This was before Netflix, before "Until Dawn" and "Detroit: Becoming Human" and before "The Stanley Parable". Fast-Forward to now and my prediction has come to fruition in Charlie Brooker's innovative series "Black Mirror" with a surprise feature film called "Bandersnatch" that is a choose your own adventure movie. This isn't going to be a review but if your curious and wanna know what I think of the movie, IT'S FREAKIN' AMAZING! It's very innovative and for a movie to have such a gimmick you'd think the gimmick would overshadow the story. It doesn't. To say anything more would be a spoiler but you just have to experience it for yourself. Anyways, I'm about to dive into some spoilers so if you don't care dive in further if you do GO WATCH "BANDERSNATCH" and then come back, the choice is yours.
Alright, I've noticed a trend in video games recently, especially these newer ones where Player's Choice is a thing, branching paths and all that. While this is nothing new it's certainly been expanded upon in the realm of video games and that's where we're at now. But that was confined to just video games, savvy Youtubers also created their own interactive videos by using the hyperlinks within the videos to connect the player/viewer to the result of their choice and now Netflix has managed to surpass both video games and Youtube by providing a live-action choose your own movie in "Bandersnatch". A bit of backstory on me, I'm obsessed with the 4th wall and specifically breaking the 4th wall. If you don't know what The 4th Wall is, The 4th Wall is a theater concept when acting on stage the actors do not acknowledge the audience so the actor pretends there is a 4th wall there blocking them from seeing the audience.
Breaking the 4th wall is a literary device used in various media where a character speaks directly to the audience, taken steps further with characters like Deadpool who is actually aware he's a comic book character and can see his own speech bubbles and the narration text boxes. Now "Bandersnatch" takes it even further in my opinion because now we're just a passive audience along for the ride watching listening to this character spill his guts to us, no, now we're actually taking an active role in guiding this character's life. The character in question is Stefan Butler, a programmer working on a game called "Bandersnatch" based on a fictional choose your own adventure novel. However, what "Bandersnatch" does cleverly is it integrates the viewer into the narrative and even clever still Stefan starts to become aware of you (the viewer) as the guiding force in his life, and EVEN CLEVER still we the viewer become aware of who's actually in charge of the choices we're capable of making and that's Mr. Charlie Brooker.
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| That's right, I'm in control. |
The entire film is a commentary on control and free will. Charlie Brooker provided us with choices but ultimately those are the choices we're provided. As the viewer and the person in control, I have to tell you the choices were stressful and impactful. But the film does more than just provide you with choices it also provides you with a very deep and interesting narrative about the nature of video games, the concept of respawn points and a horrifying explanation of PAC-Man that would make a really interesting movie if it were made. The film crafts it's narrative slowly and introduces the concept of parallel realities and multiple timelines. Think of it this way, if you've ever had a choice to make, in one reality you chose the other.
In the same way a video game has respawn points this movie has respawn points where you can make a different choice. What the film is doing is presenting you to the concept of multiple realities without exactly telling you until much later. Because at one point in time you made the wrong choice in a video game, reset and tried again, you remember what happened...but does the character? Stefan is that character and slowly but surely he became aware of us and at certain points actively resisted us. As the person in "control", I found myself disturbed with the choices presented and saddened by my meddling in his life, but as the viewer, I made the choice to assume control of Stefan's life. And the interesting thing is, I can see this holding up a mirror (a black mirror) to ourselves and showing us our sadistic side because when I was presented with the option to kill his father I chose not to only to be shown I made the wrong choice...now imagine my horror when I realized I had to chop him up as well.
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| You poor bastard, I am so sorry I ruined your life...er...lives...? |
This is a trailblazer! I real trend-setter in the film industry, a game changer! Not only that but it showed us that a gimmick can and will work in film if you just have the right story and the right people working on it. I am REALLY excited to see where we go from here. Netflix is a real opportunity to make more of these and per my video, a "Cabin In The Woods" interactive sequel isn't entirely far-fetched now. I'll be waiting with bated breath to see what comes next but until then, MAN WAS THIS GOOD!! I'm still a little too mind-f*cked to get a coherent thought out and I'll probably be peeling back layers and going back and making different choices, WOW! I'll catch you guys later.
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