[NCLUG] AntiTrust review (no spoilers)

J. Paul Reed preed at sigkill.com
Sat Jan 13 01:26:25 MST 2001


Hey all!

Well, the Cal Poly LUG went to see the opening of AntiTrust tonight, and I
thought I'd post my review... I don't think I spoil anything, so feel free
to read on even if you haven't seen it...

I'm still trying to decide exactly which parts I liked and didn't like, but
for the most part, I would recommend this movie for any of us LUG-ers.

This is the first movie I think I've *ever* seen that actually had the
attention to technical detail and got those details (for the most part)
right: they have real IP addresses (no .362's in there, like in "The Net");
they actually use command line interfaces that really are just normal
shells; there's output from 'ps' that really is... output from 'ps'; and as
I'm sure everyone knows, there are a whole lotta Gnome screenshots all over
the place (in fact, there's an icon in one of the first desktops shown that
is a "Gnome Website" icon).  The code they show is Java (from what we could
tell), and it really is Java. Compared to movies like "The Net" and
"Hackers," this movie is a paragon of technical correctness.

They even thanked the "Open Source Community" and Linus in the credits.

Unfortunately, I think this movie is going to flop, though, and that really
is sad. In lieu of the technical stuff being right, they sacrifice a well
developed plot and the acting isn't very convincing in parts.

More importantly, they never give a clear definition of "open source" to
viewers, even though they throw the term around throughout the movie.
"Normal" movie-goers aren't going to know what OSS is, and that's
ultimately why I think the movie will be gone in about two weeks.

Ignoring, for a moment, the story, which is complex enough to hold one's
attention for a couple of hours, I think the best part of this movie is the
way it portrays Bill Gates and Microsoft (aka "Gary Winston" and N.U.R.V.).
While I'd have a hard time believing that MS does what NURV does in the
movie, Tim Robins mimics Gates' mannerisms and reported behavior just
perfectly... in fact there are a couple of scenes/stills in the movie of
Tim Robins that *really* look like Gates. The NURV campus is in Portland,
and Winston's house is right on a big 'unknown' lake. Friends who've been
to the MS campus said it looked a lot like the campus portrayed in the
movie.

I point all this out to say that I think the movie does a great job of
giving a sense to the viewer of what a lot of us see in Microsoft... what
we'd like to put into words, but often can't because either a) Microsoft
angers us too much, or b) people don't fundamentally grok what we're trying
to say because they're not in the industry... they just see that Outlook
can read Word attachments, and they're happy.

This movie perfectly captures that essence that I wish I could explain when
I'm trying to tell people why I have the opinions about MS that I do.
Ironically, there are some statements that Robins utters that are real
close to what Gates is quoted as saying in a Wired article about the MS/DOJ
trial. 

All in all, I'd recommend the movie to any geek... but you should hurry,
because what makes it enjoyable for us will be exactly what causes it to be
out of theaters in a couple of weeks. 
 
I do hope I'm wrong, though.

Later,
Paul
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  J. Paul Reed                preed at sigkill.com || web.sigkill.com/preed
  AOL, CIA, NSA, whatever! They all have three letters, they all collect 
  information, and they all screw the public -- User Friendly, 2/10/2000



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