American Icons: 2001: A Space Odyssey

A half-century after it was released, 2001: A Space Odyssey is still supplying light amid the darkness. It’s considered not just a great film but an important and influential work of modern art. An astonishing marriage of sound and image, man and machine, there’s nothing simple or obvious—nothing monolithic—about it.

American Icons is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.