The Matrix vs. the Crucible

The Matrix stars Keanu Reeves as Neo who is a software programmer by day and a computer hacker at night. He believes there is a conspiracy about the Matrix. He does not know what or who the Matrix is. Morpheus who is the leader of the free people seeks Neo out. He believes Neo is the Messiah who will lead people away from the Matrix and into the real world. Morpheus believes that Neo will save them from the machines that are now controlling people’s lives.

The Matrix is a virtual reality world that the machines created to keep humans in their place. Humans are no longer born, but are grown in machines and in rows that resemble mechanical cornfields. The machines need human energy to survive off of. They have killer agents known as the Sentient Agents in the virtual reality world to kill off any free humans.

The Sentient Agents interrogate Neo for the location of Morpheus. Morpheus is their most dangerous free human. Neo joins ranks with Morpheus and his gang of rebels, because of his desire for the truth and justice. There are battles in virtual reality. Morpheus sacrifices himself so Neo can get away. Neo and Trinity save Morpheus. Neo is left behind and battles the dreaded Sentient Agents. The Sentient Agents get the best of him and he almost dies but has the will to survive and kills the agent. The film ends with Trinity and Neo kissing on Morpheus’s spaceship.

There are three heroes in this film, who are: Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity. They are willing to sacrifice their lives to live in a true world rather than virtual reality. They do not want to be slaves to the system. They want to destroy it. They are the liberals.

The villains are the Sentient Agents whom attack and kill any free human. They are conservatives. They dress the same. They are programmed to move and think the same way. They were created by the system.

Despite the fact this film is set in the future, its theme is similar to The Crucible. Instead of the young girls leading the town astray, it is now the machines. The machines create an illusion with virtual reality as the girls did with their tales of how the town’s people sent spirits to them. The machines are self-motivated like Abigail is in The Crucible. Free persons or “unfriendly” witnesses are persecuted by the Sentient Agents like the witnesses who would not confess to Satanism. The machines are crucifying the humans as the judges did with the town’s people in the witch trials. This time there is no court, only executions.

Leo is not allowed to continue working unless he abides by the system. If he continues to be a hacker he will lose his job and maybe his life. He is interrogated by the Sentient Agents for the location of Morpheus. He refuses to speak and they make his lips melt away into his face. They also plant a bug in him. This is similar to the treatment of unfriendly witnesses at the witch trials. The judges wish to control their minds and tongues as the Sentient Agents desire to do with Neo.

Morpheus undergoes an interrogation by the Sentient Agents when he is caught. They drug him and ask him for the location of Zion, which is a sanctuary for free humans. They want the location to destroy the free humans so they will not free other humans. Morpheus never gives in, but he survives unlike the unfriendly witnesses in The Crucible. He is willing to die as John Proctor is for the higher good of all.

There is a traitor in each of these films that gives the heroes or unfriendly witnesses away. In The Crucible it was Abigail but in The Matrix it is Cypher. They are at first confidents then they become traitors. If Neo and John Proctor are the Messiahs then Abigail and Cypher are the Judases. They are not satisfied knowing the truth, because they can not accept it. They try to change the world around them instead of the world inside themselves.

The Matrix was released in 1999. This was a time when the Y2K bug was most feared by Americans. Americans feared that it would screw up all the computers that were made prior to the new programming for the millennium turnover.

The Nation is dependent on computers and this might have resulted in many business miscalculations. Virtual reality games were introduced in the mid-to-late nineties also. They were very popular with Americans.

The film and production studio that produced The Matrix is Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers formed Vitaphone and had developed the sound on disk process where a recording could be played alongside a film and synchronized with it in 1926.

They first used the Vitaphone system during musical numbers in The Jazz Singer in 1927. Then in 1928, they released their first all talking feature entitled, Lights of New York. It is only natural that they would release a film on the cutting edge like The Matrix because they were always ahead of the other film studios.

The film was written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski. This is their second film. Their first film is entitled, Bound, and it did well at the box office. They are known for their perfection and special effects in their films. They give Americans what they want to see which are violence, battles, and special effects. They are new directors so they tend to be more experimental of subject matter.

The Matrix is an attention grabbing film. It is easy to watch because it is visually entertaining with all its special effects. The plot is an old plot of conspiracy. If you are not for us then you are against us. It mirrors the historical struggles that have persecuted people based on their religion (Spanish Inquisition and Salem Witch Trials), race (Nazi Germany), and their politics (HUAC hearings in Hollywood). It is the new technology of Virtual Reality based on an old theme of injustice that will continue unless society changes on a whole.