only 40 minutes of dialogue, I found myself in almost a trance throughout its duration. With brilliant shots, beautiful direction, and a flawless soundtrack, 2001 is one of the most incredible films ever created. Although it is difficult to get through when you first watch it, afterwards you have literally hours upon hours of things to think about from it.

Perfect genius of Stanley Kubrick. The Total Master.

It just seems like a movie that never should have been made. I guess that’s what happens when a great artist earns the trust of studio executives, or maybe I just don’t know the film’s history.

Besides that, Kubrik may be the only director I can think of who could take a great book and turn it into a great movie. Also, with the exception of David Lynch, I’ve never known another director who could terrify me instead of just startling me.

The only true masterpiece

The film is a masterwork on every level.

The film is a masterwork on every level. It is a film about progress and evolution, both technologically and physically. It speaks of how, the more we progress as Mankind we do so up to a point to where we are forced to begin again at some higher level. Almost every shot holds meaning and is expertly layed out and executed. It is a brilliant, philosophically and visually stimulating film that can be watched mulitiple times and each time I watch it, paralleling Man’s evolution in the film itself, I find deeper meaning in what the film is saying to us all. The true masterwork of American cinema and, without question or rival, my favorite film of all time.
By: Anthony Francis

This movie was way ahead of it’s time and set the new standard for sci-fi movies. It captured what we imagine is the loneliness and isolation of deep space very realistically.

There has never been a better filmmaker than Stanley Kubrick. From his earliest work all the way to Eyes Wide Shut he tried to do something different with every film. 2001: A Space Odyssey was no different. It is a film that has so much to say about the world we are from, and the world the are heading towards. It’s a film that asks the viewer to take journey like no other journey taken before, and the suspense, wonder and majesty of the journey are spectacular.

My favorite movie is “2001:A Space Odyssey”.I like the images, the sound, the profound idea of the movie. I think it’s a great movie. Stanley Kubrick had realised a real masterpiece. Is very hard to speak about this movie becouse is very complex and accute. I think you must feel this movie more than understanding it. I must let yourself absorbed by it and dream on.

The sound track made this movie so great

The sound track made this movie so great

BY:Rod Vetter

This film is a perfect example of cinema as an art form. Every frame of this film comes off looking like a moving picture. No other motion picture can equal this film in its scope of imagination.

The films main premises of exploration, evolution, and discovery are masterfully woven together in a film that challenges the viewer’s perception at every frame. The film poses many questions as to the history and the future of mankind, and allows the viewer to interpret the film from his/her own perception.
I’ve always been fascinated with space travel and technology, and combined with a wide variety of classical and contemporary music, this film is mainly about history and the unknown future being joined together in a universal harmony. 2001 is extraordinarily simple, yet also remarkibly complex. No other film comes close to matching the sheer brilliance of what is presented.
By: Stefan Mazur

An epic drama of adventure and exploration. This movie is concerned with intelligence as the division between animal and human, then asks a question; what is the next division?

This is the real MOVIE! A beautiful opera nobody can creat like this.
It is FANTASTIC, MAGNIFICENT, GREAT.

ALL-TIME BEST…
By: Durmi Mr.

“A parable of a future toward which metaphysical dread and mordant amusement trip side by side…I have never seen the death of the mind rendered more profoundly or poetically….” - Andrew Sarris

A boy from Bronx have written a new chapter in cinema history. This boy was Stanley Kubrick, who has become one of the greatest director of all-time.

I think it is the most thought-provoking movie. A movie which shows a beautiful journey through the years and through every human’s mind.

THE VERY BEST OF ALL-TIME.
By: Gyula Kovács

I saw it on a huge curved Cinerama screen when it first came out in 1968.

I saw it on a huge curved Cinerama screen when it first came out in 1968. After seeing and hearing the wonder and beauty of that film in that way, nothing else can compare to it - not for the last 39 years, or most likely for the rest of my life.
By: Bill Huelbig

The most complex film ever made.

The first film I was ever given was 2001, and I watched it religiously. I read the book over and over. It brought a sense of wonder to my young life, and a neverending interest in outer space. The philosophical questions have stuck with me for the last twenty years, and each time I watch the movie I learn and see more that was always there, but hidden on the surface of the film. I’ve read numerous books on the film, trying to understand the mulitple meanings inside it, and come to the conclusion that this is actually three stories being told at the same time - an allegory on multiple levels. The craftsmanship needed to make a film so deep is so immense, that only genius would be capable of pulling it off, and possibly on Kubrick could have ever done it.
2001 still instills a wonder in me every time I watch it, even as an adult now. If a film can make a person feel insignificant and wondrously large at the same time, and make the viewer a part of its neverending universe while confounding them at the same time, I think you’re watching art, not just film. More than any other film ever made, 2001 has inspired me not just as a fan of film, but as a human as well. This is the greatest, most complex film ever made.
By: Ryan Patrick