Out of all the chapters we have read in Alexander Galloway’s book, I found this latest one to easily be the most intriguing. Because I am a most definitely a movie addict, I found his comparison of Point of View and Subjective Point of View to be particularly compelling because of not only its direct applicability to video games, but also its usage in popular movies as well.

As I mentioned in class, one of the first movies that I thought of when considering Subjective Point of View was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. For those who haven’t seen the film, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas chronicles a journalist (Johnny Depp) who gets dragged into the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas while taking copious amounts of illegal drugs of all kinds along the way.

One of the most well remembered scenes in this movie is when Depp’s character is in a bar lounge while hallucinating on LSD. The term “unreliable narrator” could easily be used here, as we witness the floors turning into lava and the people around him becoming giant lizards. In another scene, Depp’s drug induced state causes him to witness a woman morphing into a large moray eel. Obviously, such things didn’t happen in actuality, but it is through the Subjective Point of View that we are able to get a look into Depp’s character’s psyche. This Subjective Point of View, when coupled with a fascinating character in a unique position, allows us to get an “inside look” as to the character’s true self, and its effective use in any medium (including movies and videogames) can greatly enhance the viewer’s overall experience.