Mulholland Gear Solid 4

When I popped in Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4) into my PS3 for the first time, I didn't expect it to immediately start off with an esoteric live action sequence. The surreal clips initially took me out of the experience. What exactly am I looking at? Did I purchase the right game? The guy on the right, David Hayter, is the voice of legendary video game icon, Solid Snake. But he's dressed as a parody of Snake. And he is a giving a celebrity interview? Huh? Voice over actors aren't celebrities. Very confusing.

I then realized that what I was watching are TV shows and commercials that are broad casted in the fictional world of MGS4. In this world, the year is 2014. The entire planet is at war, enduring endless cycles of small isolated skirmishes fought by Private Military Companies (PMCs).

The live action videos are satire. They depict, for example, commercials encouraging civilians to enlist as PMC soldiers, or TV shows like the clip above, that focus on mind numbing celebrity trivia (such as the location of their hidden tattoos) in order to distract the general public from larger issues, such as war.

I particularly liked this advertisement for the Raven Sword Private Military Company, because it reminded me of Robocop. haha.



The inclusion of these live actions videos in a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 actually made sense, emotionally, even logically. Because they breathe life into the MGS4 world by adding a lot of periphery back story to the characters I will later meet.

The reason why these clips stood out to me so greatly is that they do not match MGS aesthetically. The visual language of the images, the cinematography, the design, the editing, the tone of the writing, the fact that they are live action, etc, go directly against the grain of my expectations. I've seen live action in MGS before, but its always been used as informative b-roll footage that accompanies a narrative voice over of one of the main characters. I've never seen Hideo Kojima use live action filming as social satire, or as an obtuse exposition to kick off the story.

Here is another advertisement, for the Praying Mantis Private Military Company. Note the excellent production values.


Kojima starts out the final installment of his masterpiece so abstractly, without ever giving an iota of explanation for the existence of these surreal live action films. Throughout the entire experience, they are never addressed again, directly or indirectly. And they are never framed in context of anything. They forever exist within the player's memory as an "odd feeling".

Remember the intro sequence of David Lynch's Mulholland Drive? Its sort of this surreal dance sequence, totally out there, not matching in aesthetic tone to anything else in that film. But in its abstract nature, its memorable, somewhat haunting. It gives you an "odd feeling" that later allows you to emotionally connect with the main character (Betty Elms / Diane Selwyn).



Or that scene in Tarentino's Kill Bill where the anime sequence comes in out of no where to explain the origin of O-ren Ishii? The beginning of MGS4 felt something... like that.


Snake?
SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!