Random comments on random films

The Matrix

OK, there are entire libraries that could be filled with what people have said and written about the religious and spiritual messages of The Matrix. The last thing we need is yet another interpretation. (And I've only seen the first movie of the trilogy, so I'm even less qualified to make overarching statements.) But the concept behind it is so easy: take some names that have obvious religious weight ("Trinity", "Zion") and some in which it is only slightly less obvious ("Morpheus", "Neo Anderson" [="New Son of Man"]). Then (and this is central) you bring the idea that the mass of humanity is under a great illusion, and their most basic a priori assumptions are dead, dead wrong. They would never guess what is "really" going on. And everything they do to enhance or prolong their life actually ends up feeding their enemy.

This is the core of every philosophy. Whether it is Christianity, humanism, Buddhism, or any of the myriads of self-concocted variants of semi-New Age spirituality, the implication is always that there are only a few who are "in on it", who see through the illusion and recognize the reality, and who, through this recognition, are able to control the illusions to make a new reality. These few enlightened ones, if the rest of the deluded world would just finally open their minds and listen to them, could lead all to enlightenment.

And of course, since everyone sees his or her own worldview symbolized in The Matrix' real world and everyone else living in the fantasy world, the movie caters to an almost universal crowd.

(Don't interpret more cynicism into this statement than I intend: I still think it's a great movie.)

posted by Marco @ 3:06 PM