-1LESSONS OF THE MATRIX, film review

John A. Walker (© 2009)

matrix: that which gives origin or form to a thing or that which serves to enclose it

... maths, computers: a rectangular array of logical elements acting as a selection

system ... Archaic: the womb (dictionary definitions).

... jacked into a cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness into

the consensual hallucination that was the matrix. (William Gibson, Neuromancer).

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The American movie The Matrix (Warner Bros, 1999) written and directed by the

Wachowski brothers (Andy and Larry) was made in Sydney, Australia for $63

million and has already been hailed a 'pulp classic' and 'work of art'. It is a brilliant
synthesis of several existing cinematic genres - sci-fi, action, Hong Kong kung fu,

Japanese animation - and literary/graphic sources - the Biblical story of Christ,

Homer's Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, William Gibson's cyberpunk novel

Neuromancer (1984), the comic-book art of Geoff Darrow, plus texts about physics

and mathematics. It is simultaneously a film of astonishing special effects - so-called

time-slicing or bullet-time photography developed by John Gaeta of Manex -

choreographed combat made possible by wire-stunt work supervised by Yuen Wo

Ping - and philosophical ideas. Consequently, it appeals to both teenagers reared on

video games and adult intellectuals familiar with the writings of Karl Marx and

Jean Baudrillard. Its multiplicity of sources and allusions, will delight film studies

students and their lecturers and provide the subject for many an essay and

dissertation.

The film is set in the year 2197. Earlier, humanity developed artificial intelligence

to such an extent that thinking machines took control of the planet. Here the film

touches upon our fear of industrialisation and technology, our alienation from the

very machines we have invented. (One can envisage an alternative future in which

the machines respect us as their parents; in another scenario, they could retain us as

pampered pets; in a third we could merge our consciousness with those of

computers.) In an attempt to deprive the machines of solar power, humans

destroyed the Earth's atmosphere - the world became a dystopia, a dark ruin - here

the grungy, rain-soaked look of Bladerunner was an obvious influence - in which

only the sewers of the once great cities offer a refuge to a few remaining resistance

fighters who live in a hovercraft called The Nebuchadnezzer. The machines

responded by factory-farming humans (they treat us as we currently treat animals

and plants): keeping us alive in womb-like pods for a time to provide them with

electrical energy.

To prevent any resistance, the bodies of humans are cabled to a computer in order

to supply their minds with a virtual reality experience in which they seem to be

living a normal life in a normal world circa 1999. Only a few computer hackers

realise that this veil of appearances masks a horrific reality. Here the movie poses

ancient philosophical questions that date back to Plato's simile of the cave: 'How do

we know the world we inhabit is the only and true reality? Could we be living inside

a series of

Chinese boxes? How do we know we are not dreaming? How can we tell the

difference between reality and dreams?'

It also reprises the left-wing critique of capitalism: the masses are wage-slaves

whose lives are controlled by the military-industrial complex but they are ignorant

of the real state of affairs because they have been brainwashed by dominant

ideology, bribed by materialism and diverted by the spectacle of entertainment. In

the movie, the apparatus of control and deception is called 'The Matrix'.

A few individuals - like the hero Thomas Anderson (played by Keanu Reeves) a

computer expert employed by a software corporation - are vaguely dissatisfied. At

home, during the night, he is a computer hacker with another identity -'Neo’ - who

surfs the Net looking for answers; he also deals not in drugs but in illegal software.

Extremely powerful humanoids called 'Agents' enforce the law on behalf of The

Matrix. They are hunting Morpheus (played by the black actor Laurence
Fishburne), named after the minor Greek deity who was the son of the god of sleep

and dreams (his name also evokes the technique of morphing popularised in

futuristic movies such as Terminator 2), because he is the leader of a group of

freedom fighters who are able to move back and forth between reality and the

artificial world. The disembodied rebels visiting the latter return to reality by being

downloaded via phone lines, consequently, telephones recur throughout the movie.

Today, of course, more people seem to communicate by e-mail and mobile phones

than they do face to face. Adverts for the movie were tied-in with Nokia mobile

phones and included the caption: 'Nokia. The link between reality and dream', even

though in the film it is old fashioned hand sets with land lines which facilitate the

transfers.

Morpheus is anxious to recruit Neo because he believes he is 'the one, the saviour

of mankind'. Morpheus thus resembles John the Baptist and Neo, Christ. At the

climax of the film Neo dies and resurrects through an act of love on the part of the

female lead Trinity played by Carrie-Anne Moss. (Another of the fighters called

Cypher [Joe Pantoliano] is also a traitor and therefore he recalls Judas.) However,

before this, Neo fights the Agents using extreme violence - kung fu fighting,

Western/gangster type shootouts, so love is not really being proposed as the solution.

He also consults a female Oracle, so Greek mythology as well as the New Testament

are invoked. Books about the narrative structure of myths written specifically for

moviemakers are now one of the tools available to scriptwriters.

Neo/Thomas doubts his abilities and destiny; consequently, he has to be trained to

fight and encouraged to think for himself and to trust his own intuitions. New skills
and bodies of information are pumped directly into his brain in a few seconds via

computers - if this ever happens, schools and universities will become obsolete.

Morpheus advises Neo that he can defeat the Agents because they are ultimately

governed by rules whereas he is capable of breaking them. Hackers, it would seem,

are considered more creative than corporation programmers. To assist Neo make

the journey from the artificial realm to reality he is given a pill. Clearly, the ability

of drugs such as LSD and Mescaline to transport the mind to another world is

raised here. Neo's experience resembles a bad trip or cold turkey - a painful, birth-

like experience - involving a fall down a wet tunnel, which was a deliberate use by

the screenwriters of Alice's journey down the rabbit hole in Lewis Carroll's Alice's

Adventures in Wonderland. Morpheus had earlier instructed Neo to 'Follow the

white rabbit'. Again, in childhood, daydreams and fantasies are more powerful than

in adulthood and Carroll's famous story is only one of many written for children in

which an alternative realm is postulated. However, in the movie, the usual journey

from reality to fantasy world is reversed.

Eventually, Morpheus is captured by the Agents and is subjected to torture in

order to reveal the codes of the rebel's mainframe computer that will enable the

Agents to win. Curiously, during the torture session, the main Agent Smith (played

by the Australian actor Hugo Weaving) confesses that even he feels unhappy with

present reality and claims the defeat of the rebels will enable him 'to leave it'. This

implies that the artificial intelligences of the future will suffer from existential angst.

Neo and Trinity rescue Morpheus after an epic gun battle in which the pillars of

the lobby of a modern skyscraper are shattered by gunfire. Like Christ and
Superman, Neo develops supernatural powers that enable him to stop bullets in mid

air and to defeat Smith in battle. Socialists will feel the plot is reactionary at this

point because the rescue of humankind is to be achieved by one individual rather

than by a collectivity - and by magic rather than by more mundane social and

political methods. Furthermore, if the machines are in the end defeated, this still

leaves the issue of our relation to technology unresolved.

In the final scenes of the film, Neo is restored to the 'normal' world and we are

usefully reminded that reality is open-ended, that the future contains many

possibilities and we have a choice as to what sort of world we make for ourselves. An

important lesson of The Matrix is that we would be well advised to programme our

computers and robots with a strict commandment: 'Thou must not kill or hurt

humans; respect and honour thy parents.'

All art, fiction and media representations enable us to enter, in our imaginations,

other worlds. They satisfy a deep-seated human need for an escape - albeit

temporary - from the banalities of daily life and a relief from consciousness of self

(we speak of 'losing ourselves'). Of course, the cinema's big screen is especially

effective at encouraging this immersion in artificial realms. Hence, The Matrix,

along with many other Hollywood movies about time-travel, the Internet and virtual

realities, is self-referential and exemplifies an ancient truth about the nature of art.

But it is also a response to more recent developments in our lived experience, that is,

the increased time spent in front of screens - cinema, television, computers, in

cyberspace rather than real space - the ever-increasing part simulations play in our

lives, plus the greater illusionism and intensity of modern media compared to
traditional ones. (Paradoxically these developments are due to the very

technological progress that the movie warns us about.) On the one hand, we

welcome and enjoy many of these changes, but on the other, we fear losing touch

with the real. Ultimately, reality/nature cannot be denied: people who eat only the

simulated food found inside virtual reality environments would soon die of

starvation. But, as food for the mind and stimulus for the senses, The Matrix is hard

to fault. Furthermore, the sets, biomechanical creatures, digital environments and

special visual effects are so extraordinary that any fine artists watching must be

asking themselves: 'What an earth can we do to compete with this?'

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Two sequels were made in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

Video games and comic books have also been issued.

Official website: http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/

See also three books about the philosophical implications of the films:

William Irwin (ed), The ‘Matrix’ and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real,

(Chicago, IL: Open Court Publishing Co., 2002).

William Irwin (ed), More ‘Matrix’ and Philosophy, (Chicago, IL: Open Court

Publishing Co., 2005).

Glenn Yeffeth (ed), Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in ‘The
Matrix’, (Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishing, 2003).

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JOHN A. WALKER is a painter and freelance art critic and historian. He is the

author of Art in the Age of Mass Media, Art and Artists on Screen and Art and

Celebrity.