Dave Sindelar wrote:
And perhaps my favorite observation this time was that Frank Poole and Heywood Floyd have conversations with family members about birthdays, and, given the ending of this movie, I now recognize these scenes as being subtle hints about the movie's end.
The "birthday" theme also surfaces with HAL, while being disconnected, discussing his "birth" in 1996 (I think). He's regressing to childhood (by reciting the "Daisy" song before shutting down).

The (very subtle) parallel in the film that always makes me smile is the similarity between the warring tribes of primates in the "Dawn of Man" sequence, and Floyd's chance meeting with the Soviet scientists, when he refuses to give them any information on the Moon situation (the 21st century equivalent of the two tribes refusing to share).

I recently bought 2001 on Blu Ray, and it is astonishing to see.


James