2001: A Space Odyssey

"How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas'The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover'? This would shackle the viewer to reality, and I don't want this to happen to 2001." Perhaps it was the psychedelic movement of the late 1960's that saved Stanley Kubrick's tale of first contact with an extra-terrestrial intelligence from being buried in oblivion. The initial response to the film was extremely polarised if not hostile, and at the box office it wasn't a hit either. Rumour has it MGM, ready to pull the movie after a few weeks, was told by theater owners there's more people coming to the shows at last but those people were somewhat different -- a young crowd, smoking pot before the screenings.