The Wachowski brother's 'The Matrix' presents a world of illusion, where nothing is as it seems. A world created by computers, run by artificial intelligence. It draws strongly on Platonic theory by showing that only when this fake world is looked at from the outside, from an objective viewpoint, can it be understood, and only when this world of imitation is understood can it be overcome.

The work of art in the contemporary world sees allegory, ie. the ability of the story to tell another point for point, as a crucial characteristic. This criteria allows for depth in the work beyond aesthetic, giving art various possible readings and interpretations and allowing the artist/director to retell a story and simultaneously put their own perspective on the tale. The sci-fi epic The Matrix is a prime example of this very post-modern trait. Several allegories are contained within The Matrix's structure and content. The obvious and relevant allegories that of Plato's cave.

Durham, S 'Conceiving the Simulacrum', in Phantom Communities: The Simulacrum and the limits of Postmodernism, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1998.

Deleuze, G 'The Simulacrum and Ancient Philosophy', in The Logic of Sense, Columbia University Press, New York, 1990

"Suppose one of them was unchained". Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, is The Matrix's version of Plato's man enlightened. Just as the man who escapes from his chains in Plato's tale, Neo is released from his coffin and brought into the real world, the world outside the Matrix. As in Plato's story, it takes time for Neo to comprehend the Truth. Plato says, 'What if he was made to look at the firelight itself? Wouldn't it hurt his eyes?" Neo, too, is unable to use his eyes properly. He asks Orpheous, his rescuer from the Matrix, what is wrong with his eyes, why they hurt so much. Orpheous tells him, "it is the first time you've ever used them". He is born again.

Purcell, J. Plato's Theory of Film, internet source, class handout.

Plato, 'Art and Imitation: Plato, Republic', in J. Cottingham (ed.). Western Philosophy: An Introduction, Blackwell, London, 1996.

The next step for Plato is to explain the role of the imitators, the 'stagehands' who are presenting a false version of reality to the captives. The dummies being carried by the actors back and forth are mere simulacra of the real, the essence. They resemble the real in appearance only, and have a most subversive effect, because they are giving the captives an entirely false version of reality. Now, if we look at The Matrix, it's clear that the 'stagehands' are the robot race, who are controlling The Matrix, the world of copies, which is all that the captives are given as a basis of reality. So the Matrix is the dummies, the simulacra.

Plato's account of imitation from his Republic work argues that

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