Dream Nobly Or Live Hardly

I’m still going to analyze the Matrix. I always think the Matrix is the greatest movie I ever watched. Not only the amazing martial arts and dizzy stunt, but also the spirit and the problems left for the audience and even for the world.

The first scene I would like to analyze is how Neo wake up. From around 27 minutes,(depends on different version) Morpheus told the truth about the matrix to Neo and let Neo choose to wake up or go on dreaming.

In most of the Hollywood movies, the directors use a lot of time to tell a really simple story. I’m getting tired of this kind of movie. But this movie is quite different from that. The director uses just around 3 minutes to show there are two different worlds exist and uses a very simple way (shot type is over the shoulder shots, no camera movement) to tell the background story to the audience through the dialogue between Neo and Morpheus. Although the shot type and camera movement are simple but the meaning is not simple. Through the setting, we see a pretty old and dirty room, two settees and a very dark light environment. Thunder and lightning can be heard and seen through the window. Why Morpheus choose such a place to meet Neo? Because the real world has already been destroyed. He wants to show him how ugly and dirty the world is at this moment. Just few seconds later, when Morpheus let Neo choose the pill, blue one or red one, the shot type change to close up for just few seconds.

It’s a close up to Morpheus’ sunglasses. We can find two Neo facing the blue bill and the red bill in the same time. Also it’s the first time I think Keanu Reeves’s performance can be sooooo cool. When I watched the , I just thought he’s a idol actor without any skill of performing. But this time he shows the struggle of his heart and feeling uncertain on his face by acting very successfully! Finally he choose the red one and come to the real world.

Why I choose this scene is just because it’s too simple, even no any editing or special effect. But this part can be the very important part to let the story keep going. It’s the key to the whole story.

The second scene is from 63 minutes, the Mr. Smith talking with Cypher. And 3 minutes later the scene about the breakfast of Neo.

The director gives both scene similar shot type and shot angle. A close up to the character and a extreme close up to the food the character is eating. So the differences are the MISE EN SCENE. I’ll give a contract between the two scenes.

Sets: High Level Restaurant/Dirty Space Ship

Props: Juicy Steak/Simple Mixture food

Costume: Luxurious Suit/Simple old cloth

Sound: Harp Music/None

Actors Performance: Enjoy/Feel Like Vomiting

The director used a strong contract on MISE EN SCENE to show the difference between the real word and the Matrix. Also there’s a detail which is the director used a shallow focus in the restaurant. I guess it means no matter the steak, the red wine or the restaurant and no matter how beautiful or how yum it is, they’re all unreal dreams. Just like a bubble, once it’s broken, everything disappear.

As I said in the beginning, a great movie is not only a great story or awesome stunt, it leaves some questions to let the world think about. contains so many questions to let us think about as a human being, no matter in the natural environment or a humanity environment. For example, if we over used the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), will we be the victim finally? But which idea really shock me is like the question “what do we want and what do we really need?” With the development of the modern society, people are getting lost in the money, power and desire. Are all we’ve done and we are going to do to prove we are successful or just to meet our greedy desire? Would you like to choose live like Neo, with the real freedom, or like Cypher, keep enjoying the juicy steak?