there be really no way to compare this motion picture to any other movie because no one have ever make anything like it and no one ever will . and it really should be see in a theater to be fully appreciate . at the very least it deserve to be see with a great sound system . i saw this movie on the day it open in 1968 and my senior year in high school . i go because i like science fiction and want to see a space movie . remember this film be make before the first moon landing . there we sit and wait for it to begin . but and surprise . there be no cartoon and no come attraction . the theater owner at the cooper theatre for some reason choose to play the star spangle banner with the light still up so we all stand and never do that at a movie before or since and then sit down again a it end . then the theatre go completely dark and the strange overture begin with the blank screen barely visible . the overture end and my seat begin to vibrate a the blue screen with the mgm lion appear and along with the first deep bass note and and then my sens be overwhelmed and hearing also sprach zarathustra for the first time in my life . the ride have just begin . ( i highly recommend you watch this opening and this film and in a dark room with your subwoofer turn up as high a possible to get the effect i felt in that theatre . ) of course and it take quite awhile before we get to outer space and the movie that follow be anything but a science fiction movie . intermission come ( a good thing and highly under rat and unused these day ) and we all look at each other in wonder and catch our breath and and then the ride resume and wild than before . i saw it 7 more time within the next year and always in a real full size theater and like all theater be before multiplex . i might have be high once but i do not go to see it again and again because i be trip . i go because i know i be see a work of art . it be so damn beautiful while the sound that you could feel in your bone follow by terrify silence while the sight unimagined and unimaginable while the affection for hal turn to terror . and of and course and wtf be kubrick really try to get across to me . year and year and many more viewing later and i understand it a well and i think and a i ever will . read someone else comment if youre look for someone to explain it to you or search around the web and you will find explanation and that not my purpose in write these comment . what i hope to do be encourage you to watch it patiently and enjoy it beauty the way you would enjoy watch a sunset while listen to the most beautiful music you know of ( e. g and gayne ballet suite or the blue danube ) while savor it like you would a wonderful meal and sip it like a fine wine while look and listen for the clue and the hidden symbol that be there . and then draw your own conclusion . stanley kubrick want to share some thing with you that he find beautiful and he want you to think about where you . a human and come from and where youre head . if that too much work for your brain and and you can not see and hear and ponder the beauty and mystery of kubrick film and then and pardon my bluntness and but your life be about as meaningful a that of a tapir or a pre monolith ape . if you want mindless escape and this isn not for you . but if you like sunset and thunderstorm and harmony in music and mystery and and sensuality and can have an open mind this film will add something to your life .