Yeah I'm cis and definitely didn't pick up on any of that the first few times I watched it. Of course, part of that is because I was 12 and just thought the fight scenes and computer shit was cool, I hadn't really started considering movies through an allegorical lens. But I still don't think I would have figured it out until trans issues became more mainstream and I had the right framing.
Of course once it all made sense to me I loved the movie even more. I really appreciate hearing people talk about what it's meant to them and how they felt watching it. It's such a great movie.
Yeah, it just works on all these levels. It does a great job at being a late 90s silly action film, it works as a "what if we're all like, uh, brains in a jar?" stoner philosophy diatribe, it makes you want to fight back against the system when that track by RATM comes on and then you come back to the movie 20 years later, after you've figured out you're trans, and realize you know that exact mood when Neo looks up at Trinity and says "I know Kung Fu!" because that's just exactly what the really empowering kind of gender euphoria feels like. That sensation of everything being possible just because you've figured out the biggest secret in your life.
Yeah I'm cis and definitely didn't pick up on any of that the first few times I watched it. Of course, part of that is because I was 12 and just thought the fight scenes and computer shit was cool, I hadn't really started considering movies through an allegorical lens. But I still don't think I would have figured it out until trans issues became more mainstream and I had the right framing.
Of course once it all made sense to me I loved the movie even more. I really appreciate hearing people talk about what it's meant to them and how they felt watching it. It's such a great movie.
Yeah, it just works on all these levels. It does a great job at being a late 90s silly action film, it works as a "what if we're all like, uh, brains in a jar?" stoner philosophy diatribe, it makes you want to fight back against the system when that track by RATM comes on and then you come back to the movie 20 years later, after you've figured out you're trans, and realize you know that exact mood when Neo looks up at Trinity and says "I know Kung Fu!" because that's just exactly what the really empowering kind of gender euphoria feels like. That sensation of everything being possible just because you've figured out the biggest secret in your life.