Stunning and Influential

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2013)

My dad called my name, and said "you've got to see this!"
I walked into the living room and just stood there, watching the TV screen. It was the Matrix. He had rented it from Blockbuster. I was 10.
Carrie-Anne Moss kicking ass. Doing weird stuff in leather- killing a squad of police officers, jumping over roof gaps, skydiving through a tiny window. I was riveted. Was she a mutant, or maybe some sort of superhero?
Then she picks up a pay phone, and you hear that dial up sound I knew from the internet modem. It was really strange, because a man in a business suit runs over the phone booth with a 8 wheeler truck, but she has disappeared.
& so on.
The Matrix immediately became one of my favorite movies, along with Dark City & The Truman Show. (I was a weird kid.) It put a new context to philosophical concepts like "brain in the vat," "free will vs. determinism" & "existential rebellion." It was terrifying to think about: what if my whole life is an illusion? There didn't seem to be any way to prove it one way or the other. Many people have gone mad trying to think about it.
The Matrix was the perfect movie for its time. Neo is the hero of my generation, a computer hacker taking on the machine, a Messiah with punk-rock values. In some ways, this movie is the antithesis of modern Christianity, because instead of 'life after death' the Matrix promotes 'truth on earth.' The hero questions everything, especially authority (Agent Smith). I went to a private Christian School, and I'm so glad I got to see this movie to counterbalance what was being forced into my head.
There's so much more to touch upon. Morpheus' character. Cipher. Artificial Intelligence. The perfectly underplayed love story between Neo and Trinity. The big question: Why didn't the machines use a more obvious, easy, efficient fuel source, such as nuclear power? Why go through all the hassle of hooking up human beings to a virtual-reality world?
I was very lucky to be born in 1989, right before the peak of Western Civilization. (According to Agent Smith.) I ask myself what was the most formative movie of my boyhood: the way I view society, thoughts about my place in the universe, my approach to love: Fight Club? The Truman Show? Dark City?
Nah. It's got to be The Matrix.