2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

RATINGS

irector Stanley Kubrick’s seminal sci-fi epic, co-written with author Arthur C. Clarke, takes the whole of human history as its subject—from the initial flicker of intelligent thought in hominids, to the present day where humans live with the assistance of computer-generated artificial intelligence. The film literally works as a space opera: long stretches pass dialogue-free with just classical music serving to enhance the hyper-realistic images of won an Oscar for best visual effects, the only one it managed to take home from the 1969 ceremony.) While viewers at the time of the film’s release were challenged by the slow pacing and mystifying ending, its themes of the banality of human endeavor in the face of cosmic vastness, and the precarious relation between mankind and its own creations, continue to resonate.