Kottke’s summary of Kubrick’s commentary around 2001’s ending puts it better than I could myself, understandably. I’ve only seen the film twice, and I don’t think I’ve ever spent enough time thinking about it - but it really does deserve everything people feel about it.
It’s weird, it’s fantastic, it’s epic and the pacing is glacial - but it’s amazing. You should watch it before reading the article, and I’d love to know what people think about the summary if they have.
Few directors allowed their movies to speak for themselves more than Stanley Kubrick. Still, when it came to 2001: A Space Odyssey and its mysterious ending, he did attempt to let viewers know what his intention was. In a 1969 interview with Joseph Gelmis, he quickly summed up the entire plot in two paragraphs.