The Matrix (original) 1999
Never Look For Someone Else to Make You Whole
You can literally take every Matrix movie after the original one and throw them in the trash because the first one was not only the best one, it should have been the last one.
I have probably seen The Matrix (original version) 20 times over the last 19 years. There are SO many incredible messages in this movie not just for the entrepreneur and self-esteem but about life. At least those who get it.
The movie is about an extremely bored tech employee who is living beneath his potential. He desperately circumvents his boredom by hacking computer systems and selling the information illegally and he goes to a job he hates each day. His life is forever changed when his computer alerts him to an opportunity to do what he has been dreaming about forever, to meet Morpheus. He deems Morpheus as his saving grace but Morpheus teaches him that he is his OWN saving grace by telling him “You’ve been looking for me, But I’ve been looking for you my entire life.”
The original Oracle was played by Gloria Foster who was in the first two movies but the legendary actress died from complications of Diabetes before the third movie could be completed and she was replaced by a miscast. What black person could not relate to her character in the first movie? We’ve seen this woman growing up hundreds of times. The best exchange between her and Neo? In the kitchen in the projects: “Don’t worry about the vase.” Neo, “What vase?” He turns and knocks it over, “That one” He apologizes profusely for breaking it and she says “I said don’t worry about it” then she says “What’s really going to bake your noodle is would you have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?” In other words how much do you listen to what other people say to determine who you are and what you will do?
One of the other favorite scenes is when Neo is in the car and Trinity is trying to remove the bug from his navel but Switch offers a negative response and tells him “It’s our way or the highway.” Neo is about to walk away from an opportunity when Trinity interrupts and says “You’ve been down that road before, you know where it ends and I know that’s not where you want to be” Neo looks at the road and decides he wants something more out of life and stays. If you have not seen the movie it is the BEST representation of what self-esteem really is and is superbly written and acted out. I’d also like to thank Will Smith for turning down the role of Neo, the movie would have never been as powerful as it is had Will taken the part even though he did do a good job in I Am Legend.
In the end, the movie comes full circle as Neo discovers the person he was looking for to change his life … was him. He already had everything he was looking for EXCEPT “self-esteem.” Click NEXT for the next inspirational movie above or below…
