Movie Night: Tron: Revisiting an old friend
Quite often, a movie comes along that enthralled me as a child, which upon reviewing as an adult doesn’t hold up at all. Far less frequently, a film comes along that I enjoyed as a child, but thought was even better as an adult. Maybe that says more about how grown up I actually am (or am not). Either way, Tron was one of those films.
I was fourteen years old when TRON hit the multiplex. That means I was definitely the target audience. It was science fiction and it had video games. If you don’t get the connection, you’ll have to turn in your fourth key from Pac-Man. Back then, I enjoyed the film BUT, like Disney’s THE BLACK HOLE before it, TRON just wasn’t exactly what I wanted. That would have been STAR WARS.
Watching the film now I am very aware of flaws that were gladly overlooked as a teen. The storyline appears simple but easily becomes confusing. For example, the titular character is not the protagonist. Rather somewhat of a partner / antagonist. More troublesome is the films lack of heart. It’s difficult to throw yourself behind the hero, he’s written as somewhat of an arrogant bore. If you can put that stuff aside, you’ll find TRON is a very entertaining film.
TRON’s special effects were at one time cutting edge. Now they seem quaint and amateurish. But, in this film that works to its advantage. In fact, I found the special effects improved with age. The imperfect and unsteady light effects seem organic to the world of the game. And what a world it is. Each wall built on vector lines and computer gradients mixed with neon on black and white.
This may have been quite a challenge for the actors who consistently worked on empty stages wearing ridiculous jumpsuit costumes that are pretty cool in the final film. The casting seems a bit reversed, Jeff Bridges as the computer programming rebel and Bruce Boxleitner as the heroic Tron. But there performances seem reversed Boxleitner comes across as the computer nerd and Bridges as an energetic Han Solo. Its interesting to note that Boxleitner’s character Alan is named after Disney designer Alan Kay who went on to invent the PowerBook.
Some of the concepts in Tron are actually similar to The MATRIX, where we follow a protagonist that operates in two separate realities. The coolest concept in the film is when the controlling villain is revealed to be an ancient computer program operating on an old mimeograph machine.
The musical score for the film was synthesized through a Moog system and were composed by Wendy Carlos (who holds the unique distinction of being born Walter Carlos.) I didn’t make that up. In addition to that interesting musical experience, there were also 2 songs provided by JOURNEY.
Tron isn’t a perfect film but is certainly worth a look with fresh eyes.
Game over.
