Revolutionary.

Rating: 10/10 (25 November 2005)

From a great writer and a great filmmaker comes a tale incredible sobering and fascinating.
It may not have been the first sci-fi movie without ray guns monsters or dauntless heroes, but it's combination of meticulous realism, stunning beauty, and cold cosmic viewpoint (with just enough human sympathy at the end) make it as historically significant as Birth of a Nation or Citizen Kane.
The brutal vastness of pre-human earth; the brilliant selection of music; the rigorous depiction of astronautics as bureaucratic and astronauts as smart drones; the range of emotions flickering on Keir Dullea's stony face; the death of (a) man and the birth of the star-child.
Could HAL stand for GOD, the not completely intelligent designer?