cult classic or computerized con?

he first image on the screen Almost everything you need recourse to these, and of is of a computer print-out. to know has been set up in course computers themselves Nothing you can actually read this opening sequence. The are central to the ‘plot’ (the or understand. Then there’s omnipresence of computer- word is used cautiously). a conversation between a ized effects: the film can Don’t expect to be able to woman and a guy about Mor- scarcely take a step without read, let alone understand, pheus, followed by some men everything that follows in the in dark glasses racing around film. , (the after a very athletic young young woman) and are woman, who may or may not three names of more than be the one we’ve just heard merely labelling significance,

speaking. Whoever she is, and the pursuing agents are issue 41 she has superhuman powers dressed in anonymous-look-

which enable her to leap from ing suits and shades: these SCREEN EDUCATION rooftops, dive through space encapsulate the kinds of and deflect a car heading opposition which will prove to straight for her as she stands be at the film’s core. in a phone booth. One of the men in dark glasses, So, how seriously do you Smith, talks to his buddy – ought you to – take The 105 brian about their next target, whom Matrix? (Andy & Larry Wa- mcfarlane he calls Neo. chowski, 1999) Not so much a film as The point here, though, is … not to discuss the locations from the point of view of Whether we like or admire their contribution to the film’s The Matrix, we have to mise-en-scène, but rather acknowledge that it is more to raise the issue of what than ‘just another film’. The constitutes an Australian exploitation of the ‘Ma- film.The Matrix is formally trix’ franchise constitutes a US/Australian co-produc- an industry. It has already tion, according to the reliable spawned two sequels, listings of the British journal released in the same year Sight & Sound,3 though the – and Internet Movie Database (Andy (IMDb) absent-mindedly & Larry Wachowski, 2003) gives its ‘Country’ merely as – video games and television ‘USA’, while also naming the programs. The latter include Australian Village Roadshow a ‘Making of…’ documentary as one of the production (Josh Oreck, 1999), a spoof companies and listing the Sex and the Matrix (Joel fourteen Australian locations Gallan, 2000), which brought history is also pretty stagger- enough to be significant, and and studios. And of course The Matrix together with Sex ing. In its opening weekend what they value is worth ex- one of the key actors is the and the City; and a further in the US it took over US$27 ploring with a view to under- well-known and respected documentary speculating million, and by September standing what there is about Australian , on the influence of the film 1999, not quite six months such a film that ensures this who plays Agent Smith, and trilogy, The Matrix Defence after it had opened, it had kind of success. one of Morpheus’s offsiders, (Simon Egan, 2003). The taken over US$171 million in an androgynous albino called video games have names the USA alone, with another A semi-Australian Switch, is played by Austral- like (2003) US$203 million in cinemas film? ian actress Belinda McClory. and The Matrix: The Path of outside the US.1 Given that No doubt, too, plenty of Neo (2005). it is reputed to have cost a While on matters to do with behind-the-camera person- mere US$63 million to make, production and reception, nel were Australian. These titles are enough to it has clearly been immensely we should note that the film suggest that, as a result of profitable. Video and DVD was almost entirely shot in Does any of this, I wonder, skilful marketing, the ‘Matrix’ rentals and sales have been Sydney, using the new Fox affect our response to The franchise has caught on. If proportionately immense. Studios and ranging wide Matrix? However much you want further evidence Now, huge ‘grosses’, as over the city for locations. Australian input there may of its being more than just a Variety calls them, are no These latter don’t actually re- be in terms of location and popular 1999 movie, a quick guarantee of anything but veal any obvious landmarks, studio facilities, and actors internet check will reveal popularity; nor are sequels such as the Harbour Bridge and other participants, and 281 ‘external reviews’ for nor cult status nor awards; or the Opera House, which however good for the local the first film in the trilogy, but such extraordinary popu- would immediately identify industry such productions plus sixty-seven newsgroup larity is, of itself, important.2 the city world-wide. Instead, may be, is there any sense in reviews. Those are seriously It tells us something about there is much eye-catching which this input governs how cultish figures. As well, the what we are valuing at any exploitation of the towers of we read the film? Or that it film has undoubtedly won a given time; it means that big business which might governs the sort of film it is? lot of awards, most pres- this film is not making its have been found in any mod- Of the companies listed as tigiously four Oscars (Best appeal to highly selective ern city, and presumably the having a hand in its produc- Editing, Best Sound, Best art-house audiences but point is not to identify a par- tion, the most revealing is ISSUE 41 Effects – Visual, Best Effects to the vast cinema-going ticular place but to imply the not Village Roadshow or – Sound) and two BAFTAs public – whoever that refers inhuman chill and corruption even Warner Bros but Silver SCREEN EDUCATION (British Academy of Film and to. Some suggest that the of any late twentieth-century Pictures. Among the films Television Awards), as well major audience for cinema is metropolis. Elsewhere, the which have no doubt made as many other lesser awards the 18–35-year-old demo- film’s action is located in Silver prosperous over the and nominations. graphic. Even if the audience Martin Place, in the subway last two decades are Die for The Matrix is essentially and in various other unde- Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) And while we are on statis- made up of people in this fined-looking streets and and its sequel Die Harder 106 tics, the film’s commercial range, they are numerous alleys. (Renny Harlin, 1992), the the matrix

like a great deal of science fiction, the film is concerned, at least superficially, with moral and spiritual four Lethal Weapon thrillers one might characterize Wolf kung-fu thrillers, or the fan- (1987, 1990, 1992, 1998), not Creek as a ‘horror’ film. tastic exploits of Ang Lee’s attitudes to the to mention the two Matrix Perhaps the first descriptor Crouching Tiger, Hidden worlds of the sequels; its upcoming pro- that The Matrix suggests is Dragon (2000), one of the ductions include Dungeons ‘science fiction’. Certainly its first Asian films to achieve characters & Dragons: Wrath of the plot, as we quickly become widespread, mainstream Dragon God (Gerry Lively, aware, depends on concepts distribution in the West, or 2005) and the remake of the which debar it from being the more recent Hero (2002), 1970s sci-fi favourite,Lo - labelled ‘realist’: it is centrally Yimou Zhang’s martial arts moral and spiritual attitudes gan’s Run (2006). Production concerned with the idea of action-adventure. to the worlds of the char- companies of course branch ‘parallel’ worlds, how they acters. For instance, Neo out from time to time, but the are controlled and how peo- So, The Matrix is a hybrid is greeted as The One, as general tendency of Silver ple move between them. But product with its roots nour- a messianic figure who will Pictures would not lead this is not a reflective sci-fi ished by several genres, and save humanity from the Ma- one to expect, say, a gentle movie like Stanley Kubrick’s with some stylistic indebted- trix. The idea of saviours of tale about coming of age in classic 2001: A Space Odys- ness to film noir as well: in its one kind or other (in William small-town Iowa. Silver, I am sey (1968); it has more in moody, atmospheric big-city Cameron Menzies 1936 sci-fi suggesting, is much more common with such films as visuals, and thematically in classic, Things to Come, important a creative element Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, its narrative move of having pure science was posited as in the kind of filmThe Matrix 1982) and another US/Aus- an equivocal woman per- the hope of mankind) is com- is than the fact that it was tralian co-production Dark suading an innocent man out mon to the genre.

made in Australia. City (Alex Proyas, 1998), of his usual territory. Above ISSUE 41 because it combines sci-fi all, though, it is sci-fi that it We also expect that in the The kind of film it is … with action-thriller generic most strongly evokes in its worlds created by science- SCREEN EDUCATION elements. At certain key bizarre computer-generated fiction, we will recognize When we turn to a consid- moments in The Matrix, the imagery and in the complex connections to the world eration of the film genre to action-thriller elements take narrative, involving presenc- we know in our everyday which The Matrix belongs, centre stage, their brilliant es in two ‘worlds’. As well, lives. Without such links, we it proves to be hard to sum choreographing of confronta- like a great deal of science should be in the realm of this up in a single descrip- tions and showdowns recall- fiction, the film is concerned, pure fantasy. In The Matrix, tive word, in the way that ing a newer genre: the Asian at least superficially, with for example, the use of com- 107 puterized information and it when you go to work, when of the world being settled in fied.6 In the case of The Big processes may far exceed you go to church, when you this way. Sleep, it could be argued anything we contemplate pay your taxes. It is the world that what most matters is the while sitting at our work that has been pulled over But that’s not all. Smith does growth of mutual respect and stations, but it is rooted in your eyes to blind you to the shoot Neo at point blank love between detective Philip a phenomenon that mod- truth … You are a slave Neo, range. At this point and Marlowe and the woman ern life has accustomed us like everyone else. You were elsewhere, Trinity tells Neo’s who hires him, rather than to. Near the end of the film born into bondage, born cyber body that she loves who shot whom and why. during the extended chase into a prison that you can- him and love saves him (it’s sequence, there is a sud- not smell or taste or touch. tempting to murmur ‘gosh, So what is going on in The den shot of old people in a Unfortunately no one can be how true’), so that his dead Matrix apart from the convo- flat that Neo races through told what the Matrix is: you body rises and halts agents’ lutions of a plot that may not which suddenly shocks have to see for yourself. This bullets. While Morpheus be wholly intelligible or even us with the reminder of is your last chance. There is breathes: ‘He’s the One’, coherent at every turn? Does ‘ordinary’ lives being lived in no turning back. in a brilliant deployment of it have a moral or spiritual ways we can recognize. The special effects Neo goes dimension which creates a various street scenes and After this speech, Morpheus straight through Smith, then resonance going beyond the the use of telephone booths (Laurence Fishburne) offers bullets are seen to be cours- level of superficial action? (though not the use to which Neo a choice of a blue pill ing through Smith’s body. Its cultural references clearly they are put) are other visual (‘You wake up in your bed Neo has repelled the Matrix include not only Alice in anchors to the world we and believe whatever you invaders; he embraces Trinity Wonderland but also Chris- know, not so much for our want to believe’) or a red pill and accepts his new role as tianity: Neo (the word means comfort as for giving us a (‘You stay in your wonder- saviour of the world. ‘new’ in Greek) is seen as sense of how far removed land and I show you how a Christ-like saviour of the the rest of the action is. deep the rabbit hole goes’). But apart from plot … world, albeit of the kind that Neo chooses the red, and says ‘shit’ a lot. (Actually, The plot thickens … thus the rest of the movie is The above paragraphs are by you might wonder whether set in motion, starting with a no means a comprehensive there is a thinness in the Writing about a film such as very painful-looking rebirth summary of the film’s plot, writing that can only come The Matrix raises the ques- process for Neo (involving but the mind shies away up with mechanical four-let- tion of how much one can some excruciating special from spelling it all out in de- ter-word responses), and the reveal about the plot without effects), prior to his digital tail. As Morpheus says, you Morpheus figure may then be giving too much away, double’s ranging wildly and can’t ‘be told what the Matrix seen as a John the Baptist without ruining suspense. widely through the Matrix’s is’, and this line may be a stand-in, prophesying in the Another related question is: simulation of the everyday very cunning let-out for the wilderness and then recog- How much of the plot is it world while the real world brothers Wachowski. Frankly, nizing the messiah when he possible to reveal? Appar- has fallen into a desert of the I’d say that if you think you sees it. The ‘disciples’ also ently at an early stage in the future. One of Morpheus’s know what’s going on at eve- include the traitor, Cypher film’s production history, The crew members, Cypher (Joe ry moment, you’re probably (one of the meanings of the Matrix was regarded as ‘the Pantoliano), turns treacher- not paying attention. The word is ‘person or thing of no script that nobody under- ous and betrays Morpheus question is: How important is importance’), and you might stands’.4 Subsequently, the to Agent Smith, and Neo this? Is the ‘plot’ just a hook ponder why Carrie-Anne screenplay acquired some and Trinity save him. There on which to hang a high-tech Moss’s character is called expository dialogue with a is a shoot-out between Neo concept and some dazzling Trinity, a word of crucial view to making it more – if and Smith in an underground special effects? Christian significance. She not entirely – comprehen- railway station that recalls is originally represented as sible. This may well have the Western genre’s char- It wouldn’t be the first film warning Neo (when, as far as included Morpheus’s long acteristic plot resolution, that became a cult favourite we know, he is still Thomas speech explaining the Matrix and you may feel that the without its narrative con- Anderson, an unpunctual ISSUE 41 to Neo, and it may be helpful Wachowskis’ complicated forming to the crystalline office-worker for a software to quote some of this: concept and screenplay standards of classic Hol- firm) about the Matrix: she is SCREEN EDUCATION deserves and/or needs a less lywood narrative cinema.5 the first to call him Neo; it is The Matrix is everywhere. It simplistic resolution. Though Think of another film recently, she who takes him to meet is all around us. Even now in Neo and Smith leap about the subject of an article in Morpheus, the subversive this very room. You can see and fly effortlessly through these pages: Howard Hawks’ character wanted by the it when you look out your the air, there is a sense of The Big Sleep (1946), a cult law-enforcement agents; window or when you turn on something old-fashioned film indeed, even if one of and it is she who saves him 108 your television. You can feel about the idea of the future the murders is never clari- by love. The name Mor- the matrix

pheus has several semantic and the kinds of adjustments Finally, I’d say it is our reac- of how the resources of possibilities: it was ‘Ovid’s they make in their attitudes tion to the (then-)state-of- several genres are stunningly name for the son of Sleep, before the final reconcilia- the-art special effects and, choreographed and shot for and god of dreams’,7 and ‘to tion. With a film such asThe especially, how these are de- our maximum breath-reten- be in the arms of Morpheus’ Matrix, it may be sufficient to ployed in the action sequenc- tion. A serious study of the means ‘to be asleep’.8 But understand the emblematic es that will determine how we film will require and reward the word is also derived from functions of Neo, Morpheus respond to The Matrix, and close examination of such the Greek morphe, meaning and co. – or to grasp why which most potently account episodes, but not just for their ‘form’, suggesting perhaps the agents are called Smith, for its appeal to widespread, kinetic and visual accom- that Morpheus is a figure Brown and Jones, three of youthful audiences. The plishment. As well, we need concerned to give palpable the commonest Anglo-Saxon action episodes are spaced to ponder how they advance shape to mankind’s vague surnames. Not all narratives throughout the film almost our grasp of the idea of two dreams and questings. call out for intricately devel- in such a way as to recall unappetising worlds – the oped characters and relation- how the song-and-dance 1999 simulacrum control- There is no guarantee that ships. , with numbers used to punctu- led by the Matrix and the the Washowskis were unduly some reputation as an action ate film musicals. From the ‘actual’ desert of a century concerned with such mat- hero following the success of opening sequence in which later – and the kinds of hope ters – or that they weren’t. Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994), is Trinity outwits the Agents (the or despair these evoke. In the The point is that they chose a graceful figure as he hurls cop who says, ‘I think we can end, anyone taking the film those names for these himself through space, and handle one little girl’ couldn’t as more than just a show-off characters, and everything a pallid, wistful-looking mes- be more wrong), diving occasion, a thing of mere sur- in a film is there because siah-type in the more repose- across the abysses between faces, will want to wonder if it someone wanted it there, ful moments. Hugo Weaving buildings and twisting her actually means something. so that a serious study of puts his skinny balefulness body in mid-air as she does, the film requires us at least at the service of Agent Smith the audience is alerted to a Endnotes to consider the possible and perhaps that is all we dazzling display of special 1 See www.imdb.com for significance of such matters need. Would it increase our effects that will give a balletic these and other figures. as names, especially in a involvement in the plot to grace to chases and shoot- 2 I recently argued this film which may have aspira- know about his home life? outs. The next such episode point in ‘Crocodile tions to meaning beyond the finds Smith in pursuit of Neo, Dundee or The Croc(k) of minimum cerebral content I’m suggesting that this receiving Morpheus’s phoned Gold’, Screen Education, for an action movie. It has is not the kind of film that instructions for escape, but fi- Issue 40, 2005. been suggested in some makes subtle demands on nally captured by Smith. Neo 3 Sight & Sound, Vol. 9, of the film’s reviews that actors and that it is not much insists (in a touch that recalls No. 7, July 1999. the action sequences, as concerned with how we interrogation sequences in 4 Quoted in ibid. brilliantly staged as CGIs feel about the characters as cop thrillers) on the right to 5 As defined and articu- can make them, help to ‘people’. They are essentially a phone call, to which Smith lated by David Bordwell, distract attention from holes pawns in ’ replies: ‘What good is a Janet Staiger & Kristin in the plot and from lack of game and the game involves phone call if you’re unable to Thompson in The Clas- emotional involvement with a battle between two con- speak?’ At this, Neo’s mouth sical Hollywood Cinema: any of the characters. But it cepts of the world: the one seems to disappear, to seal Film Style & Mode of is at least worth consider- that is in danger of becoming up as a sign of his impotence. Production to 1960, ing not merely whether this derelict and the one that the And this is followed by the Routledge, London, is true, but whether the film Matrix seeks to control. We stripping of Neo’s shirt and 1986. would benefit from having are less likely to judge how the insertion of what seems 6 ‘Smoking Guns and everything logically spelt out ‘good’ The Matrix is by such to be a very nasty-looking Smouldering Lips: The or from having characters of criteria as ‘Is it well-acted?’ mechanical spider into his Big Sleep’, Screen Edu- rounded complexity. or ‘Do we believe in/care navel. The purpose of this cation, No. 39, 2005. 7

about the characters?’ than insertion is not wholly clear. Brewer’s Dictionary of ISSUE 41 If we’re watching a film such by how gripped we are by its Phrase and Fable [1870], as the new Pride and Preju- action and by its central con- There is no need to go Cassell, London, 1975, SCREEN EDUCATION dice (Joe Wright, 2005), we cept. If Keanu Reeves is all through the film in this detail p.730. may well feel cheated if Darcy that stands between us and to demonstrate how the 8 The Concise Oxford and Elizabeth are reduced to gradual extinction, we don’t special effects give an extra Dictionary (fifth ed.), mere emblems of the quali- need to know, say, if he’s a dimension to the film’s action Clarendon Press, Oxford, ties named in the title, since devoted son and a caring genre elements, the final 1964, p.786. our major interest is in the friend, but only if he can cut subway shoot-out obviously way they react to each other it against the forces of evil. being the prime example 109