"2001: A Space Odyssey" was released in 1968, prior to the first moon landings. It was directed by Stanley Kubrick. This site is full of screenshots taken from the June 12, 2001 re-release of the DVD to illustrate certain themes in the movie. I implore anyone who loves "2001" to get this DVD. My screenshots do not do justice to the extraordinary quality of the new release. If you don't own a DVD player, go get one and buy this exquisite disc - but be sure to avoid the 1998 release which is really just awful.

You can reach me by email here. If the movie bored or offended you, I'm not the one to complain to. Anything you find unanswered or vague in Kubrick's "2001" is one of two things - 1) Kubrick left it that way for you to examine the possibilities yourself or 2) you need to pay more attention.

I am aware of Arthur C. Clarke's novels. Even before the release of "2001" the movie, Clarke and Kubrick had parted company on many important points about the plot. Clarke's novels are their own works and frankly they have little bearing on the film outside the original script which can be seen as source material. Clarke has written quite a lot about characters named HAL and Bowman since then. I just don't think any of it is very interesting compared to this film.

Similarly, "2010: The Year We Make Contact" is a good sci-fi movie. I really adore Hellen Mirren. Nonetheless, the movie sentimentalized and trivialized the events of "2001" in order to tell a story on par with a good Star Trek movie. That's high praise coming from me. Still, I can never watch it without getting a weird feeling like I imagine you would have if you saw a Ron Howard film called "Space Wars" with characters named Luke Starwalker, Dark Father and Han Loner. It'd probably be a good film, but you'd keep on thinking about what you're missing.