I admit it: I find the Matrix movie trilogy interesting. I've not managed to plunge into the mind-bending exercises of convoluted interpretation that many apparently have regarding the movies and their content, but I do enjoy watching the work of the Wachowski brothers, even if they do have it in for Republicans.*
Nevertheless, I've got four things to run past the readership whose interests run towards Wachowskian cinema:
1. Inside the matrix proper, Mr. Anderson works for a company named 'Metacortex', a software house that ostensibly writes software for business applications. A site has sprung up on our Internet which uses the 'Metacortex' name as its name in business and says that it makes, among other things, virtual reality software. Cute.
It's also coded entirely in black and green. Even the pictures have a green filter over them. If you go to the employee directory (see the bottom of the little Flash thing), select 'Redland' as your city, and enter AndersonThomas as the query, you get the response:
***TRANSFERRED***No forwarding information available.
Someone's having a splendid time mimicking the world in which the Matrix series takes place, and I appreciate the effort. If you're interested in perusing the site itself, point your browser to http://www.metacortechs.com/ and go from there. I've investigated this a little, and it appears that the site is part of some vast role-playing game effort, centered around unfiction.com, an "alternate reality gaming" site. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with the Revolutions promotional effort. This "alternate reality gaming" thing seems to be just another evolution of the whole live-action role play thing that the White Wolf people popularized in the last decade or so. Ho hum. Back to one's boring daily life as a coppertop, I suppose.
2. This is old news, but it's just too good to pass up. The people of somethingawful.com have a section on their website devoted to altered screenshots around a Matrix theme. Some of the shots are crummy, but some of them can't be seen somewhere that would not allow you to respond, whether it be a snicker or an out-loud laugh. Er, like class. Anyways, check out the site by clicking here and have some fun. You'll have to be pretty familiar with various elements of pop culture, or some of them won't make any sense. My personal favorite's got to be the poster for Matrix Dogs which doesn't appear here, but might if I can figure out a way around any potential restrictions on use by the SA people.
3. 05 November 2003 is the release date for The Matrix: Revolutions. Go see it, and knock those cursed Disney computer-animated monstrosities off their respective shelves for box office receipts!
4. Despite having knocked Messrs. Wachowski in a footnote to the introduction, (Here's a question that'll really bake your noodle: Did I bash them before this fourth point, or after it?) I'll give credit where credit's due and salute their writing and cinematography meshed with Hugo Weaving's portrayal of Smith. The movie's interesting and all if you're into philosophical tangents that are essentially unprovable at this point (unless Laurence Fishburne starts handing out pills...) but all movies need an engaging antagonist. Enter Agent Smith. I won't say anything else in this overly long posting, but if asked my favorite character, the answer is constant: "Smith will suffice."
Enjoy.
* In The Matrix, the protagonists are betrayed by a man referred to as "Mr. Reagan" who doesn't want to "remember nothing" and wants to be "an actor". If we are to credit Messrs. Wachowski with the kind of deliberate symbolism that so many do, the linkage of these three facts can not be considered coincidental. Indeed, they play off a popular theme among cultural liberals, namely that President Reagan was an actor who remembered nothing at the time of the Iran-contra hearings. It is somewhat irritating to see them repeat this theme and then connect President Reagan to a traitorous individual.
In The Matrix: Reloaded, we see Thomas A. "Neo" Anderson conversing with a malevolent machine intelligence dubbed "The Architect". This entity is responsible for creating the matrix in which all humanity lies trapped to serve as a power source. The conversation between Mr. Anderson and the Architect takes place in front of a bank of monitors, upon which various images flash at differing times. At least three distinct individuals are broadcast upon those monitors in relatively short sequence: President George H.W. Bush, President George W. Bush, and Führer und Reichschancellor Adolf Hitler.
Gee, thanks Andy and Larry. They have chosen, for whatever reason, to put forward the two Bush presidents and the third- or fourth-most successful mass murderer in human history, presumably to hammer guilt by association. This isn't a new line; various stories about connections between the Bush family and the German National Socialists have floated about for years, but with questionable veracity. The 'George W. Bush as Hitler' thing is, of course, recent. It's juvenile and cheapens the sense of revulsion that any human being should feel at the actions of Nazi Germany. Shame on the Wachowskis for buying into left-wing nuttery.
Posted by Country Pundit at November 3, 2003 02:45 PM