Tonight I rewatched 2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm at the museum of the moving image —i've grown up with the film, yet i've come to realize that it's a really a fascinating and unique film on a number of levels:
1. it's a very much a european art film done on with a hollywood mega budget (and with hollywood level special effects)
2. there really isn't a single star that carries this film from start to finish, you have heywood floyd carry the 2nd act, and then you have david bowman carry the 3rd act
3. it's a film about the future, yet it seems to capture something very unique about what was going on in the 1960s (from modernism, to the space race, to the fashions and even mega corporatism of that era) — so in a sense it's what makes the film dated really fascinating
4. even though it's a european or british film, it still has a very american centric take on the near future (granted of course that kubrick was a product of america)
5. you never really see the aliens, which is quite brilliant
6. i never really appreciated the sound design of the film because it's so easy to get lost in the soundtrack — but it has some really nice touches from the flies buzzing the apes to breathing sounds within a space suit (even the way the sound carries from one scene overlapping to the next)