'The Matrix': Cult Classic of Computerized Con?
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THE MATRIX 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. Morpheus, Trinity (the after a very athletic young young woman) and Neo 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, Agent 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 – The Matrix Reloaded and Internet Movie Database The Matrix Revolutions (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 Hugo Weaving, 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 Enter the Matrix (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 Effects – Visual, Best Effects to the vast cinema-going ticular place but to imply the not Village Roadshow or 41 – 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 film The 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 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- 41 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’.