Consumerism; Fate or Free Will?

     In The Matrix the audience watches a lazy hacker named Thomas Anderson transform into a badass hero known as Neo or “The One”. We don’t actually get very much background to Neo or the rest of the characters in the movie. This itself leaves the audience wishing that we could get a prequel to explain how the group got together or how Morpheus became unplugged in the first place. Either way this major transformation of our protagonist, Neo, leaves the audience questioning things about the real world and the world of the Matrix.

     Sunglasses are a common prop/motif in the Matrix that appear not only on the bad guys (the programs) but on the good guys as well (Neo’s team). Sunglasses hide the eyes and reflect those who are being looked at. The removal of sunglasses signals that a character is gaining a new or different perspective, or that he or she is vulnerable or exposed in some way. Or there just there to make people look really cool. Either way, when Morpheus offers Neo his crucial choice between the pills. The blue pill is reflected in one shade of his sunglasses, the red pill in the other. To choose between a red pill and a blue pill, Morpheus offers the choice between fate and free will. Leading to this theme of free will versus fate the audience can’t help but to wonder how did Neo get to this moment? How did he become obsessed with trying to find out what the Matrix was anyway? A prequel would be nice, but at last were only left with questions.

     Though Neo is the exemplar of free will, fate plays a crucial role in his adventure. Neo, Morpheus and Trinity all especially rely on the Oracle, and everything she says comes true in some way. If she can see around time and guide people to the right decision at each encounter, they don’t have to exhibit much, if any, free will. Morpheus tries to describe the Oracle as a “guide,” not someone who knows the future. This makes me think that the only source of free will for everyone (besides Neo) is the power of believing or not believing. The Oracle tells Trinity that she will fall in love with the one. She fell in love with Neo and thus believed he was the one. Could she have fallen in love with someone else and they would have been considered the one? This would then make Trinity a force like the Oracle and the Morpheus who pushed Neo into enforcing a predetermined fate that could have been intended for him or potentially someone else. The audience is left wondering how the romance will continue between Neo and Trinity and how it will affect their choices later on.

To me, it seems like the red pill would lead to the real world where there’s a preconstructed fate, but you can make your own decisions or take the blue pill and have your decisions preconstructed made for you by the Matrix. The rules of the real world or the Matrix world don’t seem to be completely applied to our protagonist Neo. He choses to fall in love with Trinity, it was not predetermined he just helped that reality become true. Morpheus was supposed to die saving him but Neo chose to go save him and to keep from that fate becoming a reality. In another way, as an integral part of the Matrix, the Oracle’s intelligence and composure lead her visitors to believe what she says, a trust that perhaps renders her prophecies self-fulfilling. In this sense, she shares the same final goals as Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity, as they actively try to shape the future.

     By making us question whether or not Neo and his friends can actually save Zion and the people in the Matrix they leave room to keep the story going. Questions keep people interested and the Matrix certainly leaves its audience with a lot of them. This leaves plenty of room to create a sense of desire to get us to buy movie merchandise, games and of course see the what’s next in the sequel. Only with the power of suggestion can the movie franchize continue to draw us in to keep pushing us to consumerism. Just like Trinity, the Oracle and Morpheus pushed Neo to be the one, the movie indistry pushes us to be cosumers. Dun dunn dunnnnnn. 

Dehumanization

Ridley Scott’s film, Alien, has many themes, but in this post we’ll be examining how the movie reflects American ideological capitalism. The audience can see this reflection especially in the context of the crew ominously works for a corporation know as “The Company”. At the begging of the film, the crew are cryogenically frozen thus meaning they are reliant on the ship’s life support system and making them apart of the machine. Being a part of the machine is not just meant figuratively here because the crew acts as an extension of an American corporation that represents capitalism at its most systematic root making everything seem computerized and inhuman. We later find out in the movie that “The Company” does not trust the crew members and sent an android representative (Ash the Scientist) aboard to make sure the company’s plans go smoothly. Ash is a fully dehumanized worker because he’s an android which makes him the ultimate company man because he will do as he’s told. Before the audience realizes he’s a robot we got a clue to his real identity when we watched the scene where Captain Dallas dies. We explicitly see the horrified and saddened reaction on each of the crew members faces, except for Ash. The camera provides the viewer with a medium close up shot of Ash’s face looking blank and expressionless as Dallas dies. As a robot doing what he is told, Ash feels no emotion and accepts that it’s necessary to sacrifice human life in order to keep the alien safe until “The Company” has obtained it. The corporation is so determined to get the alien that they instruct Ash to see the crew as expendable comparatively to the life of the alien. Thus the movie promotes the worldview that the powerful and wealthy (“The Company”) is corrupt and inhuman in the way that it puts alien life before human life.

    One of the key fears in science fiction is the prospect of dehumanization. In Alien we see this fear in the form of Ash the robot, but we also see it in the alien threat to take over the humans by incorporating them into the alien reproductive cycle. The reproductive cycle is powerful element that is usually associated with maternity and the power of the mother/female. Alien certainly has a strong female protagonist and explores the fear associated with birth and sexuality. In the very beginning we see the alien jump out and attack the character Kane. It forces a probe down his throat and plants an embryo of some sort into his torso region. This act of violent penetration signifies as an act of rape which thus takes away the masculinity that Kane holds as being a male. This then makes him seem more feminine like in the moment that he “gives birth” to alien as it grotesquely rips itself from its womb. The audience sees another moment of violent penetration when Ash tries to kill Ripley once she has discovered the truth. Ash rolls up a pornographic magazine and turns it into a phallic symbol when he shoves it down her throat to smother her. Even behind we see images of half naked women on the wall. The force of sexual behavior behind both the scene of the alien and Kane and of Ash and Ripley stands to show that one side holds the power in the fight against humans (through the forcing of phallic symbols through each of the human characters mouths). The dehumanized individual seeks to only gain something for themselves whether or not the human figure will die. Thus we see the alien, the robot (Ash), and the Company all as emblems of the american capitalist ideology that tends to dehumanize those who are a part of the machine. The audience sees that if an individual like Ripley works hard to take personal initiative and puts human life (and a cat’s life) above everything else will thus makes her the admirable hero.

Lighting for Curiosity and Fear

     Steven Spielberg’s film, A Close Encounter of a Third Kind, is loaded with image systems that serve to make themes of motifs more prominent for the audience. Mercado states that “the use of recurrent images and compositions in a film add layers of meaning to a narrative” (21). Spielberg uses lighting to convey the sense of curiosity and uneasiness that come with encountering the unknown.

     There’s three separate stories surrounding the encounter with extraterrestrial beings. The first story is the government trying to gain contact with the aliens. The more important story is that which follow Roy (our protagonist) and the story of Barry and his mother Jillian. In the opening scene with the government we see someone running the control room for planes. This gives us a sense of control and order because everything is monitored very closely so that planes don’t collide. Suddenly something appears in the radar and almost crashes into the planes. This is the government’s first contact with the aliens. The scene of the man in the flight control room is suspenseful in that he is trying to direct the planes to keep them from colliding with the unknown that suddenly appeared somehow. The juxtaposition of control and then chaos/lack of control is important for lighting for the rest of the film.

     Roy is sent out of the house because of a power outage that randomly occurs in the town (the aliens probably did it). His job requires him to go out and try to fix/figure out what’s happening when he stops his truck to look at a map to figure out where he’s going. We suddenly see bright headlights in behind Roy’s truck. He motions for them to go past him and the car creates a bunch of dust that then creates a feeling of confusion. Then we see what looks like headlights behind Roy’s truck again. Instead a car go around we suddenly see the lights float up. When Roy first encounters the aliens a bright white light appears over his truck. This bright white light should give off a calm and friendly feeling, but once we see what’s happening in the car it feels disorientating. When the objects in the car start moving and floating around it we feel the confusion and fear that Roy is feeling. This is representative of how when we don’t understand something we tend to fear the unknown. In supernatural encounters things floating around are usually seen as a sign of malicious intent. Roy doesn’t know what the intent of the aliens are, he simply knows he doesn’t understand. The audience can infer that even though it seems like chaos the light let’s the watcher realize that maybe the aliens aren’t here to harm, they’re simply making contact.

     In Barry’s case all of toy’s come alive while he’s sleeping. This again is a way of making the audience understand that contact with something we don’t understand tends to frighten us. However, after the aliens came in contact with both of these characters, the characters became fascinated and wanted to know more about them. We know this because we saw Barry try to chase the space ship when he runs into the field and later in the road, and Roy tried to follow them in his truck. Barry’s later encounters the aliens and the lighting suddenly makes the audience feel uncertain in their intentions. We saw them bring a white calming, comforting light over Roy but they used a harsh red light when Barry opened the door for them. This red light thus adds to the violence of the scene when Barry is abducted and pulled out of the arms of his mother.

     In the final scene the lighting returns back to the bright white color we originally saw in the beginning of the film. The mother-ship comes over Devil’s Tower and creates a massive beam of light onto the people. The ship then lands and the bright light is used to obscure the image of the aliens who were coming out of the ship. So even though the audience finally gets to see them come out of the ship and make contact with the people directly, the lighting still makes people feel a sense of mystery surrounding the aliens and their intentions.

     Throughout the whole film the audience is in caught in the feeling of anticipation, curiosity and confusion with the characters of trying to understand what’s going on. The lighting often served as a mirror of the feeling to help establish a better relationship with the audience and the characters within the story. Thus, the lighting enhances the image systems and successfully heightens the mixed feelings of being fascinated and afraid of trying to understand something that is unknown to us.

Robot Robby the Real Hero

     Ken Burkes article Hero’s and Villains in American Film states that “we constantly find the source of characters, their conflicts and their resolutions to be grounded in the legends triumphs and symbolic values of the ancient social savior, the legendary hero”. Often times it’s said that the villain creates and shapes our hero’s, but it’s not often that hero’s create villains. These statements serves true for one our hero’s in the science fiction film, Forbidden Planet. I literally meant it when I said that our supposed villain (he’s really more of an anti-hero than a common villain), Dr. Morbius physically assembled and created our hero out of advanced alien technology. Though he may not be an obvious hero, Robby the Robot was ultimately the one who helped the audience and the other characters in the movie figure out the mystery behind the creature killing people. Commander Adams and the Doc were also hero’s but they weren’t as essential as Robby. This is hinted to us in the main title screen before you play the movie. We see Robby standing heroically in the center holding a female who resembles Altaria, looking like a damsel in distress. Burke states, “there are types of heroes and villains in all of these stories, but the emphasis on who the lead character is remains the key as to what the story is trying to tell us”. And Robby is that key to explaining what the story is trying to tell us about human nature and the subconscious mind. At first I was surprised in my thinking that Robby was the hero, because often times in film we see that robots are villains. This is because humans have a tendency to fear technology that can surpassed the abilities of humans. Robby the Robot is more than a mechanical tin on legs, he displays a distinct humanistic personality that makes him extremely likable.

Throughout the movie Robby helps a multitude of people, in little ways. For example, he made Altaria a new dress when she requested one and he helped the chef of the ship out when he created 60 gallons of bourbon. This then makes us realize that he’s always helping others. He also posses physical power, technological power and an obvious sense of intelligence that we see in his wit. Though these are great qualities we’re really more impressed that he has principles. When Dr. Morbuis is demonstrating to Commander Adams what Robby can do, we realize that he can tell the difference between what’s considered morally right and morally wrong. Often times we see the hero struggle with this idea of morality. Is it okay to kill if you kill a bad guy? Is a bad guy always purely bad? These sorts of questions can lead to an inner struggle that we witness Robby posses. In the demonstration we see Dr. Morbuis order Robby to kill the commander. At first we see him raise the gun, but then he begins to short circuit himself. Dr. Morbuis explains that if he were to continue struggling with the command without it being canceled, Robby would eventually self-destruct. This is really important for two reasons. The first being that this inability to kill humans with conscious minds leads us to discover that the sort of invisible monster running around is an extension of Dr. Morbuis’ mind. His mind had created a living manifestation of the animalistic id located deep within his subconsciousness. This is the main scene that conveys what the movie is trying to tell us. Without Robby’s short circuiting the commander may have not put together the pieces that Doc left him before he died. Secondly, Robby’s inability to kill others puts the viewer’s/the character’s in the films mind at ease knowing that he can’t turn against anyone. Thus we feel that we can trust him as an advanced piece of technology and as a person. Robby conveyed the truth and put others before himself. Who doesn’t want a hero like Robby?

Secretes and Trust

     Throughout Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious there seems to be a reoccurring theme of trust. I believe that it’s a driving force that defines some of the characters, especially the character played by Ingrid Bergman named Alicia. I think the character has a difficult time trusting others which thus impacts the way she creates and maintains her relationships through out the film. To me, this seems fair for her to do considering that she’s constant being hunted and watched. When we first see her she’s being bombarded with questions by people from the media asking her about her father. In the opening party she’s wearing a zebra printed shirt that symbolizes her as prey. She’s then watched by Devlin who requests for her to infiltrate Sebastian plans and once again is watched constantly by Sebastian and his mother later on. This sort of attention is called to her because she holds a significant amount of sex appeal throughout the whole film. This sort of power makes her an interesting character because that sort of sexual freedom she emulates was considered very inappropriate for a woman of her time. This sort of power was actually sort of a weakness in the sense that she forced to use her sexuality for political purposes. When she originally meets and falls in love with Devlin she expresses that she wants to change (less drinking, less sexual encounters, be more trusting etc.), but then she finds out the details of her assignment means becoming involved with one of her fathers ex-nazi associates. She hopes that Devlin will tell her she shouldn’t do, but he doesn’t. Thus she feels discouraged and goes back to her notorious self. I feel like her lack of trust in others and her desire to be different than she is makes her a sympathetic character to the audience.

Driven by her own psychology flaws and faults I think she uses drinking as a way to distance herself from others. Throughout the movie Alicia’s actions show her to be a type of person who self-sabotages herself through drinking as a way for to escape pain. We see her hide the emotional rejection she feels at the at the opening party, the outdoor cafe in Rio, the apartment in Rio, then her drinking becomes even more dangerous when Sebastian and his mother administer their poison through Alicia’s coffee. Ironically she almost dies like her father, through poison. Her father purposefully poisoned himself and Alicia also seems to behave recklessly. At least we known where she gets it from. We especially see secrets and trust at play when Alicia is being poisoned by her husband. Alex knows that killing her quickly would call attention to himself, he knows that she can’t stay alive and knows that if his Nazi coworkers found out he would be killed. Thus the poising is administered slowly and discretely so that he can keep her identity secret and keep his associates trust. Similarly once Alicia falls sick and meets up with Devlin she once again masks her pain by playing off her sickness as a major hangover.

Although the movie is centered around a group of Nazi’s potentially trying to blow up the United States or the world, the viewers are much more focused on what happens to the love relationship between Devlin and Alicia. Devlin is extremely important to Alicia’s character. Devlin uses her as sexual bait for political reasons and she does the job well, he becomes cold and distant from her. Alicia fears that she will be abandoned by the man she loves when she was placed in her predicament because of him. Not to say that Devlin is a bad guy, he just didn’t take responsibility for putting Alicia through what she did. We see Devlin truly feel powerless in his say of things when he uses the champagne bottle as a phallic symbol of power, but then leaves it behind in front of his boss when he finds out the details of the assignment. Ultimately, Devlin’s physical and mental powers aren’t enough for his character, and Alicia’s sex appeal isn’t enough for her. It’s within the relationship between these two characters where we see them pulling the best out of each other. Devlin exemplifies the importance of love and trust to characterization when he comes back for her in the end. The relationship they have brings out the two most appealing powers an audience looks for in their protagonists: principles and will-power.

Snow Days Don’t Last Forever

In two separate scenes we see Kane holding a snow globe prop. The first time we see it in the film it’s dropping out of his hand and shattering as he dies. It’s important to note that he says the two mysterious words while holding it before he died: Rose-Bud. The first time Kane see’s the globe is when he meets his second wife, Susan. The snow globe reminds him of the snow in his home town of Colorado and of the simpler life he had before he was taken by Thatcher and separated from his mother. Much like the peaceful qualities of the snow globe, Susan’s singing reminds him of his mother. Susan mentions that her mother used to like to hear her sing and Kane uses this time to mention his mother. He rarely ever mentions her anywhere else in the film. Thus he bonds his fond times with his mother to his time with Susan.

We see the snow globe re-appear in the scene where Susan leaves him. Thus reminding him of when his mother forced him to leave her. He’s reminded that he isn’t able to control those around him in the sense that he couldn’t convince his mother to come with him and couldn’t convince his wife to stay. These thoughts sends Kane into a tantrum like state where out of frustration, anger and sadness he destroys everything that used to be in Susan’s room. Except he doesn’t destroy the snow globe. Once he calm’s down he picks up the globe walks to another room and utters the words “Rose-Bud” for the second time. Rose-Bud was the name of his sled from when he was a child. Thus we can assume that the snow globe and the name of the sled are pieces of his childhood that he doesn’t want to let go. The snow itself, whether fake in the globe or real from the scene of him playing with his sled, can be best represented as a metaphor for burring the past and his desire to freeze the memories of his childhood.

We see Kane hold onto many objects and he seems to be a collector and a pack rat; Someone who saves everything. His materialism serves as a way to fill the void of all the loss he endured in his life. Kane losses his relationship with his mother, with his two wives, with his friend Leeland, eventually even losses his newspaper and the governor election. His whole life he never care about the money that was forced upon him. His true search was in finding meaningful relationships that would last. He begins trying to control people in his life, which might explain his obsession with statues. He can place them where ever he pleases and he can choose to pay attention to them or not to pay attention. With statues Kane has the power to control them to however he pleases. But unfortunately he can’t control or force actual human beings to do as he pleases. I’m sure Kane wishes he could force and control people to love him as easily as he could move a statue. In his death Kane wasn’t surrounded by people he loved, he was surrounded by the images of solid statues that looked like people. Even though he purchases so many statues, the only two possessions that carry meaning for Kane on his death bed are the sled and the snow globe. The two objects that hold sentimental value.

In the beginning of Kane’s story we see these sentimental objects as positive props, but they quickly turn into painful reminders. When we first see the sled it’s in Kane’s moment of happiness playing as a young boy. When we first see the snow globe it’s a moment of hope as an adult in finding a connection with another person. The movie sadly ends with the snow globe shattering and the wood of the sled burning. These two events emphasize the loneliness and his inability to relate with others. He never was able to find the connection and admiration that he so desperately wanted from someone and he was never able to gain back the childhood he lost

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