A Film Needs More Than You Can

You're Free To Speculate As You Wish About The Philosophical And Allegorical Meaning Of The Film—and Such Speculation Is One Indication That It Has Succeeded In Gripping The Audience At A Deep Level—but I Don't Want To Spell Out A Verbal Road Map For 2001 That Every Viewer Will Feel Obligated To Pursue Or Else Fear He's Missed The Point.

A Film Is - Or Should Be - More Like Music Than Like Fiction. It Should Be A Progression Of Moods And Feelings. The Theme, What's Behind The Emotion, The Meaning, All That Comes Later.

The Most Terrifying Fact About The Universe Not That It Is Hostile But That It Is Indifferent

Some People Demand A Five-line Capsule Summary. Something You'd Read In A Magazine. They Want You To Say, 'this Is The Story Of The Duality Of Man And The Duplicity Of Governments.' I Hear People Try To Do It -- Give The Five-line Summary -- But If A Film Has Any Substance Or Subtlety, Whatever You Say Is Never Complete, It's Usually Wrong, And It's Necessarily Simplistic: Truth Is Too Multifaceted To Be Contained In A Five-line Summary. If The Work Is Good, What You Say About It Is Usually Irrelevant.

If Gary Cooper And Henry Fonda Had A Baby, It Would Be Matthew Modine.