Besides loving Carrie Anne Moss, and of course body-tight black latex, Dude also loves Matrix for several other reasons.
God is Dead. Long live AI
Matrix is a post-PC mythology.
If not anything else, it opened spirituality and philosophy to the pub-hopping digital generation. No need to look to the heavens anymore for spirituality. You can download it down your modem! It deals with the question of existentialism, the core of every religion, every belief. Who am I? What is the truth? What if my whole life is a dream and, one day, I wake up to discover the truth?
Welcome to the Desert of the Real
Matrix offers a very bleak truth. A world dominated by AI , Matrix, that has created legions of indomitable machines. Humans grown like vegetables in ’Farms’ and used as batteries to keep the system operational. A band of, few, free humans fighting for their very survival. A leader, Morpheus, desperately looking for a liberator Hero - The ONE. A reluctant messiah - the non-believer day-time programmer and night-time hacker, Mr. Thomas A. Andersen aka Neo . A cigarette-smoking old lady who doles out cookies and prophecies as well. A traitor who prefers charm of unreality over the bitterness of truth.
As Morpheus warns Neo (before popping the red pill) - Remember. I offer, nothing but, the truth. Truth can be debilitating.
It’s not Answers but Questions that matter
If you try to find anything, you’ll find it here.
People have found whatever they were looking for in this movie. Christians have found Bible teachings; the Hindus vedanta, maya and karma. A Buddhist can claim it his own too because Matrix negates the very concept of an all-controlling god. That proves Matrix is based on strong philosophical grounding.
What’s more important to me is the questions it asks. What is reality? If we believe that whatever we touch, see and smell, are real; aren’t these mere electrical signals sent by our organs - Input/Output - to our brain, the central processor? What if these could be manipulated? What if the pizza you are eating is mere bytes and bits? And the blonde with red dress - you are ogling at - a mere digital image? Is such a truth worth discovering? or better die a blissful slave?
Don’t look elsewhere. The answer lies in you. Don’t think you are. Know you are
It’s about Choice
Predestination & choice often are always at odds; as in real life. Whatever choices you make determines the future. What is future? If we can see it can we change it? If we can change it, how shall it be the future? On the one end we have the , wise lady, Oracle with her predictions; and the other Neo with his choices.
Matrix makes a strong choice for - CHOICE. We can say it’s pro-Choice.
Morpheus - Do you believe in destiny?
Neo - No. I don’t like to think, I am, not in control.
You can choose to watch Matrix or not. But you can’t escape making the choice.
Dude’s Zion Dictionary
Matrix - cult classic
Story - fresh, intelligent, for the digital age
Wachowski Brothers - brilliant direction
Target audience - Pub-hopping Techies
Special effects - Awesome!
Background track - Rocking my Dragula
Keanu Reeves/Neo - Life’s best role
Hugo Weaving/Agent Smith - At his wicked best
Lawrence Fishburne - The Guru
Carrie-Anne Moss - Hot latex & great bod
Dude - Black latex fan
You - Knock, Knock...What’s your choice?