The MatrixThe Matrix (1999) was a true end-of-the-millennium movie, a statement of the American Zeitgeist, and a prognosis for the future of big-budget Hollywood filmmaking. Starring Keanu Reeves as Neo, a computer programmer transformed into a messianic freedom fighter, The Matrix blends science fiction with conspiracy thriller conventions and outlandish martial arts created with groundbreaking digital techniques. A box-office triumph, the film was no populist confection: its blatant allusions to highbrow contemporary philosophy added to its appeal as a mystery to be decoded. Joshua Clover undertakes the task of decoding the film. Examining The Matrix's digital effects and how they were achieved, he shows how the film represents a melding of cinema and video games (the greatest commercial threat to have faced Hollywood since the advent of television) and achieves a hybrid kind of immersive entertainment. He also unpacks the movie's references to philosophy, showing how The Matrix ultimately expresses the crisis American culture faced at the end of the 1990s. |
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Page 27
... I wrote The woman in the red dress ? I designed her . She , um ... well she doesn't talk very much , but ... but if you'd like to meet her , I can that program arrange a much more personalised meeting . ' Beyond the. THE MATRIX 27.
... I wrote The woman in the red dress ? I designed her . She , um ... well she doesn't talk very much , but ... but if you'd like to meet her , I can that program arrange a much more personalised meeting . ' Beyond the. THE MATRIX 27.
Page 49
... designed to be so . It would be difficult to conceive of a film better designed to drive such a new market . There is a wealth of ancillary reasons : perplexing details , clues and visual gestures aplenty to reward further THE MATRIX 49.
... designed to be so . It would be difficult to conceive of a film better designed to drive such a new market . There is a wealth of ancillary reasons : perplexing details , clues and visual gestures aplenty to reward further THE MATRIX 49.
Page 68
Joshua Clover. These are the two main cinematographic strategies used for the synthworld , designed to alienate Neo from the others and to highlight that alienation . When Choi and company visit his solitary room , he insistently holds ...
Joshua Clover. These are the two main cinematographic strategies used for the synthworld , designed to alienate Neo from the others and to highlight that alienation . When Choi and company visit his solitary room , he insistently holds ...
Contents
Edge of the Construct | 6 |
Bad Digital | 29 |
Good Spectacle | 42 |
Copyright | |
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2nd Unit Agent Smith allegory Andrew Animator appearance Artists Assistant audience Baudrillard Bill Pope Blade Runner boom bullet camera Carrie-Anne Moss cast cinematic Co-ordinator concepts consciousness Construct films corporate cubicle Cypher Dark City David desert designed Disneyland economy Edge exactly false fantasy fighting film's Fiona gamer hero Hollywood human ideology immersion irreality Johnny Mnemonic Keanu Reeves kicks kung fu labour Laurence Fishburne lives look machine Matrix mediated metafilmic Michael mirrorshades Morpheus Morpheus's movie movie's narrative Neo's Neuromancer nightmare nostalgia offers Paul perhaps Philosophy pop culture Production question realise reality rebel Reeves's scene sci-fi screen seems sequence simulation Slavoj Žižek social Special Effects spectacle story Strange Days Supervisor tech television theatre things Thirteenth Floor Thomas Anderson Trinity Truman Show underclass videogame viewer Visual Effects Wachowski Brothers Warner Bros window Žižek