How Video Games are Making it into Movies
The movie cirtic Nathan Donarum has brief post on Roger Ebert's blog where he wonders why the game "Gears of War" is in the film The Hurt Locker:
"On my second viewing of "The Hurt Locker," I noticed a curious detail. There is a scene in which Eldridge plays a video game. The video game is "Gears of War," a hyper-masculine, adrenaline-pumped game about...well, war. The main gameplay deals with firefights, and hiding behind different objects to avoid getting shot, and to avoid dying. It has a real focus on survival, and a real focus on the thrill of the fight."
His theory is that "Gears of War" was specifically picked because it defines the character who is playing it. That game is an accessory that is used for the character's development.
This is interesting because video games have served this role as character amplifier several times before.
Reign over me
A key seen in the 2007 film "Reign Over Me" featured a bereft (and no longer silly) Adam Sandler's playing Shadow of the Colossus as a way to cope with the family that his character lost in the 9/11 attacks. The inclusion of the game was an intentional way to show how Sandler's character was dealing with his monstrous grief. I am not reading too deeply,because in
an interview with Kotaku, the film's editor, Jeremy Roush, explained that they specifically picked the film because it shows his character was "Refusing to accept the death of loved ones. Seeking out an escape from that truth. Giants falling in slow motion. "You could see where someone who was dealing with 9/11 would be engrossed by a giant that keeps collapsing over and over again," he says. Charlie's therapy was Shadow of the Colossus."
The Ram
In the 2008 film "The Wrestler", the filmakers created an NES-looking wrestling game that starred Randy "the Ram" Robinson character. The game is used in a scene in which Randy tries impress a Modern-Warfare-playing neighborhood kid with the game. It was pathetic to see this dated superstar try to relive his glory days in 8-bit graphics while a kid impatiently looks for the door. Again, a video game is used to show how long past Robinson's wrestling career was and that for a new generation, the wrestler's career is worthless, and dated.
It used to be that if a character was shown playing a game it was to emphasize that was a nerd or a dropout. But now, the games they play show their emotions. In the past, director's might have done this using a book or a television program. It is interesting that video games now have enough depth and personality that they can stand in for a character's psyche.
