After 32 years, this film is still the finest...

Rating: Null/10 (3 September 2000)

After first viewing this film in early 1969 I had the distinct impression that I had just seen the finest film I would ever see. In 32 years that feeling has not waned. This is without question the greatest achievement in motion picture history. Whatever misgivings one might have for its lack of traditional dramatic and narrative structure - the film offers a vision of Mankind's ultimate place in the Universe that is both profoundly beautiful and terrifying. The critics who hated it have never come to terms with the scale of the Cosmos and the true measure of their own insignificance. Most are scientifically illiterate. They must feel they could have (to use Herman Melville's words) "offered God advice during the six days of creation...these people are all cracked across the brow..."
To see all of Human history - from the Pleistocene to the 21st century - pass within the space between two film frames (as if it were unimportant...!) is something most mental lightweights can't handle. Those who can are given the opportunity to see at least the goal of Cosmic Consciousness and the ultimate end to human strife ahead of us - assuming we can overcome our egotism and narrowmindedness.
The most legitimate religious experience of the 20th and 21st centuries is to embrace the grand myths of our own time - to understand the natural origin of Mankind and to look forward to our first contact with advanced extraterrestrial life. No other film reflects these sentiments more sincerely. It has indeed pointed the way to a truly new age.

A note to Mr. Tom Hanks: I shattered your "record" long ago. I've seen this film at least 100 times projected! 40 times in 70mm, 60 times in 35mm, and once in 16mm (awful - never again...!) Thanks for your undying respect for this timeless masterpiece and your own fine film work preserving the history of space exploration.