I was told recently, just after watching this breathtaking and groundbreaking film, that "nothing much happens" in its 139 minute running time. Not much happens. The birth of humanity through the use of tools by what were previously just apes. Manned trips to Jupiter. A psychotic computer that commits murder. Contact with aliens. The dawning of a new age of human history. Not much.

The film works best if viewed as a symphony; Stanley Kubrick's now-famous use of such classical pieces as the Blue Danube Waltz and Also Sprach Zarathustra are now so welded to the film that it is impossible to hear the defiant opening chords of Strauss' ode to Aryan greatness without picturing a monkey beating on another with a bone, while I can't hear the lilting Blue Danube without picturing the ballet of ships docking together in deep space. The first movement of the symphony of 2001 is titled, pretentiously, "The Dawn of Man." After being chased away from a water hole by a group of rival apes, a band of apes is forever changed by the arrival of a stone monolith that seems to spark them to conceive of the use of tools. The fact that the first tool is used to both kill for food and beat a rival to death should not be dismissed.

The second movement takes place millions of years later, in 2001. A similar monolith has been discovered buried on the moon, and the chairman of the equivalent of NASA is sent in to control the situation. The third movement is eighteen months later, as a manned ship journeys to Jupiter, where the second monolith is sending a radio signal. This ship is controlled by a cutting-edge HAL 9000 computer, which is capable of thought. After it makes a mistake and starts to lose its mind, good old-fashioned human ingenuity on the part of Dave (Keir Dullea) is able to triumph. The fourth movement is a visual tour-de-force, as Dave comes closer to discovering the origin of the monoliths and is changed forever. Finally, the fifth movement puts a rapidly-aging Dave in an 18th century room, created in his mind, in which he goes through the stages of his life until his rebirth as a fetus. Or something like that.

What all of it means, and even what actually happens, is open to debate. It seems to me to be Kubrick's summation of the human experience, from the dawn of intelligence to the logical end of that intelligence. The last enigmatic third of the movie, after Dave's adventure with HAL, is the transition to whatever awaits us at the discovery of our origins. Another person watching it, though, is likely to get a completely different idea. That is the joy of the movie, something that I realized after watching it again: that it will always be open to interpretation, that your state of mind while watching it will determine what you take out of it, and that your life experiences will change what you think of it on subsequent viewings. It is a work of art that reflects your own worldview, if you are willing to put any thought into it.

The film deservedly won Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for Best Art Direction, Story & Screenplay, and Director. Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest directors of all time, was nominated as director four times, but never won. His Oscar for 2001's visual effects was his only award.