Essay 6

Evidence of influence of the movie The matrix is very evident in the movie Sleep dealer. Both movies have the concept of being "connected" in a physical/mental sense. In the The Matrix the crew literally plugged themselves in to the computer generated Matrix, in Sleep Dealers a similar idea is portrayed. Memo the protagonist of the movie, gets Nanos which are basically plugs shot in the skin that connect with the nervous system and plugs him self into the "other" world. When he receives a job as a Sleep Dealer he is plugged into a somewhat virtual world, where he can work while his physical self is still in Mexico but his mind is computerized and sent to New York to work in the form of a machine. But unlike the Matrix the movie remains down to earth, humans still maintain control. In a way it is just an evolution of how we become more attached to technology even implementing it into our very selves rather then it being an extension.

Another difference I observed is coloring. In the matrix the "real world" was very dull and drab in comparison to the Matrix which was lively and colorful. Sleep Dealer both worlds are filled with color, the virtual worlds color seems more artificial. Race is discussed in both films but one being racial while the other is based on class. In Sleep Dealer when Memo goes to the workshop looking for a job the instructor says "The city gets what it wants all the work without all the workers." This can be taken as reference racism in today’s society. America complains about illegal immigrants especially Mexicans but they do a lot of the hard labor that most Americans don't. Mexicans are looked upon as lowly yet we hire them for every job because we can pay them at a cheaper rate. In the matrix race is separated by class, Machine vs. Humans each trying to fight and say it is higher then the other.

Themes that give clue to that Sleep Dealer is a Mexican film are locations and lifestyle. In the movie most people in the city are from very small rural towns where agriculture is their main form of income. Style is another factor although influenced by western culture you still see remnants of the original culture ie. Sombreros and ponchos. Mariachi bands are seen throughout the movie also giving the feeling of a Mexican production.

The differences between rural life and urban are evident in Sleep Dealer. People living in rural areas are more connected with the earth. Everyone does things for themselves without the need of machinery. It also a lot more natural, natural resources are used to live. In the city everyone has or uses some type of technology/machinery, in the movie to an extreme extent where you can physically put yourself in the virtual world by plugging cords into yourself. The idea of city connecting into networks and actually becoming a part of one’s self is used and discussed in Me++ by William J Mitchell. He discusses how the attachment and connection of the body and city has become more and more literal with recent years. "Embedded within a vast structure of nested boundaries and ramifying networks, my muscular and skeletal, physiological and nervous system have been artificially augmented and expanded. My reach extends indefinitely and interacts with similarly extended reaches of others to produce a global system of transfer, actuation, sensing and control".(pg19) In this segment he basically discusses how technology has transformed an connected him to with world. It artificially gives him a longer reach to the outside and allows him to interact with everyone on the outside. The he goes on to state "my biological body meshes with the city; the city itself has become not only my domain of networked cognitive system, but also-and crucially-the spatial and material embodiment of the system". (pg19) In other words his body have connected and become a part of the city and the city has evolved into more than just one simple network but a piece of the entire system. If written simply it would look like Person=City= Piece of entire system.

The Sleep Dealer only provides evidence of what Mitchell is speaking of. Providing us with examples of what may very well happen in the future and show just how far we have gone, to the point we now ourselves have very literally becoming cyborgs. And it is only expanding in an alarmingly fast rate. When Memo plugged himself into the network he became a piece of the puzzle that is the system. Even before that when he moved into the City he had already begun to implement himself into the system. But when he lived in his small village he was connected into the earth itself, using nature and human instinct to survive. In all the rural life is portrayed as natural and connected with the earth, more human in a sense. Urban life is portrayed as connecting with the system more robot-like, cyborg.