Big Hollywood is reporting on a new movie by the Wachowski siblings that brought you The Matrix.
For seven months now, we’ve been hearing about the secret next-film for The Wachowski Brothers, a Hard-R rated ‘cinema verite-style gay romance Iraq war film set in the near future. We’ve been getting tidbits every couple months, but all we know is the film tells the story of a homosexual relationship between a US soldier and an Iraqi and that it is set in the near future, but then moves back in time to tell the bulk of the story, part of which includes the current Iraq War.
And just when you thought that the chances of you seeing a gay futuristic anti-war movie, word has it that Arianna Huffington and Jesse Ventura have also filmed scenes for the movie. Come on! Are these people interested in people actually going to see their movie? At all?
If you ask me that Wachowski siblings haven’t made a good movie since the original Matrix. And don’t even get me started on the mess that was Matrix 3.
So when it comes down to either going to see the gay futuristic romance anti-war movie or doing something else, here’s a list of other things I would do rather than go see a gay futuristic anti-war romance:
Weeding the garden, breaking up a wasp nest with a wiffle ball bat (using protective goggles), read Stephen King, write fan mail to Jar Jar Binks, breaking a wasp nest with a wiffle ball bat without protective goggles, tell my wife that her outfit makes her look fat, watch Speed Racer the Movie, go see the new Smurfs movie, read vox Nova, and reenact the funniest scenes from America’s Funniest Home Video. All in one day.
July 15, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Matrix 3 is proof that artists, even those that hate Christianity, cannot help but reflect God in their work.
The "machine god" appeared as a giant monstrance. Neo absorbed the "sin" (Smith) of "the world" (the Matrix) so that "God" (the machine god) could "redeem" (purge) it, dying with his arms outstretched cruciform. Whereupon "God" intones, "It is finished."
Next to The Passion, it was the most Catholic mainstream movie of the decade.
July 15, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Great analysis, Father.
July 15, 2010 at 3:45 pm
I'd rather listen to an audiobook of "God Emperor of Dune" as read by Gilbert Gottfried…
July 15, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Dave P., That's funny.
July 15, 2010 at 4:13 pm
I'd rather watch soccer.
July 15, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Father, I couldn't disagree more. Sorry. The Matrix stories (which are loads of fun to watch, by the way) are already split into a false duality where violence is acceptable because the people being killed aren't "real". Where machines are the bad guys because there's no such thing as "evil". Where mysterious Oracles dispense mysterious truth in a highly pagan rendition of the old Greek myths.
Look at the false duality of that final scene! God is the machine, whereas Jesus is a human. It doesn't make sense. The machines' whole purpose is to wipe out humankind. If we were to follow your analogy, the idea is that God wants to annihilate humans, but Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice in order to prevent it. And, not very carefully, the very act of sacrifice destroys the machine's power. So therefore "God" won't stand in the way of the human's progress anymore.
No, that's not a Catholic sentiment.
No, I interpreted the final Matrix as an anti-Christian mockery as the W. brothers fully fleshed out their odd, idiosyncratic philosophy. Yes, they used Christian imagery ad nauseum, but it doesn't follow that the movie was therefore Christian. Even The Da Vinci Code used Christian imagery.
July 15, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Oh, I'm not saying that it is a moral movie, that glorifies the faith, or that it should be used in a vacuum to teach theology, just that it's a good example of how artists can help but be drawn towards the truth of it.
The Matrix trilogy is thoroughly gnostic and heretical. In the world of the Matrix, we are all living in an illusory dream realm controlled by a merciless machine god that is using us as its power source, humanity needs to awaken to enlightenment and fight the evil machine god of that world, and the evil machine god wants to annihilate those enlightened. (Not all humans, just the enlightened.) It presents Jesus (Neo) as an enlightened Bodhisattva rather than a man one in being with the Father, the Word made Flesh. This is all thoroughly heretical, granted.
Before going further, a rebuttal/correction: In the context of the Matrix, Neo sacrifices himself to save the machines from the infection of the Smith virus, thereby winning a truce between the machines and humanity whereby humans will be allowed to choose to leave the Matrix and will not be hunted for it. Neo does not destroy the machines' power, he preserves it in exchange for the machines agreeing to a truce.
And yet despite the Brothers W's clear embrace of heresy and attempts to pervert Christianity by recontextualizing its symbols, I don't think that they could help but recreate a shadow of Christ's Passion at the end.
Neo, like Christ, is a bridge between two worlds, and it is this fact that allows him to save the world below by removing the corruption infecting it.
* Jesus was fully man and fully divine. Neo exists fully in the real world and fully in the Matrix simultaneously.
* The world is corrupted by sin. The Matrix is corrupted by the Smith virus.
* Jesus acted as a conduit through which God was manifest in the world. Neo acted as a conduit through which the machine god was able to access the Matrix.
* Jesus sacrifices himself to cleanse the world of sin. Neo sacrifices himself to cleanse the Matrix of Smith. (Of course, Jesus offers us salvation whereas Neo forcefully imposes it upon the Matrix unasked.)
It's not perfect. It's thoroughly heretical. But it's more Christian than the Brothers W meant it to be, I think. The imagery of Neo cruciform in front of a giant monstrance, that is the machine god, is just gravy.
I would liken it to how Philip Pullman tried to write a violently anti-Christian series in the His Dark Materials trilogy, but instead affirms Christianity by showing the bleakness of a world in which Lucifer has been given dominion to pretend to be God and Christ has never come to offer salvation. It's as if Pullman couldn't help himself, purposefully creating a world with no Christ in book one and then, in the end, revealing that "God" is the first angel pretending to be the Creator. What other interpretation could their be?
July 15, 2010 at 6:21 pm
"… tell my wife that her outfit makes her look fat…"
I thought the Church frowned on suicidal acts?
July 15, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Thanks, Matthew. The first two Dune novels were excellent; the third one tolerable; and then…maddened dense ruminations…
July 15, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Father, very thoughtful and insightful comments. I agree with everything you said, with the exception of the intent of the filmmakers.
You mention that the W. Brothers couldn't help but recreate Christ's passion, almost as if it were an accident. As if they stumbled into it without knowing how, why, or what they were doing.
Unfortunately, I give them more credit. I think they knew exactly what they were using (a very important word, "use") to tell their story.
I appreciate that you feel you can use this story to make moral points. But I think I'd shy away from drawing parallels with salvific history. And that's why I took exception with your comment above that this was "the most Catholic movie of the decade."
Why do you think these parallels can be drawn? Precisely because the filmmakers meant to twist our beloved tradition and history in order to advance their own relativistic gobbledygook. This is no cause for celebration about the Catholicity of the movie!
July 16, 2010 at 2:43 am
"[A] homosexual relationship between a US soldier and an Iraqi…" Mmmmmmm no. I'd believe a secret affair between two Iraqi men because such things do happen in that part of the world, laws or no laws. But this stretches suspension of belief to the breaking point. I've lived in the Middle East (albeit not Iraq), and I can't even begin to convey the implausibility and ridiculousness of such a premise.
July 16, 2010 at 4:23 am
C'mon, Matt. I actually liked Speed Racer.
July 18, 2010 at 3:58 pm
The brothers must have gotten some bad drugs to come up with this movie idea.
Didn't one of these fellows have a sex change too? I think now they are brother and sister…