Realism And Cloverfield

Realism And Cloverfield

Realism in film has long been a subject of discussion for theorist and audiences alike. In fictional film the discussion surrounds the style and subject matter of the text, and the tone that it presents. It concerns the aesthetic movement to mimic lifelike situations and characters in a universal way.
In recent years mainstream films have begun to utilise ideas and principles that are designed to make the text appear more realistic and the artificiality of the text less evident. Perhaps the most evident and pervasive example of this is in the recent popularity of “found footage” films. Films of this sub-genre/style include The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myrik and Edwardo Sánchez), Diary of the Dead (George Romero, 2008) and Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008) – their narrative is often presented under the conceit that the footage was shot during actual events and their style is such that it supports and enhances this conceit.
Cloverfield, for example, is presented to the audience as a video recording made over one night in New York City during which Manhattan Island came under attack. This premise is, by its very nature, fantastical but the style of the film and plausibility of it are aided by the audiences understanding of what constitutes a realistic text.
To a modern day audience the concept of New York City suffering a major disaster is easy to believe in because they have actually seen it happen. Images within the film are evocative (deliberately so) of September 11th 2001 and aid in the audiences ability to suspend their disbelief as to the nature of the disaster (an attack by a preternatural creature). This affect on the verisimilitude of the text is unique to modern audiences and supports the theory that what constitutes realism is not a set of unchanging parameters but can be influenced by time, location and class. This affect was used similarly in War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg, 2005) to make the alien invasion in that film plausible and...