Author: Matthew R. Sheahan <[44]chaos@crystal.palace.net>
   
   Darrell Fuhriman ([46]darrell@grumblesmurf.net) wrote:
   > i've know quite a few people -- including people who should know
   > better -- that absolutely love the matrix.  i can't for the life
   > of me figure out why.
   
   Perhaps you should contemplate its recovery value.
   
   For your general edification, here's some of my commentary on the
   movie from some weeks back.
   
         |    Matthew R. Sheahan    |
         | Crystal Palace Networking |
   
   Saw the Matrix again.  #1 I picked up on things like how the agents
   are agents, not in the sense of secret agents, but in the sense of
   software agents.  #2 was when I caught things like the illuminati
   referring to Keanu as "coppertop".  #3 is when I noticed the character
   whose real name was Reagan talking about how "I want to be someone
   important... like an actor" alongside "I don't want to remember
   _anything_, you understand me?  _Nothing_."  #4 is when I noticed
   quite how intensely theological the movie is.
   
   The trick is, it's largely not your run of the mill Biblical bits,
   it's Gnosticism.  The Prime AI is obviously the Demiurge; it literally
   created the world -- and the world is an illusion.  Not to mention he
   is mentioned to have been the single intelligence that created the AI
   race (God split himself into many parts that he might have friends).
   The agents are obviously the Archons; Morpheus says as much when he
   goes on about how "they guard all the doors, they hold all the keys".
   The first matrix, the "perfect world", is the Garden of Eden, which we
   were kicked out of because of knowledge -- the knowledge that it
   wasn't real, specifically.  The One is described as a man born inside
   who could change things how he wanted, who freed the first ones; Jesus
   much?  And of course Keanu is the second coming of the messiah, who
   will deliver his people from bondage.  "You're my savior, man; my own
   personal Jesus Christ."  Who died and returned.  Good thing it didn't
   take three flippin' days.  One will note he was also tempted and gave
   the predictable modern "retro me satanas", and had his Judas.  (What
   were they doing immediately before the trip inside where the betrayal
   occurred?  Why, eating, of course.)
   
   You know that the name Lucifer is from a mistranslation in the book of
   Isaiah of the King of Babylon's title Star of the Morning, right?
   Well, they were talking about a specific King of Babylon:
   Nebuchadnezzar.  The name of the ship.  Lucifer, Prometheus, the
   light-bringer who rebelled against the Demiurge to free men.
   
   Hell, not to show how much of my gnosticism comes via Phil Dick, but
   the goddamned storage towers were black iron.
   
   I am so utterly contemptuous of the people who came out of it saying
   "nice eye-candy".  This movie is an IQ test.  It's exactly as
   intelligent as its viewer.