Wow, all this flying back and forth about 2001.

As far as whether it would have a similar impact today as it did in 1968, I guess that would depend on how many people still want to get stoned before watching a movie ... (Roger Ebert once remarked about how he was at a screening of 2001 in 1968 where nearly the entire audience was stoned and either sitting or lying down right in front of the screen)

The relevance of a movie always has to be framed within the context of when it came out. 2001 will seem dated today only because of the other movies that succeeded it. In 1968, the effects in that movie were revolutionary (and actually hold up quite well, as I think most of Douglas Trumbull's effects work does), and the abstraction in the movie reflected the times. Just compare the allegorical themes of 2001 to the more pedestrian and literal approach taken by 2010 in 1983.

But, as Ebert noticed, I also think that it reached a veritable cult status with certain audiences. One of the theaters near my house ran 2001 for 68 straight weeks back in 1968-69. This is an 800-seat theater that had a curved Cinerama screen at that time. Self-annointed cineastes alone are not going to keep a motion picture run going for that long. It obviously connected with the audience at that particular moment.

Same thing can be said for Star Wars. Its initial theatrical run lasted nearly a year (I recall that it played at the Chinese Theater for 10 months straight). Its impact went well beyond the movie theater. That summer of 77, you could not go anywhere without seeing the impact of Star Wars. It's easy now to watch it divorced from the context of that time, and nitpick the movie to death. But, in the context of its particular time, it had a tremendous connection with the audience of that era.

Obviously, if someone watches Star Wars for the first time in 2009, it's not going to have the same impact as it did in 1977. For one thing, all of the movies influenced by Star Wars have come out in the meantime, and the movie has been discussed and debated for the better part of 30 years.

Every movie is a product of its time, but the audience assessment is a product of all the time that has elapsed since then. Just look at movies such as Citizen Kane and Singin' In The Rain, which are more beloved and acclaimed today than they ever were during their original release.