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My changed relationship with the telephone became weirdly apparent when I watched the original WarGames movie recently. There's a scene where David (Matthew Br
by xefer 9y ago
My changed relationship with the telephone became weirdly apparent when I watched the original WarGames movie recently.
There's a scene where David (Matthew Broderick) is alone with McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) in his office being interrogated separated by an office desk. While they're sitting there the telephone on McKittrick's desk starts ringing, which he silently ignores keeping his eyes glued on David, who grows increasingly uncomfortable as the phone keeps ringing and going unanswered.
I recall when that movie first came out there was a terrible tension in the air because nobody ignored a phone back then. Leaving it to just ring away felt wrong and unacceptable. Now whenever a phone rings I mostly just go "ugh" and feel no obligation to get to it at all.
As I watched that scene again I felt nothing of that original tension. I wonder how that scene would effect younger people today watching it for the first time?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- OisinMoran 9y agoI came into existence quite a bit after that film did, but I just watched it for the first time two weeks ago and the phone going unanswered definitely made me quite uncomfortable. Excellent film.
- DanBC 9y agoThe 5:4 timing of the ring in the UK was designed to create tension and a sense of urgency to make people answer it quicker.
- acobster 9y ago5:4 as in the time signature? Very cool, I had no idea (not from UK).
- pasquinelli 9y agopart of the difference is now a phone belongs to a person, whereas then it belonged to a house, or in the case of the scene you're talking about, an office. i can keep track of who matters and when to expect a call if all i have to think about is myself, but even with just a couple people living with me i can't just ignore a phone call. i don't know if one of the people i live with is expecting a call. and with phones tied to places instead of people, you get calls like, "have you heard from so and so?", or "is my kid at your place?", which would be really shitty for me to just ignore.