Reign Over Me and Video Games as Art
Last night, I saw the movie Reign Over Me. If you're unfamiliar, Reign is a movie about a man named Charlie who lost his family in the 9/11 terrorist attack, and how he copes with that tragedy. I could write an article about how it was beautiful to see a movie that deals with men's feelings beyond "rage" and "lust", but I'll leave that for someone else. What I'd like to talk about I am more of an expert on than the history of masculine emotion in film; the art of interactive entertainment.
There has been some debate recently culturally as to the validity of video games as an art form. The bone of contention is this: some video games are incredibly violent, and there is the fear that that violence will influence people to real actions. One of the sub-debates within this discussion is whether or not video games can be considered a protected form of art under the Constitution. To those who are concerned with how games will influence people, and wish to place restrictions on the sale or production of the works, it is in their best interest to get games defined as something other than art. If it isn't art and a protected form of speech, it could be censored. This case is perhaps the most famous example of this discussion.
However, the film Reign Over Me is, in my opinion, the start of the end of the debate. One of the characteristics of art is that it is all derivative of other art. Movements in art develop from each other, take things from each other, alter those things, and produce something new. For example, film auteurs will point to other films that influenced theirs.
Reign Over Me uses a video game as a major thematic element. It's story is directly influenced by the video game Shadow of the Colossus, and the elements of that game work together with the film to further communicate the ideas and emotions that are meant to be communicated. The game, as a creative work that presents its own ideas in terms of destroying one's inner demons, and the film, which presents its ideas about emotion and how it is tied to those inner demons. Colossus serves as an insight into Charlie's mind, a visual representation of both how he views the world and the way that he tries to cope with his problems.
This use of a video game completely legitimizes it as an art form. Games have become enough of a part of our culture to be used, seriously, as an influence of another form of art. One can't say that video games are not art, anymore, because there is now a clear cut and obvious case that can be pointed to and said, "Here, games have influenced this other art form. If it wasn't also an art form, then, wouldn't those aspects of the film be devoid of meaning and artistic expression?"
posted by Chris @ 9:17 AM
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