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02-Nov-04

96 pages

Published/distributed by BFI Publishing

ISBN/EAN: 9781844570454

Paperback

Price: £9.99

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Matrix, The: BFI Film Classics

Clover, Joshua

Directed by the brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, The Matrix (1999) was truly an end-of-the-millenium movie, a statement of the American Zeitgeist and a prognosis of the future of big-budget Hollywood film-making. Starring Keanu Reeves as Neo, a computer programmer transformed into a messianic freedom fighter, The Matrix blends science fiction with conspiracy thriller conventions and outlandish martial arts violence, heightening their spectacular qualities to an unprecedented level through the use of groundbreaking digital techniques. A box-office triumph, the film was no populist confection: its blatant allusions to highbrow contemporary philosophy added to its appeal as a mystery to be decoded.

Joshua Clover undertakes that task of decoding . He examines the film in terms of its digital effects and how they were achieved: the painstaking choreography of stunts, the digitally generated special effects (especially 'Bullet Time' ), the innovative design. He shows how The Matrix represents a melding of cinema and video games (the greatest commercial threat to have faced Hollywood since the advent of television), a hybrid kind of 'immersive' entertainment. He unpacks the references to philosophy before showing how The Matrix ultimately expresses the crises which faced American culture at the end of the 1990s.

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