The Greatest Movie Ever

Rating: 10/10 (5 October 2000)

I know why people don't like this movie. In our fast-paced society, if a movie comes along that is as slow as this one, we ignore it. And it is slow. Man, is it ever. This is one of the slowest freaking movies I have ever seen. That's why I think that it's the best. Let's think about it for a minute. We see the vast emptiness of primitive Earth, and contrast it with the vast emptiness of space in the relative infancy of our space program. Yes, this movie supposedly takes place in 2001, 32 years after we first set foot on the moon. But don't forget that this movie was made a full year before we set foot on the moon. Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it? Sure, by the point in the movie where we pick up, there are technological advances that we have yet to see, such as the moon base. It's important to realize that Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke were not psychic; still, the movie is probably the most accurate picture of space we'll ever see. Another thing, besides the slowness, that bothers people is the lack of sound. The silence is deafening in space. You don't hear explosions in space, as most sci-fi pictures would have you believe. There's no way for sound to travel. The silence just adds to the horror of the story. Twentieth century composer John Cage believed that silence was the essence of music, even composed a piece that was nothing but silence. In this movie, we see just how powerful the silence can be. The story is a powerful metaphor for the eternal battles of humankind. First, man conquers nature. Then, man conquers technology. The only thing that we find is the most powerful opponent for the man is himself (of course, I am speaking of man in the non-gender-specific sense, although it's a man in the movie). This movie is art, and I don't expect everyone to understand it, or even to agree with me. These interpretations are my own. I could talk for a long time about this movie. It's a tough movie to watch, but it is the best I have ever seen.