-1

LESSONS OF

THE MATRIX,

film review

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 selectionsystem ... Archaic: the womb (dictionary definitions).... jacked into a cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness intothe consensual hallucination that was the matrix. (William Gibson,

Neuromancer

).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The American movie

The Matrix

(Warner Bros, 1999) written and directed by theWachowski brothers (Andy and Larry) was made in Sydney, Australia for $63million 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 physicsand mathematics. It is simultaneously a film of astonishing special effects - so-calledtime-slicing or bullet-time photography developed by John Gaeta of Manex -choreographed combat made possible by wire-stunt work supervised by Yuen WoPing - and philosophical ideas. Consequently, it appeals to both teenagers reared onvideo games and adult intellectuals familiar with the writings of Karl Marx andJean Baudrillard. Its multiplicity of sources and allusions, will delight film studiesstudents and their lecturers and provide the subject for many an essay anddissertation.The film is set in the year 2197. Earlier, humanity developed artificial intelligenceto such an extent that thinking machines took control of the planet. Here the filmtouches upon our fear of industrialisation and technology, our alienation from thevery machines we have invented. (One can envisage an alternative future in whichthe machines respect us as their parents; in another scenario, they could retain us aspampered pets; in a third we could merge our consciousness with those of computers.) In an attempt to deprive the machines of solar power, humansdestroyed the Earth's atmosphere - the world became a dystopia, a dark ruin - herethe grungy, rain-soaked look of

Bladerunner

was an obvious influence - in whichonly the sewers of the once great cities offer a refuge to a few remaining resistancefighters who live in a hovercraft called

The Nebuchadnezzer

. The machines

responded by factory-farming humans (they treat us as we currently treat animalsand plants): keeping us alive in womb-like pods for a time to provide them withelectrical energy.To prevent any resistance, the bodies of humans are cabled to a computer in orderto supply their minds with a virtual reality experience in which they seem to beliving a normal life in a normal world circa 1999. Only a few computer hackersrealise that this veil of appearances masks a horrific reality. Here the movie posesancient philosophical questions that date back to Plato's simile of the cave: 'How dowe know the world we inhabit is the only and true reality? Could we be living insidea series of Chinese boxes? How do we know we are not dreaming? How can we tell thedifference between reality and dreams?'It also reprises the left-wing critique of capitalism: the masses are wage-slaveswhose lives are controlled by the military-industrial complex but they are ignorantof the real state of affairs because they have been brainwashed by dominantideology, bribed by materialism and diverted by the spectacle of entertainment. Inthe movie, the apparatus of control and deception is called 'The Matrix'.A few individuals - like the hero Thomas Anderson (played by Keanu Reeves) acomputer expert employed by a software corporation - are vaguely dissatisfied. Athome, during the night, he is a computer hacker with another identity -'Neo’ - whosurfs 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 TheMatrix. They are hunting Morpheus (played by the black actor Laurence