This week, we conclude our focus on the Matrix franchise with the Wachowskis’ 2003 conclusion to the trilogy. We talk about exile, decisions, sympathy versus empathy, and what the series boils down to.
This Week’s Watching
LUKE CAGE (2016): Cheo Hodari Coker, Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — PART 2 (2015): Francis Lawrence, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson
HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING (2016): Tom Tykwer, Tom Hanks, Alexander Black
Recommendations
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011): Joe Johnston, Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968): Stanley Kubrick, Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood
MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985): George Miller, Mel Gibson, Tina Turner
CITY OF EMBER (2008): Gil Kenan, Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway
Footnotes
(Audio issues abound this week, I'm afraid: there are gremlins on Sam's line, and then there's no audio clip of the film. Never mind. YouTube'll sort you out.) For more on the frankly bizarre reaction to LUKE CAGE as ''''racist'''' (there aren’t enough quotation marks in the world), see here:
www.refinery29.com/2016/10/125745/luke-cage-black-cast-racist-twitter-backlash. Covering what Sam mentions at the start of the episode, the website involving changed movie names and funny cartoons is here:
www.awesomeinventions.com/movie-titles-with-one-letter-removed and the Jackie Chan video is here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1PCtIaM_GQ. The latter is _well_ worth a watch for anyone interested in fight choreography, or even just in acting/directing more generally. Read more on ‘temet nosce’ here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself. Finally, the reference to the blinding of Neo opening up a whole world of allusion to Greek mythology is best explained by this:
www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Figures/Teiresias/teiresias.html. (And there’s the sex-changing aspect of this character, which is a whole different kettle of fish…but this episode was long enough without that particular rabbit hole! [One last MATRIX reference for you, there.])
