Why Tron (1982)?

[bruce_pullen]

Why is it important? Is it still relevant? Or a Jay Leno joke?

[PH3AR]

Serioully why is it, i didnt like this movie i dont know why a lot of ppl like it

[bruce_pullen]

Originally Posted by P|-|3@R

Serioully why is it, i didnt like this movie i dont know why a lot of ppl like it

I know that's the mystery, to me as well.

[Sussudio]

[doctorsteve]

It was way ahead of it's time in 82. Today it's cheesy. But while we take for granted a HUGE array of computer, electronics and technology terms, back in the day terms like RAM, ROM, Cursor, hard drive, and even something like the word 'program' were a very foreign thing to most people.

Today, most people know that 80 gigs are better than 20, cable is better than dial-up, a bluetooth headset means wireless, and very few people even use the phrase 'floppy drive' because they're becoming scarce. (can you remember when a 1.44MB 'floppy' was waaaaay better than a TRULY 'floppy' disk?)

The computer world has moved on. I was in 5th grade when I saw Tron, and it was amazing and new. We had about 10 Apple IIc's in the ENTIRE school system. THAT was high tech.

Most people's cellphones are far more powerful than ANYTHING I had when in school. So it's not a shock that many don't get the relevance of Tron (and the level of advancement) to it's time...

Watch the special feature on the special effects and dig into how ridiculously time consuming it was to bring Tron to life in the days before Pixaresque CGI...

[bruce_pullen]

Originally Posted by Sussudio

And they're making a sequel to it.

I guess Jeff Bridges needed work.

[firebird06]

The argument for it is that without Tron we may not have had a Pixar. See, Tron was the first movie to use computers in it's special effects work, and at the time the Oscars refused it a nomination for that work because of the computer work. In the grand scheme of things it may not seem like much, but it was a milestone for a lot behind the scenes work.

[bruce_pullen]

Originally Posted by firebird06

The argument for it is that without Tron we may not have had a Pixar. See, Tron was the first movie to use computers in it's special effects work, and at the time the Oscars refused it a nomination for that work because of the computer work. In the grand scheme of things it may not seem like much, but it was a milestone for a lot behind the scenes work.

Wouldn't it have happened anyway? Without it?

Films don't get greenlit, all the time. Trends continue anyway.

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by bruce_pullen

Why is it important? Is it still relevant? Or a Jay Leno joke?

It was groundbreaking.

Personal computers were rare, and barely understood by the populace. They were mystery machines, and anything that took you "inside" one was very interesting to people.

This was the age of the Atari, and the Commodore, the Texas Instruments TI-64, and the Radio Shack TRS-80. IBM had just introduced the PC. No one had a clue who Bill Gates was.

In the middle of this, Tron was released. It had non-standard animation (the equivalent of Pixar today, at lease in tone) and wasn't anything like what people had seen before. It had brilliant production design, and though the story was improbable, it's no more fantastic than the Star Wars series.

If you haven't seen it, or haven't seen it recently, it's worth a look for the design of the movie alone. As a story, it's clear that the film makers had no clue how to move it along; but as eye candy, and in visual concept, it was something very, very different than anything that had come before, at least as a commercial venture.

[Tsmith13]

Alot of people liked the game tron. The movie wasnt too bad for its time like said earlier. But just think if they do this right it will have really good special effects...Look cool on Blu-Ray...I could see it possibly with a speedracer look to it i guess. I wont judge something til i see it tho and how it came around.
So i'm 50/50 on this one

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by bruce_pullen

Wouldn't it have happened anyway? Without it?

Eventually, yes, but there's always a first...

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

This was the age of the Atari, and the Commodore, the Texas Instruments TI-64, and the Radio Shack TRS-80. IBM had just introduced the PC. No one had a clue who Bill Gates was.

You used to be able to get computer game magazines, type a few dozen lines into a computer, SAVE it to a cassette tape recorder, and when you wanted to RUN the program, you had to PLAY the cassette tape to LOAD the program to the TI

[bruce_pullen]

Originally Posted by doctorsteve

Eventually, yes, but there's always a first...

Being first.. doesn't necessarily make something great.

Look at Birth of a Nation (1915).

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by bruce_pullen

Being first.. doesn't necessarily make something great.

Look at Birth of a Nation (1915).

I don't think he was saying it was great. He was saying it was first, like Steamboat Willie preceded Wall-E.

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by bruce_pullen

Being first.. doesn't necessarily make something great.

Look at Birth of a Nation (1915).

Silly.

I didn't say Tron was great. But it has it's place in film history... Just like Birth of a Nation.

[bruce_pullen]

Originally Posted by doctorsteve

Silly.

I didn't say Tron was great. But it has it's place in film history... Just like Birth of a Nation.

I guess, I should rephrase.

People call Birth of a Nation (1915) great despite itself. It overcomes it's tone, through creating and modifying film language itself.

So you're saying. That Tron (1982) did that for f/x?

[red_5ive]

Originally Posted by doctorsteve

Silly.

I didn't say Tron was great. But it has it's place in film history... Just like Birth of a Nation.

Agreed, although I do think Tron IS great!

But don't sweat it, these guys will be making the same points 25-30 years from now when the kids of that day will take for granted what is "advanced" to them now. I haven't forgotten when I was kid hearing grown-ups say "gee, I wish I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid". It's an ongoing cycle.

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by bruce_pullen

I
So you're saying. That Tron (1982) did that for f/x?

There was no live action that looked like it, and the technique was developed for that film (for the blue/red coloring). So even though the story is really lame at best, the attempt to connect a human world to the computer world has been repeated and improved upon over time... (can you say The Matrix?)

[bruce_pullen]

Originally Posted by doctorsteve

There was no live action that looked like it, and the technique was developed for that film (for the blue/red coloring). So even though the story is really lame at best, the attempt to connect a human world to the computer world has been repeated and improved upon over time... (can you say The Matrix?)

Cool.

I'll give you that. But as for the story.

[doctorsteve]

Originally Posted by bruce_pullen

Cool.

I'll give you that. But as for the story.

Yup, the story is mildly vague and esoteric, but in the context of what was known by the general public back then about how computers worked - it was... nope, sorry - it was still pretty lame. But... cool looking, two heroes to root for, a chick in tight clothes... a story would have been nice too...