Technology Commentary in "Cloverfield"

This essay has some pretty serious spoilers.


At your local theater is a film called Untraceable which, from what I've seen, is a blatant jab at Americans for being obsessed with technology and violence. It is basically telling us about the evils of the internet and the crazy people on there. We get it! The internet is the filthy old man of technology. However, the other film currently playing that suggests our culture's dependence upon technology is Matt Reeves' Cloverfield.

By using hand held personal cameras, it makes the entire world of the film that much more real. The camera used in the film out-survives the main characters. Early in the film Hud is tricked into documenting a good-bye party, but decides to have fun with it. However, as the events of the night unfold, he carries on his duty of chronicling the adventure. Several times you hear someone saying 'Put the camera down' but at no point is Hud, the cameraman, willing to stop documenting the event. In the end only the technology survives... creepy.

The most humorous example of our use/obsession with technology is when the party-goers flood onto the street and experience the head of the Statue of Liberty landing in front of them. Within seconds there are at least a dozen people using their camera phones to capture the giant bronze head. Hilarious? Yes, in a creepy 'I don't know how or why this is happening, but I have time to camera phone this crazy shit' kind of way.

When the main characters are hiding in the subway, the most emotional and disturbingly real use of the camera comes. When Rob's mother calls and he must tell her that his brother was killed, the camera stays a good distance away, giving a strong feeling of voyeurism. All I could think of while this was going on was the video I saw when they brought Heath Ledger's body out from his apartment. There are people going through an incredibly emotional time, but all other people can think is that it'll look really good on TV or in a magazine.

Earlier in the film, Rob goes to steal a battery for his phone. Hud chases after him with the camera and we see my favorite use of technology in the film. While in the store we get video footage of television... several televisions. That's reflexive. We also see Hud spin around at one point to see all the looters staring at the news. They stopped looting in order to watch TV. I know they want to know what's going on, but it's just funny to see looters taking a break in the store they're robbing to see some TV.

So those are a few of the examples I saw in the film that can be viewed as a commentary about America's obsession and dependency with technology. With a second viewing and some writing utensils I could probably write a good four to five page paper if anyone is interested in purchasing it.