62. See all the movie's on AFI's top 100 list (19/123)

2001:  A Space Odyssey

Via Here

Well this was an interesting film.  First off, it's Non-Verbal which means there is very little dialogue.  This is part of what makes it novel and draws your attention to all the other sound editing.  Yep, the soundtrack is perfect.

Sound familiar?  Thought so :)

Other qualities that launched it into the "Epic" category are the special effects, length, and themes.  Kubrick did this film in 1968 which preceded the science fiction "blockbuster" that we're so used to today.  A lot of what he chose to do in the movie is now common in any similarly themed movie.... classical music while aircrafts float in space, that soft-creepily-smooth voice for a computer/droid, and the 'playing with fire' feel to extraterrestrial exploration.  I recently saw Prometheus and they are incredibly similar, which makes sense because Ridley Scott (and George Lucas and Spielberg) gives credit to this movie as inspiration.

Not going to lie though, it is weird.  And long.  And a little boring.  There are times where I laughed out loud and this is definitely not a comedy.  I can imagine if I was seeing it 50 years ago how cool it'd be?  In fact, most of their scenes were a lot more realistic than the not-quite-perfected CGI of today!  Still weird though, especially the end.

I just kept thinking of this the whole time....