Mr. Sleeman Is Coming

     What If Bobby Fischer Ruled the Universe?

     I was eighteen when TRON came out in July 1982.  I remember seeing ads for it.  It seemed like a hot new movie but for some reason I wasn't interested in going to it.  It could be that my lack of interest in computers at that time influenced my decision.  The animation, too, looked weird and unnatural; by that time in my life I was no longer wasting money at the mall's video arcade, as I had been during my early teens.  It could be I didn't want a reminder of those years when I hadn't even yet  kissed a girl.  A friend told me our local arcade was owned by the Mafia.  I didn't believe him, but every time I went after he revealed that "fact," I looked at the adult security man with wariness.  

     TRON features a video arcade, a lively place operated by a computer programmer, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges at his grinning self-confident best), who lives above the business and spends his free time trying to hack into a mainframe at his former workplace.  He searches for evidence that Ed Dillinger (David Warner) ripped him off in the creation of several successful video games. 

     Dillinger did in fact do this, became rich, and took over the running of Encom, where Flynn used to work.  Dillinger, though, has a problem.  He's become the servant of the artificial intelligence, MCP (Master Control Program), an Encom computer program meant to just play chess, but now growing quickly in ambition, seeking to take over other corporations and also world governments, including the United States and the U.S.S.R.  MCP is a power-hungry asshole with no sense of limitations or morality.  

     Flynn's ex-girlfriend, Lora (Cindy Morgan, the blonde with the prominent nipples in Caddyshack), goes to see Flynn along with her new boyfriend, Alan (Bruce Boxleitner).  Lora and Alan both work at Encom and want to gain control of what they perceive to be a malfunctioning Master Control Program, not realizing the thing has gone far beyond its programming.  The three sneak into Encom, Flynn remembering the code for a little used back entrance.  Alan will attempt to make contact with his program from his work station while Flynn will try to hack the mainframe from a laboratory where Lora works.  

     MCP notices right away what Flynn is up to and shoots a disintegrating laser at him, converting him into data that's swept into the nano-world of computer information.  In this world, a nanosecond goes by and it's like an hour.  Programs look like their creators.  Those who run this world at the behest of MCP (with David Warner operating as the program of his user in the human world) impose a strict belief system on programs.  They are not to regard users (those who created them) as real.  Tron (Bruce Boxleitner again) is the creation of Alan.  Tron accepts that his user is real and after encountering Flynn, he believes the latter is just a program like himself.  Flynn's status in this world becomes godlike, of course.  As a user, he manages to confirm to those who believe in a higher power that there's hope and possible salvation.  

     Flynn and Tron eventually become top criminals in the eyes of MCP and its minions.  The film has a lot of chase scenes.  Throughout the computer world sequence, comprising most of the movie, the micro-world is depicted by the film's computer animators as a beautiful to look at set of angles, intersecting shapes, colors, pulsing walls and floors.  Each shot in this world is nicely composed, making the movie a treat for anyone who enjoys looking at compositions for the sake of looking at compositions.  

     I found the first half of the film stronger than the second.  The latter half drags in spots during long searches for Tron and Clu (Flynn's name in the computer world).  Still, it's quite a satisfying entertainment.  The computer generated imagery, while it may be regarded now as primitive, should nevertheless be looked at as state of the art for its time.  How will the visual effects in the latest Star Wars movies be regarded in thirty or forty years?  Technology moves step by step.  Video arcades like the one in TRON and the one in my hometown owned, supposedly, by the Mafia, aren't much with us anymore.  That kind of thing turned into home game consoles, a shrinking from a larger social scene to a private experience--a movement from macro to micro.  With virtual reality gaming, one will more and more become Clu and Tron, without, we can hope, no MCP running such realities; but won't that be possible, too?  And will we even know we're inside of a program?

                                                                                 Vic Neptune