Comparison of The Matrix by Wachowski and The Truman Show by Peter Weir - Essay Example

The films The Matrix, directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, and The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, are similar in the manner that they show howthe truth can be hidden from an individual. In The Matrix, the characters are led to believe that their life is as it appears, but as the film moves on, these characters realize that there is much more to the world than they had realized and that their reality was being controlled by someone else. In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank also has his reality controlled by someone else, as he is the unknowing star of a reality television show. His reality has been created by a director and everyone within his life is an actor, which forces him to bring his own existentialism into question once he finds out the truth. Each of these works can be compared to the ancient philosophical work “The Allegory of the Cave”, which was written by Plato. In this work, Plato describes how the absolute truth comes from outside our own reality, as the reality that we have is manufactured by those who wish for us to perceive things in a certain manner. In each of these films, the characters are forced to perceive things in a certain manner until they find out how to escape from their cave and find the absolute truth. These two films are important existentialist works because they force the viewer to look at reality in a different manner by questioning his or her own being. The Matrix is the story of a man who goes by the alias Nero and his quest to find out the truth about the matrix. Since he is digging for the truth, he is targeted by those who wish to keep the truth from him, which leads him to Morpheus, who offers him the opportunity to find out what his reality actually is. When Neo is able to escape from his “cave”, he learns that the year is 2199 and that humanity is in the midst of a war against intelligent machines that were created quite some time before. In this world, the sky is black because human beings have attempted to cut off the solar power on which these machines run, but these machines began using human beings as a power source in response. Neo learns that the world that he has lived in since his birth is not the reality that he perceived, but is rather a simulated reality of 1999, which was created by these machines in order to prevent the human beings from learning the truth about what was happening. Morpheus tells Nero that his job is to rescue people from the matrix in order to gain their help in fighting against this oppressive regime. He also tells Nero that since they know that the matrix is not real, that they are able to give themselves superhuman powers within it, as they are able to manipulate it. This is a unique idea because it presents our reality as being very different than how we perceive it. In this world, everything appears as it is within our present day society, with the only different being that this reality is not real. This brings existential questions into the mind of the viewer, as it would be impossible for us to know if this is how our world was in reality. Plato would argue that this is true, since we do not know the absolute truth about our world, only what we are permitted to see. Our perceptions on our world are based entirely on our own experiences, but these experiences are not enough for us to have knowledge of everything. Therefore, our knowledge will always be lacking, since the images of what we see are a constructed reality, rather than the absolute truth. This idea is very similar to what occurs in The Truman Show, as Truman is stuck in a world where reality is not as it seems. For Truman, reality is the 1950s, where the American Dream is alive and well. He lives in an idealized society where everyone gets along. The reality, however, has been constructed especially for Truman, as everyone else is an actor within it. Truman is the only person within this reality that is real, meaning that he is a real person who is surrounded by people whose only job is to interact with him. This, just like The Matrix, puts all of the power in Truman’s life in someone else’s hands. He is powerless to make his own decisions, as there is a director controlling his every move, ensuring that he does not find out the truth. Also, since his life is a television show, the director will cause drama to occur if the show begins to get boring. What this means is the Truman’s life will never go as he has planned, as this would not be entertaining for the viewer. Truman is oppressed in a similar fashion to society in The Matrix, as this society is being kept down so that the machines can continue to rule the world. Truman is oppressed so that the director can continue to hold power over Truman’s life, in order to further his own career. One thing that both of these films bring into question is our own perception of reality. Many times, it can be nearly impossible for individuals in society to determine what is real and what is not. This is because, often times, we are misled in a direction by those who hold the power in society. This idea is presented in “The Allegory of the Cave”, which is about prisoners who have been chained up in a cave since they were born. These prisoners have their arms and legs chained up so that they cannot move and their heads are also chained so that they can only look at one wall in the cave. Behind these prisoners is a fire, which produces light, and in between the fire and the prisoners are a series of puppets, which cast shadows on the walls. All the prisoners can do is watch the shadows of these puppets, which makes these shadows into the prisoners’ reality. The prisoners begin to play what seems like a game, as they name the shapes on the wall. This is all that their reality entails, even though all they are seeing is shadows and it is impossible to know what these shadows truly are. Since they have no other reality, the prisoners begin to judge one another based on how they are able to name the shapes and those who are not as skilled as the others are not as popular as those who are skilled. Plato then asks the question about what would happen if one of these prisoners was released and was able to turn around. He would be able to see that the shadows were caused by puppets, but this would not appear real to him, since it is different from the only reality that he had ever known. Once this prisoner was able to emerge from the cave, he would be able to see the sun, at which time he would know the truth about reality. Once this occurs, the prisoner would feel obligated to return to the cave to attempt to free the other prisoners, but some of them may not want to leave, since they would be leaving the comfort of their own reality. This idea is present in both The Matrix and The Truman Show, as the characters both have to make a choice to leave the only reality they have ever known and enter into a world where things will be much different. For Neo, he has managed to escape from the matrix, where his entire life was merely something that was created in his own mind by someone else. The physical life that he had believed in his entire life did not even exist and so he must make a choice to either return to that life, where he could continue on as if nothing had happened, or live in the real world, which is not a very happy place. Likewise, Truman must decide whether or not he wishes to leave the safety of his own world or leave it for the real world. In his constructed world, Truman is the star and everything revolves around him. He does not know that this is the case, but it provides him with a reality that is very safe. Truman, however, decides to attempt to escape from this “cave” in order to view reality in its absolute form. This is a risky proposition for Truman, as he has never spent any time in the real world. Plato would argue that this is an experience of enlightenment for Truman, as he has escaped from the prison that he was trapped in before and is now able to view the world as it actually is. Each of these films is significant because of what they says about our reality. Reality is not always as it is perceived by human beings, as there are a number of variables that can have an impact on it. In The Matrix, reality is nowhere near what it appear to be for Neo, as the life that he had lived since he was born was not real at all. Everything that he believed he had experienced in the past was merely an experience in the matrix and true reality can only be experienced outside of the matrix. This is very similar to “The Allegory of the Cave”, as the true reality for these prisoners can only be experienced once they escape from the cave, just like Neo escaped from the matrix. Likewise in The Truman Show reality is not as it appear for Truman Burbank. In this film, it is one individual who is a prisoner in the cave and his whole life is like a series of shadows that he perceives to be reality. He has no knowledge of the outside world, as he believes that the world that he is living in is real, which means that he believes that these shadows are, in fact, real life. Truman, however, finds out the truth, just like Neo, and it able to escape from the figurative cave that is his life. Each of these protagonists have decided to escape from the cave in order to gain a perception of true reality, rather than the shadows that they were presented with previously, making each of these films important existential works. Sources Plato. The Republic. New York: The Modern library. 1941. The Matrix. Dir. Larry and Andy Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne. Warner Brothers. 1999. The Truman Show. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Jim Carrey and Ed Harris. Paramount Pictures. 1998. Read More