METAPHYSICS, 'MATRIX' STYLE: Sci-fi fans, philosophers, Buddhists, and evangelical Christians are finding resonant themes in 'The Matrix.' The sequel, 'The Matrix Reloaded,' arrives in theaters May 15. WARNER BROS./AP Posted on 05/08/2003 10:04:46 PM PDT by Destro
from the May 09, 2003 edition
METAPHYSICS, 'MATRIX' STYLE: Sci-fi fans, philosophers, Buddhists, and evangelical Christians are finding resonant themes in 'The Matrix.' The sequel, 'The Matrix Reloaded,' arrives in theaters May 15. WARNER BROS./AP
The Gospel according to Neo: Theologians and pop-culture experts see 'The Matrix' as a phenomenon shaping public opinion about religion
By Josh Burek | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
In a film era long gone, the Bible was a major player. Charlton Heston and Jimmy Stewart starred in movies that directly drew on themes of Bible history and Christian redemption.
Hollywood treats religion a bit differently these days. Mel Gibson's "The Passion," aside, most A-list stars aren't lining up to play the carpenter from Nazareth. But some of Hollywood's most enduring science-fiction films have borrowed greatly from his story.
Casting Keanu Reeves as a Christlike figure in "The Matrix" trilogy may seem blasphemous, but it's not new. "Star Wars" didn't push the idea of a Jedi Jesus, but many fans felt that it freely mixed myth and religion. And some critics said "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" relied heavily on the account of Christ's passion - a suggestion that director Steven Spielberg, who is Jewish, rejected. More recent films, from "Signs" to "Contact" have used a sci-fi setting to discuss serious questions of faith.
But where previous films made vague references to the Christian story, "The Matrix," some theologians argue, appeals directly to the heart of Christian identity. Its script, however, draws on Platonic philosophy, Greek mythology, Buddhism, and postmodernism, religious experts say.
Its high-octane blend of comic-book action and lofty metaphysics fueled box-office sales in 1999 to more than $450 million worldwide. But it also created theological tension about the movie's symbolism. And with "The Matrix Reloaded" due out next week, the debate is likely to intensify over different interpretations of the trilogy.
"There's two ways to look at this from a Christian perspective," says Glenn Yeffeth, editor of the book "Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in The Matrix." "One is that it's retelling the story of Christ," he says. "The other way to look at it is a very violent film filled with garden-variety blasphemy that exploits people's resonance with the Christian narrative to fool people into a story that is fundamentally atheistic."
Both sides see a movie phenomenon that, for better or worse, is shaping public thought about religion.
"The Matrix" is compelling people to examine the plurality of religions versus the unity of truth, says cultural critic Read Mercer Schuchardt. Like the movie's characters, who strive to understand what is real, Matrix fans are hoping the trilogy's second installment will help them unravel the film's tangled symbolism, say film experts.
Earnest effort to deconstruct the movie began with a question. On Superbowl Sunday 1999, "Matrix" filmmakers tantalized TV viewers with a commercial trailer that asked, "What is the Matrix?" After the film made its auspicious Easter debut, "Matrix" viewers began answering the clever marketing query in personal terms. Sci-fi fans, philosophers, Buddhists, and even evangelical Christians have found resonant themes in the story.
"There are hundreds of Matrix [websites] out there, and they're not about how cute Keanu Reeves looks," says Mr. Yeffeth. "The Christian parallels, the philosophical underpinnings - this is a movie that ... captures people's intellectual imagination."
Some observers, however, are skeptical about the film's ability to convey the profound. A number of critics panned the first "Matrix" for being too pretentious. And some viewers balked at the marriage of kung fu fight scenes with a "Philosophy for Dummies" script.
The film's creators, brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski, have been remarkably tight-lipped about their vision for the trilogy. But these comic-book aficionados have pulled back the curtain enough to reveal which levers they are pulling.
"We're interested in mythology, theology, and, to a certain extent, higher-level mathematics," Larry told Time in 1999. In a Warner Bros. Web chat that year, they were asked to what extent their allusions to myths and philosophy were intentional. "All of it," they said.
Like all myths, "The Matrix" is first and foremost a story. By day, Thomas Anderson (Reeves) is a cubicle-bound software programmer. By night, he's a computer hacker known as Neo with troubling questions about reality. A rebel group led by Morpheus recruits Neo and offers him a chance to discover the truth about the Matrix.
Neo is unplugged from the Matrix and realizes that humans are slaves to an empire of man-made, intelligent machines. The Matrix is a virtual-reality program hard-wired into the human brain to deceive mankind about this truth. Neo reluctantly accepts his mission to free the human race.
No one is seriously treating the script as a Neo-New Testament. But "The Matrix" story has stirred debate within the Christian community.
Author and dedicated Christian Kristenea LaVelle hoped her scriptural exegesis of the film, "The Reality Within the Matrix," would inspire Christians to apply the movie's gospel message to their own lives. Reaction to her book, however, has been mixed. A Canadian pastor contacted her to ask if he could use "The Matrix" as a keynote for evangelical outreach to teenagers. But she also encountered negative feedback at a book signing - in a Christian bookstore.
The film's bullet-laden violence and strong language, along with Eastern religious influences, she acknowledges, are unsettling to some Christians. But she has high hopes for the sequels. "If you can see a way through those things and really pick out the good stuff ... any Christian could apply those things to life and grow from it."
Mrs. LaVelle says that "The Matrix" expresses the basic idea of Christian salvation. "The whole idea of being 'awakened' or 'un-plugged' is a reference to salvation." She recognizes, however, that her view is not universally accepted.
David Frankfurter, for one, disagrees. "I'd resist the notion of [Neo] as having anything to do with Jesus," says the professor of history and religious studies at the University of New Hampshire. "He's the classic hero figure from early Jewish literature."
Mr. Frankfurter and other religious experts say "The Matrix" does not represent orthodox Christianity nearly as much as Gnostic Christianity.
Gnosticism never developed a well-defined theology, but it depicts Jesus as a hero figure who saves mankind through "gnosis," or esoteric knowledge. In the Gnostic philosophy, the physical world is not part of God's creation, but a manifestation of a lower god - a nightmarish reality that imprisons mankind, say religious experts. Gnostics believed they could achieve salvation, not by overcoming evil and sin with God's grace, but by learning the "higher knowledge" about reality.
Gnostic threads are present in many religious traditions, including Sufism and Buddhism. As woven by "The Matrix," these threads tie together current concerns with an ancient knot.
"All of this stuff has been bouncing around in the human brain for centuries. When it comes into this hip new iteration in the cyberworld, it all sounds familiar," says Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University in New York.
Whereas the bestselling "Left Behind" book series about judgment day plays on orthodox Christian fears of an arrival of the Antichrist, some observers say "The Matrix" uses Gnostic concepts to convey an equally frightful - but perhaps more tangible - prospect: technology's domination over mankind.
The success of both, however, may be due to the seductive power of conspiracy theories.
"The 'Left Behind' series is working very neatly with deep cultural fears about organized conspiracy," Frankfurter says. "[In 'The Matrix'], you have the ultimate conspiracy. We are all battery cells that are imaging our lives. And it also just plugs in to the ultimate conspiracy fear: the fear of technology."
Matrix Glossary
Birth: When he is "unplugged" from the Matrix, Neo resembles a newborn. Once his "umbilical cords" are removed, we see that he is hairless, confused, and covered in a type of amniotic fluid. He falls down a long tube and into a pool of water. After this presumed baptism, he is carried up, with his limp body making a cross silhouette. Neo had to be "born again" before he could begin his mission.
Buddhism: The chief problem faced by humanity, according to Buddhist thought, is not sin or evil: it's ignorance of the true reality. The lack of an explicit divine being and references to "focus," "path," and "free your mind" also smack of Buddhist influence. Matrix rebels download truth and reprogram their minds to achieve salvation.
Cypher: The name of this traitor who excels at Matrix code means, according to Webster's Dictionary: Zero...a person or thing of no importance or identity...a system of secret writing based on a key. His character has many parallels to Judas. At one point he exclaims, "Whoa, Neo. You scared the bejeezus out of me."
Evil: Agent Smith tells Morpheus that the original Matrix world was "designed to be a perfect human world." No one accepted the program, he explains, because "human beings define their reality through misery and suffering." By drawing on parts of Genesis and comparing humans to a virus, Smith establishes evil as a natural, intrinsic state of human nature.
God: God does make a cameo in The Matrix only as an expletive from Trinity. Yet the word "miracle" is used in clear cases to signify the need - and reality - of divine intervention. But there's no implied sense of a covenant between God and man.
Jesus Christ: The name Jesus is often used in association with Neo, most explicitly when Choi, a drug user, thanks Neo for providing him with illicit software. "Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ."
Matrix: Literally, a computer program used to imprison mankind. According to Webster's, "matrix" means: 1) orig., the womb; uterus 2) that within which, or within and from which, something originates, takes form, or develops. At its heart, The Matrix is a story about birth and creation.
Morpheus: Neo's mentor. Some observers identity him with John the Baptist, since both men were appointed to prepare the way for a messiah. In Greek mythology, Morpheus, the son of Hypnos, was the god of dreams.
Music: The final song, played by Rage Against The Machine, is "Wake Up."
Neo: The messiah. This is Thomas Anderson's virtual name. Literally meaning "new," Neo is also referred to as the "One," which is an anagram for Neo.
Nebuchadnezzar: Morpheus's ship. This figure referenced in the Book of Daniel was the powerful king of ancient Babylon who suffered from troubling dreams. The name literally means "Nebo, protect the crown."
Numerology: Neo's apartment number is 101, suggesting that he's "the one." Neo is shot in apartment number 303, and after 72 seconds (72 hours = 3 days), he rises again.
Phone calls: In keeping with prophetic tradition, Neo is "called" to his task, not by a burning bush, but a FedEx employee. Their brief exchange - "Thomas Anderson?" | "Yeah, that's me." - mirrors Bible language constructions used to signify special identity.
Postmodernism: Neo hides his illicit software within a chapter titled "On Nihilism" within a volume called "Simulacra and Simulation," by Jean Baudrillard. This seminal work of postmodernism advances the idea of a copy without an original. The Wachowski brothers assigned Keanu Reeves to read this book before filming began.
Thomas Anderson: The Apostle Thomas was also called Didymus, which in Greek means "twin" or "double." Anderson means "son of man," one of the titles Jesus uses for himself. The twin names suggest his dual nature. As "Mr. Anderson," he is vulnerable to the powers of the evil agents. As "Neo," he has dominion over them.
Trinity: Her kiss restores Neo from death. The doctrine of the three modes of God is central to Christian orthodoxy, yet the word "trinity" never actually appears in the Bible. Neo deepens the mystery of who Trinity is when he says to her, "I just thought, um...you were a guy."
Logos: The altered studio logo at the opening of the film may be highly significant. The Matrix-coded WB letters could simply be the Wachowski brothers thumbing their nose at the Warner Bros. But by altering the logo - from the Greek term "logos," for word - the film's opening does two things. First, it corrupts the Gospel of John, which begins with "In the beginning was the Word...". Second, it asserts that metaphysical meaning can be gleaned by mining deep into words, or code.
Zion: The last human city. In the Old Testament, Zion refers to the royal capital of David. Matrix agents desire the codes to Zion above all else.
See the sequel and you'll have your answer.
The guys in Rage Against The Machine are socialists. Excellent musicians, however.
I wouldn't think RATM would have agreed to do a song for The Matrix if they thought it was some veiled pseudo-Christian parable. But, on the other hand, they did record a song for that horrendous 1998 remake of Godzilla in which they dissed Steven Spielberg, American foreign policy AND the movie itself ("Godzilla [is] pure mutha*****' filler/To keep ya eyes off the real killer").
He can't. But there's the rub.
The way you've framed your question it is implied though that he does in fact realize his self is contained within the Matrix (or that reality is not as his senses tell him it is). He has come to understand that all is not as he thought it was with reality. He has evidence of this- the incident with the Agents where they make his mouth disappear.
So, given that, what choices does he really have?
He can either:
Essentially "Live Free or Die". The "A" choice is explored in the movie by the choice that the character Cypher makes. He knows the Matrix isn't reality yet he decides it is better to be inserted into the perfect lucid dream (provided he is oblivious to this fact) rather than live an austere existence in what may or may not be the "real reality"- albeit one where he has at least some choice/control.
We face choices like this in everyday life. What is better? To live in a free society with no guarantees or to live in a Marxist "utopia" where all is provided but where you have no personal autonomy? Same type of choice. People answer this question differently. It isn't a given that people will choose freedom- to the contrary, it seems to me it most people would choose blissful peace, security and ignorance rather than be free and have to face Life's hard realities themselves.
As far as the "The bong-hit, dorm-room-bull-session "philosophy" behind the story"... Hmmm. This is a standard philosophical question that one would encounter in studying philosophy. It is something that has been pondered over for centuries. How do we know existence as we know it exists? The film, "The Matrix", is simply the "Brain in the Vat" question in a form that can be consumed by the masses. What is the harm in this? Why should philosophy be a dry subject or one that is seen as something you go off to university to study? Socrates discussed philosophy right in the street. If people find it thought provoking, this is a good thing. Philosophy shouldn't be locked up in an ivory tower. Why not have kung fu and philosophy on the same plate? Why shouldn't we have a little fun with these things?
There are parallels with the Matrix in our life though. Consider Operation Iraqi Freedom and the subsequent shock the Arab world suffered when they realized their perceived "reality" did not even resemble the truth. They have been fed Islamic dogma for ages. They have no free media. They truly believed the Iraqi Information Minister when he got on television and lied to them. They wanted to believe it. It is easier to accept that what you've spent your whole life knowing is the way it is rather than find out the entire spectrum of your society has been an elaborate and systematic fantasy world.
This is what many in the Arab world are dealing with (actually, it's something the world at large is dealing with at the moment- the unrealized gulf of disparity between the power of the US and other nations). I can sympathize with how they must feel to a certain degree. Imagine that the foundation that all your thoughts, all your beliefs, all your values rested upon was suddenly exposed as a fraud? There is no Arab military might. Cultural "fierceness" and an extreme willingness to die are no match what so ever for your enemy whom you perceived to be too weak and corrupt to triumph. Suddenly, you learn that compared to your own "reality" the Americans are practically god-like. They can do what they want, when they want and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it- and furthermore, adhering to your cultural perspective will simply increase this disparity and make you weaker. Not a nice situation in which to find one's self.
Where do they go from there? Interesting question. Not really germane to the thread but their world had been a fabrication that had been pulled over their eyes to hide the truth from them. They had never lived in a world where questioning the reality of their existence was allowed. Better, I think, to live in a world where totally awful films like the Matrix are out there for free people to choose to consume or not (to ponder over bong hits or not) rather than live in a world where only the accepted version of the truth is all that's on offer. That's really what the movie boils down to. Not so much "Is the Matrix real or not but "What choices would you make if..." It's all about choice.
That's just me though...
Umm? I don't know. Not me. To the contrary, I believe philosophy should be an everyday part of everybody's lives. I don't believe framing a nagging philosophical question within an action movie makes it any less valid than when discussed in the classroom. I certainly don't believe doing so relegates the movie somehow to a status that only bong users would find entertaining. I found the Matrix to be an extremely useful vehicle (as I said in my post) for discussing this issue. It was certainly worth my time in the cinema and the money I spent on the DVD.
The Greeks of old had fun with philosophy--Plato and Atlantis anyone????? That was Plato's version of The Matrix.
Yes... I am aware of this. That was essentially what I was saying was it not? Or were your comments more rhetorical in nature?
You wrote that? Awesome work.
CENTURION: What's this, then? 'Romanes Eunt Domus'? 'People called Romanes they go the house'?
BRIAN: It-- it says, 'Romans, go home'.
CENTURION: No, it doesn't. What's Latin for 'Roman'? Come on!
BRIAN: Aah!
CENTURION: Come on!
BRIAN: 'R-- Romanus'?
CENTURION: Goes like...?
BRIAN: 'Annus'?
CENTURION: Vocative plural of 'annus' is...?
BRIAN: Eh. 'Anni'?
CENTURION: 'Romani'. 'Eunt'? What is 'eunt'?
BRIAN: 'Go'. Let--
CENTURION: Conjugate the verb 'to go'.
BRIAN: Uh. 'Ire'. Uh, 'eo'. 'Is'. 'It'. 'Imus'. 'Itis'. 'Eunt'.
CENTURION: So 'eunt' is...?
BRIAN: Ah, huh, third person plural, uh, present indicative. Uh, 'they go'.
CENTURION: But 'Romans, go home' is an order, so you must use the...?
BRIAN: The... imperative!
CENTURION: Which is...?
BRIAN: Umm! Oh. Oh. Um, 'i'. 'I'!
CENTURION: How many Romans?
BRIAN: Ah! 'I'-- Plural. Plural. 'Ite'. 'Ite'.
CENTURION: 'Ite'.
BRIAN: Ah. Eh.
CENTURION: 'Domus'?
BRIAN: Eh.
CENTURION: Nominative?
BRIAN: Oh.
CENTURION: 'Go home'? This is motion towards. Isn't it, boy?
BRIAN: Ah. Ah, dative, sir! Ahh! No, not dative! Not the dative, sir! No! Ah! Oh, the... accusative! Accusative! Ah! 'Domum', sir! 'Ad domum'! Ah! Oooh! Ah!
CENTURION: Except that 'domus' takes the...?
BRIAN: The locative, sir!
CENTURION: Which is...?!
BRIAN: 'Domum'.
CENTURION: 'Domum'.
BRIAN: Aaah! Ah.
CENTURION: 'Um'. Understand?
BRIAN: Yes, sir.
CENTURION: Now, write it out a hundred times.
BRIAN: Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir.
CENTURION: Hail Caesar. If it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.
BRIAN: Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar and everything, sir! Oh. Mmm!
Are you saying that Socrates knew the true living God? Romans 1 tells us: For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
The question is - did Socrates believe in and glorify the one true God? Or was he a polytheist? If he was a polytheist, then he is subject to the next verse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
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