The Desert of the Real

I promise not to spout too much from Jean Baudrillard's text Simulacra and Simulation. Instead, I'll try to keep to the film The Matrix. While this was a popular film, I know of people who have not yet seen it. So if you don't want the film spoiled, stop reading about now.

In the magazine Dark Wisdom there is a regular feature titled The Film Vault. Typically this column brings together 3 people who offer opinions about a film -- however the 3 people do not communicate about it beforehand, so the opinions are somewhat isolated. I thought I'd try a variation of that here. I'd post an opinion, and welcome any others.

Instead of following the common path and discussing The Matrix as a metaphor for culture/society, I'm going to view it as a metaphor for identity. Throughout the film, Thomas Anderson/Neo is forced to confront his identity -- he has "two lives," and one of those "lives has a future." In the film, Mr. Anderson is a programmer by day and a hacker (rebel) by night -- and he has a fondness for things made by Panasonic. But in this filmic metaphor for identity, Anderson/Neo must confront who he really is, and not who society wants him to be.

So who does "society" (AKA authority) want him to be? It would seem: Thomas Anderson, a programmer for a respectable software firm, who has a social security number, pays his taxes, and who help's his landlady take out her garbage. Or is that the case? It seems like the right answer. But throughout the film, Mr. Anderson/Neo is followed by Morpheus, a rebel, a "dangerous individual" who knows the true identity of Mr. Anderson. That is, Thomas Anderson is Neo who is "the One." And "the One" is the one who will lead the other lost indiviuals to freedom. (And that is "the One" as living in room 101).

I'll cut through most of the film, and get to my point. The Oracle never tells "Neo" that he isn't the One; rather, Neo decides this himself. All the Oracle tells Neo is that he will have to make a choice (a central theme in the film -- choice) and that he "is not too bright." And on first glance, it appears that Neo is the one, and everyone but Neo knows it (including the audience). Here is where the trouble begins.

If Neo does not want to be Mr. Anderson, as Agent Smith always calls him, then we assume he wants to be "Neo," and realizes on his own what all of us have already known: He is the One. There is one scene in the film that exemplifies this argument quite well, and that is where Neo and Agent Smith fight in the subway. Smith says "Do you here that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability." The response to this is: "My name is Neo." But "Neo" isn't quite "the One" at this point. However, Morpheus points out that "he is beginning to believe."

Just as Mr. Anderson is told who is his throughout the film, and we assume throughout his life prior to the moment in the film, Morpheus and others nudge Neo toward being "the One." Even though Neo tells the rest of his friends that the Oracle said he wasn't "the One," she never did say that. Actually, she let Neo say that on his own because identity (or being the One) must be decided, selected, not told.

So what? We know Neo's "the One," what's the point? My point is that Neo believes what he is told, and comes to accept it. In fact, had not those around him been so persistent, Neo might not have become the One. This is important, because the film, intentionally or not, focuses upon identity, and while Neo fights not to be Mr. Anderson, he falls into the same "trap" by accepting his identity as "the One."

Yes, this is a minor point that perhaps deconstructs part of the plot. Or, maybe it is a "rabbit hole" that carries us deeper into the matrix. Those who have seen the film probably noticed that life in "the matrix" has a green tint (the film is tinted green), and life outside the matrix is tinted blue. If we follow this metaphor, then the artificial world is green -- a hint to the audience that something is wrong with the world. But why accept that the "real" world is tinted blue?

What if Morpheus' reality was another layer of the artificial world? This one, lucky for us, is color coded blue. Morpheus (also the god of dreams in mythology) plucks Neo into "his" world and convinces Mr. Anderson that he is the savior of those ready to be freed (also known as the people who cause problems in the 1st layer of the matrix). What better way to deal with rebellious members of society than to give them their own simulacrum -- a world that they can be rebels, but in reality are not a threat to anything. Such a world keeps them busy. And in the case of the film, they are busy producing energy (or, to put it in other terms: they are completely alienated from their labor). If we follow this path, then Neo becomes the leader of a group of rebels who are "AUTHORized" by society. And while Neo won't accept his "Mr. Anderson" identity, he becomes quite attached to his "Neo the One" identity. Likewise, he becomes an icon, a magnet for those troublemakers, pulling them from their hidden ranks in society. Soon they join-up with Neo in the "blue" reality, and they cause simulated havoc.

Okay, I'll go back to Baudrillard again, but just briefly. Here, the "real" rebellion is replaced by the simulated rebellion, and given enough time, "real rebellion" vanishes. What remains is a group of rebels, still connected to "the system" (the matrix), still alienated from their labor, but they are content because they believe they are "raging against the machine." Instead of being a threat, they are actually a filter for finding those who dislike society, straining them out, and giving them a new "prison for their mind" where they go about their business of working for the system. Maybe we are back to the metaphor for culture/society.