Cornel West in The Matrix II

[Dexter Rutecki]

OK, I don't get to the movies much (almost at all) these days, but I just saw The Matrix II on HBO (weak), and what the hell was Cornel West doing in it? I'm glad they showed him twice, because I didn't believe I had seen right after the first shot that showed him.
Would be like Harold Bloome being in an Indiana Jones movie, or Wittgenstein in a Three Stooges movie.

[splat]

Who is he? In real life and the movie.

[summit]

Damnit! I missed it...

Was it good?

I have the VCR set for when it replays... I guess I'll have an opinion then.

[Dexter Rutecki]

He's a big philosopher/African-American studies type, was at Princeton, then at Harvard, then I think he got pissed and went back to Princeton. One of the most intelligent people I've ever met.
He's in the scene with the 'council', if you're looking for it. Pretty strange to see him in something like that.

[summit]

Cornel West's entertainment resume...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0922002/

He was in the third Matrix movie too apparently... otherwise he is an unkown in hollywood I think.

www.imdb.com fucking rules!

[Dexter Rutecki]

Here's what he had to say about it, I guess. Seems to me like he's reaching a bit, and it's a little disappointing, but I probably shouldn't be second guessing him.

(LA Times)
Princeton scholar Cornel West, featured in both of the sequels, talks about the films' deeper meaning.

By Lynn Smith, Times Staff Writer

When the call came two years ago, Cornel West was still one of the elite professors at Harvard University. A bitter dust-up over his off-campus activities was brewing, but he hadn't yet decamped for Princeton.

On the other end of the line was Larry Wachowski, the writer-director who, along with his brother Andy, created the worldwide movie phenomenon "The Matrix." He wanted to know if the high-profile scholar would appear as a character in the two sequels.

"I said, 'Good God almighty,' " West recalled. "He said my writings had been influential in his writing the movie. He had read my first book, 'Prophesy Deliverance!,' and 'Race Matters.' I was flabbergasted. He said he had written a role for me, Councillor West, and he wanted me to play it. I said, 'You've got to be kidding.' "

As it turned out, the two sentences the Wachowskis had written for West's character ("Comprehension is not requisite for cooperation" is the one he remembers) run counter to West's body of work, which champions progressive socialism and the power of diversity in society.

But "The Matrix Reloaded," the second part of a trilogy about the last citizens on Earth threatened with extinction by machines, is a "sophisticated work of art" that, he said, captures the core themes of his social, religious and philosophical writings. The role (an elder of the human community of Zion) is dignified, he decided, and participating would allow him to reach out beyond academia.

West decided he was ready for his close-up. He flew to Sydney, Australia, for a 2 1/2-week shoot. There, he met the Wachowskis and had "long philosophical discussions" between takes and in restaurants about the purpose of life and the role of technology in science and history. They covered a range of thinkers including Lewis Mumford, Arthur Schopenhauer, William James, Homer and Nikos Kazantzakis (author of "Zorba the Greek.") "We talked about James' essay, 'The Will to Believe' in terms of Schopenhauer's challenge .... He was unsure life had a purpose at all."

Most Hollywood action movies have little more on their minds than presenting high-testosterone mayhem in ways that will appeal to teenage boys. Not "The Matrix," a film series that takes its philosophy very seriously (too seriously for the many critics who chided "Matrix Reloaded" for being ponderous).

West (who will turn 50 on June 2) became a kind of muse for the brothers, called "college dropout comic book artists" by William Irwin, editor of the book "The Matrix and Philosophy." West offered a focal point for the film, in which various academics and others find bits of Buddhism and Christianity as well as feminism, Marxism and nihilism.

At the core of the "Matrix" trilogy lies the disturbing notion that the world is nothing but perceptions controlled by malevolent forces. While the films repeatedly ask questions about the nature of truth and reality, the possibilities of choice and free will, the meaning of life and love, they offer no answers.

"They [the Wachowskis] want the audience to wrestle with it," West said.


In "The Matrix Reloaded," the citizens of Zion pin their hopes on computer hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves), who struggles with his role as their savior. West says the film has a "fascinating," if subtle, critique of "salvation narratives."

Themes in the sequel undercut those in the original, he said. "The first was all about Neo as a salvation figure, saving the globe. The second is a devastating critique of all salvation stories. It has political implications. It has religious implications."

The most fundamental parallel, however, between his work and the "Matrix" movies, West said, is found in the films' multiracial casting. In the city of Zion, most citizens are people of color and many of the movie's leading actors are black (Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nona Gaye, Harry Lennix, Harold Perrineau Jr. and the late Gloria Foster.)

People of color outnumber whites in the world's population, he noted. "It's not just the representation in numbers but the humanity displayed," said West, whose writings urge cross-cultural tolerance and a recognition of the power of diversity. "The acknowledgment of the full-fledged and complex humanity of black people is a new idea in Hollywood, given all the stereotypes and distortions," he said.

The son of civil rights activists, West was educated in the Ivy League, where he earned a reputation as an intellectually aggressive and cerebral student. He came to prominence in the 1990s as a young, hip intellectual who took his beliefs to the streets, an author who wrote books for an audience beyond academe. While he was acclaimed by some as a "black Jeremiah" who could engage almost anyone in serious conversation, he was also criticized for work that was "a thousand miles wide and about 2 inches deep."

In 2001 West was sharply criticized by Harvard University President Larry Summers after recording a rap CD and leading a committee for New York activist Al Sharpton's short-lived presidential campaign. West denied Summers' accusation that he had skipped three weeks of classes because of political activities and raised the specter of racism. Amid a spiraling tempest, he left a year ago, resettling in July at Princeton.

Unlike the president of Harvard, Princeton's president, Shirley Tilghman, has no problems with his off-campus activities, he said. "The difference between Shirley Tilghman and Lawrence Summers is like the difference between Abe Lincoln and Dan Quayle," he said.

Tilghman declined to speak directly about West, but a university spokeswoman said, "Our president here doesn't take issue with faculty members' various interests. She definitely supports Cornel West and his individual pursuits."

West teaches a course on the public intellectual as well as other freshman and graduate seminars. He is working on a book about writer Anton Chekhov and jazz musician John Coltrane, both of whom, he said, "speak to our time with a level of insight and wisdom that is rare."

He is enjoying a sort of celebrity among students, who are "amazed" that a professor would have any kind of relationship with the Wachowski brothers, he said. He has invited the famously media-shy brothers to Princeton to speak, privately of course, with students and professors. "They didn't say no, but they didn't say when," he said. West said his character, an elite who has to make fundamental decisions to save the city, is so unlike himself that he had to pick up acting tips in order to deliver his two lines.

He said Councillor West will also appear in the next sequel, "The Matrix Revolutions." And this time he hopes to have five or six lines.

[Ted Stroker]

Originally posted by Dexter Rutecki
One of the most intelligent people I've ever met.



He's #7 on my list of smart people I've met, check it out!

1.Beavis
2.Butthead
3.Kato Kaelin
4.Ronald McDonald
5.Some kid named Stacy I used to ride the short bus to school with
6.Lloyd Christmas
7.Cornhole West
8.Harry Dunn
9.Pee-Wee Herman
10.Big Bird

Wow, you're juiced in to the brains that run the world!

[summit]

www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/0430sexchange.html

'Matrix' co-creator ready for sex change


When you're touted as one-half of the creative genius behind the science fiction movie of the decade, morphing between the sexes is probably just another research trip. At least that is one way to describe Larry Wachowski latest move.


According to the Chicago Sun Times, Wachowski, who created the Matrix series along with his brother Andy, is working toward becoming "Linda," surgically and otherwise. "As always, it was impossible to get any comment from the press-shy Wachowskis, but several longtime friends of the Rogers Park native confirm Wachowski is planning to complete the process of becoming a woman," reports the Chicago Sun Times.

When Thea Bloom, Larry's former wife, accused Wachowski of being "extremely dishonest with me in our personal life," blaming the separation on "very intimate circumstances concerning which I do not elaborate at this time for the reasons of his personal privacy," a sex change wasn't the first thing to come to mind. But those close to Larry relate the he has been "living and dressing as a woman for some time."

[FNG]

Any idiot who's sat through Philosophy 1001 can follow the deep meanings and philosophical lines of the Matrix series. The fact that a smart guy makes a cameo doesn't change the fact that Matrix is still no more than action-infused pop-philosophy.

[fez]

Originally posted by SummitCo 1776


When Thea Bloom, Larry's former wife, accused Wachowski of being "extremely dishonest with me in our personal life," blaming the separation on "very intimate circumstances concerning which I do not elaborate at this time for the reasons of his personal privacy," a sex change wasn't the first thing to come to mind. But those close to Larry relate the he has been "living and dressing as a woman for some time."

Perhaps not the last 'Thea' to have such a problem?

[splat]

What can you say about two bro's who hire a guy like West and one of whom wears the panties in the family?

I'd have to say they have an unheard-of degree of tolerance, lack of bias, social/technological contemplation, and gender-bending acceptance. They should put all that money to good use and buy Utah.