Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-16-2018
Abstract
1968 was one of the most convulsive years in recent world history. Fifty years later it is worthwhile to remember many of the things that happened back then. That was the year of the Tet Offensive that radically changed American public opinion about the Vietnam War. That was also the year of the Paris revolts in May that transformed a lot of popular culture, of the Mexico City Olympic games where two African-American athletes publicly protested against racial discrimination by raising their black-gloved fists and wearing black socks in lieu of shoes at the podium. It was also the year in which both Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated.
On April 3, 1968, the day before Dr. King was killed, a unique movie opened in theaters across the U.S. Its title: “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Although it had mixed reviews initially, this film directed by Stanley Kubrick and partially based on a short story by Arthur C. Clark titled “The Sentinel,” went on to be the highest-grossing movie in North America for 1968, and today is considered one of the best and more transformative films ever made.
Comments
This work was originally published in The Edwardsville Intelligencer.