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First entry
November 11, 2003 00:00
Hi everyone! You know how this works - the first entry is just a test to see if this works. And if you are reading this, then it does, and it will not be long before I write something hopefully more significant, probably about Matrix Revolutions!
James
Thoughts on The Matrix Revolutions
November 13, 2003 00:00
OK, if you have not seen it yet, you may not want to read further - I can't discuss the film without mentioning details from it!
(For my thoughts on the first two films, go to http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ati/Visions/V1/mcgrath%20paper.pdf )
1) Sati becomes the key figure: she (as well as Neo) is where the film begins and ends. The Oracle willingly gave her 'life' (or former shell) in order to save her. Sati is a Hindu term for a righteous woman, one who is willing to throw herself on her husband's funeral pyre. She is the next 'One' - at the end, we see she is 'one born in the matrix with the ability to change things'. She will help bring 'balance' - this time representing the side of the machines! This is thus a cyclical universe, even though things have not simply repeated exactly the way things went before.
2) There is a fundamental duality and balance. Humans and machines need each other. The origin of the matrix in a stable form depends on father and mother, Architect and Oracle. The Architect represents order, certainty, mathematical precision, while the Oracle represents chaos, uncertainty (in spite of her predictions!), emotion. It is out of the opposing forces of order and chaos, yin and yang, that the world is produced and continues to exist. His role is to balance the equation - hers is to unbalance it!!!
3) The power of the source is not limited to the machine world/matrix but extends to the human world. Does this suggests that the 'real world' is not 'real' after all? In Baudrillardian fashion, the question is not answered.
4) The machine 'leader' (if that is what it is - although it may represent a 'hive' consciousness - presumably the 'Source) is reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz motif that has run through the films. Presumably we are to think 'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.' This is the 'God above God', the God above the Demiurge/Architect. But this machine (called, amusingly, 'Deus ex Machina'!) is descended from machines created by humans. We thus have a recession of creators going back so far that we cannot know who is ultimately 'God' in this world, any more than we can know what is 'really real'.
5) The machine world viewed from outside by human eyes looks cold, mechanistic, insectoid. Humans cast slurs on their enemies. They call them 'squiddies', 'calamari'. But Neo sees beneath that exterior, without human eyes, and what he sees is light, and it is beautiful. The ugliness of the machines is thus in the eye of the beholder.
6) The end is not a resolution. The Earth is still shrouded in darkness. Most people are still plugged into the matrix. There is now peace, an end to war, but what will this entail? The power source of the machines may dwindle, and it will be necessary (for Sati?) to find a way for the machines to survive.
7) The idea of a blind messiah who nevertheless sees is perhaps inspired by Dune.
8) Neo does not get straight answers from the Oracle even now. He only gets as much as he is ready for. He only knows as much as he 'knows himself'.
9) At the end, Neo returns to the Source and the matrix is rebooted. So by choosing the other door, he has not avoided his destiny/fate. Was it inevitable, as Agent Smith suggested?
10) In what way is Smith 'Neo', in what way is he 'Neo's negative'? Both have the potential to destabilize the matrix. Neo does it for the sake of others; Smith does it for his own sake, simply to copy himself and spread.
11) There are 12 elders on the council in Zion. Biblical imagery has not disappeared, even though there is more focus on ideas from Hindu tradition (such as karma) in the present film.
12) The Hel Club shows that the Merovingian is the ruler of the underworld, of Hades. We thus have '(M)Orpheus in the underworld'! :-)
I welcome comments and responses to these thoughts. If I can find the time, maybe I'll write a book about this!
