<p>I was watching Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” last night and in a scene near the end of the movie where he was running to talk to his former hearthrob Tracy, the Woody Allen character (Alan?) stopped at a pay phone to try to call Tracy. The phone was busy.</p>
<p>In today’s world, he would call her on his cell phone and set if for automatic callback.</p>
<p>In all three of the Bourne movies, cell phone usage by all of the characters was key to the movement of the plot.</p>
<p>Imagine Rick Blaine in Cacablanca telling Major Strasser that if he doesn’t put down the cell phone, he’ll shoot him. Not being connected by a cord, Strasser would have dived behind the desk and shot Rick. Victor and Ilsa would have stayed in Casablance and taken over the operation of Rick’s Cafe American. Many older movies have plot twists that turn on telephone (i.e. land line) use. Would Grace Kelly have been able to stab her assailant in the back with the scissors if she had been using a cell phone. Or would the movie be renamed “Instant Message M for Murder.”</p>
<p>It occurred to me that there is now a divide between pre and post cell phone usage in movies.</p>
<p>Remember the great scene in “Superman” (the first movie), when Clark Kent tries to find a phone booth to change clothes in, and just finds these little kiosks?</p>
<p>And I can’t help but harken back to the days of Maxwell Smart and his (then-funny) shoe phone!</p>
<p>There should be a whole new area of study: Movie forensics. Using the cell phone example, first there were crank phones and switchboard operators. Then came dial phones, push button phones, cordless phones (with Caller ID), the first iteration of cell phones (the walkie-talkie style) and our present day cell phones. </p>
<p>Cameras: Old bellow portrait cameras with the powder flash, 8/16 mm motion picture cameras, Kodak Brownie cameras with flash bulbs, Polaroid Instant cameras, 35 mm cameras with electronic flash, VHS camcorders and now digital cameras and camcorders. See cell phones with photo/video capture.</p>
<p>Computers: Ancient Univac’s that fill up a room with spinning tape drives (the size of refrigerators), dumb terminals with green screen monitors, desktops and now laptops.</p>
<p>Typewriters: Gone the way of the Do-Do bird.</p>
<p>I saw a Harrison Ford movie the other day, I think it was Presumed Innocent. I remember staying up all night reading that book - I couldn’t put it down! The whole plot hinges on the lab analysis from the raped murder victim, they can tell the rapist/murderer was blood type A- but there is no mention of DNA testing. And a professor’s alibi involves waiting for her complex computer program to compile. A great thriller rendered completely obsolete by techonology in 15 years.</p>
<p>Early Seinfeld shows - check out the size of the cordless phone - and they pull up the antennae when they answer it.</p>
<p>We’ve been watching old Buffy and have now moved on to Angel. Angel gets a cellphone, but hates it and complains about it. And of course it doesn’t work to well in sewer tunnels…</p>
<p>Then there are the sci-fi shows that get future technology all wrong…</p>
<p>Great use of cell phone technologies to turn the plot in Jodie Foster’s newest film, “The Brave One.” (tough, gritty story so be forewarned).</p>
<p>I also respected the authentic detail in “The Queen”, which was made just 2 years ago but portrayed Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair during the year 1997 when Princess Diana was killed. They showed the Queen walking in her palace fields, talking on a big portable phone the size of a small frying pan. Presumably she’d have had the very best technology available then. It did look funny.</p>
<p>How about the cellphone and the theatre? I was watching a children’s production in the rep theatre this afternon and in the middle of the King’s speech, a cell phone rang four times–and the daft old dear in the front row took the phone out and held it to her ear–with her hand over her other hear so that she could TALK!!! :eek:</p>
<p>The actor stopped the play and started tlaking about her answering her phone in the middle of a play. the audience loved it but OMG. Stop with the phones already!</p>
<p>My D learned to do improvisation with technologies when she was a character actress at a Renaissance Faire, pretending to be mystified by the vistors’ phones, cameras, and so on. The actors had a lot of fun, and could anticipate certain items each day. When I visited, I was in a big crowd, but she had another actress distract me, someone else picked my pocket and took the cell phone (she knew right where I keep it) and she got everyone involved with telling her how to work it. In keeping with her character, she swore it was an instrument of the devil. </p>
<p>WHen the actors saw kids wearing braces, they’d remark how clever their parents must be to hide away all their jewels inside their children’s mouths.</p>
<p>Hi cheers!
There was a recent episode of the “Tonight” show where someone’s phone rang during Jay Leno’s monologue. he asked the girl for the phone and had a nice, brief chat with her mother. It was priceless. they also do this at Broadway productions. I’d bet there are theater forums where they discuss funy ways that they’ve dealt with cellphones going off in the middle of the show.</p>
<p>I was actually at a Broadway show and it happened. The star, Katherine Hepburn, stopped the show and waited for the individual to finish! Didn’t take long.</p>
<p>Yeah, and we know what trouble that caused for Rob Lowe’s character.</p>
<p>I’ve been watching through the seven seasons myself, though for me it’s the first time – I didn’t watch it when it was being broadcast.</p>
<p>I noticed that by the fourth season, everybody had cell phones AND pagers. I love the scene where the regular staff members haze a new guy (Joshua Malina’s character, who has been hired on a temporary contract to help write the President’s second Inaugural speech) by giving him the “full treatment” when they need him to come back to the White House in the middle of the night. They have people simultaneously 1) page him; 2) call his cell phone; 3) call his hotel room phone; and 4) call the hotel desk to have an employee knock on his door to get him up. He practically goes berserk trying to answer all the summonses at the same time.</p>