Research In The Film Of The Matrix

Research in the film of The Matrix

The film of The Matrix has stunned public not only by its fascinating special effects but also its wild imagination of the hyper-real future world. It symbolically against the real world and some critics even argue that it is an anti-Capitalism work.

Cloud is her journal argued that, "this illusory world resembles that of early-21st-century capitalism, where people go to work and engage in all the activities of daily life." Therefore the revolution against the Matrix symbolized in dissent against Capitalism. However the public reacted less than critics about the symbolic meaning in the movie, instead, people were interested more in the special effect and absorbing fighting motions in the pictures. Some argued that The Matrix is neither symbolic nor real but imaginary and also "Although a great film, but by itself is psychological naÐ"Їve" (Blazer). Some also connect the reality in the movie to the Lacanian Real (Cloud).

The Matrix itself constitutes giant simulacra. Matrix is a program-made surreal world or we should call it "computer system" which controls the human in real world. Matrix gives people virtual feelings by sending signals directly to brains, therefore, in the real world, nothing but brain of a human is actually working. What a person sees, smells, touches, hears or tastes are all computerized programs, and in another way, fake. However, the surreal world is exceptionally real to the world that people know, people do not even notice anything wrong with this fake world. They do not even have to believe the matrix world is real, instead, they live it. There is one scene in the film that Neo, the main character, "retrieves a disk from a fake book entitled Simulacra and Simulation, as if he conceals his privacy beneath a darkly skeptical Baudrillardian cover (Frentz and Rushing). As we can see from the detail, Neo as the one who is special and able to sense the untruity of the world, he even starts to think the it to be a Simulacra.

On the other hand, the real world in the Movie which is called Zion, turned out to be another sort of Simulacra. When Neo wakes up to the real world with Morpheus' greeting of "welcome to real world", what we see on the screen is a dark, nasty and unadvanced world. Because the domination of "machines" on the surface of the earth, the survivors of the real world had to build their home and shelter inside the earth, which is called Zion. There is no sunshine, no beautiful views of mountains and oceans; people are dressing like cavemen and cavewomen. Therefore the film inevitablely leaves me questions, is the fake, computerized Matrix even better than the real world? Or I should say, is the real world Zion, another simulacra to the original world? Or furthermore, there is no such thing as origin or eternal real world, things just change over time? In the end of the last part of The Matrix: Revolution, when Neo is finally eliminated and the Matrix world is again back to normal, the programmer (it self is a program) stands in the morning light with a gorgeous scene and whispers: isn't it beautiful? I believe the directors' answer in the picture is, yes.

However, since the illusionary virtual Matrix world is somehow even better than the real world at that time, why those revolutionists still strongly believes what they believe and fight for waking people up to the real world? Maybe Baudrillard's theory could explain this. Baudrillard said, when the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning (Baudrillard). Their memory to the formal real world becomes a nostalgia in which only good memories turn out to be "real" and that drives them to fight for the real world back.

Another reason which keeps Zioners fight is Myth. Zioners have the Myth of The One, who has the special ability to lead them to victory. However, the myth perfectly fits the theory of Barthes. First is the process of making myth. Neo is The One and we can know from the film that there have been already 5 The Ones before Neo. Technically, they are all inevitable computer system errors. They can fly, fight like Bruce Lee or even get rid of shooting bullets and that is the Signifier and the Signified is, they are supermen. Furthermore, the superman sign brings them to the myth of The One: they are the ones who can change the world.

Nevertheless, none of them did change the world; neither did Neo in the film and that bring to the second theory of Barthes: myth keeps the status quo. The designer of Matrix in the story also explained to Neo in a scene saying that the purpose of making those system errors, which is refer to Neo(s), is to keep the Matrix world running normally.