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    		•

    FILMS

    Tron (1982)
  • Starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, Barnard Hughes, Dan Shor, Peter Jurasik

  • Directed by Steven Lisberger

    • I don't remember seeing Tron. I know I saw it—Mom was good about taking us to matinees—but I don't actually recall seeing it. This is no surprise as it premiered nearly 20 years ago and, to be honest, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday. So it's not incredibly shocking that I can't remember two hours out of an afternoon in 1982. Presumably I went to see it in the theater as we didn't own a VCR until '83 or '84 (a top-loading Betamax, thank you very much).

    Even though I can't recall the actual afternoon seeing Tron I know that I saw it. And I know that it made a definite impression upon me because I remember reenacting scenes in the backyard. My brother and I would take turns throwing Frisbees at one another while, Tron-like, the other deflected the missiles away. I'd synch my Frisbee in the back of my belt and pretend it was in the middle of my back and that I was glowing blue.

    I'd make big leaps from tree-roots to the sidewalk, because the grass in-between had been hit by someone's disc, and there was nothing but empty computer space below.

    Sometimes I'd find a stick or small branch and imagine it was the handlebar to a lightcycle. Running around crouched and hunched in my cycle I'd make turns, but only right angle turns. My enemies crashed in my wall-wake. To say being a kid was a lot of fun is a gross understatement.

    At the tender age of eight, I didn't understand one ounce about computers, other than they existed, and I could play games on them. But this movie posited the wonderful theory that one could physically go into a computer, be a part of a video game or operating system. I didn't know what that meant, but it was really cool. Especially when they drink pure energy from a stream.

    Tron is the story of a genius programmer (Jeff Bridges) who gets digitized and downloaded into a computer. Inside the computer world Bruce Boxleitner plays Tron, a kick-ass reporting program. Bridges and Boxleitner team up to bring down the nasty and mean and overpowering central processing unit who is quite the e-dictator. He plays games with financial programs until they die. Not a nice program at all.

    For me, watching Tron is a blast. It's action and adventure and sci-fi and '80s computer lingo all wrapped up into a Disney film. Little did I know when I first saw this film that Jeff Bridges would later become one of my favorite actors, or that Bruce Boxleitner would, 15 years later, impress the hell out of me as Capt. John Sheridan on Babylon 5. (B5 fans but keep an eye out for your favorite Centauri Ambassador. That's right! Peter Jurasik is also in this film.)

    This isn't an Oscar-winning film, but even 20 years after its initial release, you have to admit that it's pretty damn impressive. It's a simple story of digital revolution and is thoroughly entertaining.

    Whether this movie is empirically good, or if it's only value can be found in the nostalgia of being eight-years-old, I don't know. I just recently watched the DVD (a gratis copy, courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment—my job has some nice perks) and I felt that, anachronisms aside, the story and the effects still hold up. It's almost an embryonic version of what would eventually become The Matrix.

    But put all that aside.

    Wouldn't it be great if we could all zap our enemies with a data disc and make them disappear?