My only beef about this film? The music soundtrack. Maybe it was due to budget contraints, but its Muzak-like qualities are highly irritating. Narrated by Laurie Anderson, it would have come across more pleasantly if she'd also done the soundtrack; Kraftwerk also would have been effective.  But I digress.

During the film, succinct observations are made about McLuhan. For example: "He saw the interrelationship of everything." And: "For him the environment was everything -- and its interaction with the mind."  And this is exactly why I love McLuhan's ideas.

McLuhan says any number of memorable things, but I jotted down these. . .  About technological change: "What are the ripple effects?" And: "You start out a consumer and you wind up consumed." He speaks of "total involvement" in media. "Quest for indentity is a central aspect of the eletronic age." The Global Village. The Global Theatre.  "TV is . . . a new mythic form."

McLuhan also says:  "Kierkegaard is a man of great relevance to this time." Indeed, he quotes him: "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."  -- Søren Kierkegaard (1843).

I'm certainly glad to have watched McLuhan's Wake. It's one of those films that sticks with you after you've seen it more than during the initial experience. And it inspires me to go back to his books.