The best movie ever made? What an understatement!

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2001)

As several reviewers have correctly observed with regards to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, just so much has been written, debated, interpreted and allegorised over the decades, not too much remains in terms of a "new slant" on the issue of this 149 minute brain-blender. It can only be ascribed the title "Best film ever made," if one is to consider the other 50-60,000 films actual contenders, and with the possible exception of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, GOODBYE MR CHIPS (The original, obviously), THE INNOCENTS (1962), MIDNIGHT COWBOY, CASABLANCA, CITIZEN KANE, PATTON, THE SHOOTIST, HEAT, BEN HUR, THE GODFATHER and maybe half a dozen more which I will diplomatically avoid nominating...they aren't!
To call 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY a great film is to insult it. At the risk of incurring social isolation (and I can so live with that!)I doubt more than 5% of the world's population can even grasp at the staggering concepts up there on the screen. To plagiarize the words of Jesus himself, my inclination is to "forgive them, for they know not what they see!" I have read reviews and comments, that individuals have found the film a "boring" experience, I have news for them.....it wasn't made for you! Many years ago I had the privilege to be standing at the base of the Great Pyramid at Giza looking up at what is inarguably the greatest monumental artifact left to us on this planet. To my right, a group of English tourists strolled over. "Just a heap of rock and stone ain't it mate?" said one lowbrow to his cro-magnan associate. Angered to the point of being able to commit what I would have termed justifiable homicide, I stood there, tears of utter rage running down my cheeks. Now, having learned a degree of both acceptance and tolerance, I am better equipped to handle such affrontery. So it must be with this film! There is not one micro-second of this movie that is either boring or without constructive purpose IF you have the ability to receive the transmission! From the fidgeting and furtive glances of the ape family at night, to Poole's dissociated and emotionless reaction to his parents wishing him a happy birthday by video-link, all is as it should be. Ironic that the character seemingly the most imbued with humanity and interest in his environment is HAL himself (How many viewers have yet to establish even HAL's link with IBM?)
You will note that I have studiously avoided here re-hashing the storyline of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. If you do not yet know it, I rather doubt you would be reading this. It is, as some enlightened people have observed, anything BUT a space-tripping epic. It is about our origins, our purpose, our future.....why else do you suppose the craft was called "Discovery?"
Technologically the film is so unutterably brilliant it cannot be underestimated. There is not the slightest trace of matte-work or fudging of models here. No film before or since has come close to matching these Fx. Digitising is a total joke besides this. We share Heywood Floyd's weightlessness in the shuttle, marvel at the interiors of the space station (outstandingly scripted little sequence here) and listen to the sounds of silence as the moon bus speeds its way to Clavius and its covert destiny for mankind.
The Jupiter craft "Discovery" itself is without equal in visual history. Does anyone want to tell me that the viewer is NOT in space during this long sequence? Is there the slightest ripple of unreality as Dave exits the pod-bay doors? (So much greater an experience in the original 'Cinerama' format admittedly). Even Bowman's pursuit and retrieval of Poole's body is total realism, even down to the crumpling of his limbs as he is finally cradled within the pod's arms.
The conclusion of the film for some, is a devastating emotional wake-up call, something most will never again experience in their lifetime. It is a glimpse of the unglimpsable, a gentle assurance that its not all for nothing, that some indefinable force IS at work directing, nudging, watching!
If you all only KNEW what the Monolith really is?