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 52
... labour . The Matrix is a system , Neo . That system is our enemy . But when you're inside , you look around . What do you see . Business men , teachers , lawyers , carpenters . The very minds of the people we are trying to save . But ...
... labour . The Matrix is a system , Neo . That system is our enemy . But when you're inside , you look around . What do you see . Business men , teachers , lawyers , carpenters . The very minds of the people we are trying to save . But ...
Page 67
... labour twenty - four hours a day , and the spectacle disguising their condition is total . At certain points , the film seems intent on doing nothing more - or less- than quoting Debord's book in a filmic context , removing where ...
... labour twenty - four hours a day , and the spectacle disguising their condition is total . At certain points , the film seems intent on doing nothing more - or less- than quoting Debord's book in a filmic context , removing where ...
Page 69
... labour to the 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 ...
... labour to the 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 ...
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