The first time I saw the Matrix, it was a pirated copy that was a final cut except it was missing all of the licensed music tracks. So all the dialog, foley, and even the original orchestral soundtrack were in place, but none of the tracks licensed from other artists/bands. This meant the nightclub at the beginning was a bunch of people dancing to nothing, and the lobby shootout was just gunshots and shattering concrete, and the end was just the sound of Neo flying into the sky. Does anyone still have a copy of this anywhere? I always assumed it was some kind of internal leak. The video quality was garbage, but I’ve love to see this cut again, see what holds up and what is worse.
For what it’s worth, I’m part of many of the private trackers around and I can’t find a thing while searching releases. I don’t see any alternative version like this that’s documented anywhere, either.
My guess is it’s a copy that someone removed the music track from, and purposely made look terrible so old-school DMCA systems wouldn’t catch it on YouTube, Vimeo, or other similar site back in the early days of those respective companies.
When I get more time, I’ll browse a few forums I’m in and let you know what I find if anything. My best guess, though, is this wasn’t some special cut but rather some finagling done to an original cut to avoid a quick takedown. Similar to those full movies on YouTube that show an entire movie in a small box, etc.