By Light Years the Best Film Ever Made

Rating: 10/10 (6 April 2000)

2001 warps beyond every other film ever made. I have seen it nearly a dozen times since I first saw it in 1997. I bought it right away on VHS, and when I got DVD, it was the only VHS tape I replaced with a DVD.

So why is it the best film ever made? Simply because it transcends narrative. No other film has really done that. Even surrealist films are rooted in narrative. Avant-guarde films sometimes do not use narrative, but they become only moving paintings. 2001 has narrative, but it never insists on it. It lovingly displays the amazing visuals.
The narrative itself makes me feel that humanity could be so much more. Kubrick usually is kind of pessimistic, but at the end of 2001, he shows Dave's transcendence. And he is moving towards Earth to bring the rest of humanity with him. Although it shows the state of humanity as it exists now as violent and unsympathetic to the plight of others, it shows hope for our future.
I have a rather large complaint about how some people look at this film, though. The introductory comment to this film on this site mentions understanding it more since that person has read the novel. This is all misinformation! Kubrick was inspired by the Clarke short story "The Sentinal," which I have read. It is not really worth it. If you've ever seen Clarke on The Discovery Channel's "Mysteries of the Unknown" or whatever it's called, you know how pompous he is. The visions in 2001 are completely Kubrick's. Arthur C. Clarke was just a trampoline off which he jumped. The novel is not an original. It was written alongside with the film, and it was published afterwards. The university at Champaigne-Urbana celebrated Hal's birth in 1996, the date it gave in the novel. It is 1992 in the film, of course. Those ungrateful losers. That is the difference between a technology nerd and a cineast. Then Clarke completely milked the greatness of this film to make a living. If you want to see how terrible he really is, see the sequel to 2001, 2010, which he wrote. It was so awful that I killed it after 20 minutes. Pay no attention to Clarke and his leech-like behavior to this masterpiece.
Those complaints, of course, have nothing to do with the actual film. To me, it is the most inspirational film ever made. I would watch it over anything. infinite/10