*** (out of ****)
Starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan, Dan Shor, and Barnard Hughes
Directed by Steven Lisberger & written by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird
1982 PG
The Disney movie “Tron” marries breathtaking and original visuals to a story that’s something of a clunker. A man is swallowed up into a computer world, where he meets programs played by human actors, and moves through brilliantly realized computer landscapes. That “Tron” was made in 1982, when computer generated imaging was in its infancy, may at first be a bad sign. But the reverse is actually true: while modern computer effects (I write this in 2003) have gotten so sophisticated that they always strive for verisimilitude, and usually fail, computer effects in 1982 were so simple that an entirely new artificial world had to be created. The result is a unique vision, with little relation to the real world, unlike so many current films that cartoonishly and sloppily recreate what is already around us.
Modern computers are so warm and friendly, with their icons and lower-case letters and earth-tone backgrounds. Computers in 1982 wrote in all capital letters, on black backgrounds, and were absolutely foreign to the common American. As a result, the computer world of “Tron” is dazzling in its minimalism. Vehicles and structures, both large and small, are built out of polygons, and move along geometric landscapes underneath a perpetually black sky. Canyons are constructed from identical walls, one right after another, and interlaced into the patterns of circuit boards. Even a river of pure energy runs through what looks to be a plastic valley. Beams of energy shoot endlessly upwards, connecting the computer world to the real world, or towards the limitless horizon, where they connect one computer to another. Everything is backlit and glowing in pulsating primary colors.
In the course of the film, Our Heroes cheat all sorts of bizarre deaths. They are locked in polygonal holding cells, where ominous guards march above them with glowing spears. They are chased by a looming airship that crosses a dirigible with a closed switchblade. Sleek, massive tanks pursue them, shooting perfect cubes that reduce the landscape to a rubble of pixels, and they do battle with their enemies using flying discs. Even more inventive are the flying craft with two giant feet, perpetually attempting to stomp our fleeing protagonists.
“Tron’s” most well-known sequence, and justifiably so, is a thrilling high speed chase across a seemingly limitless grid, in which Our Heroes and the bad guys have been transformed into bubble-shaped motorcycles. Writer-director Steve Lisberger, unlucky with characters talking or developing, is gifted when it comes to displaying his visuals and moving through them. The abrupt swings of his camera in the computer world are fitting, and a motion that seems to have been imitated in many subsequent digital landscapes.
The story behind “Tron” is, alas, not so original, but a generic fantasy formula updated to a newer setting. The man from the real world (a rebellious hacker played by Jeff Bridges) enters a kingdom ruled by a wholly evil, repressive, and unsympathetic regime. There he meets the title character (a security program, played by Bruce Boxleitner), who might as well be a prince or called Chosen One. Together they set out to overthrow the evil villain and restore justice and order to the realm. The driving action of “Tron” is first for Bridges, Boxleitner, and a sidekick (Dan Shor) to escape from the evil regime’s imprisonment, elude capture, contact what may as well be a magic oracle, and then meet the villains in a final showdown.
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