Day 21 Tron (1983)

Science Fiction Thursday

A lot of exposition in the opening of the film. Master Control is explained,  we are introduced to his henchman,  the nature of programs and users is set up, and a couple of games are illustrated.  We meet our hero Flynn, played by a young Jeff Bridges, who seems to be more than an Arcade owner, but everything does feel a bit (ha ha) rushed.

This early attempt at turning computers into characters is awkward. The programs get represented by doppelgangers of their programmers,  and that was a little confusing at first. It gets more convoluted when a technique for digitizing is used to turn Flynn into a program. Ultimately,  the antagonist turns out to be an A.I. that has decided it is better at running things than the humans. Master Control defends itself by putting the digitized Flynn on his game program. 

The black and white photo process used to make the programs into characters also makes it difficult at times to distinguish the characters. However, the games are usually rendered in vibrant colords. The Laser cycle is the most fun, but as I was saying, it was hard to tell which character’s bike we we following at any given moment.  Bruce Boxleitner is “Tron” and his user Alan 1. There is a character named Ram, but we never see his user. David Warner, who spent his career playing shady characters,  is Dillinger and the advancedvprogram that is the major domo to Master Control. It makes sense that his program is a threat to Master Control since it is a security protocol designed to monitor interactions with other systems, and that is the big threat in the film. There is a secondary goal of establishing Flynnn’s authorship of the very successful video games the company has made its fortune from.

How much you enjoy the film will depend on your willingness to watch the games being played out. I liked it well enough but the awkward dialogue and cardboard characters do help make it any more engaging. The graphics were state of the art in 1983, but they look primitive by today’s standards. Tron Legacy” , a sequel which came out just a few years ago, managed to keep the feel of this world but significantly improve the visuals.

I saw this film with Dee and our friends Art and Kathy. We went down to the Chinese Theater in Hollywood to see it on the biggest screen we could. We enjoyed it but it was not an essential for us. The standout memories I have are actually watching my friend Jon Cassanelli play at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.  It may have been one of the last things we did together, he was murdered by his partners in a drug deal in January of 1984. Sorry about the downer, but Jon was pretty good at the arcade game and I want to remember some good stuff.