Depending on how you were raised, you either grew up knowing every board game in existence or know one or two at most.
Me personally, I grew up keeping myself occupied with all types of games, from ones that have you roll the dice to get from point A to point B, to ones that require you to have a bachelor’s in mathematics to understand the rules.
You’re probably wondering where I’m going with this, and if not you can already guess what this week’s column is about, which is how board games can add tension or foreshadowing in a film.
Some may find what I am about to talk about boring and/or nonsensical, but I would ask that you hear me out before coming to that conclusion fully.
Take chess, for instance. In episode fourteen of season five of “Breaking Bad”, we see a scene at the fire station where we see the white king literally back into a corner, an example of foreshadowing the situation Walter is in. Remember the chess scene in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” where Sherlock and Moriarty play a friendly game of chess.
Notice how the ballroom is black and white and checkered-shape. I could go on and on about the brilliance of this scene, but a youtuber by the name Lord Ravenscraft has a video where he explains it better than I ever could. What about poker? Sure, it is an intense game whether it’s on television or in real life, games that involve gambling usually are.
When you watch, “John Wick: Chapter 4”, do you not feel the tension within the scene as all four men at the table wait in anticipation for the five cards to be placed on the table? I understand that most people only watch those type of movies for the action, but the argument still stands.