It was April 2, 1968, when Stanley Kubrick's scifi masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington DC! Since my dad was an astrophysicist, he got an invite with his family! I was a mere nine years old, and this was not like any movie I had ever seen. I was so confused and even bored by its meticulous visuals and unorthodox lack of dialogue and structure. By the time the film stopped for intermission, (yes big films often had intermissions back then), I was dumbfounded. So we went back for the second half, and I was even more confused through the wild ending. It was not until I got the novelization of the screenplay (which ironically was based on an original book by Arthur C. Clark called Childhood's End), that I finally understood the film with its well researched science, imaginative themes, and Oscar winning special effects that helped make films like Star Wars and Alien possible and influenced a generation of filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. When I got to college and helped run the film program, 2001 was a regularly programmed staple on the midnight circuit.
The fact that fifty years later, the film still impresses with its visuals and does not seem dated, (a testament to Kubrick's vision), says a lot and is championed by such directors as Christopher Nolan. At a recent MidAtlantic Nostalgia Convention, I had the pleasure of meeting the two stars of 2001, Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. As we celebrate a movie milestone, it really is amazing how far films have come, and what a landmark 2001 has become and has played important moments in my life.
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