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Colossus Reigns on the Silver Screen

Reign Over MeIn case anyone missed it, Brian Ashcraft over at Kotaku posted an excellent story about how Shadow of the Colossus (one of my top 5 games of all time) found its way into the new movie Reign Over Me which releases March 23.

Starring Adam Sandler and Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle, Reign Over Me is the story of two old friends reuniting after many years with no contact. Sandler’s character has visibily changed (mentally, emotionally, and physically) as a result of the death of his wife and children in the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Observant gamers noticed a brief image in the film’s trailer showing the two main characters playing Shadow of the Colossus, followed by a laughing Sandler remarking, “Come on now, stab his wing.” This sparked considerable online interest in just why and how this game made its way into the film. Many reached the early conclusion that both the game and movie are Sony produced and therefore it must be just product placement. From a marketing standpoint, this never seemed to make much sense to me. The game has been out for a year and a half and certainly wouldn’t benefit much from being featured in a movie not targeted to gaming audiences.

Ashcraft’s well written story explains the purpose and process behind integrating SOTC into the film. It also seems that there could be multiple parallel themes between the two. I was of the initial opinion that Sandler’s character found comfort and familiarity in the loneliness of SOTC. I’m excited to draw my own conclusions tomorrow as I have plans to see it opening night.

I hope Ashcraft’s story and others like it find their way to the mainstream press, because this is a great step towards legitimizing and improving the public’s perception of video games. It is certainly yet another tribute to just how great SOTC is for what it has done to advance the video game industry. If more people supported games (and developers) like this, the industry may be taken seriously for a change.

For those who have seen the trailer, what do you think the strongest connection is between Reign Over Me and Shadow of the Colossus?

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One Response to “Colossus Reigns on the Silver Screen”

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  1. S Holmes Says:
    March 26th, 2007 at 12:56 pm

    Just an update. I saw Reign Over Me on Friday and was surprised at how big of a part Shadow of the Colossus plays in the film. It is shown and referred to probably 12 times at least. However, there’s no discussion about the significance of the Colossus story as it relates to Sandler’s character.

    My favorite Colossus moment from the movie is when Sandler’s character and Cheadle’s character talk for the first time. In the movie, Cheadle plays a dentist and Sandler used to be a dentist. They’re making small talk and catching up after years of no contact and Cheadle asks Sandler, “So, what have you been up to? Have you been practicing?” (Cheadle is referring to Sandler’s dental practice). Sandler responds with something similar to, “Yeah, I’m up to the 12th colossus. I’m in the valley now.” I’m pretty sure I was the only person in the theater who knew what he was talking about.

    The movie was decent (3.5 stars or B ). Definitely worth seeing, especially if you are a SOTC fan.

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