TRON

Saw one of my favorite films, TRON, last night with my main movie maven, Heidster. God, it's a fun flick. Quite nostalgic to see it again, but also fresh to see it on the big screen in glorious 70mm at Disney's El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. It was Heidster's first time to see the film and she really enjoyed it so it was fun to share that. (Or maybe it was the Skooby dogs that won her over? hmmm...)

The film is quite mythological and Homeric thematically, if a bit corny and dated by today's standards; however, a lot of the philosophy behind it still stands up. It foresees the all-powerful technology mega-corporation ("Encom") using its mighty weight to crush the little guy, and the human spirit as well, all in the name of the holy dollar. Thematically and visually, Tron is much like German expressionist films such as Fritz Lang's epic Metropolis, especially considering that all of Tron's real-life scenes inside the computer world were shot in black and white and colorized. Some of the acting is also quite melodramatic and with the heavy makeup it does remind one of silent films.

The whole concept of a parallel universe within cyberspace (there's a word you don't hear often anymore) still captures my imagination, as does the pseudo-religious views of the "program" characters who serve their unseen "users." As one program asks another 'You believe in the users?' (the invisible world beyond our senses). He answers, `Yeah, sure. If I don't have a user, then who wrote me?' The Master Control Program wants to subvert user control and assert its own dominance over all data.

Considering the period the film was made, the Reagan '80s, one could read an "evil-godless-Communism-vs-free-Christian-Democracy" subtext. But the film has plenty of humor and Disney feel-good charm giving a knowing wink to the audience just like Mickey saying "Hello, boys and girls!" so that no one takes the oppression too seriously. "It's fun for the whole family!"

I love Jeff Bridges' performance as Flynn, the video game junkie/hacker/user-"god" who who descends in the guise of a "mortal" (program) into the world of his creation (the computer). Heidster and I joked that in every one of his movies he has a shouting "Come on, man!" moment, except in Tron he screams "Because, man!" when explaining his motivations for hacking into Encom's memory systems to retrieve a document confirming his authorship of the company's most important video games, the cornerstones to the company's success.

The movie was revolutionary in its time for using computer animation in some of its sequences, though most of the film is traditional "cartoon" animation. It was controversial as well. Some Disney animators refused to work on the film because they felt computers would replace them, and the Academy bypassed a Best Visual Effects nomination for Tron because they felt the creators had "cheated" by using computers. (Seven years later, Abyss, The (1989) would win for its computer visual effects.)

One of my favorite aspects of the film is Wendy Carlos' excellent electronic score. It had the perfect combination of traditional film scoring techniques enfused with a futuristic musical vocabulary, much like Carlos' early work on the A Clockwork Orange score and her earlier triumph with Switched on Bach. I'll never forget that final theme from Tron as the real world scenes in time-lapse photography blend with the inner world of computers, then fade to black as the credits roll...

If you haven't seen Tron for a while, take a look. You won't be disappointed.

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