Paper 6: In need of Prayer

Kimberly Ferguson
Dr. Smith: Living in The Matrix
English 101/103 LIB 110
December 3, 2009.
Essay 6
Sleep Dealer is obviously influenced by The Matrix (among other films). What connections do you see to The Matrix and like films? What differences do you see? What do these differences say about issues of race (i.e. Sleep Dealer is ostensibly a Mexican production—what elements or themes in the film mark it “particularly Latino” or “particularly Mexican”? What does Sleep Dealer have to say about the rural life versus urban life?

Sleep Dealers is a 2008 Mexican science fiction film that was influenced by many other American films. From watching Sleep Dealers I have observed similarities from the film The Matrix as well as the story of The Allegory of the Cave. The largest similarity within Sleep Dealers and the Matrix was that the human beings within these 2 films found themselves plugging in to some type of network. After the main character (Memo) father dies he sets off to a city by the name of Tijuana to find work. Here he finds an illegal way to get the node that he will use to plug it transferred into his body. The node is needed in order for Memo to do the job where he has to plug in. To me the job that Memo does is similar to The Allegory of the Cave. Memo’s job entails being plugged in to a network for numerous hours, for so long sometimes the workers fall asleep. In the opening of the movie it looks as if there are people who are all dressed the same plugged in a large chamber being held captive. Memo then states “Sometimes I forgot where I was” and if they look some juice “One became blind”. This gives me the impression that this factory was some type of slave environment. The same way in which those in The Allegory of the cave were treated. Also the Military drone in Sleep Dealer can be compared to the Nebuchadnezzar in the Matrix.
The two films were not always similar. They also held differences between them. Other than subtitles and Spanish dialogue there were more differences among Sleep Dealer and The Matrix. The type of town or should I say setting is a main difference. Sleep dealers is set in a time period close to the one we now live in and in the Matrix it is said to be about 2199. The predominant race in the film Sleep dealers are Mexicans or Latinos living in rural areas. The all Mexican cast marks the film as a particularly Latino. This can be seen as another difference amongst the Matrix. The Matrix had a mostly Caucasian cast (except for Morpheus).
The beginning of Sleep Dealers was set in a rural area. And as the movie progresses that changes into something more urban. Memo easily adapts to this lifestyle since this is where he always wanted to be. At the beginning he always wanted to live somewhere else. And he would make machines to and he would listen to radio transactions or phones and what was going on in the other parts of the world. Through this I believe there was a point trying to be made. In sleep dealers it is seen that urban life is preferred opposed to the rural life. According to the film urban life is “The American Dream” and that is where everyone wants to be. Hence the reason for so many people plugging in to their jobs where there is “Labor without Laborers”. I also think the film was trying to portrait how Mexicans that come to America are labored but in a different manner.