Despite being widespread and constant, debates on the greatest film of all time are kind of arbitrary and ultimately pointless pursuits. However, if someone were to claim in one of those discussions that “Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is the best film ever made”, they’d be hard-pressed to find a disputer. There’s seemingly unending reasons for the film’s acclaim. It could be down to it’s beauty: how grand it feels due to the balletic score and stunningly symmetrical visuals. It could be because of that ending which will either be like nothing you’ve ever seen or better than everything that has copied it since. It could be the fact that it uses the same sets that Kubrick faked the moon landings with. Probably more than any other reason is that it’s reputation is self-fulfilling. In other words, 2001′ is famous because it’s 2001‘.

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But amidst these reasons and debates and talked about almost as much as the film’s loopy ending is a simple edit. The cut between the last shot of the prologue to the film and the first shot of the rest of it has been documented, posted and praised to no end.....