Originally published in South China Morning Post, March 20 2011
Technology is a theme overrepresented in modern cinema. From action-studded adventures such as The Matrix to overly convoluted visual feasts such as the recent Tron Legacy, many use the subject to awe rather than inspire, and few actually question technology’s role in society. eXistenZ, from shock artist David Cronenberg, is thankfully one such film.
Initially written off as one of Cronenberg’s weaker efforts upon its release, the film came in the middle of a poor streak for the director, and had the bad luck of following the controversy plagued, J.G. Ballard adaptation Crash. But time has been kind to the sci-fi mindbender, the film’s technological predictions and philosophical questions seeming more important than ever.
In terms of its technological theme, eXistenZ acts as a spiritual sequel to Cronenberg’s 1980s home-video horror Videodrome, where machinery evolved into the biological and organic, focusing instead on the ‘90s obsession with videogames and virtual reality. Set in a near future where interactive diversions allow users to literally escape by connecting their spinal chords directly into a game, the story taps into a virtual world to play double duty as a sci-fi shocker and molasses-black satire.
Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Allegra Geller, a leading game designer who has recently created eXistenZ, a game that has “realists” up in arms over its invasion of the artificial into everyday life. Ambushed by assassins during its debut, Geller escapes with a young trainee, played by a pre-fame Jude Law, as well as the only copy of the game. Fearing that eXistenZ has been damaged, Leigh convinces Law to test the game with her. Cue an entire world of depraved madness for Cronenberg to explore, one where the lines between the real and the virtual are constantly blurred.
But beneath the mystifying and the monstrous are deeper undercurrents of maturity previously unexplored in the work of Cronenberg. Touching on themes of existentialism (just look at the title), free will and most importantly, the role of technology, eXistenZ’s narrative was a product of pre-millennial panic, its tale of a forward-thinking radical battling extremist opposition being a thinly veiled take of the lack of choices afforded to author Salman Rushdie.
That the film’s release coincided with Rushdie’s reemergence out of hiding, ten years after his fatwa-inducing novel Satanic Verses, is no coincidence. By questioning whether advancements in technology – to many, the obvious next step in terms of art – would violently undermine the belief systems our civilized society had spent so long developing, Cronenberg intentionally mirrored Rushdie’s own faith-defying plight and the freedoms associated with it (Cronenberg and Rushdie are good friends in real life).
And while the film’s surface-level influence on such pop sci-fi films as Avatar and Inception is obvious, the importance of its subversive subject matter seems more relevant today than ever. At a time when cartoon representations are leading to assassinations and social media technology is integral in triggering uprisings and revolutions, eXistenZ stands out as, if not his best work, certainly Cronenberg’s most important.