From: M. E. Smith (mesmith@rocketmail.com)
Date: Wed Mar 29 2000 - 15:20:45 MST
Re: The "two pills scene" in "The Matrix"
I've enjoyed the threads on "The Matrix",
and agree that, like most SF movies, it
had significant technical flaws.
(Batteries?!?!?!?)
The continued emphasis on the "two pills
scene" on this list has moved me to point
out something that will only make sense to
people knowledgable about Joseph Campbell's
ideas about mythology and what he called
the "monomyth": the "two pills scene" is
a classic "threshold of the adventure"
scene. The decision Neo is presented with
in the scene was whether or not to refuse
the "call to adventure".
In fact, the whole movie fits Cambell's
"monomyth" formula so well that it's almost
as if the filmakers were doing it intentionally,
as Lucas did with the first Star Wars movie.
This might be why the film seemed predictable.
One twist was that the "realm of
adventure", which is often some enchanted
realm outside of ordinary reality ("Oz",
etc.) was, in "The Matrix", ordinary reality
itself, as opposed to the virtual world of the
Matrix in which Neo grew up.
The "two pills scene" was Neo's last
chance to turn away from the adventure
and stay within the confines of the
world that he knew.
Had he backed down, according to Campbell,
he would either have become a tragic figure,
reduced to an existence without meaning
because he had refused his true calling,
or something bad would happen to force
him to change his mind. (Like when Luke
Skywalker's aunt and uncle were killed by
stormtroopers after he refuses Ben
Kenobi's request for assistance.)
=====
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M. E. Smith
mesmith@rocketmail.com
http://members.home.net/mesmith/
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