The Matrix and Religion: Christianity or Buddhism - Movie Review Example

The Matrix and Religion: Christianity or Buddhism I. Introduction The Matrix is a 1999 film by the directors Wachowski Brothers. The film earned $460 in box office history and became the most recognized film in the recent years. The Matrix introduces a lot of special effects cues in the film, like the “bullet time photography”. This special effect has been spoofed so many times in pop culture. For me, like other audiences, I think The Matrix goes by the tenets of Christianity as well as Buddhism. Neo is Jesus Christ as he is the One and all the other scenes support that claim too. But the most significant thing about The Matrix is the religions. The Matrix contains most religions of the world, from Christianity to Buddhism, Greek Mthlogy and even non fiction books like Simulacra and Simulacrum by Baudillard, and Even Kevin Kelly. II. Belief/ Message The whole movie talks about waking up. The people are hooked onto the Matrix and do not know what is happening. This is true in many levels. In Buddhism, we can call this enlightenment. In Christianity, maybe we can call this as suffering for the sins. To be saved from the sins of the world, Jesus must sacrifice himself. In the Matrix, Neo is Jesus Christ and that’s what we see throughout the movie: references towards Christ and the Bible throughout the film. III. Visual Culture: Images in the Movie brings forth Experience and Comparison The first part of the movie deals with Neo, a master hacker, hacking something off the internet. It led him deeper to it and eventually followed someone called the White Rabbit. There, in that place, he was waken up by letting him choose if he’d have a blue pill or the red pill, and when he did, he was devastated to see that the rest of the world’s population is asleep, just like him before. This is an allegory to the sinners of the world aspect of the Christian belief. In Christianity, people are considered as sinners and as thus, they are not allowed to go to heaven unless they are cleansed and purified. To do that, they need the Son of God, or the One. In the movie, Neo is always referred to as The One. His name is also Neo, which means New. With that, we can say that he is the new savior. If he is indeed the new savior though, how can we infer that visually. First off, in the movie, Neo is the main character, and that is the sign that he is an important character. However, what sets him apart from the rest, and like Jesus Christ, is the fact that he is a bit naïve and innocent to the point that he is always being guided. He is not the most powerful being, but he learns and he stumbles. He relies on other people to deliver his role as the savior. Jesus Christ is similar in a way that he had his prophets. He was never alone. He was preaching to people, yeah, but he has learned a lot from his experiences from his youth. At some point, he was like Neo, stumbling and learning. At the end of the day, though, like Neo, he saved the world from sin by sacrificing himself and getting resurrected. IV. Visual Culture: Messiahs are everywhere The Matrix was released during Easter season. It is not a coincidence since it’s part of the marketing campaign too. This is because Neo, like Jesus, got resurrected too. Resurrection is basically being alive again after death. Both men have died for the sins of the world and lived again. Now however, according to the Gnostics, who put a premium to knowledge (meaning only the knowledgeable are the ones who are going to be saved), The Matrix is all about waking up the ignorant people, because the rest of the world can’t be sinners because they do not know that they are being controlled! Now in the Matrix, Neo becomes a liberator from the ignorance that the people are suffering from. Does Neo have a Messianic complex? No. Like Unlike Christ though, he does not preach and he does not have followers. He has Trinity and Morpheus, yes, but they are not followers. They are supporters. They make Neo. They help Neo fulfill the role that he has to carry on. But the concept of salvation is retained. Like in the Bible though, Neo is a special person and he needs to be persecuted. Are Messiahs habitually persecuted? In the Bible and the Matrix, yes they are. They threaten the status quo that is maintaining the order of society, as in the Matrix. In the Bible, it was the Romans; in the matrix, it was Agent Smith. Both are necessary evils and they must exist to provide tension to the story and with that tension, the story becomes more meaningful and more appreciated. To add more detail to the fact that messiahs are indeed everywhere, one must look at the V. Visual Culture: Christianity or Buddhism? Now that we are talking about Christianity, there are other authors out there that say that The Matrix is all about Buddhism. There are also many parallelisms, karma, for example is noted. The Matrix parallels itself to samsara, which is an illusion of reality, like when worlds develop and collapse and is full of suffering. This is tied to the concept of karma, which is a concept that states that whatever state you are in, it is the result of your own doing. Everything is self created and thus, every idea is important because it aides people in choosing their own path. This is the concept wherein if you do virtuous things, you will be happier and thus live a happy life. If you do non-virtuous acts, they will get what they deserve as well. Now, The Matrix is all about suffering – and suffering without your knowledge. Like Buddhism’s four tenets! Like Buddhists, Neo was encouraged to free his mind – as Buddhists meditate a lot. Morpheus aids Neo to free his mind from thoughts that hamper his abilities and skills. The movie takes Buddhism very seriously as well, in the scene where “To escape from the computer control the process of transcending the matrix as Morpheus often encouraged Neo, its all in your mind. When Neo waits for the Oracle he was taught by a child wearing Buddhist attire that "there is no spoon." Then, he finally transcended the matrix when he dramatically gained the ability to stop bullets (that werent really there). This theme comes out again in Reloaded when Neo makes it very clear to a kid who pesters him: I didnt save you kid, you saved yourself. This self-focused transcendence from the illusion of reality” (Francisco, 2003). VI. Buddhism Buddhism and Christianity are very different religions but they manage to be represented in The Matrix. In Christianity, there is a god that is all knowing and all willing, like a father almost. In Buddhism, your are the master of yourself; you are responsible for your fate. There is always the concept of transcendence and life and it is quite important for people to know that in order for them to escape suffering. The thing is, however, in the Matrix, people do not know that they are suffering., and that’s where Neo the savior comes in as he tries to enlighten them by freeing them, freeing their minds from the matrix. VII. Conclusion There are various religions at play in the movie the Matrix. It can be Buddhism, Christianity or even Gnosticism. What matters is that we do not take the film as it is, rather, we think. We enlighten ourselves watching it by being mindful of the religions and what it stands for. The Matrix is a very rich film and we can all relate to it. We just have to be mindful of what we are looking at. Reference: S. Brent Plate, Introduction, Religion, Art, and Visual Culture (New York: Palgrave, 2002), 1-18 Wachowski Bros. The Matrix. 1999. DVD. 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