Actually, we've just had our second viewing of "The Combine Interview," which re-imagines Cruise's Scientology diatribe as a scary statement of purpose from an anonymous member of the Combine. And now, we think it puts the Combine in a new light, as the one force on earth capable of taming Maverick himself (Kelly McGillis notwithstanding).
Rather than crank out another Tom Cruise gag (we've got plenty of them, we assure you) we'll opt to mention how well-made and creepy the short film actually is, and how Valve should really already have Tom Hall on the payroll. Take a look after the jump and see if you don't agree.
Art, along with most worthwhile entertainment, is commentary on, or at least riffs off, some real world event or situation on some level, right? Part of HL2's success (for me at least) is because of the story's sci-fi take on the authoritarian regimes we see all around us nowerdays.
I expect the Half Life 2 writers would be disappointed if the story didn't make you think just a little tiny bit about the shitstorm of religious and political fundamentalism that our own world is swept up in right now. The fact that Cruises wacko-space-cult speech expresses the combine mindset so neatly is no accident. With minor modification, it could also be applied to a Cheney mind fart or a Nazi rally and still stir the loin cloths of any apes who care to listen (no offence meant to genuine apes who I assume do not keep a woodie spare for the thought of authoritarian regimes).
It's almost a shame it needs some bright spark film creator to clearly link the two before people start to cotton on. It was a bloody good film though, so I’ll forgive him.
While extremely well done (Valve really should hire this guy), it's a shame that they had to alter some of Cruise's original speech in order for it to work. It would have been great if it had just been taken verbatim.
For the simple fact that for a HL movie to work it would require putting words in Gordon Freeman's mouth, entirely fucking up one of the core defining features and interesting points of Half-Life. Just... just don't suggest something like that again please.
