THE MATRIX (1999) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

the matrix (1999) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   136 minutes

Released         |   31 March 1999 

cast

Keanu Reeves ... Neo
Laurence Fishburne ... Morpheus
Carrie-Anne Moss ... Trinity
Hugo Weaving ... Agent Smith
Gloria Foster ... Oracle
Joe Pantoliano ... Cypher
Marcus Chong ... Tank
​Julian Arahanga ... Apoc
Matt Doran ... Mouse
Belinda McClory ... Switch
​Anthony Ray Parker ... Dozer

director

​The Wachowski Brothers

writer

​The Wachowski Brothers

cinematographer

​Bill Pope

music

Don Davis

film editor

​Zach Staenberg

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​​​465,343,787

Australia                 $​​​​​10,467,585

North America       $​171,479,930

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movie minutiae

Sets from the film DARK CITY (1998), including rooftops, buildings, and other exterior sets, were used in this film. The rooftops that Trinity runs across at the beginning of the film are the same ones that John Murdoch runs across in DARK CITY. Both movies deal with humanity being kept in a carefully constructed illusion by outsiders, which prompted claims that THE MATRIX had effectively ripped off DARK CITY; in reality, the screenplay of THE MATRIX had been written long before DARK CITY was released.

​In the early stages of developing what was to become the famous Bullet Time sequence, visual effects supervisor John Gaeta and director of photography Bill Pope constructed many gimbals and dollies in the hope of creating the effect the old-fashioned way. The original dolly they created for the camera would be led around the action at a tremendous speed, but after many failed tests and broken dollies, they opted for computer graphics, which meant writing an entirely new program for the effect. However, the Bullet Time sequence does still use one very old-fashioned technique: still photography.

​The film pays a huge homage to Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", although there are also references to Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Zen, and Homer's Odyssey. One of the main featured works of literature is "Simulcra and Simulation" by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillaud. The book can be seen lying open in Neo's apartment, and was required reading for all the principal cast and crew.

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related movies

THE MATRIX RELOADED (2003)

THE MATRIX (1999) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Posters

Images

Posters

THE MATRIX (1999) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer, is led to fight an underground war against powerful computers who have constructed his entire reality with a system called the Matrix.

THE MATRIX (1999) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 31 March 2015

​​Pop Movee Rating

THE MATRIX is a classic action film, wrapped up in a science fiction premise, adorned with a series of striking visual set-pieces that mine the tropes of Asian Kung-Fu film-making. Thrown into the mix is a version of University undergraduate philosophical and psychological interpretations that attempt to differentiate the film as a Thinking Person’s cinematic adventure where the main characters all have some form of higher purpose that support the themes explored by the Wachowski siblings in just their second feature film outing.

The Co-Directors, who also wrote the movie, achieve a measure of success in making the viewer contemplate the film’s loftier aspirations, but – at its best – THE MATRIX works because it leverages its set-pieces to maximum effect, using its influences as inspirations to create a highly-effective two plus hours of cinema.

The story – quite deliberately – starts off like a Noir B movie, with highly-stylized sets and over-enunciating beat Cops. Within moments, viewers are introduced to Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who, at first, seems to be the closest thing to a real human being the film has to offer. It’s not long before the Wachowski’s reveal their intentions, as Trinity turns into a one-woman army, using a variety of fighting techniques that belie her physical size and the boundaries of physics. The only individuals capable of preventing an all-out massacre are the Agents, led by Smith (Hugo Weaving). They too seem able to perform feats that seem other-worldly by comparison to those around them.

The film’s opening sequence closes out with Trinity disappearing down a telephone line moments before a cement truck piloted by Agent Smith slams into the phone box to which she has retreated.

The viewer is left bedazzled but bemused by events, as the story slips back a couple of gears and introduces Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), a somewhat erratic computer programmer who struggles to hold down his day job but is happy to engage in black-market computer programming for off-the-grid alternatives under the pseudonym Neo.

The Wachowskis waste no time in switching Reeves from Anderson to his Neo alter-ego when it becomes clear that he is of special interest to both the Agents and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), a cyber-terrorist who is the planet’s most wanted individual. At first, it seems Agent Smith has gained the upper hand, as Neo is taken into custody after some high-rise building hijinks and is subjected to a series of mind-games that have him question his sanity.

(For those viewers who are interested in the philosophical and psychological musings of THE MATRIX, it is of interest to note that it is Agent Smith – and not Morpheus or Trinity – who confirm Neo’s suspicions that there is something more going on than meets the eye. Smith’s mind games with Neo in the interrogation scene during this sequence make it clear to him that his imprisoners are operating beyond the everyday realm of existence.)

Neo awakens back in his apartment, uncertain whether anything that he has experienced is real. He soon receives an answer to this, receiving a visit from Trinity who explains that it has become a matter of urgency for Neo to meet Morpheus in person.

Their encounter confirms to Neo that everything he has suspected is true, but nothing can prepare him for the revelation that his whole existence is part of an elaborate computer-generated illusion designed to keep his ‘real’ body plugged in as one of billions of human batteries to help power a vast machine network that has engulfed the Earth! This shocking revelation is almost impossible for Neo to comprehend, but with Morepheus guiding him, he slowly realises that he has the potential to truly change the world.

THE MATRIX may seem complex and unnecessarily convoluted but the exposition delivered through the film’s First Act frees the Wachowskis to indulge their cinematic fantasies throughout the remaining two-thirds of the story.

Unplugging Neo from the Matrix also allows the film-makers to simplify the story and focus character development on Neo’s journey and the plot on how the collective group of freedom fighters under Morpheus’s command must, in turn, free their leader when he is captured by Smith.

Joe Pantoliano’s Cypher provides the catalyst for the story to unravel at a cracking pace from the moment he sell his compatriots out to Agent Smith in exchange for a return to the Matrix.

The story is punctuated throughout with numerous stunt sequences that combine traditional Asian film wirework and state-of-the-art special effects, with the “Bullet Time” capturing the attention of audiences upon the film’s release.

There’s no doubting the combination of stunt work and visual effects delivered Western audiences a movie-going experience that had not previously seen in a mainstream Hollywood film.

The first half of THE MATRIX also cloaks itself in a film noir aesthetic, presenting a reverse-gender approach where the male (Thomas/Neo) is the one in “distress” and needs to be saved by the stronger, more worldy female (Trinity). (The pursuit of such a theme is not a surprise given Writer/Director Larry Wachowski’s own gender-reassignment that he took to become Lana some years later.)

The noir aesthetic of the computer-generated Matrix environment also extends into a strange psycho-sexual realm that sees the characters draped in leather and appearing as though they regularly inhabit S&M clubs, as suggested by a scene early in the film when Neo meets Trinity for the first time. It’s only back in the “real” world, aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, that the characters appear in regular outfits that highlight the challenges humanity face in their war against the machines, appearing more like refugees in their rickety old ship and seriously lacking the firepower to win the fight.

The film’s success lies the way the Wachowski’s took so many different ideas and repackaged them in such a way that made them feel different and gave the viewer some scope for drawing their own conclusions about what is going on.

Underneath the visual candy, there’s a simple but strong story about a young man finding his place in the world. It’s the classic hero’s journey story that has been told and retold for thousands of years, but, because it’s an aspirational story, people never tire of it regardless of the medium in which it’s presented.

THE MATRIX and STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE were released within seven weeks of each other and the anticipation for the new George Lucas film about everyone’s galaxy far, far away was extraordinary.

Unlike the original trilogy, THE PHANTOM MENACE didn’t resonate with viewers, as its themes were built around political and financial subjects such as the “taxation of trade routes”.

​THE MATIRX, however, found favour because it did exactly what Lucas did with STAR WARS in 1977 and presented the hero’s journey fable in a setting that was from another galaxy but possessed a comforting familiarity. THE MATRIX may not have developed quite the same fan base as STAR WARS, but it has certainly left its mark on the science fiction movie genre.

THE MATRIX (1999) USEFUL LINKS

The Matrix (1999) - IMDb
​The Matrix - Wikipedia
​The Matrix (1999) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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