Our Daily Trailer: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

Stanley Kubrick, one of the most singular directors we’ve known, never won a Best Director Oscar. Kubrick not only directed classic movies nearly every time he went to bat, but you always know when you're watching a Kubrick movie. That he never got the statue diminishes what it means to get the statue at all. It also offers me a lot of movies to pick from when it comes to Oscar snubs, the subject of this month’s Our Daily Trailer run.

I’m going with 2001: A Space Odyssey because it’s still difficult for me to fathom how someone even made this movie. And also because this is the movie where Kubrick lost to Carol Reed for Oliver! Now, I haven’t seen Oliver!, so I cannot in all honesty claim that it wasn’t directed better than 2001 (or The Battle of Algiers, another Best Director nominee that year). But I’m going use my red-blooded American arrogance and guess that it’s not.

In any case, this is an amazing trailer. Focused primarily on music and images, much like the film itself, this trailer basically says: “This movie looks cool, and you’re going to totally come and see it even if you have no idea what’s going on.” Oliver!’s trailer might look like that too, though.