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 69
... economy a few dollars at a time . These aren't ironies but constituent contradictions ; without them , the film's a trifle . The Matrix compels because within the complex of its story and its objective nature , its philosophy and economy ...
... economy a few dollars at a time . These aren't ironies but constituent contradictions ; without them , the film's a trifle . The Matrix compels because within the complex of its story and its objective nature , its philosophy and economy ...
Page 71
... economy . Here was the great construct that had come to be the world as it is , the irrationally exuberant boom that extended its sphere every hour , such that there was no way to get to its edge , and who would want to , really ...
... economy . Here was the great construct that had come to be the world as it is , the irrationally exuberant boom that extended its sphere every hour , such that there was no way to get to its edge , and who would want to , really ...
Page 72
... economy , even if the President had been elected on a platform that swore this was the answer to every single question : ' It's the economy , stupid . ' It is not so much a question of what called these movies into being , but of who ...
... economy , even if the President had been elected on a platform that swore this was the answer to every single question : ' It's the economy , stupid . ' It is not so much a question of what called these movies into being , but of who ...
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