Kubrick's Best-A Visionary Masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (19 February 2000)

A profound achievement in film art, where form and content are inseparable. All traditional conventions are thrown out the window, in favor of something that is felt as a piece of pure cinema.
Also an outstanding technical accomplishment, displaying that, whatever the critics may say, special effects are merely a filmmaking tool with perfectly legitimate uses.
A thematically complex work, exploring evolution, violence, and rebirth, "2001" is a profound work of art that demands repeated viewings. One could weep at the sheer beauty of it.
Looking at it, it's amazing it was backed and distributed by a major studio. Today, such a project would be even more difficult to get off the ground (look at today's effects-driven crowd-pleasers).
Not a film for the Micheal Bay crowd, but a cinematic jewel, a gem for the ages.
NOTE: For a in-depth look at Kubrick's body of work, I would also recommend Alexander Walker's book "Stanley Kubrick, Director".
Rating: **** (out of ****)
139 min/Released by MGM