The villain is a megalomaniac program, contained in a whirling temple of light and energy. Like everything else, it looks great. His men are led by his second-in-command, played by David Warner, who is used to this stuff from having played the Devil in “Time Bandits.” Here he’s not having as much fun. He yells “get them!” when referring to the good guys, slaps around his henchmen, and meets Tron for a final showdown. The movie’s purely live-action sequences, set before Bridges is swallowed up by the computer and after he is released, are clumsy and perfunctory, sometimes a little too long, and sometimes so short as to be confusing.
The mechanism that swallows Bridges is introduced early on, in an awkward scene in which the two scientists who have obviously been working on it for months remind each other what it does, for the benefit of the audience. The practical purpose of such a device is not mentioned, as if showing it to the audience were good enough before shuttling onto the next plot point. Also, not unlike Disney’s other live-action films from the time, “The Black Hole” and “The Watcher in the Woods,” “Tron” feels like a few details have been skimped on, a few scenes cut short, or otherwise like some corners have been cut. For instance, Tron’s girlfriend (Cindy Morgan) is understandably worried when some giant digital spiders come to life, but her fears seem unfounded once we realize, possibly hours after the movie has ended, that those spiders never appear again. And, as is practically inevitable with this kind of thing, the movie’s dialogue is dated and campy, as programs use words like “de-resolution” and “de-rezzed” instead of “death.”
Still, there are a few neat touches that make “Tron” worth more than just its visuals. Life and death situations are accompanied by the cheesy beeps and bloops of 1980s arcade games. Computer users, unseen by the programs, are treated either with contempt or like deities; programs debate whether users exist at all. The evil programmer is something of an antichrist, urging the masses to give up faith in the users and set him up as God. Another neat touch is that programmers and programs are played by the same actors, to suggest that mankind’s creations, no matter how cold and sterile, carry some of him with them. The faces of the programs are a flickering black-and-white, as if to embody their diluted humanity.
Of course the synthesizer music is the work of Wendy Carlos, the mastermind behind the electronic score to “A Clockwork Orange.” The look, feel, and forward motion of the movie are reminiscent of video games, and “Tron” spawned many video games that brought in more money than it ever did. While definitely not an actors’ movie, the cast holds its own amidst the effects, which is no small feat. Bridges is appropriately skeptical and wisecracking when it comes to his situation. Like Han Solo, he is in the world but not of the world, and is a good entry point for the audience, while Boxleitner keeps the stiff-upper lip and far-off stare of the fantasy hero.
Disney has rolled out a 20th Anniversary Edition with all manner of nifty extras, and the film is being pushed as an early landmark in computer effects, which it is. The DVD release is in anticipation of the proposed sequel, either titled “Tron 2.0” or “Tron Killer App,” and which may or may not be totally animated. This project has so much potential because the computer world has changed so much in the last 21 years. I have high hopes for “2.0,” including 1) more great visuals, 2) some campy, yet delicate parody of the 1982 original, and 3) a few good stabs and lampoons at how computers are used, created, marketed, revered, and dreaded. But mostly I’ll just settle for some more great images, and hope they’re worthy of the name “Tron.”
Finished June 14th, 2003
Copyright © 2003 Friday & Saturday Night
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