Continuing my efforts to stay ahead of the curve, I watched "The Departed" last night. This very cleverly plotted film about Boston gangsters and undercover police is another of those contemporary stories that simply doesn't work without the mobile phone and the web. Obviously, the introduction of this technology has liberated screenwriters to devise scenes in which people can interact without being in the same space. Conversations can be engineered between any two characters at any point and the plot clipped along accordingly. At the moment this is all thrillingly new. I wonder how it will all look in ten years time when none of this is novel anymore. Maybe we'll just watch round it like we do when we see films from the 50s like "The Blue Lamp" and "The Lavender Hill Mob", which were equally delighted by the possibilities of the then new-fangled police radio car.
Friday, October 19, 2007
All Things Must Pass
Continuing my efforts to stay ahead of the curve, I watched "The Departed" last night. This very cleverly plotted film about Boston gangsters and undercover police is another of those contemporary stories that simply doesn't work without the mobile phone and the web. Obviously, the introduction of this technology has liberated screenwriters to devise scenes in which people can interact without being in the same space. Conversations can be engineered between any two characters at any point and the plot clipped along accordingly. At the moment this is all thrillingly new. I wonder how it will all look in ten years time when none of this is novel anymore. Maybe we'll just watch round it like we do when we see films from the 50s like "The Blue Lamp" and "The Lavender Hill Mob", which were equally delighted by the possibilities of the then new-fangled police radio car.
I can't imagine what lies ahead. Brain implants I suppose. Lots of people wandering around talking to themselves.
ReplyDeletewell, it also makes you wonder about shows that appear relatively timeless UNTIL you notice the fact that there are no mobile Phones. I reckon if Mobiles had been widespread in California in the mid to late nineties, Buffy the Vampire Slayer would have pretty much vanquished everything halfway thru series two. No need for any 'I'd better go and warn Giles/Mother/Willow'...sod that, just send 'em a text "U R dead if u don't hide :("
ReplyDeleteYou say this but...my experience of watching American films in the post-mobile world (particularly in the horror genre) is that almost invariably the mobile phone cannot pick up a signal, or has no power, or has some other restriction that would otherwise simplify the plot structure. Hence the hero can't simply 'phone a friend' to save the day.
ReplyDelete24 would be unimaginable without mobiles.
ReplyDelete