This was Alex Jones once
This was Alex Jones once
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_Life
waking life is a truly incredible picture. this segment is notable, but the rest of the movie is MUCH better.
My wife showed me Waking Life way back when we first started dating (around 2006 or so). She thought it was the best film ever. Her previous boyfriend and all her other college friends were liberal arts majors, so it was championed in their circle as a crowning achievement of film entertainment, possibly the greatest film ever made.
I, on the other hand, thought it was the most pretentious piece of artsy garbage I'd ever seen. And I was a huge fan of philosophy and human psychology in those days. I was so disappointed in that film and its poor attempt to convey its themes.
I felt like the philosophical discussions were all unimaginative topics, presented to the audience as if they were deep revelations. But there was no deeper message, no inspiring new thoughts to convey. Just a bunch of common philosophical themes that we've seen explored in dozens of other films. But this one refused to commit to an actual understanding of those themes, instead leaving them vague and open-ended, so you can project your own meanings on them instead of the creator doing actual work or showing any knowledge or understanding.
Heck, it didn't even have a decent flow to the story. There wasn't really a plot, just a bunch of disjointed thoughts that the creator wanted to say without knowing how to properly convey it on screen. There weren't even decent transitions between topics, and the main character just sort of faded out of the story as it got lost in its tunnel of thought-dumping on the viewer. I absolutely hated that film.
I last watched it nearly 2 decades ago. I've wanted to rewatch it again and see if my feelings about it still hold up. My wife has rewatched it since, and she now agrees with me that it's a pretty pretentious piece of work. Maybe we should both check it out again and reevaluate.
Like your wife, I thought it was an absolutely brilliant film 15 years ago when I was an enlightened college kid who had just discovered LSD. I watched it again last year and could barely get through it.
The philosophical ideas presented have no consistency or connection to whatever passes for a plot, the pacing/narrative is an afterthought, and (sorry to any Linklater fans) the rotoscoping animation started to give me a migraine.
that's a genuine take, and it makes me think about what my opinion of it would be watching it now. i haven't seen it in about 20 years, either. you're most likely right, in that my younger self probably thought a lot more highly that i probably would now. come to think of it, the film did feature this one certain asshole.. hmm
Anyone here trying to defend Jones at any part of his life should listen to knowledge fight. He’s always been a fraud and idiot.
you're absolutely right.
i didn't post this to defend him or to facilitate his defense in any way. fortunately, nobody here is doing that.
this is probably the nicest slice of early alex jones in media that wasn't local texas radio. you can see here that he found his voice very early on. he used his voice in the early '00s to rail against the police state and impending authoritarianism of the george w bush regime. i think it's important for people to see how he has used his (very fucking effective) voice in the past for other, very different messages than he's spouted since he hit the mainstream.
I’m lucky enough to have a copy of this film on Blu-ray. It’s insanely rare. I got to see it all the way back in 2007 and it still seems almost no one has heard of it. It has changed my life more than any other film I’ve seen.
I had also never heard of it. It is available on usenet. I will be viewing it in the near future!
I love Linklater, but Waking Life is his worst movie in my humble opinion. It was almost impossible to get through for me. The only relief in that film is that Jesse and Céline got a cameo.
The Before Trilogy is his superior work. I'm still upset he didn't make a fourth movie in 2022, but I get it. A trilogy is more marketable than a quadrilogy or more.
i know it isn't easy upvoting alex jones content, so thank you for your service in educating people about what a true charlatan he is.
edit - this speech hit me so hard that i will never forget it. and to think now that it was HIS speech? fuck.
Did they re-use one of his actual speeches or was he just cast to play this character and read these lines? I haven't seen the film yet.
as i know it, he was filmed making the speech and they animated over top of it, just like the rest of the film. he isn't the best part. it's a great movie involving tons of great animators.
edit - to answer your question more directly: yes, he filmed this scene specifically for this film.
i'm an idiot. i edited a reply to you and then realized you'd never see it.
this was filmed specifically for the production. i'm in my 40s now (sucks), but i got big into his stuff right after 9/11. police state stuff during the w admin.. bohemian grove was huge.. some of his gotchas are still wow (david gruggen?).
he was a force maybe once? but definitely not now. i think it's good for people to know where he came from so they can help us prevent where he's going.