code democratic uprising
- Chatting about "The Matrix"
text/empty language
When I first watched "The Matrix", the cool action pictures, the cyberpunk style, the specious contrived lines, and the worldview setting between restraint and openness can all arouse the pleasure of watching. The audience can admire the stunt action scenes of this film; the audience can analyze the meaning of the details of the picture in this film, so as to obtain intellectual satisfaction; the audience can be immersed in the novel world view atmosphere created by this film and yearn for freedom; the audience can Think of the film as a picture of technological prophecy; the audience can also see the film as a philosophical labyrinth where traces of philosophy or religion are found: Plato's allegory of the cave, Cartesian skepticism, Mechanism, Buddhism and prophets, Christianity and messiah …
These viewing feelings should appear as a whole, and the lack of any one link can reduce the pleasure brought by appreciation. Without the cool action scenes, the movie would be lacking in exhilaration and even dull; in this regard, "The Matrix" draws on China's exaggerated martial arts and uses the special effects technology of the film company, so as to make films with backward technology unmatched. Let the audience see the animation as a real thing. Without the metaphorical graphic details, the film could be as shallow as a nouveau riche; Alice in Wonderland, The Bible, Simulacra and Simulation, etc. The atmosphere of a worldview that yearns for freedom in bondage and openness, enslavement and liberation, taps into an age-old intriguing plot: autonomous choice. As for the technological and cultural landscape of cyberpunk and artificial intelligence, it is the obsession and prospect of the current era. The philosophical content in "The Matrix", although somewhat contrived and pompous, also brings a deepening of detail and satisfies the audience's interest in mysterious things.
When the content of this film is diluted during viewing, the formal appeal of this film can also be presented: this film is nothing more than a story of a democratic uprising. The story framework of "The Matrix" is: [In the future world, people are enslaved by intelligent machines and live in the simulated violence of code. A group of unwilling people try to break free from slavery and fight for the power of free choice in the domination of code. In other words, this is a fight for democratic power. They revolted again and again, and the leaders of their revolts (i.e. the messiahs) finally came to a compromise with the rule of the code, not to revolutionize the existing system, but to obey the old system of rule. Until another savior or the spiritual leader of the uprising, Neo, whose "selfish love" was better than "sympathy", he was unwilling to compromise with the existing ruling system, fought against it, and finally sacrificed himself to achieve the democratic uprising. Victory won back the people's right to choose independently and realized democracy]. Whether this technological picture depicting the future or a metaphor that contains past culture, the themes of this film are still secular and antiquated, like the peasant uprisings in feudal China, from the overall story structure.
The core story structure of the entire "Matrix" is the democratic uprising of the code society, and its theoretical basis is Jean Baudrillard's theory, a Marxist philosophy of the code society. "Dialectics is a torrent." When Marxism itself becomes the pillar of the social system and the ruling system, it becomes alienated and even more nondescript. So the old propositions took on new clothes. This hyper-Marxist philosophy of code society (it is not a Marxist theory) is not only directly reflected in the first book of The Matrix, in which the book Simulacra and Simulation appears, but also runs through the second book of The Matrix. part and the third part. The revolution of the third part of "The Matrix" completed the task of the democratic uprising through a less believable grand narrative (the grand narrative of human liberation). The ending is as dull and lifeless as any old system. To see a vibrant ending, just watch the first Matrix.
The Matrix is an anti-establishment story, and that's what some viewers already think. However, when we calm down, look at the state of the so-called democratic society, and reflect on it, we can find that [“anti-system” is actually a means of control by the system]. When "The Matrix" said that "the savior is another control system", we might as well say that "The Matrix" itself is also another control method of the system. Let a "revolutionary leader" or "opinion leader" express dissatisfaction with the system, which can make people rely on and not despair of reality. For a system that pursues stability, it is better to allow the system to manipulate the rebels within a controllable range, rather than allowing the rebels to gather resistance on the side of the system. For a democratic society, allowing people to resist within certain limits is precisely the way the system controls. The ending of The Matrix takes "the grand narrative of human liberation" to complete a democratic uprising or democratic revolution, which is incredibly optimistic. What came after The Matrix was a new system, even if it could be called "democracy".
Let "anti-system" become the way the system controls, such a social structure is indeed quite advanced. A strong system is not afraid of "anti-system". When those who are dissatisfied with the actual system label themselves "anti-system", or even when they think they have found a "revolutionary leader" that they can follow silently, they also move towards the encirclement of the system.
For such a coded social-democratic uprising story structure, the questioning and thinking about the real and the illusory, and the discussion about the "Great Desert of Reality" have become secondary. Whether the revolutionary base of Zion City is outside the virtual world, whether it is the "real world" outside the matrix, or the virtual world at the same level as the matrix world, this question actually doesn't matter. Because no matter what the situation is, it will not change the essence of the democratic uprising of this story. The interest in truth, the separation of noumenon from phenomena, and the dualistic thinking of separation between true and false, have long been a game of thinking.
View more about The Matrix reviews
