I was a big "A Clockwork Orange" fan because of the sound track. I bought a new one a few years ago, but nothing is the same as when you're young.
GOOD POINT.FYI: Full Metal Jacket is NOT a good trippin' movie
An excellent synopsis.Reading the book helps, as always.
Very very briefly, you have a story where aliens visit Earth, give us a mental boost, including the use of weaponry, and a specific timeline where we have to develop as a species and outgrow weapons utterly (otherwise quite likely be destroyed). That's thematic.
The actual plot revolves around a mission to explore Jupiter's moons, where the monolith on the moon aimed its signal. During said mission, ship's computer goes crazy and begins to eliminate the human crew who, in the judgment of HAL, are actually risks to the mission rather than assets. Probably right too. Anyway a conflict in HAL's program causes this, Dave has to shut HAL down or die. Dave then visits the second monolith (weaponless), goes through the stargate, becomes something godly (the Nietzchean Uber-man, or Homo Illuminatus or whatever version you prefer).
It's a story about progress, mentality, consciouscness, and ethics.
But the movie is a little like The Big Lebowski. You wind up thinking "Wow, what did I just watch?" Go watch it again.