The Matrix Analysis

Titles

The film opens with the Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures splash art. It then cuts to presumably a computer screen with arbitrary symbols displayed. Out of these symbols, the title of the film, “THE MATRIX”, is shown on screen.

Music

The film opens with little to no music, almost inaudible at the start, however as the film progresses the music becomes more audible. We can tell that it is an epic orchestral instrumentation. It then cuts out as the main action of the opening begins. Throughout the rest of the opening there are various instrumental intermissions to emphasise certain actions, such as police breaking down a door.

Shots/Mise en scene/Character

The film opens with a close up shot of a computer screen, displaying sequences of endless numbers. The camera zooms in to the number 506, and the screen distorts into a CGI image of the distorted 0. It then cuts to a close up shot of the end of a torch, shining directly into the camera. The camera pans over to a policeman’s face. He then turns and nods at the policemen behind him, and the camera refocuses to the men in the background. We can see that the scene takes place in a dark, run-down apartment building, presumably at night. One officer walks up the hall, gun extended with a flashlight in the other hand, and the camera follows him. The camera then cuts to a medium shot from close to the floor of another two officers, checking doors of apartments. Then it cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the two officers approaching door number 303, and it pauses for a few seconds and pans round to show a third and fourth officer surrounding the door. The camera is now facing the 4 policemen from a slightly lower angle. The leftmost officer nods to the man on his left, who proceeds to kick down the door and all 4 officers rush in. The camera cuts round to a medium shot of a character, sitting on a chair at a laptop in one of the dank, musty apartments. The police begin barking their orders at the character. It then cuts to a close up shot of the character sitting down in front of the laptop, however the camera starts behind the laptop screen and slowly pans up. The character begins to put her hands up.

The camera suddenly cuts to a close crane shot of a sign on the side of a building, with the wording “Heart O’ the city Hotel”, presumably indicating the location of the scene. We then cut to another crane shot of a non-descript black car pulling up outside the location, where there are several other police patrol cars and policemen standing. The camera follows the car and slowly zooms out and pans up to capture the whole street. We then go to a medium shot of the car that just pulled up, and 3 identically dressed male characters get out of the car simultaneously. All 3 men have black suits with white shirts on, blacked out sunglasses and an earpiece on. One of the men begin to speak with a lieutenant from the police and engage in a few lines of dialogue. During this, the camera switches between over the shoulder shots of the two characters. As the dialogue ends, the man in the suit begins to walk towards the hotel, and we get a close up shot of his head and shoulders.

We then cut back to the apartment where the woman is about to be detained by police. We get a close shot of a policeman’s belt as he gets out his handcuffs. We can see the character standing up with her hands behind her head, slightly out of focus in the background. The camera then refocuses on her, before cutting round to a close shot of half of her face, with the policeman visible over her shoulder. Just as the officer approaches her, the camera cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the officer and she spins round to disarm the officer. A combat scene ensues, during which we see a range of shots, such as wide, medium, close up and over the shoulder shots. At the end, the character stands in the middle of the room and looks around at the 4 dead policemen lying around her. At this point we get a medium elevated shot of the 3 men in suits and several police officers walking into the hotel. It then cuts back to a shot of the woman on the phone, having a conversation with a man named Morpheus. The woman is identified as Trinity and instructed to reach a telephone before the agents do.

General Analysis

I think that the target audience for this film would be around the age of 16 and up. The film would most likely be appealing to anyone with an interest in technology, or simply a fan of intense action sequences and a long, twisting plot.

In the opening, Trinity is the main character that we see throughout. She appears to be a very well versed hacker, as well as being thoroughly trained in advanced combat, although she has almost superhuman abilities which we can only presume we learn about later on in the film. Due to this character style, it may be hard for anyone to relate to Trinity, however I think that the film tries to reach out to it’s target audience through their love of action and high-speed thrills.

The film was distributed by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures.

In conclusion, I would say that this film both challenges and obeys the codes and conventions of the genre. On one hand, it is typically filled with chases and fight scenes, but on the other hand, these scenes are given a bit more flavour through the characters’ unique abilities.