Tron (1982)

When TRON hit theatres in 1982, I was a 9-year-old boy, so you can imagine that style over substance was just fine with me. A comic book geek and action figure lover who dipped into the science fiction worlds of Star Wars and cartoons like G-Force, I can remember watching TRON with my eyes bugging out of my head. I didn’t understand much of it then, but holy crap! Was it ever cool!

Steven Lisberger’s Disney project, as we now know, went on to be a colossal flop. Though a DVD of TRON was released to celebrate its 20th anniversary, it’s out of print and nearly as scarce as a DVD of “Song of the South.” It would seem that Disney was embarrassed by what I remember to be one of their first attempts to woo a more grown-up audience.

In the years since then, TRON has, of course, become something of a cult film icon. It is remembered as a film that pioneered CGI graphics in film, now a standard feature at the multiplex. But because our childhood memories are often romanticized versions of reality, I thought I’d revisit TRON in anticipation of seeing “Tron: Legacy,” which looks like Disney’s attempt to “try it again.”

I never remembered much about the plot of TRON beyond the fact that it was about a computer software programmer who gets sucked into “The Grid” during an attempt to prove that a program he wrote was his work and not that of someone who stole it and profited from it. My memory served me correctly on this, though I have to laugh that even as an adult, there is little beyond these basics that makes sense to me about TRON, even to this day.

Jeff Bridges is Kevin Flynn, whose Grid avatar (a digital presence or placeholder) is called Clu. And yes, one of the fun things about watching TRON now is thinking about how avatars are discussed in this film dating back to a year when the extent of my house’s computer technology was Pong. Flynn, a cool slacker of sorts who frequents a local arcade that bears his name (though we only see him playing in it and never running it), shows off for the patrons. Flynn is brought in by two employees at ENCOM to hack its mainframe after one of them is locked out by his shady boss. An artificial intelligence called the Master Control Program controls the mainframe, and, after sucking Flynn into its system, tries to get rid of him. Fortunately, all of Flynn’s video game-playing skills come in handy, and he makes it out alive.

This is the best I can retell the plot of TRON, because it’s still thin and complicated at the same time. But the things I remember the most of having seen TRON as a boy hold up almost 30 years later. For one thing, Bridges is great in the film. He’s always been one of my favorite actors, and this was most likely the first time I saw him on screen. He’s cocky and confident and charming as well.

And then there are the special effects, which border on cheesy but are still admirable today. The light cycles, the Grid, the light discs thrown that, when they come into contact with an avatar, shatter it to pieces. I had fun watching TRON again and enjoyed it most when I tried not to think too hard. You definitely feel like you’re in a video game when you’re watching, which is an odd juxtaposition to today’s video games, which look so life-like.

TRON came out the same year as Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” so obviously 1982 was a banner year for science fiction in film. “Blade Runner,” of course, is a far superior work of science fiction in every possible way, and that’s part of why TRON is not well-respected today. But I am reminded that TRON, while emotionally and dramatically hollow, was revolutionary in its time. And watching it again nearly 30 years later accomplished the goal I hoped it would, which was to psych me up for its sequel, which I plan to consume with the modern film bells and whistles of 3-D and Imax. I hope to be a kid like this again!

1982 rating: 3.0 out of 4
2010 rating: 1.5 out of 4