This may be only marginally on topic, but... I help run a very small, out-of-the-way weblog / community, which is basically just a site for people to get together, talk about whatever they want, and bullshit. It's not tied to a particular genre or ideology.
In general, we're small enough that we've never had problems with abusive / troublesome users, and so there's never been any call to edit users or delete posts, except for one.
Someone ran a story on Mohamed Atta, one of the terrorists on the planes that smashed into the WTC. Someone, apparently having searched for Atta's name online, found his way to our site and anonymously posted a link reading "Here is my message of patriotism!" The link led to a Shockwave animation saluting the "heroes" who destroyed the WTC and declaring "they died for justice."
I deleted the post. The guy came back, created an account, and reposted the link. I deleted the account and the post. He went away after that.
A couple of other users complained about my "censorship," but I would absolutely do it again under the same circumstances, without hesitation. It's a free country -- he's free to say what he pleases, and I'm free to nuke whatever he says from the board if I find it inappropriate. It says so right up front, when you click to the comments page. And that definitely falls outside the boundaries of what I will accept on my web site.
You know, nearly every time Slashdot runs a video game story, I see a spate of posts complaining about the plot of this game or that. Usually "plot" is in quotes, signifying the player's deep dissatisfaction with the story, or the plot is mentioned only to vilify its mindlessness, simplicty, predictability, or staleness.
What I'd like to know -- and this is an honest question, not sarcasm -- if anyone out there has encountered a really good video game plot in their time, and if so, what their favorites are. So many video game stories seem to leave people wanting more -- what game plots comprise the standards to which others should be held?
You can also hear a lot about their relationship from Bruce Cambpell and Sam Raimi themselves on the Army of Darkness director's cut -- which is great for the commentary, but suffers a bit on quality issues, as the "added footage" is from Bruce and / or Sam's basement somewhere... and looks it. It also features the "original" ending -- although not the theatrical ending, not even as an extra or an option.
For a second I thought this said "Smart Yam," and I was thinking, okay, enough is enough. I love technology as much as the next guy, but Internet-capable squash, we really don't need...
Thief was a great game. The mission that takes place in the haunted cathedral was the best. The suspense was nearly intolerable.
That, and the final episode, which was so bizarre and creepy. I got nailed so many times in the endgame, because you're supposed to sneak past the boss at the end, and I kept jumping the gun. "His back is turned! Go! Go!" But, of course, he'd whip around and see me, and that was my ass, as they say.
I should play Thief again. Or introduce someone else to it. There's a lot of enjoyment in watching someone else play, and the first time they see a ghost or an undead Hammer, pull a Jack Burton: "Oh, no, what the hell is THAT? Don't tell me!"
I agree totally. I actually couldn't finish System Shock 2... I just got too freaked out. Well, that, and I was out of ammunition, the robots were coming for me, and there was no place to hide...
Something very similar to your experience happened to me while playing that game... I was walking on a glass walkway, looking down on some sort of nest of alien eggs, and thinking, "Wow, I sure hope none of this glass breaks --" Just as it broke, of course, and I fell down into the pit, and I heard the rustle as the alien mothers started moving in on me...
"The babies must be protected!"
"Lady, you can have them, just get me the %&*$ out of here!"
That, and I had a zombie sneak up and clock me while I was examining something on one of the walls. Jumped a mile. I can count the number of times I've ever had my adrenaline kick in from playing a video game... the first time a fiend jumped at me in Quake, hearing Sinistar bellow "BEWARE, I LIVE!", and that.
Funny, I couldn't finish Thief II either. I believe it was when I realized I was trapped in an unlit basement with one of those undead Hammers. I basically said "the hell with this." I must be getting game-wimpy in my old age. Although maybe if I didn't play with all the lights off and the earphones on, and a cruel girlfriend who likes to sneak up and grab me and shriek in my ear while I'm playing, things might go better.
I was incredibly jacked about TPM when I saw the trailer. I thought it was going to be the Best Thing Ever. Then the advance reviews started coming out, some expressing not so much disappointment as existential despair, and I started to worry. A whole generation of former kids had hung their identities on this series of movies, and felt personally betrayed when the new one didn't deliver the same magic through a wall of years and life experience.
I saw TPM opening night, I enjoyed it (with some reservations), and I've seen it many times since then. I think my initial disappointments sprung from a few things:
1) It's far from a perfect film.
2) I'm no longer a kid.
3) I expected it to be the Best Thing Ever, thereby almost ensuring it wouldn't be.
I don't think TPM was embarrassing, but I do think it's a very different film from the rest of Star Wars. It adds a more openly "comic" character (which, to my mind, was a good try but a failure), and includes things like politics, intrigue, foreshadowing, and deception -- which the classic trilogy was fairly short on.
I love and appreciate the classic trilogy for its wahoo, space-cowboys appeal, but honestly, I'm not so sure I need to see three more movies of it. I'm glad Lucas is not entirely resting on his dramatic laurels and is branching out into new ground (for him, anyway).
Personally, I'm excited to see the new flick, to see if Lucas will have learned from some of his mistakes in TPM, and also because I think TPM was all foreshadowing and setup, and we're going to see some real action in the next two flicks.
TPM is also the first act of, well, six, looking at the long view. You can't have a story of fall, despair, and redemption if you start out at the bottom. If Anakin starts out being like Chucky from Child's Play, where's the drama when he finally goes bad? Nowhere.
I think we'll see the movies mature as Anakin matures, and get darker as he does.
I should probably put on my flame-retardant suit before even saying this, but Lucas' "recycling" of his story ideas in Phantom Menace was a conscious decision on his part, not born of laziness or lack of inspiration. He sees the series as akin to a musical composition, where different themes keep cropping up again and again; slightly different, but still recognizable and similar. Therefore, the fact that characters get in similar situations, end up on the same planets, etc. is because (by his own admission) that's the way the story goes.
You can see this in the movie, and you can especially hear it in John Williams' music -- "Anakin's Theme" is the Imperial March modified, and the "celebration" music at the end of TPM is the Emperor's Theme from Return of the Jedi.
Lucas even goes so far as to call his movies "essentially silent films," guided by the imagery and the music. I find this idea interesting, but personally, don't think he's pulled it off all that well (I keep wishing devoutly for silence every time a certain CGI character opens his mouth, for example.)
How well Lucas made these ideas work, especially in TPM, is a matter of personal opinion, but, if you're at all interested, he talks about it a great deal on the Phantom Menace DVD, both in the commentary and in the many interviews on the bonus materials disc.
I've never sunk a sea base either, but I did manage to make an enemy land base into a very teeny, tiny island at one point, with formers. That had to be annoying for them. Although they did have beachfront property on every side.
Word has it that in all future versions of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, turban-wearing UN leader Lal will be replaced with Jimbo "Big Texas" Murphy, a cigar-chomping oil man in a ten-gallon hat. His slogan will be "them mindworms, they done hate freedom!"
Are you kidding? That "planet-buster" missile they have in Alpha Centauri makes the Civ nuke look like chitlins.
"Hey, let's see what one of these do," I thought, thinking it would politely let off a widdle mushroom cloud like in Civ. Imagine my surprise when it creatively rearranged the face of the planet.
I once took out an entire, clumped-together island civilization with just one of those. Won't be paratrooping into those cities... they're all underwater now! Here's your diplomatic solution, CEO Morgan!
Sure, every other faction then declared war on me, but that's ok... I had plenty of planet busters for them, too...
Uh, anyway. This is why I'll never run for political office...
My question is, who's going to camp out Slashdot so they can be the first to post "Worst. Movie. Ever." when the Lord of the Rings review gets posted?:)
I guess it's time to step up and hurt them where it counts. Boycott the music industry.
I wish significant numbers of people had the same idea. I've been boycotting them since the first call for boycotts in what, 1999? And hey! It hasn't slowed them down a bit.
All I've got to show for it is an aging "Boycott RIAA" flier on my wall and a developing taste for indie music. And a real hankering for the new New Order album; oooh, damn you, RIAA...
Of course, I'm in the wrong demographic. I don't buy N'Sync and Britney Spears albums by the truckload, and therefore my participation in the boycott amounts to precisely dick. Hell, all of Slashdot boycotting RIAA might just amount to a drop in the bucket, given the anti-pop sentiments one often reads around here.
Well, you make some really good points, which are unfortunately marred by your acting a bit like a pompous ass. I think you've taken what was a relatively lightweight, sarcastic statement and read a whole lot into it that isn't necessarily there. Allow me to respond, if not necessarily in kind.
First, you assert rather blatantly and incorrectly that "movie-making is a business, of which entertainment is a by-product". Filmmaking is an artform. Hollywood is an industry which uses and very often abuses the artform in the pursuit of wealth...
I appreciate your idealistic view of film as an art form; however, I wasn't contesting that. Film certainly is and can be an art form, but the process of movie-making is a business, one that requires a great deal of money. Without that business, a good number of movies (including the rather expensive Matrix) would not be produced. Film as art is quite often divorced from film as business, as the fate of Orson Welles after Citizen Kane (since you bring it up) will no doubt attest. Believe me, I wish Hollywood was altruistic enough to make more good films on a regular basis, and allow the artist all the integrity he desires; but most often that's simply not the case.
I love a good art-house movie as much as the next guy, but the fact is, a movie like the Matrix would not get made unless someone (the studio) fronts a lot of money, and the studio does not front a lot of money unless they're nearly guaranteed to make a whole lot more. Entertaining the audience is a good thing, but ultimately a secondary concern. Thus the term, "shameless cash grab." I should also point out, that wasn't intended as a slam on the Matrix as a film.
Few films are both artistic masterpieces and box-office blockbusters. Nevertheless, some films are, and it is elitist and cynical to be dismissive of high art that just happens to be popular and financially successful.
I certainly agree. I have no quarrel with high art being financially successful or popular. I wish it would happen more often. However, while I do feel The Matrix is a good film with some nice, deep themes -- as deep as the action-thriller structure will allow, really -- I don't find it to be high art.
"The Matrix" is, regardless of your somewhat low-regard for the film, a true masterpiece of science-fiction. Yes, the creators of the film offhandedly said the "Matrix is about robots vs. kung fu". That comment was a humble, joking hypersimplification. Sorry if you missed that.
You've misunderstood, I'm afraid. I'm a huge fan of the Matrix -- I bought it twice, on collector's VHS and then again on DVD, and drive people crazy quoting it in casual conversation. I don't idolize it as you seem to, but I enjoy it a great deal on a number of levels, including many of the ones you point out. While I don't regard it as a science-fiction masterpiece (if only because I'm not very generous with the term 'masterpiece'), it does have a special place in my collection of films, sci-fi or otherwise.
As for the Wachowski brother's comment and its ultimate meaning, it's one that's open to interpretation, unless of course you're Andy or Larry... which is not to say I disagree. I believe a movie that's about robots and kung fu doesn't necessarily exclude it from being high art. I just don't rank Matrix with those movies.
Do some reading. Consider Simulacra and Simulations [stanford.edu] for starters (a book which Neo has early in the film). Read up on Culture Jamming [syntac.net]. There is a war underway, RIGHT NOW, for the control of the minds of mankind. "The Matrix" is a film which addresses that very subject- co-opting the form of a shoot-them-up-sci-fi-FX-supermovie in order to make a bigger point than most of you seem to have realized.
For someone who (supposedly) rails against elitism and cynicism, you make an awful lot of assumptions about what I have or haven't read, and about the bigger point that all us poor, benighted fools just don't get. I don't need the anti-totalitarian theme of The Matrix pointed out to me, nor the presence of Simulacra and Simulations in the film. I find those touches in the film add a lot to it, and round it out nicely, more so than your average brainless sci-fi flick -- but I don't feel they elevate The Matrix to an exalted level of cinematic excellence. If you do -- that's fine.
As we speak, a new war rages- but it is a quiet war, an invisible one... The rebellion has no leader- it has no center. It is a thousand small pockets of rebellion, each attempting to use novel means to awaken others to the war... The film "The Matrix" is a part of this movement. It isn't just a cool sci-fi.
I'm sorry, but I can't find your breathless, dramatic rhetoric to be anything but mildly humorous. You sound like a bad sci-fi movie yourself. However, I appreciate your going to the trouble to generate a reading list.
Rather than refute your point about the Matrix being a subversive call to culture-jamming arms cleverly disguised as mainstream science fiction, however, I would like to ask if you have any resources that substantiate your claims about the nature of The Matrix. I'm not being sarcastic, but genuinely curious.
It's one thing to present or endorse a deeper level to a movie, but quite another to superimpose one's own value system on it and accuse those who disagree of ignorance. If you have some proof that the Wachowski brothers truly did intend to "act within the system to destroy the system" and so forth, I'll gladly take you seriously. Otherwise, what you're saying is very interesting, but nothing more than opinion sheathed a lot of bombast.
Watch the movie again with these facts in mind. Research the culture-jamming movement and read everything you can if you want to be a part of the fight. If you don't, at least be aware that it is being waged- and that you minds are the spoils if the powers win the war.
I don't need Hollywood, or you, to introduce me to the culture-jamming movement, but once again, thank you. I admire the decication and passion you have for the subject, but if you truly style yourself a crusader and educator, you may want to consider toning down the pomposity and condescension a bit. It undermines the integrity of your points (which were good) and doesn't particularly help your cause.
That being said, I'm looking forward to the Matrix sequels and hope they are as excellent as the first movie was.
Slashdot Mirror
This may be only marginally on topic, but... I help run a very small, out-of-the-way weblog / community, which is basically just a site for people to get together, talk about whatever they want, and bullshit. It's not tied to a particular genre or ideology.
In general, we're small enough that we've never had problems with abusive / troublesome users, and so there's never been any call to edit users or delete posts, except for one.
Someone ran a story on Mohamed Atta, one of the terrorists on the planes that smashed into the WTC. Someone, apparently having searched for Atta's name online, found his way to our site and anonymously posted a link reading "Here is my message of patriotism!" The link led to a Shockwave animation saluting the "heroes" who destroyed the WTC and declaring "they died for justice."
I deleted the post. The guy came back, created an account, and reposted the link. I deleted the account and the post. He went away after that.
A couple of other users complained about my "censorship," but I would absolutely do it again under the same circumstances, without hesitation. It's a free country -- he's free to say what he pleases, and I'm free to nuke whatever he says from the board if I find it inappropriate. It says so right up front, when you click to the comments page. And that definitely falls outside the boundaries of what I will accept on my web site.
-1, Opinion Differs From Collective
You know, nearly every time Slashdot runs a video game story, I see a spate of posts complaining about the plot of this game or that. Usually "plot" is in quotes, signifying the player's deep dissatisfaction with the story, or the plot is mentioned only to vilify its mindlessness, simplicty, predictability, or staleness.
What I'd like to know -- and this is an honest question, not sarcasm -- if anyone out there has encountered a really good video game plot in their time, and if so, what their favorites are. So many video game stories seem to leave people wanting more -- what game plots comprise the standards to which others should be held?
I can hear it now.
"Can't these CGI characters even act?"
Besides, what the hell do we need with a CGI Bruce Lee, anyway? We already have a perfectly good CGI Jet Li in Romeo Must Die and The One.
Rest assured, come May 2002, I will be on the Internet within minutes expressing my displeasure.
You can also hear a lot about their relationship from Bruce Cambpell and Sam Raimi themselves on the Army of Darkness director's cut -- which is great for the commentary, but suffers a bit on quality issues, as the "added footage" is from Bruce and / or Sam's basement somewhere... and looks it. It also features the "original" ending -- although not the theatrical ending, not even as an extra or an option.
There is also a cheaper version of the director's cut, for those who don't want to pay the $23 for the "limited edition."
Yeah, fight the power! Happiness is just The Man telling you how to feel!
For a second I thought this said "Smart Yam," and I was thinking, okay, enough is enough. I love technology as much as the next guy, but Internet-capable squash, we really don't need...
I was gonna say Don King.
Thief was a great game. The mission that takes place in the haunted cathedral was the best. The suspense was nearly intolerable.
That, and the final episode, which was so bizarre and creepy. I got nailed so many times in the endgame, because you're supposed to sneak past the boss at the end, and I kept jumping the gun. "His back is turned! Go! Go!" But, of course, he'd whip around and see me, and that was my ass, as they say.
I should play Thief again. Or introduce someone else to it. There's a lot of enjoyment in watching someone else play, and the first time they see a ghost or an undead Hammer, pull a Jack Burton: "Oh, no, what the hell is THAT? Don't tell me!"
"Remember... short, controlled bursts."
I agree totally. I actually couldn't finish System Shock 2... I just got too freaked out. Well, that, and I was out of ammunition, the robots were coming for me, and there was no place to hide...
Something very similar to your experience happened to me while playing that game... I was walking on a glass walkway, looking down on some sort of nest of alien eggs, and thinking, "Wow, I sure hope none of this glass breaks --" Just as it broke, of course, and I fell down into the pit, and I heard the rustle as the alien mothers started moving in on me...
"The babies must be protected!"
"Lady, you can have them, just get me the %&*$ out of here!"
That, and I had a zombie sneak up and clock me while I was examining something on one of the walls. Jumped a mile. I can count the number of times I've ever had my adrenaline kick in from playing a video game... the first time a fiend jumped at me in Quake, hearing Sinistar bellow "BEWARE, I LIVE!", and that.
Funny, I couldn't finish Thief II either. I believe it was when I realized I was trapped in an unlit basement with one of those undead Hammers. I basically said "the hell with this." I must be getting game-wimpy in my old age. Although maybe if I didn't play with all the lights off and the earphones on, and a cruel girlfriend who likes to sneak up and grab me and shriek in my ear while I'm playing, things might go better.
I was incredibly jacked about TPM when I saw the trailer. I thought it was going to be the Best Thing Ever. Then the advance reviews started coming out, some expressing not so much disappointment as existential despair, and I started to worry. A whole generation of former kids had hung their identities on this series of movies, and felt personally betrayed when the new one didn't deliver the same magic through a wall of years and life experience.
I saw TPM opening night, I enjoyed it (with some reservations), and I've seen it many times since then. I think my initial disappointments sprung from a few things:
1) It's far from a perfect film.
2) I'm no longer a kid.
3) I expected it to be the Best Thing Ever, thereby almost ensuring it wouldn't be.
I don't think TPM was embarrassing, but I do think it's a very different film from the rest of Star Wars. It adds a more openly "comic" character (which, to my mind, was a good try but a failure), and includes things like politics, intrigue, foreshadowing, and deception -- which the classic trilogy was fairly short on.
I love and appreciate the classic trilogy for its wahoo, space-cowboys appeal, but honestly, I'm not so sure I need to see three more movies of it. I'm glad Lucas is not entirely resting on his dramatic laurels and is branching out into new ground (for him, anyway).
Personally, I'm excited to see the new flick, to see if Lucas will have learned from some of his mistakes in TPM, and also because I think TPM was all foreshadowing and setup, and we're going to see some real action in the next two flicks.
You took the words out of my mouth. Thanks.
TPM is also the first act of, well, six, looking at the long view. You can't have a story of fall, despair, and redemption if you start out at the bottom. If Anakin starts out being like Chucky from Child's Play, where's the drama when he finally goes bad? Nowhere.
I think we'll see the movies mature as Anakin matures, and get darker as he does.
I should probably put on my flame-retardant suit before even saying this, but Lucas' "recycling" of his story ideas in Phantom Menace was a conscious decision on his part, not born of laziness or lack of inspiration. He sees the series as akin to a musical composition, where different themes keep cropping up again and again; slightly different, but still recognizable and similar. Therefore, the fact that characters get in similar situations, end up on the same planets, etc. is because (by his own admission) that's the way the story goes.
You can see this in the movie, and you can especially hear it in John Williams' music -- "Anakin's Theme" is the Imperial March modified, and the "celebration" music at the end of TPM is the Emperor's Theme from Return of the Jedi.
Lucas even goes so far as to call his movies "essentially silent films," guided by the imagery and the music. I find this idea interesting, but personally, don't think he's pulled it off all that well (I keep wishing devoutly for silence every time a certain CGI character opens his mouth, for example.)
How well Lucas made these ideas work, especially in TPM, is a matter of personal opinion, but, if you're at all interested, he talks about it a great deal on the Phantom Menace DVD, both in the commentary and in the many interviews on the bonus materials disc.
"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to sink a continent is insignificant next to the power of chitlins."
I've never sunk a sea base either, but I did manage to make an enemy land base into a very teeny, tiny island at one point, with formers. That had to be annoying for them. Although they did have beachfront property on every side.
Word has it that in all future versions of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, turban-wearing UN leader Lal will be replaced with Jimbo "Big Texas" Murphy, a cigar-chomping oil man in a ten-gallon hat. His slogan will be "them mindworms, they done hate freedom!"
Hoo-yah!
(Score: -5, Inappropriaaaaaaaaaate!)
Are you kidding? That "planet-buster" missile they have in Alpha Centauri makes the Civ nuke look like chitlins.
"Hey, let's see what one of these do," I thought, thinking it would politely let off a widdle mushroom cloud like in Civ. Imagine my surprise when it creatively rearranged the face of the planet.
I once took out an entire, clumped-together island civilization with just one of those. Won't be paratrooping into those cities... they're all underwater now! Here's your diplomatic solution, CEO Morgan!
Sure, every other faction then declared war on me, but that's ok... I had plenty of planet busters for them, too...
Uh, anyway. This is why I'll never run for political office...
My question is, who's going to camp out Slashdot so they can be the first to post "Worst. Movie. Ever." when the Lord of the Rings review gets posted? :)
I think this post should receive an extra mod point just for including the phrase "Hillary Rosen will shit live goats."
I guess it's time to step up and hurt them where it counts. Boycott the music industry.
I wish significant numbers of people had the same idea. I've been boycotting them since the first call for boycotts in what, 1999? And hey! It hasn't slowed them down a bit.
All I've got to show for it is an aging "Boycott RIAA" flier on my wall and a developing taste for indie music. And a real hankering for the new New Order album; oooh, damn you, RIAA...
Of course, I'm in the wrong demographic. I don't buy N'Sync and Britney Spears albums by the truckload, and therefore my participation in the boycott amounts to precisely dick. Hell, all of Slashdot boycotting RIAA might just amount to a drop in the bucket, given the anti-pop sentiments one often reads around here.
No, it's "Freedom Fighting."
Fighting free as in free beer.
Thank you. I was starting to think I was the only person who held that particular opinion.
First, you assert rather blatantly and incorrectly that "movie-making is a business, of which entertainment is a by-product". Filmmaking is an artform. Hollywood is an industry which uses and very often abuses the artform in the pursuit of wealth...
I appreciate your idealistic view of film as an art form; however, I wasn't contesting that. Film certainly is and can be an art form, but the process of movie-making is a business, one that requires a great deal of money. Without that business, a good number of movies (including the rather expensive Matrix) would not be produced. Film as art is quite often divorced from film as business, as the fate of Orson Welles after Citizen Kane (since you bring it up) will no doubt attest. Believe me, I wish Hollywood was altruistic enough to make more good films on a regular basis, and allow the artist all the integrity he desires; but most often that's simply not the case.
I love a good art-house movie as much as the next guy, but the fact is, a movie like the Matrix would not get made unless someone (the studio) fronts a lot of money, and the studio does not front a lot of money unless they're nearly guaranteed to make a whole lot more. Entertaining the audience is a good thing, but ultimately a secondary concern. Thus the term, "shameless cash grab." I should also point out, that wasn't intended as a slam on the Matrix as a film.
Few films are both artistic masterpieces and box-office blockbusters. Nevertheless, some films are, and it is elitist and cynical to be dismissive of high art that just happens to be popular and financially successful.
I certainly agree. I have no quarrel with high art being financially successful or popular. I wish it would happen more often. However, while I do feel The Matrix is a good film with some nice, deep themes -- as deep as the action-thriller structure will allow, really -- I don't find it to be high art.
"The Matrix" is, regardless of your somewhat low-regard for the film, a true masterpiece of science-fiction. Yes, the creators of the film offhandedly said the "Matrix is about robots vs. kung fu". That comment was a humble, joking hypersimplification. Sorry if you missed that.
You've misunderstood, I'm afraid. I'm a huge fan of the Matrix -- I bought it twice, on collector's VHS and then again on DVD, and drive people crazy quoting it in casual conversation. I don't idolize it as you seem to, but I enjoy it a great deal on a number of levels, including many of the ones you point out. While I don't regard it as a science-fiction masterpiece (if only because I'm not very generous with the term 'masterpiece'), it does have a special place in my collection of films, sci-fi or otherwise.
As for the Wachowski brother's comment and its ultimate meaning, it's one that's open to interpretation, unless of course you're Andy or Larry... which is not to say I disagree. I believe a movie that's about robots and kung fu doesn't necessarily exclude it from being high art. I just don't rank Matrix with those movies.
Do some reading. Consider Simulacra and Simulations [stanford.edu] for starters (a book which Neo has early in the film). Read up on Culture Jamming [syntac.net]. There is a war underway, RIGHT NOW, for the control of the minds of mankind. "The Matrix" is a film which addresses that very subject- co-opting the form of a shoot-them-up-sci-fi-FX-supermovie in order to make a bigger point than most of you seem to have realized.
For someone who (supposedly) rails against elitism and cynicism, you make an awful lot of assumptions about what I have or haven't read, and about the bigger point that all us poor, benighted fools just don't get. I don't need the anti-totalitarian theme of The Matrix pointed out to me, nor the presence of Simulacra and Simulations in the film. I find those touches in the film add a lot to it, and round it out nicely, more so than your average brainless sci-fi flick -- but I don't feel they elevate The Matrix to an exalted level of cinematic excellence. If you do -- that's fine.
As we speak, a new war rages- but it is a quiet war, an invisible one... The rebellion has no leader- it has no center. It is a thousand small pockets of rebellion, each attempting to use novel means to awaken others to the war... The film "The Matrix" is a part of this movement. It isn't just a cool sci-fi.
I'm sorry, but I can't find your breathless, dramatic rhetoric to be anything but mildly humorous. You sound like a bad sci-fi movie yourself. However, I appreciate your going to the trouble to generate a reading list.
Rather than refute your point about the Matrix being a subversive call to culture-jamming arms cleverly disguised as mainstream science fiction, however, I would like to ask if you have any resources that substantiate your claims about the nature of The Matrix. I'm not being sarcastic, but genuinely curious.
It's one thing to present or endorse a deeper level to a movie, but quite another to superimpose one's own value system on it and accuse those who disagree of ignorance. If you have some proof that the Wachowski brothers truly did intend to "act within the system to destroy the system" and so forth, I'll gladly take you seriously. Otherwise, what you're saying is very interesting, but nothing more than opinion sheathed a lot of bombast.
Watch the movie again with these facts in mind. Research the culture-jamming movement and read everything you can if you want to be a part of the fight. If you don't, at least be aware that it is being waged- and that you minds are the spoils if the powers win the war.
I don't need Hollywood, or you, to introduce me to the culture-jamming movement, but once again, thank you. I admire the decication and passion you have for the subject, but if you truly style yourself a crusader and educator, you may want to consider toning down the pomposity and condescension a bit. It undermines the integrity of your points (which were good) and doesn't particularly help your cause.
That being said, I'm looking forward to the Matrix sequels and hope they are as excellent as the first movie was.