I have always been a fan of the giant Monster movies. I can remember being bitterly disappointed when Godzilla vs The Smog Monster came out and I did not see the film in the theater. Given that background it is a little strange that I missed Cloverfield during its theatrical run. The truth of the matter is that life gets pretty busy these days and the film slipped past me. (It’s amazing just hwo fast a film disappears from the theaters now. I can remember E.T. and Raiders Of The Lost Ark both playing for more than a year at theaters in Sand Diego.) So Cloverfield is a film I have only seen on home video. However I think home video is the right medium for this movie.

Cloverfield is a ‘found footage’ film. The best know example of this style of film making is The Blair Witch Project, a film that is supposedly cut from the film shot by documentary filmmakers who had vanished in the woods and years later the footage is found. The most recent example of this is Apollo 18 which is supposedly made from stolen classified footage. (However it clearly impossible by the events of the film that this footage ever reached Earth and there the whole conceit is thrown into abject stupidity. Apollo 18 is a film to be avoided even on home video.) I have rarely fully enjoyed a found footage film because too often the ending does not work. It is very difficult to craft a satisfying one. Cloverfield is the exception to the rule.

I watched this back in 2009 on blu-ray via Netflix and  throughly enjoyed the experience. The hand-held shaky camera worked very well on the small screen and may have been too much for me personally on the big screen.

The setting is simple. New York, May 2008, a Godzilla-class monster shows up and starts tearing death and destruction through the metropolis. Instead of an objective viewpoint, we see the entire night’s events from one hand-held camera that start the film documenting a going away party. Cloverfield isn’t really about the monster, but rather it is about love and loss and what are you willing to do for love.

The film did stir some controversy when it was released because the imagery of the destruction as such a vast scale to New York evoked for many the memories of September 11, 2001. That is understandable, but I would never call for film makers to censor themselves because of that. We remain free in our actions, our thoughts, and our arts — anything else is real capitulation.

The film is short, just 85 minutes, and moves very quickly. (Of those 85 minutes, 11 are credits as this is a very impressive piece of special-effects works, meaning 13% of the movie is credits, perhaps the high ratio of a major feature film.) Cloverfield is also a film where no one is ‘safe’ by benefits of being a major character. While not everyone dies, the loss rate if very high.

I now own a copy on blu-ray and would easily recommend this movie.