The fondness of remembering a childhood thrill can sometimes blur a focus that we have spent years honing as emerging adults. At other times our recollections are less sharp, leaving us hopelessly lost in an attempt to recapture what we felt in those heady, wonder swept times as children. Over the years I, as well as many of you, have come to understand that the strangest things can momentarily draw us back to some of those fleeting moments of innocence. A wisp of a scent can recall a time when a friend and I invaded an abandoned building, pretending we were soldiers on a secret mission. Certain phrases can trigger memories making us certain we not only have heard that exact statement before but that we have lived in that exact moment, be it real or from some fragmented recollection of a dream.


For me the most accessible medium that I have been able to utilize to help me relive some of these experiences is cinema. And for my inaugural attempt to convey my thoughts on my favorite films I, of course, must begin with my personal favorite, TRON. So here we go.



I had just turned 7 and had already been ruined by my parents who unwittingly had hooked me on watching films. Just that year we had gone as a family to see Wrath of Khan at the local 70mm cinema, (an utterly lost art form that IMAX has attempted to replicate with some degree of success). My young fertile imagination ran rampant, fueled by Star Wars, Empire, Raiders of the Lost Ark, I couldn’t get enough. But at that age I was lucky to be able to tag along for some of these films, right up until my birthday. That week a Disney film was being released. A PG film that was custom tailored to me! I had learned nothing more about it other than an amazing looking black poster I’d seen earlier in the year, with glowing figures standing in the middle of some giant circle proclaiming TRON was coming (right next to a poster of a RESTRICTED film called Blade Runner, that my parents gave me a scowl for even mentioning).



I knew that my Mom wasn’t interested in it and my chances of getting my dad to go weren’t good because he saw it as a kids film. But it being my birthday my mom acquiesced and allowed me to invite one friend. I made sure that we went to the 70mm showing at Century 21, a massive domed theater in town where we had seen nearly all of the previously mentioned films above. We went to the noon show, sat right in the middle of the theater and when those massive 40 foot tall curtains drew open and the film began I was absolutely speechless, which those who know me is really something! As a matter of fact I don’t think I uttered an intelligible word the entire length of the film, and then even sat stunned through the credits, letting that groundbreaking score wash over me until the Journey song, “Only Solutions” kick into gear. At that time I looked over at my friend and we exploded! I loved that movie. Everything about it. Without qualm or question my favorite film from that time to now has been TRON.



As a matter of fact I believe that it wouldn’t be incorrect to surmise that my current adoration for films in general, the way I get emotionally involved, the focus I have on the story, characters, action, what have you, can trace their roots to that summer birthday present that I received when I turned 7. That day I changed from a kid who liked movies to a cinephile. A movie-a-holic. I got something out of TRON that was new. My emotions had been wrung during Wrath of Khan which I had seen only a few months prior, but it didn’t connect with me in the same way. As a kid I never followed films the way I do now. Not only because we didn’t have the net back then, though I would have used it, but because I was so tremendously active as a child. This also made the act of seeing a new film that much more of an adventure. I didn’t slow down to read about movies, what was coming out and when, even when I could. My parents usually just took us to what “looked” good or if a big sequel was coming out and then I absorbed them en total. Marrow and all. I took the experiences home imagining myself as characters from those films and enacted my own variations of them with my friends, as most all kids do.



But why TRON? Looking back at the “critic’s” reception to TRON at that time I realize what must have been part of the equation to answer that. The critics paned TRON, calling it derivative and ridiculous, a children’s fantasy film with silly characters and a dumb plot. Reading over their reviews now it’s clear that most people that saw TRON back-in-the-day just didn’t get it. It looked cool, but since it wasn’t something they could conceptually grasp they shrugged it off as corny. Of the critics at the time I found only one, Roger Ebert, who understood what TRON was trying to say and achieve and applauded it for what it said and who it was reaching. Most adults of the time were not acquainted with computers, whether on a home level or a business level, and were quite ignorant of not only how they worked but what they were capable of at the time and in the future. This was in my opinion the main reason so many people disregarded it. And the very factor that it made such an impact with me.



I have my father to thank for exposing me not only to film, but in keeping up with current electronic gaming culture of the time allowing me access to numerous gaming experiences. My family and friends were quite enthralled by video games. Enough to regularly spend all-nighters playing Atari football, Pac-Man, soccer, baseball, anything to compete with each other to see who was king of that particular game. In playing these games I constantly pondered how they must have been made and wondered if when I grew up I would make games too. Then comes TRON, speaking to a niche culture of burgeoning gamers and computer programmers of the time, giving us a science fictional microscope to explore a vividly imaginative world inside of the computer.



Everyone that has seen TRON always gets stuck on the visuals. I personally think that they were critical in capturing my young imagination, but it was really the story, the people that seduced me. Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a rogue computer programmer/hacker who after having his game programs stolen by corporate stooge Ed Dillinger (David Warner) is attempting to clear his name and take back what is rightfully his. He then is approached by Allan, an employee of Dillinger, and his ex-girlfriend Laura with a proposition to infiltrate ENCOM, the company that Dillinger now runs and extract the evidence Flynn needs to bring Dillinger down. The film draws in pretty broad stokes who the villains and hero’s are, which is where many attack it for being too simplistic. The premise is fairly straightforward but I don’t think it’s terribly simplistic, maybe the overall goals but that’s breaking the plot out of context of the film for examination’s sake. Just enjoy it! Now I’m not saying that TRON is the greatest, most brilliant film ever made. By no means. I’m just saying that for me it has been and remains my favorite film to watch. Because I LIKE it! But due to it’s simplicity does it suffer as a piece of cinema. Subjected to comparative analysis, possibly. But why must we rely so heavily on critical praise or condemnation when it is WE who decide if it is something that WE enjoy.



TRON for me is like a time-capsule that I can share with others. With my family. With my children. With my friends. In some ways it’s become a part of me in how I express who I was and what I’ve become, in discussing the concepts presented in the film and how they have stimulated my imagination over the years. In the early 80’s I was surrounded by new-ageish synthetic music seemingly wherever I went. The perspective here is somewhat blurry through the lens of time. But I remember seeing advancements in space exploration that fired my imagination to it’s possibilities. And TRON sort of embodied all of these experiences at the time in a single stroke.


This may have become less of a review of the film TRON and more of a perspective on the effects of artistic influences on our lives, sorry! But if there’s anything to glean from my little soapbox examination, it’s this: If you go into any film with preconceived opinions on what should or shouldn’t be, you will nearly always be disappointed on one level or another. And I think that’s the most important lesson I learned so many years ago in that dark domed theater. To this day I go into films with an eager, open perspective on what they might have in store for me. Am I still disappointed? Sometimes, absolutely! But more often than not, because of my commitment I’m transported to other worlds, allowed to visit them even if for a short time. To let myself be filled with the same awe and wonder I felt as a boy, when I first got the opportunity to see TRON.

Yeah, it can be frustrating to be so confused by our supposedly "common" language. And your mention of the music, Vangelis's brilliant Blade Runner score, which I heard years later had a similar effect on me that Wendy Carlos's score for TRON did. Recent score's that I feel have been similarly groundbreaking were Don Davis's score for The Matrix, Hans Zimmer's work for Chris Nolan in both Batman films and the awe inspiring Inception score.