I have seen the future of American film. It is computer-generated and wondrously vibrant. Tron takes the viewer inside the incredible world of computer graphics.
Walt Disney Productions has issued the Wizard of Oz of the 1980s. The story is of a young man, abused in this world, who suddenly finds himself fighting for survival in another. The other world is not over the rainbow, but behind the video screen. The characters he meets are not tin men and scarecrows, but programs.
[Synopsis]
Like Wizard, Tron starts out on earth. Our man Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, has written several video game programs. Corporate villian Dillinger, played by dressed-for-success David Warner, has copied Flynn’s programs and erased the originals. Due to the success of “Space Paranoids,” the best of Flynn's games, Dillinger has risen to the top of the corporate ladder at Encom, and has banished Flynn.
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Judgment
Though not a great example of film literature, Tron succeeds mightily as a computer graphics demo. The story is strictly Saturday matinee material, and the characters are shallow stereotypes like those found in TV situation comedies. However, for 16 quarters, I may return to see it several times.
The dialogue is peppered with computer in-jokes. As a former big-computer user and big-company employee, I enjoyed the rebellious anti-establishment flavor of the story. As a sometime programmer, I enjoyed hearing programs talk about users as if they were gods.
The great achievement of the film is the creation of a new world. The inner space environment is easily as convincing as the outer space environments of Kubrick or Lucas. It seems that the nightmares of the video game addict have been realized on film.
The message that comes through strongest is that brilliant people can do powerful things with computers. Flynn was able to thrill countless people with his video games, and Dillinger enslaved an entire company with his control program. The animation compares favorably with most of the “conventional" animation I have seen. The backgrounds and transitions in Tron are better executed than those in many Academy Award nominees.
No coin-op or home computer video game comes close to the effects of Tron. All those other graphic miracles exhibit a flatness that Tron has transcended. In my eyes, Tron makes Close Encounters of the Third Kind look like Casablanca.
The images found in Tron are close to the best available from computers anywhere. Some day, all computer games will have similar quality animation. If you want a preview of future film or future gaming, see Tron.
