Trivial Pursuit, of course.

I would argue it is precisely that movie that made him into the giant that he was. It was a synthesis and evolution of many previous works into a larger, more important, and more cohesive vehicle. The reason it exists at all is because of Kubrick. The books were great, but except for that movie he was just a very good science fiction writer. It was Kubrick's vision and execution that lifted him. And it was Kubrick that was responsible for its polished final form, as he kept rejecting Clarke's drafts and insisting that he could do better. The book was written along with the development of the movie. It was published after the movie was released, but it was finished beforehand and is in fact the basis of the movie, instead of the reverse, which is a common misconception.

And the morons, the geeknobs, the imbeciles that self-award themselves for movies, completely blew it. Do you know what won the Oscar for the best movie of 1969? You might look it up. No one remembers it. 2001 didn't even win an award for best costumes, that went to the inane world of Roddy McDowell and his geriatric simians for Planet of the Apes. They gave 2001 an award for special effects, and you can argue almost everything important until CG was done in 2001. It didn't make it onto that stupid list of 100 best films (give me a break). And compared to other films made the same year (how about the ludicrous 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars'?) it was just miles and miles ahead of anything anyone else could imagine.

Most importantly, much of what Clarke/Kubrick presented was righteously and vigorously dismissed as bunk, especially w.r.t. the early hominid sequences. Remember this was the era of arguing over "Killer Apes" or gentle pre-humans. His presentation of pre-humans' war-like behavior was ridiculed, and his presentation of weapons development as the nucleus of development of greater intelligence was mostly scorned.

Today we can watch some of the nature channel films about chimpanzees going out on "war patrol." They act almost exactly like the prehumans did in the film. They said bands of apes wouldn't fight, well, they do. They said apes don't fight over water, well, they do. They say they don't use tools as weapons, well, they do. In the end, Kubrick and Clarke were right about almost everything.

To this day, from watching his film, almost no one can grasp his biggest concept on their own (that when we encounter a greater intelligence we will have no greater understanding of it than an ant would walking about on a tank). And to this day almost no one can spot the aliens right there in plain sight (and no, they aren't the monoliths).

You will be missed, Arthur and Stanley.

-Luen