| A little while back I re-watched the original “Tron” movie (1982). I picked it up with the latest version, “Tron: Legacy“, some time ago, but have not sat down to watch them both together. Well, I still haven’t. But I did watch the first to see what I remembered – not much. Well, not much about the movie anyway. What I took away from the re-viewing was the sense of deja vu from knowing but not remembering a movie. | |
| The word “tron” comes from the programming contraction of “trace on”, which is a programming tool for helping to see what’s going on in a running program. “Tron” turns the process on and “Troff” turns it off (“trace off”). Yes, programmers are an original lot when it comes to naming things. None of this is mentioned or explained in the movie. That would have been TOO geeky for the average audience. | |
| Anyway, I went to see the movie at the theater (back in ’82) because I was (am, but less so now) a computer geek. A programmer. | |
| Setting aside the geek factor, is Tron a good movie? No. Not even for its day. Did that really matter to me? No. Not even to this day. | |
| It’s a “cool” movie with reasonable special effects which incorporates a number of Sci-Fi and Computer Science related terms and I loved being on the “inside” of knowing what it (the movie) was about. | |
| The real question is can I give the movie a “High” or “Strong” recommendation or not. Well, if you’re of a certain age and certain background (geek), you will probably really enjoy the movie the same as I have. If you’re not a historic geek (too young) or not a computer geek (a user not a programmer), you probably won’t get much out of the movie except as the prequel to the “Legacy” version. So, where does that leave me… I highly recommend this movie because it reminds me of what it was like to be geek before geek was normal. We knew we were “cool”, before our future became everyone’s present. (Resistance was futile…) | |
| Somehow, looking back like this only makes me feel older… Maybe if today had happened sooner, I’d be able to enjoy it longer (still). | |
| Today’s second review is: “Streets of Fire“, which came out in 1984. This is a “rock & roll fable”. I’m not sure what that means, but that’s how it was advertised to us way back then. It’s a simple movie: girl gets kidnapped by bad-guy, girl gets rescued by good-guy, big fight at the end. Simple. What’s good about the movie? Well, aside from the stylish filming, there are a couple of well done fight scenes – a short one at the beginning to introduce the hero, and a longer one at the end – the crescendo. | |
| There’s also a couple of pretty good songs (MTV videos in the old days) in the movie. The best one (“I Can Dream About You“) is the main song for the lead-in group and the final song is “Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young“) is performed immediately afterwards with the lead-in group singing and dancing backup. Because of a bizarre twist of fate, “I Can Dream About You” was showing on MTV all the time the year I met my wife, I fell in love with her, she went back home to England, and it (the song) became my theme song until she returned to me. Twenty-eight years later and I still dream (day dream) about her… | |
| If you’ve never seen this movie, it’s well worth the viewing. If nothing else, you get to see a young Michael Pare (good-guy) and a young Willem Dafoe (bad-guy). | |
| It also has Amy Madigan in a terrific supporting role as good-gal, side-kick. She almost steals the movie. | |
| I highly recommend this movie for anyone interested in early adaptations of MTV to movie cross-pollination’s. If you haven’t seen either song in the movie, both are available on YouTube. I highly recommend “I Can Dream About You“, but then I would, wouldn’t I? | |
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SoundEagle likes your wit in this post about Tron.
Hi SoundEagle,
I’m curious as to which part you felt was witty?
And thanks for commenting!
We have quite a lot in common, including being geeks and programmers as well as being familiar with older sci-fi films.
So, you can imagine or trust that SoundEagle is receptive towards the in-jokes, geek-speaks and techo-lingos in both your writings and the movies. 🙂
I’m glad you’re enjoying the reviews!
And thanks again for the comments.
Jeff Bridges was also in the lovely and touching film “Star Man”.
Indeed! That movie has three of my favorite scenes:
1) where the guy calls him a pervert in the men’s room (hilarious);
2) when he brings the deer back to life; and,
3) after nearly causing a car wreck:
Jenny Hayden: Okay? Are you crazy? You almost got us killed! You said you watched me, you said you knew the rules!
Starman: I do know the rules.
Jenny Hayden: Oh, for your information pal, that was a *yellow* light back there!
Starman: I watched you very carefully. Red light stop, green light go, yellow light go very fast.
Yes, scenes 1 and 3 are hilarious! Did you really remember all the lines word for word?
I thought that he really acted the part really well.
I believe that the actress name is Karen Allen or something similar. She was with Harrison Ford in the fourth Indiana Jones movies.
There is one Sci-Fi that I really like, and it has the famous five-note musical motif. You should know this.
Hi SoundEagle,
No. I’m getting too old to remember word for word… I thought he said: “go like hell!”, not “go very fast!”
Karen Allen was actually in both the first and the fourth “Indi” films. She has a great drinking scene in the first. I thought she was undistinguished in the fourth, but I didn’t think much of the movie either. I thought she was terrific in StarMan. Allen reminds me of Margot Kidder. As a matter of fact, I’ve always struggled to tell them apart. LOL. You may recall Kidder played Lois Lane in the Christopher Reeve in the four Superman movies from way back when…
The five-note Sci-Fi can ONLY be Close Encounters of the Third Kind! (Re Me Do Do [one octave down] So – but then you’re a “Sound” person, so you know this already!)
Yes, Karen Allen was in The Temple of Doom. And it is indeed uncanny that she resembles Margot Kidder so much. In any case, the former has a sweeter voice, rounder face and longer hair than the latter —– it would seem that Indiana Jones got an arguably better deal than superman.
Karen could also be more feisty than Margot.
I also like Elizabeth Shoe and Sean Young.
I liked Shoe (I think it’s Shue), but I only really remember her from Karate Kid and Back to the Future. Was she in anything else you felt was really outstanding?
I don’t really know Sean Young. I’ve seen Blade Runner, but I’d still be hard pressed to say I remembered her in the movie. What was your favorite role for her?