Art isn’t just about holding up the mirror to life, it’s also about exerting an influence over the culture that it reflects. As true artistic mediums, both stage shows and movies are able to touch us long after we’ve left our seats.
As artistic mediums, stage shows and movies have a deep influence on popular culture and the lives of everyone who views them. The art we consume is both informed and informs the way we think, dress, act, and everything that we do is influenced in small or large ways by what is around us. Good art doesn’t just hold up the mirror to life, it alters the very thing it reflects.
The way we can see this cultural impact is by examining different aspects of our culture that reflect the reflection, places where movies and stage shows are referenced. This article will take a brief moment to touch on some different places where movies and stage shows are visibly influencing our pop culture.
The influence on gaming
As art and leisure activities, both movies and stage shows influence can be most seen in other mediums of a similar nature. While you might argue that gaming isn’t really art, we would take that argument and enjoy the struggle of it. The important thing is that gaming is assuredly a leisure activity, and a very popular one, and it is also an intrinsic part of our popular culture.
Influence on storytelling
One way that you can see that movies and stage shows have influenced gaming is through the narrative process. Game writers and developers have grown up watching the same movies and consuming the same media and art as you and I have, which means that they have similar sensibilities of what will be impactful and interesting. They also use similar structures as are taught and used in movies and stage productions, giving their protagonists arcs, setting up acts and complications and all of the other trappings of storytelling that are popularised by movies and stage shows.
Games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War Ragnarök take players on emotional journeys where they are drawn into connecting with the characters and seeing the world from their perspective. These games are some of the best examples of AAA video games as art themselves, as the stories they tell have emotional resonance and complexity that make their players feel and feel deeply, and isn’t that what art is meant to do?
Borrowed themes and references
Different sorts of games, less artistic, we grant you, rather than borrowing conventions of storytelling, are interested instead in referencing and borrowing general visual themes from movies. It wouldn’t be out of this world for you to log into a $5 minimum deposit casino online and find casino games that feature the images and noises from famous movie characters and scenes.
Classic movies like Jurassic Park and popular culture smash hits like the Marvel Cinematic Universe are fertile ground for slot games to borrow heavily from. Seeing characters and images from these movies reminds players of these classics and lets them feel a deeper connection to the game that they’re playing.
When it comes to stage shows’ influence on casino games, part of the point of slot games is to provide their players with a spectacle, which is exactly what many stage shows aim to do. By borrowing elements of pomp and flourish from stage shows and by incorporating elements of musical numbers into different mechanics, casino games can pay homage to shows like Phantom of the Opera and forge a deeper connection with players.
Reflections of a reflection
A great yardstick by which to measure the impact or cultural influence of an artistic medium, or anything for that matter, is by examining its footprint across other artistic mediums. We can see the influence of movies and stage shows in music, fashion and even in some more traditional artistic mediums like sculpture and painting.
When it comes to visual art depictions of movies and stage shows, typically, they are confined to pop art. But depictions of famous movie characters and scenes can come to become symbols of far more than what they are in their films. These characters are also often instantly recognizable by the imagery that surrounds them, imagery which is fertile ground for the visual arts to borrow.
Of course, we can’t forget the way that the mirror reflects itself. There are countless stage shows and movies that reference other movies and stage shows. While this cannibalistic Ouroborosian loop might seem like a cheap out to you, we think it’s important. As a huge part of the culture, the fact that movies and stage shows turn to themselves shows their importance. No art is created in a vacuum, and every movie is part of a tradition that began well over a century ago, while every stage production is the latest in a line that began in humanity’s nascency.
Curtain call
We think that for us, and probably for you as well, movies and stage shows are far more important than just a way to be entertained. They are art, and art reflects, changes and shapes the culture that it holds a mirror up to. These productions have touched and altered millions of lives, shaped identities, influenced taste and much more.
