Every film critic and director in the film industry will say the same thing:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Why?
Because it is the best of Kubrick's films and among the best all-time and for good reason. It's a pre-CGI masterpiece illustrating amazing special effects especially for the time. Also, the use of music and cinematography and advancing the story and triggering emotions and a sense of amazement.
Take a look at this scene which is the introduction of the USS Discovery. The long establishing shots of the USS Discovery are an example of this as is the jogging scene right after.
There are several subtle brilliant details to watch for that, in a lesser movie, they would not bother with even to this day.
1. The slow-motion movement of the spacecraft was original to this film. Star Wars and Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture and other films that use a similar method all came later. (In defense of Star Trek which premiered in 1966 before 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek did often show the Enterprise moving through space albeit not in as grand a fashion originally.)
2. When looking at the front of the spacecraft, notice the window. There is movement by an astronaut inside!
3. The stars slowly move in the background. So, while we are watching the movement of the spacecraft and it appears slow to us, visually, we are moving along with it and it is rather fast.
4. The jogging scene, shot with two different camera angles (one fixed on the inside of the habitat ring and one just behind the jogger as he runs inside the habitat ring). And finally, the other astronaut is descending the stairs and then walking inside the ring. How do you think they did this? NO CGI. They built a giant rotating set and meticulously planned and executed this scene.
So many other interesting camera techniques were developed for this movie; it truly advanced cinematography which is a major reason why this film is considered among the greatest ever made.
This blog discusses that impact.
https://www.yellowbrick.co/blog/film/exploring-the-visual-brilliance-of-2001-a-space-odyssey/
Meanwhile, Sight and Sound is the British Film Institute's magazine. Every 10 years in years ending with 2, Sight and Sound conducts a poll of film critics and a separate poll of directors of what the greatest films of all time are. Each critic or director is asked to provide their top 10 films and then the results are compiled into the final poll results.
In 2022, the Greatest Films of All Time (Critics) poll has 2001: A Space Odyssey at #6, but the Directors’ 100 Greatest Films of All Time poll has it at #1.
2001: A Space Odyssey description at the BFI.
No other Kubrick film is ranked higher.
2001 is a slammin' piece. The story is implied and is profound as it's presented. The monolith is just this advanced artifact and evolves an astronaut into our final human form, which is some cosmic starchild, but before that we have to devolve into a silverback space ape... And the aliens tell us we can't go to Europa cause they don't trust our apeness not to interfere with other life.
I only seen The shining, A clockwork orange and Full metal jacket. I liked all of them but my favourite would have to be The shining because Jack Nicholson just plays crazy perfectly :*
Definitely 2001. It was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of its time. Hell, even now it looks like they're actually in space.
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7Opinion
I've only seen 3 of them. 2001 was pretty confusing and I couldn't follow the story line at all, if there is one. I like what he did with The Shining but, again, the story line wasn't very good. But, you have to expect that from Steven King. Most of his stories are incredibly lame. So, I went with Clockwork.
Spartacus & Full Metal Jacket are probably his best, in my opinion.
Meanwhile, that Eyes Wide Shut flick is awful, really awful.
2001 a, space odyssey. If you saw it in the original Cinerama theaters it was amazing
Either 2001 or the Shining
u A Clockwork Orange...
I picked Spartcus
7th.
A Clockwork Orange.
u A Clockwork Orange And full metal jacket
A Clockwork Orange
2 words.. Private Pyle!
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