2001: A Space Odyssey: The Movie that Changed Movies is 40 Years Old

"If you understand '2001' completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions then we answered."

Novelist and co-screenwriter Arthur C. Clarke - imdb.com

"Will someone tell me what in the hell this is about?"

Rock Hudson as he walked out of the premiere before the film ended. Imdb.com

"2001" is a monumentally unimaginative movie.

Critic Pauline Kael - The first sentence of her review in The New Yorker.

"This is one of the grimmest films I have ever seen in my life. It's a disaster because it is much too abstract to make its abstract points."

Andrew Sarris review in The Village Voice. Sarris would see the film again and completely reversed his original review.

The date was April 6, 1968. That was the day movies, particularly science fiction movies, changed forever. That was the day, 40 years ago, that Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey opened in limited Roadshow release across the country.

The Roadshow attraction was one where a movie would be placed in specific theaters across the country, one to a city. The theater would show the movie once at night with matinees every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. The Roadshow attractions were always well over two hours long and included opening music which signaled the start of the movie, an intermission with accompanying music and closing music for exiting the theater. Tickets for these movies could only be purchased in the mail. Box offices were not opened for walk up business. Commonly these films would play for as long as one year and even longer in some cases.