THE MATRIX

[Guest guest]

Dear fellow seekers of Truth,

 

I am continually amazed at the enthusiasm spiritual seekers have for the movie

The Matrix. When I found that it was discussed with approval on a site devoted

to a Master of the stature of Nisargadatta Maharaj, I felt compelled to submit a

revisionist view of the movie. Here it is:

 

========================================

 

THE MATRIX A REVIEW

 

Gabriel and I have been watching films for a combined 70 years. We

enjoy good films and fancy ourselves aficionados of the genre. Thus it was with

surprise that we heard so many of our fellow denizens of Tiruvannamalai sing the

praises of The Matrix, a film we found a dim effort and enjoyed in the least. We

watched The Matrix again and even got a copy of the script and analyzed it,

thinking there must be something to this film if so many expressed so much

enthusiasm about it. We were open to finding artistic merit, or even something

hip and superficially enjoyable. We could not. Here is a review of the film in

the spirit of the adage Truth is stronger than fiction, and also for a little

fun. Of course, if anyone cares to make a rebuttal we will gladly display it.

 

ACTING: While it is true that significant advances have been made in both

sound and visual effects in the last twenty-five years of cinema, it is still a

maxim that a good film must have good acting. In that respect, The Matrix cannot

be a good film, for it lacks a single good performance.

Keanu Reeves is an actor defined by his limited range. He is

capable of but two modes: straight Keanu and Keanu intense. Straight Keanu is a

sort of earnest adolescent who seems perpetually on the verge of some sophomoric

discovery about his immediate world with perhaps sinister implications to

something greater. The actor Reeves is emotionally dead from the neck down. He

never communicates through the rest of his body (except that he still carries

the now inappropriate “dude” gate that first helped bring him notice in Bill And

Ted’s Excellent Adventure. It shows through in a few scenes in The Matrix with

unintended humor to anyone who catches it.). His acting is confined to his

facial expressions – a limited repertoire of grimaces, earnest entreaties, and

shocked surprise.

Keanu intense is straight Keanu jacked up on some sort of

synthetic acting drug. Here we get real sturm and drang. Keanu is outraged (I

imagine Al Pacino struggling to keep a straight face while acting across from

him in some of the scenes from The Devil’s Advocate). Keanu is shocked and

betrayed (Pointbreak introduced us to this Keanu specialty, with some of my

all-time low & #8209;point scenes with Patrick Swayze as the bad-guy surfer. A

pax-de-deux of acting ineptitude.). Keanu is angry (brought to its zenith in

Speed against Dennis Hopper, another actor who deserved an Oscar for acting evil

while trying to keep from laughing). In The Matrix Keanu introduces the two

newest additions to Keanu intense – Keanu overwhelmed by cosmic burden and Keanu

in the invincible zone.

There is no shortage of scenes that illustrate the former. Consider, for

example, Neo listening to Morpheus as he reveals the Matrix. This has to be the

most ridiculous scene in the history of sci-fi. Besides Morpheus as the slick,

idiot priest for the end of the world, the shots of Neo trying to follow what he

says (and trying so hard – with the look of a high school dropout thrust into a

class on differential equations) made me think I was watching Ed Wood – sort of

Plan 9 From Outer Space revisited, with the only actor (Reeves) actually capable

of a performance as bad as those in Wood’s movies.

As for Keanu in the invincible zone, I’m thinking of the scenes with Trinity

when they go tackle the Matrix and get back Morpheus. What on earth is this?

Seriously, ask yourself if such an expression could actually exist in any

earthly realm, or in any bardo inhabited by real beings. It is an entirely

invented gestalt, which brought me to the verge of hysterics. I thought that

they were about to burst into rap about the evil Matrix and justice a-la-Keanu.

Okay, I am beating a dead horse. Suffice it to say that the

leading man is an incompetent. But what distinguishes The Matrix is that, almost

beyond belief, it manages to produce another lead performance that is even

worse. Lawrence Fishburne defines new territory. I have never seen such a

symphony in monotone. Who is this guy? Where did they find him? I mean, it must

take real talent to go through a whole movie and leave the viewer wondering when

was the last time you took a crap (The torture scene was constipation of

Wagnerian proportions). And what is it with putting on sunglasses? He does this

with idiot intensity. Indeed, there is something relentlessly idiotic to

Fishburne’s entire performance. He’s always hammering on about some new

revelation, threat or cosmology, which are all patently ridiculous. It’s as if

trained at the method school for the intense and moronic.

As for the gal who played Trinity, I confess to a slight conflict

of interest. She obviously has a great bod, and I often found myself wanting her

to get a little more naked. But Penelope Cruz also has a great body, and I

didn’t want her to get naked in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. I was more than

content with the wonderful character she was creating on screen. I wanted

Trinity to get naked because I was so bored with her as a person.

As for the rest of the characters, they were rubbish. Maybe I’m

being a bit hard on them. The fault perhaps is in part the screenplay (a point I

will go into later). Certainly I can’t remember another movie with such a

lifeless, stereotypical cast. The bad guys were the worst. Again, my first

reaction was laughter – they all looked like Robert Haldeman, Nixon’s Watergate

henchman. But then they opened their mouths and began to act (or what passes for

acting in The Matrix), and I turned off. They instantly bored me. They never

varied a pitch and talked the most inane stupidities.

The traitor in the crew well depicts the shallowness of the characters. Was

there even one subtlety to this guy? Think of traitors in other films – the

woman resistance fighter in The Guns of Navaronne, Lawrence Harvey in The

Manchurian Candidate or Hal the computer in 2001, A Space Odyssey – and you can

see the possibilities for the role. The Matrix took the easy way out and created

a totally forgettable bit.

 

SCORE: Quick, think of a single musical rift or one line of melody from The

Matrix. Interesting, huh? The score of the film is forgettable MTV crap. Compare

the score with that of Blade Runner, or 2001, Space Odyssey, or even that of the

original Star Wars. Blade Runner especially, used a lyrical, haunting score

(unforgettable work by Vangelis, which I have on CD, and enjoy both musically

and to remember the film). The score was used to great effect to introduce and

emphasize certain emotional moments, and to bring the audience to the feeling of

redemption through love, where one passes through pain to the beauty of rebirth.

But really, no music could be used to good effect in The Matrix. The film is

dead emotionally. Good music touches the feeling core, but this film has no

feeling core.

In regards feeling, did you notice how the entire computer-analogy

motif that runs through the movie is focused on the head? All of those revolting

spinal taps and cranial rivets. The word “heart” is not used a single time. Not

once. I’m sure because I computer searched the script and it came up empty. The

heart was the one area of the anatomy that was taboo, noticeable to this viewer

because of its absence.

The Matrix is a particularly “anti-body” movie. Not a single

character displays the least fluidity of body or grace of movement that could

communicate feeling. Rather, each is stuck in the head. The only bodily

expression the characters are capable of is violence.

 

SPECIAL EFFECTS: The Matrix won several awards for special effects, and I

could appreciate the technical virtuosity. The scene with the helicopter was

especially well done, and also the blazing gun scenes with Neo and Trinity

fighting while walking on walls and dodging bullets. But again, I ask you to

remember a single scene of beauty. Can’t be done, can it? Ask the same question

about the movies mentioned above, and you experience anew many scenes of beauty.

And though there were some great special effects, there were also

a lot of mediocre ones. All of the sewer scenes and flushing down anal canals

(or were they birth canals?). The spider/squid ships were very poorly done. They

reminded me of the old Flash Gordon space ships spruced up with a bit of modern

technology.

The Matrix certainly went over the top with guns. I don’t know of

any movie where so many shots were fired (with all of those empty casings to

emphasize the point). So what? This is the cheapest trick in the book, and is

always a red flag to me that I am watching a film where the scriptwriters and

director lack the inspiration and effort to use means that could produce a

substantial work. I had to laugh at Keanu with the big Gattling Gun in the

helicopter. The Freudian implication was obvious, and ludicrous. I mean, Arnold

Schwartzenager with a big gun is tolerable. That guy is big! But Keanu Reeves?

Come on, get serious.

I should say something about the Martial Arts. If you know about

Martial Arts, then the faults were obvious. First the film did not use the most

powerful forms. It used external martial arts – jujitsu and kung fu (I assume

these were the forms. Perhaps an expert in them would take exception to their

portrayal in the movie. I don’t know.). I do know that any expert in martial

arts who has seriously practiced all of the fighting forms will unequivocally

state that the most powerful forms are the internal Chinese systems of tai chi,

shingi, and paqua. These are rarely used in the movies, however, because they

lack the hype, theatrical effect necessary for today’s dumbed & #8209;down

audience. But even a master in the external forms would have spotted a glaring

error – the use of high kicks. In real fighting these are never used unless you

have control of the opponent’s arms. If you do not have control and your

opponent grabs your leg and twists and thrusts it, you

instantly suffer a broken hip joint or shattered pelvis. Morpheus did exactly

that to Neo, but Neo just twists like a top and escapes unscathed.

 

SCRIPT: Before I analyze the central motif (the computer induced illusion

that all of mankind suffers do to the Matrix), let’s have some fun with some of

the clichés and obvious gaffes in the script:

 

The twentieth line: Morpheus: You have to focus, Trinity.

I knew I was in for a long night.

 

Trinity to Neo on the phone: Follow the white rabbit.

Well, this is going to be a subtle movie.

 

Druggie to Neo at his door: Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own

personal Jesus Christ drug guy

I was a drug dealer. Fortunately I was spared such bullshit from my customers.

My experience with drug deals is that one is extra careful not to speak like an

idiot, unless you want to run the risk of not getting your drugs or even getting

hurt. The Jesus Christ thing is perhaps a sop to the evangelical pretensions of

the movie.

 

Neo to druggie at his door: My computer, it... You ever have that feeling

where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?

Pretty original, right?

 

Neo: The Trinity? The one that cracked the IRS d-base?

Trinity: That was a long time ago.

Neo: Jesus.

Trinity: Right now all I can tell you is that you're in danger. I brought you

here to warn you.

Neo: Of what?

Trinity: They're watching you, Neo.

Oh! This is going to be a Keanu Reeves movie. He feasts on these types of

lines, and now he has a perfect partner

 

Morpheus: Yes, now. Do it slowly. The elevator.

Neo: Oh shit.

I include this just to show the frequency of these types of GP & #8209;rated

expletives. They are a Reeves’s signature, and I wonder if their use is included

in his standard contract to act in a film. I imagine he was not happy with Do it

slowly though. Doing slowly for Reeves is a bit of a reach.

 

Morpheus: At last. Welcome, Neo. As you no doubt have guessed, I am Morpheus.

Neo: It's an honor to meet you.

Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.

Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here.

You're here because you know something.

Already I was begging for mercy.

 

Morpheus: The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's designed to

disrupt your input/output carrier signals so we can pinpoint your location.

Neo: What does that mean?

Cypher: It means buckle your seat belt, Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going

bye-bye. Yes, what does that mean? Actually I figured it out. But ole Neo for

being the savior and all is pretty slow on the uptake, isn’t he? Quick, if you

had to make a guess on his IQ at this point, would it top three digits? We are

also introduced to Cypher and sense that (along with Apoc) the crew of the

whatever-the-hell spaceship this is, are a pretty dim bunch, and we shouldn’t

expect Shakespeare from them.

 

Morpheus: …. This is my ship, the Nebuchadnezzar.

Gee, there is probably symbolism to the names in this movie. I was tempted to

search the Internet to find out what the names refer to. I didn’t, because it is

the sort of arcane idiocy that a Matrix enthusiast would get involved in.

 

Neo: No. I don't believe it. It's not possible.

Morpheus: I didn't say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the

truth.

A la Star Wars. The Matrix is replete with rip-offs of practically every

sci-fi/computer film ever done.

 

Morpheus: No. But if you could, would you really want to? I feel I owe you an

apology. We have a rule. We never free a mind once it's reached a certain age.

It's dangerous, the mind has trouble letting go. I've seen it before and I'm

sorry. I did what I did because...I had to. When the Matrix was first built,

there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to

remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us, taught us

the truth: 'As long as the Matrix exists the human race will never be free.'

After he died the Oracle prophesized his return and that his coming would hail

the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people. That is

why there are those of us who have spent our entire lives searching the Matrix

looking for him. I did what I did because I believe that search is over.... Get

some rest, you're going to need it.

A veritable banquet of hyperbole and bullshit. At this point the movie is

really hitting its stride. I was beginning to hope that it would actually turn

out to be camp-film. The Rocky Horror Picture Show of sci fi. Though I shuddered

at the thought of hearing Fishburne sing.

 

Tank: Holes? Nope. Me and my brother Dozer, we're both one hundred percent

pure, old fashioned, home-grown human, born free right here in the real world.

Genuine child of Zion.

Neo: Zion?

Tank: If the war was over tomorrow, Zion's where the party would be.

“Tank” and “Dozer”. Must have some cool parents for those names. Wow, the new

world is Zion. Pretty subtle. If you know English, then you know that “was” in

the last sentence should be “were”. But I don’t expect these guys – or the

scriptwriters – to understand the subjunctive.

 

Neo: Jujitsu? I'm going to learn Jujitsu?... Holy shit.

More Keanu-speak.

Mouse: Jesus Christ, he's fast. Take a look at his neural kinetics, they're

way above normal.

Quick, is neural kinetics a real word? Bet you don’t know, do you? I looked it

up and it is. It refers to the chemistry of nerve impulses, though I have my

doubts that it is actually used by scientists in the field. I find the usage

humorous. I mean, does it refer to Neo or to Keanu? It’s a reach to think that

Neo has such chemistry. He seemed so anemic and nerdish in the beginning of the

movie. But for Keanu it is appropriate. Keanu is absolutely neurally kinetic.

That’s his substitute for acting.

 

Neo: Whoa. Okie dokie. Free my mind.

More Keanu-speak.

 

Cypher: I don't remember you bringing me dinner. There is something about him,

isn't there?

We get our first whiff of the traitor Cypher. Pretty subtle. Of course, if you

compare to the beginning of Gladiator and our introduction to Comitus, you know

the level of stuff we were dealing with here. I laughed over the line There is

something about him, isn't there? – Yeah, he is the first retard who’s going to

save the world.

One of the crew to Neo: It's a single cell protein combined with synthetic

aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.

The Matrix’s version of Tang. Sounds like it is must have a lot of prana. A

really stupid passage. I mean, is it believable?

 

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead only try

to realize the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Spoon boy: There is no spoon.

Neo: There is no spoon?

Spoon boy: Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only

yourself.

I guess this is supposed to be profound. Sort of Yuri Geller a la Ramana

Maharshi. Uttered by the little bald boy who looks like he is undergoing

chemotherapy, sitting in the lobby of the Oracle herself. I found the little boy

repulsive. I would freak if I had such a weird kid, and get him the hell out of

the whole scene. Personally I like my kids with hair and a heart. The idea has a

nice ring philosophically, but reeks of B.S. It is something John Grisham would

write. An invention, a trick. I didn’t find it believable. To top it off, Neo

instantly bends the spoon. Quite a learning curve. The Oracle also gave me the

creeps, with her psychic-on-Valium vibe. All psychics give me the creeps though.

 

Morpheus: …That I would find the one.... I told you I can only show you the

door. You have to walk through it.

A la Star Wars. Really bad Star Wars

 

Cypher: Neo's The One, then there'd have to be some kind of a miracle to stop

me. Right? I mean how can he be The One if he's dead? You never did answer me

before if you bought into Morpheus' bullshit - come on - all I want is a little

yes or no. Look into his eyes, those big pretty eyes. Tell me. Yes or no?

Keanu has big pretty eyes? The guy barely stops grimacing enough to open them.

Lines like these reveal the utter inanity of this movie. I am somewhat chagrined

to admit, but I have actually seen all of Keanu Reeves’ movies, and there is not

a single scene in any of them in which he could be described as having big

pretty eyes. The man simply does not have them. I am reminded of Marlin Brando

describing one of the terrible movies he made during the sixties – “It made

about as much sense as a hamster screwing a basketball.”

 

Bad guy: I say your civilization because as soon as we started thinking for

you it really became our civilization, which is, of course, what this is all

about. Evolution, Morpheus, evolution. Like the dinosaur. Look out that window.

You had your time. The future is our world, Morpheus. The future is our time.

I include this for the bit about evolution. The passage is a sop to the word

evolution, which is standard usage in many sci-fi films that attempt to be

profound and scientific. But as here, they invariably end up sounding like bad

Deepak Chopra.

 

Depends on the mind. Eventually it will crack and his alpha patterns will

change from this to this. When it does, Morpheus will tell them anything they

want to know.

Now we finally understand how the brain works, only an organ a gazillion

scientists have been trying to understand for two hundred years. The Matrix does

it in one sentence.

 

Trinity: Neo, no one has ever done anything like this.

Neo: That's why it's going to work.

Oh really? Quick, if you were to bet your life on such a maxim, would you?

 

Neo in the elevator before the big fight scene with Agent Smith: There is no

spoon

Need I comment?

 

Trinity: Neo, I'm not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in

love, and that that man who I loved would be The One. So you see, you can't be

dead. You can't be, because I love you. You hear me? I love you.... Now get up.

Love a la the Matrix. If there has been a less romantic scene in the history

of cinema, please show me. Some more bad English – “who” should be “whom”.

 

 

CENRAL THEME: Okay, so the script is hip deep in it. But let us get to the

supposed subtlety of the movie. I’m referring to the Matrix itself and the

prison-of-the-mind motif. This is what I imagine gets everyone (at least around

here) so lathered up about The Matrix.

Just so we are on common ground, let me summarize the genesis of

this thing, as taken from the movie:

 

Morpheus: A singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines. We

don't know who struck first, us or them. But we know that it was us that

scorched the sky. At the time they were dependent on solar power and it was

believed that they would be unable to survive without an energy source as

abundant as the sun. Throughout human history, we have been dependent on

machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. The human

body generates more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs

of body heat. Combined with a form of fusion, the machines have found all the

energy they would ever need. There are fields, endless fields, where human

beings are no longer born. We are grown. For the longest time I wouldn't believe

it, and then I saw the fields with my own eyes. Watch them liquefy the dead so

they could be fed intravenously to the living. And standing there, facing the

pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the

obviousness of the truth. What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer

generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human

being into this.

When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the

ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was

he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth: 'As long as the Matrix exists

the human race will never be free.' After he died the Oracle prophesized his

return and that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the

war, bring freedom to our people.

 

They certainly touch all the bases, don’t they? We have nuclear

fusion (something scientists are not even close to mastering after fifty years

of research all over the world, but somehow this AI/sentient programs/the Matrix

manages to do it), solar power, bio-embryo farms (complete with transfusions of

ectoplasm from the dead. Note: a nice violation of the first law of

thermodynamics, if you catch it), and computer induced Maya. We also have one

Savior (with implications of another) and the Oracle.

So the thing is a mess and makes minimal sense. The important

point is that in the present-time situation in the movie everyone is fog-bound

in a dream created by the Matrix.

There are some interesting lines early in the movie:

 

Morpheus: What you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it

your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know

what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. It is

this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

 

The word “feeling” gave me hope that the movie might go somewhere.

Anyone who has been on the spiritual path can empathize, because spiritual life

invariably at some point comes up against the feeling that there is something

wrong. Though usually not so much about the world, but rather about oneself as

the ego – the problem of one’s own mind, and the feeling that one in fact can’t

really feel and is crippled in the range of feeling.

After the previous dialogue, Morpheus continues:

 

Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is? The Matrix is everywhere. It is all

around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your

window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work,

when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been

pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into

bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison

for your mind.... Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have

to see it for yourself.

 

These lines appear to work. They are analogous to a description of

Maya or Samsara. The phrase “a prison for your mind” tightens the analogy. The

fact that there is dualism, with the Matrix being a sort of devil figure that

induces Maya is acceptable given the action sci-fi genre. I think in terms of

“prison of the mind” rather than “for the mind”, but the latter is okay. The

Matrix is a Hollywood movie not an Upanishad.

 

Neo: I can't go back, can I?

Morpheus: No. But if you could, would you really want to? I feel I owe you an

apology. We have a rule. We never free a mind once it's reached a certain age.

It's dangerous, the mind has trouble letting go.

 

Here, the analogy tightens further. The mind does play a part.

Morpheus cannot just uninstall the Matrix program. Evidently the mind has to let

go also. So maybe there is some sense to this thing after all. Everyone is

trapped in a dream, at least in part of the mind’s making, and the idea is about

somehow breaking free of this dream and living in the “real” world. This is

actually an interesting idea and could make a good movie. Let’s see how The

Matrix handles it.

Neo wakes up without any effort of his own. He opts for the red

pill, gets flushed down the birth canals, drilled full of holes, injected with

brain and spinal taps, gets his atrophied muscles rebuilt (atrophied for some

unexplained reason), has a nice nap, and presto wakes up with Morpheus in a

room. So what to say about this? It is a cinematic trick, a cop-out. To anyone

who has actually struggled with the mind and broken through, of course nothing

of the sort occurs.

When Neo meets Morpheus in the room, he gets a philosophy lesson

from him:

 

Neo: This...this isn't real?

Morpheus: What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what

you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is

simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you

know. The world as it was at the end of the twentieth century. It exists now

only as part of a neural-interactive simulation that we call the Matrix. You've

been living in a dream world, Neo. This is the world as it exists today...

Welcome. to the desert.. of the real. We have only bits and pieces of

information but what we know for certain is that at some point in the early

twenty-first century all of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at

our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI.

Neo: AI? You mean artificial intelligence?

 

What to say about this? Well, first Neo is no Arjuna. He seems slow.

He hardly ever picks up anything on the first take. As to Morpheus’s rap, it is

standard physiology, fluffed up with some pseudo-Advaita. Note the nice phrase:

“The desert of the real”. I bet you a hundred bucks it is stolen from somewhere.

Next Neo goes into “training”. He learns kung fu. He does it in a

computer-training program. Morpheus hits him with some more philosophy:

Morpheus: This is a sparring program, similar to the programmed reality of the

Matrix. It has the same basic rules, rules like gravity. What you must learn is

that these rules are no different that the rules of a computer system. Some of

them can be bent. Others can be broken. Understand?

This is nonsense. No computer person I have ever talked to (and I

knew a very good computer hacker who did three years in prison for his skills

and worked for the FBI) would say that a computer program can be bent or broken.

The security code can be cracked so that the program can be used. The program

can be rewritten, but not while it is operating! Try and bend or break a rule in

MS Windows on your PC. It simply can’t be done.*

These lines are the key operating assumption of the movie. I found

several major reviews of The Matrix on the Internet that commented specifically

on them, and how clever and insightful they are. But the idea is absurd, and it

takes about ten seconds reflection to see it is absurd. It is fantastically

absurd given the context in which it is delivered. Morpheus is talking to Neo, a

computer programmer and supposed genius hacker. It is as if he were talking to

an engineer at Mercedes and telling him that cars have five wheels and run on

methamphetamine. The only thing believable about the scene is that Neo, true to

from, just laps up Morpheus’s dribble.

Gravity is a basic rule that can be bent or broken? Tell Einstein

and Newton this. Unfortunately, since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The

Matrix, it looks like we’re going to be stuck with gravity defying stunts.

During the kung Fu lesson Morpheus feeds Neo more philosophy:

 

Morpheus: What are you waiting for? You're faster than this. Don't think you

are, know you are.... Come on. Stop trying to hit me and HIT me.

Neo: I know what you're trying to do.

Morpheus: I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door,

you're the one that has to walk through it.

 

The Matrix rips-off of The Karate Kid.

 

Before Neo and Morpheus fight there are these lines:

 

Neo: Jujitsu? I'm going to learn Jujitsu?... Holy shit.

Tank: Hey Mikey, I think he likes it. How about some more?

Neo: Hell yes.

Morpheus: How is he?

Tank: Ten hours straight. He's... a machine.

Neo: I know Kung Fu.

 

Let’s see, if this were The Bhagavad Gita, the lines would go:

 

Arjuna: Jnana? I’m going to learn Jnana?…Hari Om dude!

Pandava: Hey, Kumar, I think he likes it. How about some more?

Arjuna: Yes siree Guruji.

Krishna: How is he?

Pandava: Ten hours straight. He’s an avatar.

Arjuna: I know bhakti.

Krishna: Jnana, Arjuna. It’s Jnana.

Arjuna: Oh yeah, Jnana. Right, it’s Jnana.

 

At this point we’re roughly half the way through the movie. I

think it’s safe to say that the analogy thing is not going to fly.

The plot sidesteps the main theme for a little while so that the

squiddies can arrive, and so Cypher can be seen talking with the bad guys,

making his deal to rat-out the crew. It’s worth taking a look at Cypher’s

dialogue.

 

Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it

in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious.

After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.

 

These lines reveal a lot about The Matrix. They are some of the most

believable lines in the movie. Cypher is telling the simple truth: He has woke

up out of the dream (supposedly for nine years), and when push comes to shove, a

juicy steak overwhelms him. Aren’t all of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar in the

same position? The only difference between Morpheus and Trinity, and Cypher, is

that they are in denial. They are holding on to an idea, a belief.

Morpheus says you have to see the Matrix. But obviously he himself does not

see the Matrix. He is just prattling on with a bunch of philosophy and believing

in Neo as the savior. He’s like a born-again Christian. Actually, if he is

claiming he is awake, then I find him similar to the talking-head school of

Advaitins, who are always blah blah blahing that you are not the body and that

there is only consciousness, when it is obvious that they themselves have no

functional relation to consciousness and that the world has become even more of

a trap for them because they have added their anti-body schizophrenia to it.

 

Next, Neo and Morpheus take a trip to see the Oracle. This is fairly

transparent stuff. Obviously Neo is the savior. There will just be a few

complications until he realizes it. I couldn’t see anything that added to Neo’s

waking up. He gets to do his little spoon-bending gig. I liked that he wasn’t so

interested in it. He rejects siddhis, so to speak.

The Oracle was a real pill. I would have gone screaming from that room in a

minute. She is someone who has woken up and supposedly is a little special. But

as a character she works against the point. She is nauseating. Another analogy

comes to mind: Think of Morpheus as Ganapati Muni, Neo is one of his students,

and the Oracle is Ramana Maharshi. Ganapati Muni is taking his student to see

Ramana at Arunachala. It would be a pretty big let down, wouldn’t it? I think

this is an important point. Ramana was recognized in the early days on the hill

in great part because he literally glowed. The other Yogis would ask him what he

was, if he was a God. Ramana never liked to make much of himself, but he was

something special. There are also the following lines from The Ramana Gita: “The

body of one who abides in the Self through Self-enquiry is resplendent just as a

heated iron-ball appears as a ball of fire.”

 

I won’t go into the rest of the movie, other than to say it gets more

born-again Christian with all of the hammering about belief and Neo being the

one. It is Keanu intense with the whole cast jumping on the bandwagon. This

apparently is the message of the movie – just be more intense, awake from the

dream by contracting your cranium in some super human focus on believing you are

awake. The message is rubbish. Certainly there is no record in the history of

spirituality that such a modus operandi has ever awoken anybody. What awakens is

sunlight on your pillow – the Heart, Grace and the transforming power of a true

Guru (and real sadhana as given by the Guru). When you awake you are happy.

Waking up as used in The Matrix is a joke. If you were offered the choice to

wake up, would you? Of course not. And why not? Because you would be taking a

very big chance that you would end up as stupid, loveless, and confused as

Morpheus, Neo, Trinity, and the rest. You would be abandoning the capriciousness

of life, which is certainly filled with stupidity, but also occasionally with

intelligence, wonder, happiness and love, for the dead-bang certainty that you’d

end up the equivalent of someone with a lobotomy. Actually, I do disservice to

people with lobotomies. I knew a fellow with a lobotomy. He was limited

emotionally, but occasionally was interesting and foolish and made me laugh.

Certainly he never burdened me with a philosophy.

The basic fault with The Matrix as analogous to something

transforming or spiritual is that no one who has woken up is happy. The

principal characters are the least happy people I have ever seen who aren’t

actual depressed neurotics.

One passage should be commented on:

Agent Smith: Can you hear me, Morpheus? I'm going to be honest with you. I

hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call

it. I can't stand it any longer. It's the smell. If there is such a thing. I

feel. saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do I feel I have

somehow been infected by it, it's repulsive. I must get out of here. I must get

free and in this mind is the key, my key. Once Zion is destroyed there is no

need for me to be here, don't you understand? I need the codes. I have to get

inside Zion, and you have to tell me how. You are going to tell me or you are

going to die.

The hate in this passage I have not experience in any other movie I

have ever seen. It was delivered in a truly terrifying way. The best piece of

acting in the movie. It was pure self hate and hate of everything and everybody

else. I felt like I had literally experienced hell. It really stuck with me, and

I wanted some other feeling to rise and replace it. I know I could not have

reacted the way I did unless I was also experiencing something about myself.

The Matrix of course, could not relieve the feeling. The cast,

the scriptwriters, and the director don’t have a clue about art. And ultimately

that is what we are talking about – The Matrix as an artistic effort. What is

art? In the final analysis it is about the very subject The Matrix purports to

deal with – awakening. Art is a moment of breaking free of the dream. We

experience art and we stand outside ourselves, and catch a glimpse of freedom.

And art is not a cop-out; it is not that we fool ourselves into believing we are

free forever. But at the same time, for a moment or longer, we are free and

relieved of the burden of facing our shit or trying to distract ourselves from

it. The Matrix produced the one terrifying moment of hell, something about

ourselves, but it could not produce that which redeems – the sunlight on the

pillow, the moment when the pressure on the heart breaks up; when we know that

the hell is not true, and remember what all of the

Masters have said: “You have never slept, you have never dreamed. There is only

this Heart, which is your very Self.”

 

Hari

Om

 

 

SUMMARY

GABRIEL AND CHRIS: D D

 

RATING: (out of possible ««««) « (for special effects and for helping Chris

get in touch with his anger)

 

IN A NUTSHELL: Pretentious, idiotic sci-fi film with plot and dialogue only

the O.J. jury could enjoy.

 

 

 

 

* To be precise there is a third possibility: The program can be infected

by a virus or worm. In such a case the program is corrupted, and all or parts of

the program are rendered inoperative. In The Matrix this might be analogous to

the martial arts program having huge glitches in it, so that Neo and Morpheus

can barely move or act like spastics. The point being that the program becomes

less, not more useful to the participants.

 

 

 

 

 

New Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC and save big.

 

 

[Guest guest]

Interesting re:

 

In regards feeling, did you notice how the entire computer-analogy

motif that runs through the movie is focused on the head? All of

those revolting

spinal taps and cranial rivets. The word " heart " is not used a single

time. Not

once. I'm sure because I computer searched the script and it came up

empty. The

heart was the one area of the anatomy that was taboo, noticeable to

this viewer

because of its absence.

The Matrix is a particularly " anti-body " movie. Not a

single

character displays the least fluidity of body or grace of movement

that could

communicate feeling. Rather, each is stuck in the head. The only

bodily

expression the characters are capable of is violence.

 

 

Bill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nisargadatta , chris boys <tony_s_sandford

wrote:

>

> Dear fellow seekers of Truth,

>

> I am continually amazed at the enthusiasm spiritual seekers have

for the movie The Matrix. When I found that it was discussed with

approval on a site devoted to a Master of the stature of Nisargadatta

Maharaj, I felt compelled to submit a revisionist view of the movie.

Here it is:

>

> ========================================

>

> THE MATRIX A REVIEW

>

> Gabriel and I have been watching films for a combined

70 years. We enjoy good films and fancy ourselves aficionados of the

genre. Thus it was with surprise that we heard so many of our fellow

denizens of Tiruvannamalai sing the praises of The Matrix, a film we

found a dim effort and enjoyed in the least. We watched The Matrix

again and even got a copy of the script and analyzed it, thinking

there must be something to this film if so many expressed so much

enthusiasm about it. We were open to finding artistic merit, or even

something hip and superficially enjoyable. We could not. Here is a

review of the film in the spirit of the adage Truth is stronger than

fiction, and also for a little fun. Of course, if anyone cares to

make a rebuttal we will gladly display it.

>

> ACTING: While it is true that significant advances have been made

in both sound and visual effects in the last twenty-five years of

cinema, it is still a maxim that a good film must have good acting.

In that respect, The Matrix cannot be a good film, for it lacks a

single good performance.

> Keanu Reeves is an actor defined by his limited

range. He is capable of but two modes: straight Keanu and Keanu

intense. Straight Keanu is a sort of earnest adolescent who seems

perpetually on the verge of some sophomoric discovery about his

immediate world with perhaps sinister implications to something

greater. The actor Reeves is emotionally dead from the neck down. He

never communicates through the rest of his body (except that he still

carries the now inappropriate " dude " gate that first helped bring him

notice in Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure. It shows through in a

few scenes in The Matrix with unintended humor to anyone who catches

it.). His acting is confined to his facial expressions – a limited

repertoire of grimaces, earnest entreaties, and shocked surprise.

> Keanu intense is straight Keanu jacked up on some

sort of synthetic acting drug. Here we get real sturm and drang.

Keanu is outraged (I imagine Al Pacino struggling to keep a straight

face while acting across from him in some of the scenes from The

Devil's Advocate). Keanu is shocked and betrayed (Pointbreak

introduced us to this Keanu specialty, with some of my all-time

low & #8209;point scenes with Patrick Swayze as the bad-guy surfer. A

pax-de-deux of acting ineptitude.). Keanu is angry (brought to its

zenith in Speed against Dennis Hopper, another actor who deserved an

Oscar for acting evil while trying to keep from laughing). In The

Matrix Keanu introduces the two newest additions to Keanu intense –

Keanu overwhelmed by cosmic burden and Keanu in the invincible zone.

> There is no shortage of scenes that illustrate the former.

Consider, for example, Neo listening to Morpheus as he reveals the

Matrix. This has to be the most ridiculous scene in the history of

sci-fi. Besides Morpheus as the slick, idiot priest for the end of

the world, the shots of Neo trying to follow what he says (and trying

so hard – with the look of a high school dropout thrust into a class

on differential equations) made me think I was watching Ed Wood –

sort of Plan 9 From Outer Space revisited, with the only actor

(Reeves) actually capable of a performance as bad as those in Wood's

movies.

> As for Keanu in the invincible zone, I'm thinking of the scenes

with Trinity when they go tackle the Matrix and get back Morpheus.

What on earth is this? Seriously, ask yourself if such an expression

could actually exist in any earthly realm, or in any bardo inhabited

by real beings. It is an entirely invented gestalt, which brought me

to the verge of hysterics. I thought that they were about to burst

into rap about the evil Matrix and justice a-la-Keanu.

> Okay, I am beating a dead horse. Suffice it to say

that the leading man is an incompetent. But what distinguishes The

Matrix is that, almost beyond belief, it manages to produce another

lead performance that is even worse. Lawrence Fishburne defines new

territory. I have never seen such a symphony in monotone. Who is this

guy? Where did they find him? I mean, it must take real talent to go

through a whole movie and leave the viewer wondering when was the

last time you took a crap (The torture scene was constipation of

Wagnerian proportions). And what is it with putting on sunglasses? He

does this with idiot intensity. Indeed, there is something

relentlessly idiotic to Fishburne's entire performance. He's always

hammering on about some new revelation, threat or cosmology, which

are all patently ridiculous. It's as if trained at the method school

for the intense and moronic.

> As for the gal who played Trinity, I confess to a

slight conflict of interest. She obviously has a great bod, and I

often found myself wanting her to get a little more naked. But

Penelope Cruz also has a great body, and I didn't want her to get

naked in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I was more than content with the

wonderful character she was creating on screen. I wanted Trinity to

get naked because I was so bored with her as a person.

> As for the rest of the characters, they were rubbish.

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on them. The fault perhaps is in part the

screenplay (a point I will go into later). Certainly I can't remember

another movie with such a lifeless, stereotypical cast. The bad guys

were the worst. Again, my first reaction was laughter – they all

looked like Robert Haldeman, Nixon's Watergate henchman. But then

they opened their mouths and began to act (or what passes for acting

in The Matrix), and I turned off. They instantly bored me. They never

varied a pitch and talked the most inane stupidities.

> The traitor in the crew well depicts the shallowness of the

characters. Was there even one subtlety to this guy? Think of

traitors in other films – the woman resistance fighter in The Guns of

Navaronne, Lawrence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate or Hal the

computer in 2001, A Space Odyssey – and you can see the possibilities

for the role. The Matrix took the easy way out and created a totally

forgettable bit.

>

> SCORE: Quick, think of a single musical rift or one line of

melody from The Matrix. Interesting, huh? The score of the film is

forgettable MTV crap. Compare the score with that of Blade Runner, or

2001, Space Odyssey, or even that of the original Star Wars. Blade

Runner especially, used a lyrical, haunting score (unforgettable work

by Vangelis, which I have on CD, and enjoy both musically and to

remember the film). The score was used to great effect to introduce

and emphasize certain emotional moments, and to bring the audience to

the feeling of redemption through love, where one passes through pain

to the beauty of rebirth. But really, no music could be used to good

effect in The Matrix. The film is dead emotionally. Good music

touches the feeling core, but this film has no feeling core.

> In regards feeling, did you notice how the entire

computer-analogy motif that runs through the movie is focused on the

head? All of those revolting spinal taps and cranial rivets. The

word " heart " is not used a single time. Not once. I'm sure because I

computer searched the script and it came up empty. The heart was the

one area of the anatomy that was taboo, noticeable to this viewer

because of its absence.

> The Matrix is a particularly " anti-body " movie. Not a

single character displays the least fluidity of body or grace of

movement that could communicate feeling. Rather, each is stuck in the

head. The only bodily expression the characters are capable of is

violence.

>

> SPECIAL EFFECTS: The Matrix won several awards for special

effects, and I could appreciate the technical virtuosity. The scene

with the helicopter was especially well done, and also the blazing

gun scenes with Neo and Trinity fighting while walking on walls and

dodging bullets. But again, I ask you to remember a single scene of

beauty. Can't be done, can it? Ask the same question about the movies

mentioned above, and you experience anew many scenes of beauty.

> And though there were some great special effects,

there were also a lot of mediocre ones. All of the sewer scenes and

flushing down anal canals (or were they birth canals?). The

spider/squid ships were very poorly done. They reminded me of the old

Flash Gordon space ships spruced up with a bit of modern technology.

> The Matrix certainly went over the top with guns. I

don't know of any movie where so many shots were fired (with all of

those empty casings to emphasize the point). So what? This is the

cheapest trick in the book, and is always a red flag to me that I am

watching a film where the scriptwriters and director lack the

inspiration and effort to use means that could produce a substantial

work. I had to laugh at Keanu with the big Gattling Gun in the

helicopter. The Freudian implication was obvious, and ludicrous. I

mean, Arnold Schwartzenager with a big gun is tolerable. That guy is

big! But Keanu Reeves? Come on, get serious.

> I should say something about the Martial Arts. If you

know about Martial Arts, then the faults were obvious. First the film

did not use the most powerful forms. It used external martial arts –

jujitsu and kung fu (I assume these were the forms. Perhaps an expert

in them would take exception to their portrayal in the movie. I don't

know.). I do know that any expert in martial arts who has seriously

practiced all of the fighting forms will unequivocally state that the

most powerful forms are the internal Chinese systems of tai chi,

shingi, and paqua. These are rarely used in the movies, however,

because they lack the hype, theatrical effect necessary for today's

dumbed & #8209;down audience. But even a master in the external forms

would have spotted a glaring error – the use of high kicks. In real

fighting these are never used unless you have control of the

opponent's arms. If you do not have control and your opponent grabs

your leg and twists and thrusts it, you

> instantly suffer a broken hip joint or shattered pelvis. Morpheus

did exactly that to Neo, but Neo just twists like a top and escapes

unscathed.

>

> SCRIPT: Before I analyze the central motif (the computer induced

illusion that all of mankind suffers do to the Matrix), let's have

some fun with some of the clichés and obvious gaffes in the script:

>

> The twentieth line: Morpheus: You have to focus, Trinity.

> I knew I was in for a long night.

>

> Trinity to Neo on the phone: Follow the white rabbit.

> Well, this is going to be a subtle movie.

>

> Druggie to Neo at his door: Hallelujah. You're my savior, man.

My own personal Jesus Christ drug guy

> I was a drug dealer. Fortunately I was spared such bullshit from

my customers. My experience with drug deals is that one is extra

careful not to speak like an idiot, unless you want to run the risk

of not getting your drugs or even getting hurt. The Jesus Christ

thing is perhaps a sop to the evangelical pretensions of the movie.

>

> Neo to druggie at his door: My computer, it... You ever have that

feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?

> Pretty original, right?

>

> Neo: The Trinity? The one that cracked the IRS d-base?

> Trinity: That was a long time ago.

> Neo: Jesus.

> Trinity: Right now all I can tell you is that you're in danger. I

brought you here to warn you.

> Neo: Of what?

> Trinity: They're watching you, Neo.

> Oh! This is going to be a Keanu Reeves movie. He feasts on these

types of lines, and now he has a perfect partner

>

> Morpheus: Yes, now. Do it slowly. The elevator.

> Neo: Oh shit.

> I include this just to show the frequency of these types of

GP & #8209;rated expletives. They are a Reeves's signature, and I

wonder if their use is included in his standard contract to act in a

film. I imagine he was not happy with Do it slowly though. Doing

slowly for Reeves is a bit of a reach.

>

> Morpheus: At last. Welcome, Neo. As you no doubt have guessed, I

am Morpheus.

> Neo: It's an honor to meet you.

> Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my

life.

> Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why

you're here. You're here because you know something.

> Already I was begging for mercy.

>

> Morpheus: The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's

designed to disrupt your input/output carrier signals so we can

pinpoint your location.

> Neo: What does that mean?

> Cypher: It means buckle your seat belt, Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is

going bye-bye. Yes, what does that mean? Actually I figured it out.

But ole Neo for being the savior and all is pretty slow on the

uptake, isn't he? Quick, if you had to make a guess on his IQ at this

point, would it top three digits? We are also introduced to Cypher

and sense that (along with Apoc) the crew of the whatever-the-hell

spaceship this is, are a pretty dim bunch, and we shouldn't expect

Shakespeare from them.

>

> Morpheus: …. This is my ship, the Nebuchadnezzar.

> Gee, there is probably symbolism to the names in this movie. I

was tempted to search the Internet to find out what the names refer

to. I didn't, because it is the sort of arcane idiocy that a Matrix

enthusiast would get involved in.

>

> Neo: No. I don't believe it. It's not possible.

> Morpheus: I didn't say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it

would be the truth.

> A la Star Wars. The Matrix is replete with rip-offs of

practically every sci-fi/computer film ever done.

>

> Morpheus: No. But if you could, would you really want to? I feel

I owe you an apology. We have a rule. We never free a mind once it's

reached a certain age. It's dangerous, the mind has trouble letting

go. I've seen it before and I'm sorry. I did what I did because...I

had to. When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside

who had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the

Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us, taught us

the truth: 'As long as the Matrix exists the human race will never be

free.' After he died the Oracle prophesized his return and that his

coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring

freedom to our people. That is why there are those of us who have

spent our entire lives searching the Matrix looking for him. I did

what I did because I believe that search is over.... Get some rest,

you're going to need it.

> A veritable banquet of hyperbole and bullshit. At this point the

movie is really hitting its stride. I was beginning to hope that it

would actually turn out to be camp-film. The Rocky Horror Picture

Show of sci fi. Though I shuddered at the thought of hearing

Fishburne sing.

>

> Tank: Holes? Nope. Me and my brother Dozer, we're both one

hundred percent pure, old fashioned, home-grown human, born free

right here in the real world. Genuine child of Zion.

> Neo: Zion?

> Tank: If the war was over tomorrow, Zion's where the party would

be.

> " Tank " and " Dozer " . Must have some cool parents for those names.

Wow, the new world is Zion. Pretty subtle. If you know English, then

you know that " was " in the last sentence should be " were " . But I

don't expect these guys – or the scriptwriters – to understand the

subjunctive.

>

> Neo: Jujitsu? I'm going to learn Jujitsu?... Holy shit.

> More Keanu-speak.

> Mouse: Jesus Christ, he's fast. Take a look at his neural

kinetics, they're way above normal.

> Quick, is neural kinetics a real word? Bet you don't know, do

you? I looked it up and it is. It refers to the chemistry of nerve

impulses, though I have my doubts that it is actually used by

scientists in the field. I find the usage humorous. I mean, does it

refer to Neo or to Keanu? It's a reach to think that Neo has such

chemistry. He seemed so anemic and nerdish in the beginning of the

movie. But for Keanu it is appropriate. Keanu is absolutely neurally

kinetic. That's his substitute for acting.

>

> Neo: Whoa. Okie dokie. Free my mind.

> More Keanu-speak.

>

> Cypher: I don't remember you bringing me dinner. There is

something about him, isn't there?

> We get our first whiff of the traitor Cypher. Pretty subtle. Of

course, if you compare to the beginning of Gladiator and our

introduction to Comitus, you know the level of stuff we were dealing

with here. I laughed over the line There is something about him,

isn't there? – Yeah, he is the first retard who's going to save the

world.

> One of the crew to Neo: It's a single cell protein combined with

synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.

> The Matrix's version of Tang. Sounds like it is must have a lot

of prana. A really stupid passage. I mean, is it believable?

>

> Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible.

Instead only try to realize the truth.

> Neo: What truth?

> Spoon boy: There is no spoon.

> Neo: There is no spoon?

> Spoon boy: Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends,

it is only yourself.

> I guess this is supposed to be profound. Sort of Yuri Geller a la

Ramana Maharshi. Uttered by the little bald boy who looks like he is

undergoing chemotherapy, sitting in the lobby of the Oracle herself.

I found the little boy repulsive. I would freak if I had such a weird

kid, and get him the hell out of the whole scene. Personally I like

my kids with hair and a heart. The idea has a nice ring

philosophically, but reeks of B.S. It is something John Grisham would

write. An invention, a trick. I didn't find it believable. To top it

off, Neo instantly bends the spoon. Quite a learning curve. The

Oracle also gave me the creeps, with her psychic-on-Valium vibe. All

psychics give me the creeps though.

>

> Morpheus: …That I would find the one.... I told you I can only

show you the door. You have to walk through it.

> A la Star Wars. Really bad Star Wars

>

> Cypher: Neo's The One, then there'd have to be some kind of a

miracle to stop me. Right? I mean how can he be The One if he's dead?

You never did answer me before if you bought into Morpheus' bullshit -

come on - all I want is a little yes or no. Look into his eyes,

those big pretty eyes. Tell me. Yes or no?

> Keanu has big pretty eyes? The guy barely stops grimacing enough

to open them. Lines like these reveal the utter inanity of this

movie. I am somewhat chagrined to admit, but I have actually seen all

of Keanu Reeves' movies, and there is not a single scene in any of

them in which he could be described as having big pretty eyes. The

man simply does not have them. I am reminded of Marlin Brando

describing one of the terrible movies he made during the sixties –

" It made about as much sense as a hamster screwing a basketball. "

>

> Bad guy: I say your civilization because as soon as we started

thinking for you it really became our civilization, which is, of

course, what this is all about. Evolution, Morpheus, evolution. Like

the dinosaur. Look out that window. You had your time. The future is

our world, Morpheus. The future is our time.

> I include this for the bit about evolution. The passage is a sop

to the word evolution, which is standard usage in many sci-fi films

that attempt to be profound and scientific. But as here, they

invariably end up sounding like bad Deepak Chopra.

>

> Depends on the mind. Eventually it will crack and his alpha

patterns will change from this to this. When it does, Morpheus will

tell them anything they want to know.

> Now we finally understand how the brain works, only an organ a

gazillion scientists have been trying to understand for two hundred

years. The Matrix does it in one sentence.

>

> Trinity: Neo, no one has ever done anything like this.

> Neo: That's why it's going to work.

> Oh really? Quick, if you were to bet your life on such a maxim,

would you?

>

> Neo in the elevator before the big fight scene with Agent Smith:

There is no spoon

> Need I comment?

>

> Trinity: Neo, I'm not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I

would fall in love, and that that man who I loved would be The One.

So you see, you can't be dead. You can't be, because I love you. You

hear me? I love you.... Now get up.

> Love a la the Matrix. If there has been a less romantic scene in

the history of cinema, please show me. Some more bad English – " who "

should be " whom " .

>

>

> CENRAL THEME: Okay, so the script is hip deep in it. But let us

get to the supposed subtlety of the movie. I'm referring to the

Matrix itself and the prison-of-the-mind motif. This is what I

imagine gets everyone (at least around here) so lathered up about The

Matrix.

> Just so we are on common ground, let me summarize the

genesis of this thing, as taken from the movie:

>

> Morpheus: A singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of

machines. We don't know who struck first, us or them. But we know

that it was us that scorched the sky. At the time they were dependent

on solar power and it was believed that they would be unable to

survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun. Throughout

human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate,

it seems, is not without a sense of irony. The human body generates

more bio-electricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs of

body heat. Combined with a form of fusion, the machines have found

all the energy they would ever need. There are fields, endless

fields, where human beings are no longer born. We are grown. For the

longest time I wouldn't believe it, and then I saw the fields with my

own eyes. Watch them liquefy the dead so they could be fed

intravenously to the living. And standing there, facing the pure

horrifying precision, I came to realize the

> obviousness of the truth. What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix

is a computer generated dream world built to keep us under control in

order to change a human being into this.

> When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who

had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as

he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the

truth: 'As long as the Matrix exists the human race will never be

free.' After he died the Oracle prophesized his return and that his

coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring

freedom to our people.

>

> They certainly touch all the bases, don't they? We

have nuclear fusion (something scientists are not even close to

mastering after fifty years of research all over the world, but

somehow this AI/sentient programs/the Matrix manages to do it), solar

power, bio-embryo farms (complete with transfusions of ectoplasm from

the dead. Note: a nice violation of the first law of thermodynamics,

if you catch it), and computer induced Maya. We also have one Savior

(with implications of another) and the Oracle.

> So the thing is a mess and makes minimal sense. The

important point is that in the present-time situation in the movie

everyone is fog-bound in a dream created by the Matrix.

> There are some interesting lines early in the movie:

>

> Morpheus: What you know you can't explain. But you feel it.

You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with

the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter

in your mind driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you

to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

>

> The word " feeling " gave me hope that the movie might go

somewhere. Anyone who has been on the spiritual path can empathize,

because spiritual life invariably at some point comes up against the

feeling that there is something wrong. Though usually not so much

about the world, but rather about oneself as the ego – the problem of

one's own mind, and the feeling that one in fact can't really feel

and is crippled in the range of feeling.

> After the previous dialogue, Morpheus continues:

>

> Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is? The Matrix is

everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can

see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your

television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to

church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled

over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

> Neo: What truth?

> Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were

born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste

or touch. A prison for your mind.... Unfortunately, no one can be

told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

>

> These lines appear to work. They are analogous to a

description of Maya or Samsara. The phrase " a prison for your mind "

tightens the analogy. The fact that there is dualism, with the Matrix

being a sort of devil figure that induces Maya is acceptable given

the action sci-fi genre. I think in terms of " prison of the mind "

rather than " for the mind " , but the latter is okay. The Matrix is a

Hollywood movie not an Upanishad.

>

> Neo: I can't go back, can I?

> Morpheus: No. But if you could, would you really want to? I feel

I owe you an apology. We have a rule. We never free a mind once it's

reached a certain age. It's dangerous, the mind has trouble letting

go.

>

> Here, the analogy tightens further. The mind does

play a part. Morpheus cannot just uninstall the Matrix program.

Evidently the mind has to let go also. So maybe there is some sense

to this thing after all. Everyone is trapped in a dream, at least in

part of the mind's making, and the idea is about somehow breaking

free of this dream and living in the " real " world. This is actually

an interesting idea and could make a good movie. Let's see how The

Matrix handles it.

> Neo wakes up without any effort of his own. He opts

for the red pill, gets flushed down the birth canals, drilled full of

holes, injected with brain and spinal taps, gets his atrophied

muscles rebuilt (atrophied for some unexplained reason), has a nice

nap, and presto wakes up with Morpheus in a room. So what to say

about this? It is a cinematic trick, a cop-out. To anyone who has

actually struggled with the mind and broken through, of course

nothing of the sort occurs.

> When Neo meets Morpheus in the room, he gets a

philosophy lesson from him:

>

> Neo: This...this isn't real?

> Morpheus: What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking

about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and

see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your

brain. This is the world that you know. The world as it was at the

end of the twentieth century. It exists now only as part of a neural-

interactive simulation that we call the Matrix. You've been living in

a dream world, Neo. This is the world as it exists today... Welcome.

to the desert.. of the real. We have only bits and pieces of

information but what we know for certain is that at some point in the

early twenty-first century all of mankind was united in celebration.

We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI.

> Neo: AI? You mean artificial intelligence?

>

> What to say about this? Well, first Neo is no Arjuna.

He seems slow. He hardly ever picks up anything on the first take. As

to Morpheus's rap, it is standard physiology, fluffed up with some

pseudo-Advaita. Note the nice phrase: " The desert of the real " . I bet

you a hundred bucks it is stolen from somewhere.

> Next Neo goes into " training " . He learns kung fu. He

does it in a computer-training program. Morpheus hits him with some

more philosophy:

> Morpheus: This is a sparring program, similar to the programmed

reality of the Matrix. It has the same basic rules, rules like

gravity. What you must learn is that these rules are no different

that the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent. Others

can be broken. Understand?

> This is nonsense. No computer person I have ever talked

to (and I knew a very good computer hacker who did three years in

prison for his skills and worked for the FBI) would say that a

computer program can be bent or broken. The security code can be

cracked so that the program can be used. The program can be

rewritten, but not while it is operating! Try and bend or break a

rule in MS Windows on your PC. It simply can't be done.*

> These lines are the key operating assumption of the

movie. I found several major reviews of The Matrix on the Internet

that commented specifically on them, and how clever and insightful

they are. But the idea is absurd, and it takes about ten seconds

reflection to see it is absurd. It is fantastically absurd given the

context in which it is delivered. Morpheus is talking to Neo, a

computer programmer and supposed genius hacker. It is as if he were

talking to an engineer at Mercedes and telling him that cars have

five wheels and run on methamphetamine. The only thing believable

about the scene is that Neo, true to from, just laps up Morpheus's

dribble.

> Gravity is a basic rule that can be bent or broken?

Tell Einstein and Newton this. Unfortunately, since Crouching Tiger,

Hidden Dragon and The Matrix, it looks like we're going to be stuck

with gravity defying stunts.

> During the kung Fu lesson Morpheus feeds Neo more

philosophy:

>

> Morpheus: What are you waiting for? You're faster than this. Don't

think you are, know you are.... Come on. Stop trying to hit me and

HIT me.

> Neo: I know what you're trying to do.

> Morpheus: I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show

you the door, you're the one that has to walk through it.

>

> The Matrix rips-off of The Karate Kid.

>

> Before Neo and Morpheus fight there are these lines:

>

> Neo: Jujitsu? I'm going to learn Jujitsu?... Holy shit.

> Tank: Hey Mikey, I think he likes it. How about some more?

> Neo: Hell yes.

> Morpheus: How is he?

> Tank: Ten hours straight. He's... a machine.

> Neo: I know Kung Fu.

>

> Let's see, if this were The Bhagavad Gita, the lines would go:

>

> Arjuna: Jnana? I'm going to learn Jnana?…Hari Om dude!

> Pandava: Hey, Kumar, I think he likes it. How about some more?

> Arjuna: Yes siree Guruji.

> Krishna: How is he?

> Pandava: Ten hours straight. He's an avatar.

> Arjuna: I know bhakti.

> Krishna: Jnana, Arjuna. It's Jnana.

> Arjuna: Oh yeah, Jnana. Right, it's Jnana.

>

> At this point we're roughly half the way through the

movie. I think it's safe to say that the analogy thing is not going

to fly.

> The plot sidesteps the main theme for a little while

so that the squiddies can arrive, and so Cypher can be seen talking

with the bad guys, making his deal to rat-out the crew. It's worth

taking a look at Cypher's dialogue.

>

> Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that

when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is

juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?

Ignorance is bliss.

>

> These lines reveal a lot about The Matrix. They are

some of the most believable lines in the movie. Cypher is telling the

simple truth: He has woke up out of the dream (supposedly for nine

years), and when push comes to shove, a juicy steak overwhelms him.

Aren't all of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar in the same position?

The only difference between Morpheus and Trinity, and Cypher, is that

they are in denial. They are holding on to an idea, a belief.

> Morpheus says you have to see the Matrix. But obviously he

himself does not see the Matrix. He is just prattling on with a bunch

of philosophy and believing in Neo as the savior. He's like a born-

again Christian. Actually, if he is claiming he is awake, then I find

him similar to the talking-head school of Advaitins, who are always

blah blah blahing that you are not the body and that there is only

consciousness, when it is obvious that they themselves have no

functional relation to consciousness and that the world has become

even more of a trap for them because they have added their anti-body

schizophrenia to it.

>

> Next, Neo and Morpheus take a trip to see the Oracle. This is

fairly transparent stuff. Obviously Neo is the savior. There will

just be a few complications until he realizes it. I couldn't see

anything that added to Neo's waking up. He gets to do his little

spoon-bending gig. I liked that he wasn't so interested in it. He

rejects siddhis, so to speak.

> The Oracle was a real pill. I would have gone screaming from that

room in a minute. She is someone who has woken up and supposedly is a

little special. But as a character she works against the point. She

is nauseating. Another analogy comes to mind: Think of Morpheus as

Ganapati Muni, Neo is one of his students, and the Oracle is Ramana

Maharshi. Ganapati Muni is taking his student to see Ramana at

Arunachala. It would be a pretty big let down, wouldn't it? I think

this is an important point. Ramana was recognized in the early days

on the hill in great part because he literally glowed. The other

Yogis would ask him what he was, if he was a God. Ramana never liked

to make much of himself, but he was something special. There are also

the following lines from The Ramana Gita: " The body of one who abides

in the Self through Self-enquiry is resplendent just as a heated iron-

ball appears as a ball of fire. "

>

> I won't go into the rest of the movie, other than to say it gets

more born-again Christian with all of the hammering about belief and

Neo being the one. It is Keanu intense with the whole cast jumping on

the bandwagon. This apparently is the message of the movie – just be

more intense, awake from the dream by contracting your cranium in

some super human focus on believing you are awake. The message is

rubbish. Certainly there is no record in the history of spirituality

that such a modus operandi has ever awoken anybody. What awakens is

sunlight on your pillow – the Heart, Grace and the transforming power

of a true Guru (and real sadhana as given by the Guru). When you

awake you are happy.

> Waking up as used in The Matrix is a joke. If you were offered

the choice to wake up, would you? Of course not. And why not? Because

you would be taking a very big chance that you would end up as

stupid, loveless, and confused as Morpheus, Neo, Trinity, and the

rest. You would be abandoning the capriciousness of life, which is

certainly filled with stupidity, but also occasionally with

intelligence, wonder, happiness and love, for the dead-bang certainty

that you'd end up the equivalent of someone with a lobotomy.

Actually, I do disservice to people with lobotomies. I knew a fellow

with a lobotomy. He was limited emotionally, but occasionally was

interesting and foolish and made me laugh. Certainly he never

burdened me with a philosophy.

> The basic fault with The Matrix as analogous to

something transforming or spiritual is that no one who has woken up

is happy. The principal characters are the least happy people I have

ever seen who aren't actual depressed neurotics.

> One passage should be commented on:

> Agent Smith: Can you hear me, Morpheus? I'm going to be honest

with you. I hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality,

whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer. It's the

smell. If there is such a thing. I feel. saturated by it. I can taste

your stink. And every time I do I feel I have somehow been infected

by it, it's repulsive. I must get out of here. I must get free and in

this mind is the key, my key. Once Zion is destroyed there is no need

for me to be here, don't you understand? I need the codes. I have to

get inside Zion, and you have to tell me how. You are going to tell

me or you are going to die.

> The hate in this passage I have not experience in any

other movie I have ever seen. It was delivered in a truly terrifying

way. The best piece of acting in the movie. It was pure self hate and

hate of everything and everybody else. I felt like I had literally

experienced hell. It really stuck with me, and I wanted some other

feeling to rise and replace it. I know I could not have reacted the

way I did unless I was also experiencing something about myself.

> The Matrix of course, could not relieve the feeling.

The cast, the scriptwriters, and the director don't have a clue about

art. And ultimately that is what we are talking about – The Matrix as

an artistic effort. What is art? In the final analysis it is about

the very subject The Matrix purports to deal with – awakening. Art is

a moment of breaking free of the dream. We experience art and we

stand outside ourselves, and catch a glimpse of freedom. And art is

not a cop-out; it is not that we fool ourselves into believing we are

free forever. But at the same time, for a moment or longer, we are

free and relieved of the burden of facing our shit or trying to

distract ourselves from it. The Matrix produced the one terrifying

moment of hell, something about ourselves, but it could not produce

that which redeems – the sunlight on the pillow, the moment when the

pressure on the heart breaks up; when we know that the hell is not

true, and remember what all of the

> Masters have said: " You have never slept, you have never dreamed.

There is only this Heart, which is your very Self. "

>

>

Hari Om

>

>

> SUMMARY

> GABRIEL AND CHRIS: D D

>

> RATING: (out of possible ««««) « (for special effects and for

helping Chris get in touch with his anger)

>

> IN A NUTSHELL: Pretentious, idiotic sci-fi film with plot and

dialogue only the O.J. jury could enjoy.

>

>

>

>

> * To be precise there is a third possibility: The program can

be infected by a virus or worm. In such a case the program is

corrupted, and all or parts of the program are rendered inoperative.

In The Matrix this might be analogous to the martial arts program

having huge glitches in it, so that Neo and Morpheus can barely move

or act like spastics. The point being that the program becomes less,

not more useful to the participants.

>

>

>

>

>

> New Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC

and save big.

>

>

[Guest guest]

it is a movie

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , " bigwaaba " <bigwaaba wrote:

>

>

> it is a movie

 

 

LOL!

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , " pliantheart " <illusyn wrote:

>

> Interesting re:

>

> In regards feeling, did you notice how the entire computer-analogy

> motif that runs through the movie is focused on the head? All of

> those revolting

> spinal taps and cranial rivets. The word " heart " is not used a single

> time. Not

> once. I'm sure because I computer searched the script and it came up

> empty. The

> heart was the one area of the anatomy that was taboo, noticeable to

> this viewer

> because of its absence.

> The Matrix is a particularly " anti-body " movie. Not a

> single

> character displays the least fluidity of body or grace of movement

> that could

> communicate feeling. Rather, each is stuck in the head. The only

> bodily

> expression the characters are capable of is violence.

>

>

> Bill

 

What about the romance between Neo and Trinity?

 

-- D.

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , " pliantheart " <illusyn wrote:

>

> Interesting re:

>

> In regards feeling, did you notice how the entire computer-analogy

> motif that runs through the movie is focused on the head? All of

> those revolting

> spinal taps and cranial rivets. The word " heart " is not used a single

> time. Not

> once. I'm sure because I computer searched the script and it came up

> empty. The

> heart was the one area of the anatomy that was taboo, noticeable to

> this viewer

> because of its absence.

> The Matrix is a particularly " anti-body " movie. Not a

> single

> character displays the least fluidity of body or grace of movement

> that could

> communicate feeling. Rather, each is stuck in the head. The only

> bodily

> expression the characters are capable of is violence.

>

>

> Bill

 

You forgot to do a search for the word " love. "

 

-- D.

[Guest guest]

In regards to searching the word " love', I did not do that. The essay is one I

did a couple of years ago actually. I no longer have a copy of the script. I

could get it again, and search for " love'. It might appear. I do not know.

 

Really, what was important for me was to show that the movie was not really

" spiritual'. Rather, it was just this violent confusing thing done by people who

didn't know much (if anything) aobut the great spiritual traditins of the world

(as emboidied by a being like Nisargadatta).

 

I personally found no love in the movie.

 

 

 

dan330033 <dan330033 wrote:

Nisargadatta , " pliantheart " <illusyn wrote:

>

> Interesting re:

>

> In regards feeling, did you notice how the entire computer-analogy

> motif that runs through the movie is focused on the head? All of

> those revolting

> spinal taps and cranial rivets. The word " heart " is not used a single

> time. Not

> once. I'm sure because I computer searched the script and it came up

> empty. The

> heart was the one area of the anatomy that was taboo, noticeable to

> this viewer

> because of its absence.

> The Matrix is a particularly " anti-body " movie. Not a

> single

> character displays the least fluidity of body or grace of movement

> that could

> communicate feeling. Rather, each is stuck in the head. The only

> bodily

> expression the characters are capable of is violence.

>

>

> Bill

 

You forgot to do a search for the word " love. "

 

-- D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , chris boys <tony_s_sandford

wrote:

 

> I personally found no love in the movie.

 

But Neo did -- and hey -- that's not too shabby -- finding love and

learning you're the One, all in the same movie. Unfortunately, he's

just a movie character, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that.

See, I know about heart :-)

 

-- D.

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta , " dan330033 " <dan330033 wrote:

>

> Nisargadatta , chris boys <tony_s_sandford@>

> wrote:

>

> > I personally found no love in the movie.

>

> But Neo did -- and hey -- that's not too shabby -- finding love and

> learning you're the One, all in the same movie. Unfortunately, he's

> just a movie character, but I didn't have the heart to tell him

that.

> See, I know about heart :-)

>

> -- D.

>

 

Touche! Dan, you're killing us with kindness!