TRON (1982)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, metaphysical*

I like to think that even in 1982 I had my own personal definition of what constituted a genuinely visionary film, versus one that simply had a lot of cool visuals. That said, because TRON was the first movie to make major use of CGI animation, I had the sense of visual overload when I saw the film in its 1982 general release, and that felt a little bit like a visionary experience.

I like to think I was aware that the plot was extremely simple, though I didn't spot the story's indebtedness to the 1960 film SPARTACUS. There's also not much to the lead characters. They're three computer programmers seeking to uncover skullduggery at the giant corporation ENCOM: Kevin (Jeff Bridges), Alan (Bruce Boxleitner), and Lora (Cindy Morgan). Because all three have constructed security programs for the ENCOM mainframe, those programs have somehow become duplicates of their creators down in the computer's microcosm, so that the actors also play respectively Clu, Tron, and Yori. 

The skullduggery begins with corporate head Dillinger (David Warner). Not only did Dillinger pirate a game system of Kevin's creation, he created a security monitoring system called Master Control Program (MCP), only to learn that MCP has become self-aware and seeks to expand its influence over computers outside its mainframe. MCP even bends its creator to its will via the threat of blackmail. 

When Kevin gets too close to the truth, MCP shoots him with a digitizing laser, transforming him into computer-data and importing him into the system. As an animated humanoid program, Kevin learns that the real programs in this cyber-universe divide into two types: "believers" who have faith in a world of "users" who created them, and oppressive skeptics who are allies of the "Roman" power of MCP. Clu perishes before Kevin is translated, but Kevin receives assistance from both Tron and Yori in his campaign to destroy MCP's power at its source. Thus a human "god" has to help "worshipers" overcome a malign "devil." The religious parallels are winsome despite their superficiality.

With considerable aid from visual designers Syd Mead and Jean "Moebius" Giraud, director/co-writer Stephen Lisberger succeeds most in giving viewers a bizarre world composed of lines and patterns and geometrical solids, with which humanoid programs seem to co-exist adequately. In a commentary Lisberger admits that he derived the name "Tron" from "electron," which makes me suspect that he derived the idea of his computer-world from SF-stories about micro-universes on the atomic level.

In some ways I think I enjoyed the commentary track by Lisberger and two producers as much, if not more, than the film. Leaving aside some of the technological advances foretold in the movie, the track was a fascinating insight into the aesthetics of making the impossible come alive.