The Matrix Trilogy by Wachowski Brothers - Movie Review Example

Analytical Essay on "The Matrix Reloaded: the Choice to be Deceived" The concept of Matrix as a form of existence is popularized by Wachowski Brothers in "The Matrix Trilogy". Many researchers, studied this film, try to answer the question: "What is the truth Is it possible to see the truth" On the one hand, the work by Wachowski is nothing more than fiction created for entertainment purposes, but is the Matrix only a myth Probably, it is not a myth. The "Matrix" embodies the previous scientific and philosophical knowledge, archetypes and paradigms which uncover the essence of our existence and roots of eternal truth. Our knowledge of universe is structured, and we are not capable to open these predetermined structures which constrict our reality. The Matrix is not a myth because everything expressed by Wachowski has been discovered thousands years ago. Wachowski brothers just collected and extracted this knowledge modernizing it for a wide audience. Alexandra Lazar states that the idea of "formlessness of chaos" can be found in: "Chinese and the Babylonian creation stories" (Lazar, 2004). She illustrates that "the dragon represents the principle of order, which emerges from chaos. In Babylonian myth, the Goddess Tiamat together with other early gods embodied the various faces of chaos" (Lazar, 2004). In general, every universal religion has such binary oppositions: good-evil, chaos-order, hell-paradise, etc. Probably, the fact that Matrix is based on binary opposition helps to explain why it is so successful in our society. Everything around us is based on this concept: love-hate; truth-lie, etc. On the other hand, the Matrix retrieved great knowledge which most of people fail to see. We live in a structured world, which becomes a Matrix for us, and we unable to change it (or at least see "the reality"). The structure of state, government, bureaucratic system creates a Matrix like its movie prototype. "The Matrix trilogy" is so popular because our generation feels like robots or machines who "conquered" by bureaucratic system of the world order and "in order to break free from this ominous and quantifying 'real' we would need to ask further questions about defining links that 'divide and conquer" (Lazar, 2004). In the article, Lazar underlines that: "power in itself is deceptive as it is based on a paradox: it allows the taste of truth/knowledge but causes its own end (and arguably the end of truth/knowledge)" (Lazar, 2004). This philosophical idea can be found in stoicism, and corresponds with the notion of "aporia" and dialectical exercise. For instance, "in "Parmenides" the aporia means the form that the sensible and intelligible worlds are incorrigibly separated and also are not separated, in that each side has the other in it" (Doull, n.d.). This idea runs through the Matrix trying to uncover the truth of reality, but the heroes rewrite this knowledge showing that 'there is no spoon", so what Again, the views are faced with the binary opposition which creates "quasi-myth" of reality. Primarily, the characters in the Matrix represent as archetypes. For instance, an archetype of Neo, embodies the features of humans who "blind" and unable to see the truth, "we have agreed to depart the coded reality in search of bigger knowledge/power" (Lazar, ,2004). On the other hand, Neo is the main hero, the Chosen One, who is looking for "reality". Morpheus can be interpreted as an archetype of "collective unconscious", which hides "the truth of reality". At the same time, Morpheus is just a hero who tries to set Neo on the right track. "The virus-like" (Lazar, 2004) Agent Smith is an archetype of chaos who ruins everything on his way. As a character of the movie he is opposed to the "good characters". The plot of the movie is based on polar opposites who often aspired to realize the ideal of reality. In their doctrine, human beings have an instinct or a drive toward what is real which is impeded by the barriers of nature and custom. Achieving "reality" requires overcoming nature, principally through the divide, and, second, breaking the psychological hold of hierarchy by exposing the bonds. In the Matrix, it is sometimes suggested that understanding "reality" resists analysis, because it is an essentially contested concept: no one can deny that freedom is a good, but an endless and inconclusive conceptual battle takes place between those who try to persuade us to adopt their preferred account of its nature. It is clear enough what freedom is; what mankind needs is order, leadership and enlightenment rather than freedom. Freedom is the goal of quasi-reality, and amounted to a more or less complete absence of control over the activities of individuals or the people as a whole. There are some metaphors and symbols used in the Matrix which help to uncover the message of the movie, and force viewers to become active doers of the story. The interpretation of these metaphors depends upon worldview of the viewers and their understanding of the world. Most metaphors belong to conceptual type which means understanding life experience of one human in terms of life experience of another one. For instance, the Jewish city of Zeon is used as a metaphor of freedom, a "credible of civilization" (Lazar, 2004). It is possible to say that the metaphor of "Matrix" is nothing more than our knowledge about the world and its structuredness. The life of a particular person is a structured data file where "Someone" predetermines everything. These metaphors represent binary opposition: on the one hand, "everything", expressed in the movie, is very simple, but on the other hand, "everything" is too complicated to grasp the idea at ones. I agree with Lazar that "entertainment often reflects life and seems a lavish commercial" (Lazar, 2004). This view of the limitations of individuals' rational capacity to analyse society exemplifies one of targets of abstraction. In particular, she deprecated the direct application to civil society of criticisms drawn from theories of rights or of the state of nature. It does not matter "which truth we choose", because we have the apparent choice" (Lazar, 2004). It is pointless to apply to civilized society rights which do not so much as suppose its existence. To conclude, every person has its own truth and his own reality no matter how it corresponds with the universal order and eternal knowledge. References 1. Doull, J. (n.d.) The Argument of the Hypotheses of Parmenides. Available at: www.swgc.mun.ca/animus/1999vol4/doull4b.htm 2. Lazar, A. (2004). The Matrix Reloaded: the choice to be deceived. Adams Business Media. Read More