Zachary FenellSunday Classics: Tron
February 8th 2009 18:54
Tron, 1982
For all the statements that it's dated or technologically primitive, it was made with the most ground-breaking techniques up to that point. Modern audiences find it dull and unsophisticated, but that has more to do with being spoiled rotten by modern CGI. While I adore a good round of excellent special effects as much as the next guy, there's almost a point where I wonder if enough is enough: with such amazing effects, there isn't a lot left to the imagination.
Tron earns its title as a classic because it was so new. It was the first movie to use computer-generated imagery to this extent (or possibly the first ever to use any), and the technology was so basic compared to what we have experience with these days that the actual method of animation was exactly the same as hand-drawn cartoons: each frame of computer graphics was drawn and shot in stills. There was no auto-animate feature. More than that, the concepts of "programmers" and "hackers" and a world of "programs in conflict" were both inspirations and prophecies of the future: How many kids decided that they wanted to be 1337 (before we even had a word for it)?
Oddly enough, I hear a lot of people say that they've seen it, remember enjoying it, but they couldn't tell you the first thing about the story itself. Here's the recap: Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) used to work for ENCOM, a company run by Walter Gibbs (Barnard Hughes), for whom Alan Bradley (a very young pre-Bab5 Bruce Boxleitner) and Lora (Cindy Morgan) work. Gibbs stole Flynn's program ("Space Paranoids") and made a mint with it, and Bradley and Lora go to Flynn when they start suspecting that Gibbs has stolen their programs as well, especially TRON, which was Bradley's oversight-and-tracking program.
The SARK or Master Program sees that Flynn is 1337 and f34r$ him, so SARK shoots him with a l4$3r and translates him into a computer program. Flynn, being 1337, figures all this out and also how to undo the 3v1l machinations of the SARK/Master Program by supporting TRON (named by Lisberger as a shortened version of "electronics" instead of the far-more-appropriate and funny TRON command in BASIC, which mean TRace ON, which is kinda what TRON was doing in the first place, but Lisberger knew nothing of programming... but I digress. I just thought that was funny).
Th3 f4ct 1s th4t TR0N w4s pr0b4bly r3sp0ns1bl3 f0r m0st 0f 0ur curr3nt c0mput3r cultur3, d1r3ctly 4nd 1nd1r3ctly. 1t st4rt3d th3 1d34 th4t y0u c0uld 4n1m4t3 4n 3nt1r3 m0v13 just w1th c0mput3rs, 4nd 1t w0uldn't l00k w31rd 4nd b0xy. 1t 4ls0 h4s 1nsp1r3d g3n3r4t10ns 0f sc13nc3 f1ct10n wr1t3rs, scr1pt k1dd13s 4nd r34l pr0gr4mm3rs. F1n4lly, 1t sh0w3d us 4 d1ff3r3nt s1d3 0f th3 D1sn3y C0mp4ny th4t w4s 4 l1ttl3 m0r3 4dult-fr13ndly... 4nd, unf0rtun4t3ly, th4t's pr0b4bly why th3y f41l3d 4t t1ck3t s4l3s.
(The previous paragraph translated by Albino Black Sheep.)
Despite it's cultural significance, it's not a perfect movie, but I'll still stay up late on a Saturday night to watch it. <3
4 Stars
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Comment by Elizabeth2-7
A shadow of herself