TRON
Year:
1982
Directed by:
Steven Lisberger
Rated:
PG
Country:
United States
Runtime:
1 hr. 36 min.
Production Company:
Lisberger/Kushner
Written by:
Steven Lisberger
Bonnie MacBird
Starring:
Jeff Bridges
Cindy Morgan
Bruce Boxleitner
Cindy Morgan
Similar Films:
A milestone for science fiction cinema.
TRON is notable for being one of the first films to use computer graphics in a significant way, and for mixing animation with live-action filming. The movie is dated in every way, from its visuals to its technical language, but in its time it was excitingly original. If nostalgia is not its only saving grace, the other is the its drawing of parallels between the real world and cyberspace. TRON is a fun film with a little insight and a lot of heart.
The movie is about a computer-programmer-turned-hacker, Kevin Flynn (played by a surprisingly fit Jeff Bridges), who basically gets zapped into a computer system. While inside the computer, he exists on the same level as the computer's programs, which are fully personified (part of me wonders whether this decision was partly an attempt at marketing toward educators, like Osmosis Jones). He is forced by the computer's master program, which captures other programs to make itself more powerful, to compete in gladiatorial games against other programs as one of them. From here on, Flynn has to find a way to defeat the master program and escape the computer system to make it back into the real world.
This movie is at its best when it establishes similarities between the real world and the world inside computers. The most fundamental element of this connection is the personification of the computer programs, which are portrayed by human actors. The similarity is not merely a passing observation, though. With it comes a whole questioning of reality, including religion, which is mentioned at times by the computer programs. At the beginning of the movie, one program is asked, "Do you believe in the Users?" He responds, "Yeah, sure. If I don't have a user, then who wrote me?" This is theology in its simplest terms. Furthermore, such talk of "Users" is often explicitly referred to as "religious" by other programs, especially those who condemn such beliefs. This also implicitly brings up a whole set of questions that helps us to understand how the world might work. In what ways are people like little computer programs running around a system, carrying out tasks as a part of the whole? Are we part of some bigger purpose, or are we simply supposed to play, like computer games? Is our creating of computer programs analogous somehow to God's creation of us? Today, with films like The Matrix and novels like William Gibson's Neuromancer, this type of theme is anything but original, but for 1982, these questions were at the cutting edge of allegorical thought.
It is true that the visual and auditory aspects of cinema are its most powerful elements, though, and this is where TRON really stands (or at least stood) out. The movie dates itself unmistakably 1980s, with plenty of neon lights on dark backgrounds. The visual style does not hold up today (how could it?), but in its time it was dazzling. I haven't done the research, but I am sure that TRON has to be the first instance of presenting cyberspace in visual terms. Keep in mind, this was slightly before the time of operating systems that tried to emulate the real world with elements such as folders and trash cans. These were the days of more abstract systems consisting of menus and DOS commands. This undoubtedly made it more difficult, and rewarding, for the film's creators to design the world inside the computer system. Amazingly, they struck a perfect balance between the unfamiliar (one system of transportation literally travels along a beam of light) and the familiar (some worldly elements, such as gravity, do exist). This creates a world that is outlandish enough to warrant exploration and excitement yet familiar enough for us to have some bearing and at least understand what is happening, even if we don't understand how or why. Finally, by populating this fully animated world with human actors, TRON became the ultimate bold and imaginative undertaking.
If TRON's content has one true flaw, it is its tendency to favor action and adventure over substance. Unfortunately, conversations about Users, creation, and purpose are sparse. The majority of the film is spent providing obstacles to Flynn's escape and watching him overcome them, often with the help of programs seeking their own versions of freedom. There's nothing inherently wrong with this -- a film of this type has to have a plot -- but there is way too much empty space stifling thematic development. I am sure this is because the filmmakers were spending all of their energy on the design of the film and its special effects, but it nevertheless ends up feeling a little empty. It does, however, remain one of the first times that any artistic medium truly looked at computer programming as possibly representative of the larger world. Originality is something this reviewer will always welcome, even if it is accompanied by a slight dearth of meaning.
So, despite TRON's imperfections, it stands as a landmark achievement not in terms of story but in terms of presentation and imagination. Even the special effects that might look lame to modern viewers are enjoyable for their tenacity. To pass this off as a stale eighties flick would be a huge mistake. Every fan of the genre should see this movie, and most will appreciate it, at the least.
