Absolute masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (22 June 2001)

On a scale from 1 to 10,a ten would not be enough for such a masterwork. 1968 was the definitive landmark for sci-fi movies.So innovative was the screenplay,so devastating were the pictures,so haunting was the score that Kubrik's movie took our breath away,mesmerizing us ,turning us into creatures in rapture,in awe .Some scenes are so admirable,so sublime,that they make you cry:remember the ape discovering the power of a tool,the spaceships floating while exotic "Blue Danube" is heard. This movie could go on four hours and hours ,no one would notice.One hundred years from now,future scholars will write exegesises of the bewildering finale.As vain and futile as the quest for the Holy Graal.Our connection to the movie is subliminal,the long "psychedelic" sequence comes as a perfect metaphor.Remember ,in Ingmar Bergman's "seventh seal",the lines :"questions are more important than the answers".Kubrick wanted the movie to stir something inside of us,to speak to our subconscious.And AC Clarke ,who co-wrote the screenplay mischievously added;"this is a fiction;reality will be certainly stranger". No sci-fi movie comes close to 2001:"star wars" does not really appeal to adults the same way ,by a long shot ."Close encounters",while aping some of Kubrik tricks,remains puerile and spoils everything by showing almost everything in its turgid finale.