Entry 6 : Communication Technology In Films

Alright, for my sixth entry, I will be discussing about the communication technology in films. Most of the movies today are using technology to communicate. Whether it is a simple call from loved ones, or a ransom call from a terrorist, mobile phone tends to have an interesting way to tell a story.

In Die Hard movie, the protagonist, John McClane communicate with Hans Gruber, the leader of the terrorists through a walkie talkie. This is one of the iconic scene that build up the characters without having them meeting each other face to face yet. When they finally meet up, the tension of the situation starts to grow as McClane does not know how Hans look like. By using walkie talkie, voice are the only thing that the characters in the story can hear. Hans was playing smart as he changed his tone of voice to cover up his identity, and passes himself off as an escaped hostage. 

Another example of using communication technology as a plot device is the movie called Phone Booth. It is a 2002 American film that literally uses the phone booth as the main location from the start to the end of the story. The story is about a mysterious sniper called a publicist named Stuart Shepard from a phone booth and being pull into danger as Stu is the target himself. With the film confined within the phone booth area, it does a fantastic job in showing how the sniper speaking to Stu through the phone and the presence of intensity of the whole situation. The sniper character will need to show his emotion through his voice without even giving the audience any screen time of him until the very end. 

However, the long shadow of communication technology may provide some difficulties to tackle with. Technology has become so advanced that the film directors have to keep up with it in order to write a believable story. From an article written by Joe Queenan, he stated that the film directors "won't pretend their characters lack the most basic, obvious information-gathering and communications skills, because it leaves such a gaping hole in the middle of the story"(Queenan, 2011). 

This will somewhat explain why some recent films like Inglourious Basterds, Robin Hood and more have been set in the past, as the story won't be ruin by the modern communication technology. We have no problem in believing in vampires, ghost, monsters and other extraterrestrials, but as Queenan put it, "it is impossible to get anyone to believe that a character in a horror film or thriller would not be armed with the technology needed to foil the depredations of his rampaging, bloodthirsty stepfather"(Queenan, 2011). 

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References & Resources:

Favorite Scene of Alan Rickman from Die Hard. (2016). [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mklnXM3LIXo [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016].

Queenan, J. (2011). The movie plots that technology killed. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jul/28/technology-killed-film-plots-hollywood [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016].