On the night before New Years (in the Western world) I watched my fav. movie again, now well over 30 times since 2000. It is The Matrix (1999), first of the trilogy of sci-fi films by The Wachowski Bros. I am amazed over and over how deep and profound of a postmodern meta-myth this film story (imagery) is for the 21st century. It is a story of the path of fearlessness and liberation, done in very hip young people's digital aesthetics and action.
On New Year's eve I was visiting with Greg and Kate next door, and we talked about movies for awhile, and I mentioned The Matrix, and how profound I think it is as a teaching curriculum and how fear and fearlessness can be seen all throughout it if one looks for it. And, both of them, now in their fifties, had seen bits of it when it came out but were turned off and didn't watch it or don't remember it. I told them, that is what also happened to me the first time I watched it. I had to watch it several times to learn what it offered as a 'great film.' I used it in my dissertation on the "culture of fear" and a notion of "fearless leadership" in the future.
This is a futurist film for sure, and several years after I watched it and "got" the deeper philosophical and spiritual teaching in it, then Ken Wilber and Cornel West, two of my favorite critics and wise philosophers of today, spent 6 hrs together watching the entire trilogy and did the talk-over discussion about it. You can find this all in the DVD 10 disc set The Matrix. My point is, i was please they also "got" it and so many other others, but the fact remains that most people don't get it and like my friends the other night, they gave up on the film and forgot about it. I'm sharing the cover of the DVD in the 10 disc set with the image of a child "plugged-in" to the 'Fear' Matrix which is a powerful scene and idea in the story.
I'd love to discuss this with anyone, so if you want, you may chose to watch this movie, at least the first in the trilogy. Btw, it was my 18 year old daughter Leah, back in 2000, who introduced me to this film, saying, "Dad, you gotta watch this film. It's the most like real life." It took her youthful wisdom to pull me out of my 'blindness' to see what I otherwise would have missed completely, like my two friends the other night. Thanks Leah!
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