Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
TRON and the Perils of Revisiting the Films of Youth
June 2nd 2009 18:15
by Matt Shea
What do you think of when I say ‘TRON’? I’d hazard a guess that it’s a number of things, all draped in the giddy glow of childhood memories: the neon coloured geometric world; perhaps the precipitous disc battles; most certainly the light cycles streaking over the grid. It was a film that captured the imagination of eight year-olds all over the globe.
I remember with a strange perspicuity the first time I saw "TRON". It was Nicky Bryant’s eighth birthday party, and the ridiculous amount of sugar I ingested that day seemed to fire off the frontal synapses to such an extent that the entire event is now burned onto my brain.
There was a clown and a candy hunt and game after game of ballrush. There was also the Bryants’ groovy circular pool, which the ten of us used to create whirlpools that would rush us about in dizzying circles. In the afternoon we sat on the verandah playing pass-the-parcel and drinking Mellow Yellow while the girls who lived next door – Jenny and Abbie Wilson – cart-wheeled about the road in an effort to impress us. They would stop and shout, threatening to flash us their non-existent bosom, and we would reply in kind by flexing our puny biceps.
To end the evening we filed like exhausted ducklings into the Bryant’s lounge room and lay down on the floor. Mrs Bryant pushed the button on their fancy VHS player and all of a sudden we were transported somewhere else. The mountain of processed sugar we’d consumed that day was rendered via television tube in a glorious fluorescent tailoring of geometric animation. I remember looking over at Stephen Lambert and Michael Brook, their eyes shining in the darkness, reflecting "TRON"’s visual splendour that painted the room in a kaleidoscope of colour.
We were totally rapt: the rush of the light cycles! The audacity of the disc battles! And how we cooed when it was revealed that not only did Jeff Bridges design video games as a job BUT he also lived on top of a video arcade. Amazing… every boy’s dream! Never mind the Master Control Program being a crusty metaphor for totalitarianism; we didn’t get that. Besides, we were too wrapped up in the candy-cane magic of the film to care about any slap-in-the-face subtext.
As the Bryants drove about town, dropping each of us off that night, their van chattered with kids moving perilously close to a glucose burnout. That was the best film in history, we agreed. Even better than American Ninja. The following Monday we were in the schoolyard, flinging Frisbees about with wild abandon, until Steven managed to hit Mrs Stapleton in the face, knocking out her dentures. They were banned after that.
Such strong memories regarding such a fantastic film… or so I thought.
***
Funnily enough, it turns out that revisiting films from your past is a risky proposition. In the age of the DVD it is of course an easy thing to do: I found "TRON" at my local store for a tiny ten dollars. Standing there, flipping the cover back and forth, it occurred to me that I could revisit all of those memories just by laying down a single blue note. And so I did.
Thus began one of the most disappointing movie experiences I’ve had in some time. "TRON", it turns out, is not a good film. Not even close. The best visual design in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t have a story, and when the visual design is 25 years old, your film is in desperate trouble. "TRON" is slackly paced, repetitive and full of characters that hardly register. It runs from the gates like a buck-kneed horse dragging its jockey, and by the time Bruce Boxleitner (as Tron) is wandering about the technicolour landscape in some sort of strange funk, the audience is long asleep in their popcorn. Forget the rigorous viewing demands of pop culture: "TRON" is despairingly bad, a snafu of deranged proportions.
It’s fair to say I was thoroughly disappointed. But what was worse than rewatching the actual movie was the effect it had on my associated childhood memories. I started to remember the real details of Nicky Bryant’s party: the whirlpool made Richard Fisher vomit, a red stain of acid-laced raspberry drops spreading over the pool like a keen virus, and Jenny Wilson was dragged home by her ear after writing a giant ‘FUCK’ on the pavement – a desperate final attempt to win our game of one-upmanship.
I now remember wanting to go home long before the movie started, the slick of sick and giant swearword too much for my boyhood sensitivity to handle. And I didn’t even really like Nicky Bryant; he was a petulant bully who used to turn a blind eye to the processed cheese that would collect in his braces. Yet all these elements were largely forgotten up until a short time ago, washed away by the celluloid catnip that "TRON" proved to be for an eight-year-old in the 1980s. Revisiting the film was the worst thing I could have done. It served only to chip away at the delicate childhood memories that you desperately try to preserve as you grow older.
Strangely enough, when I picked up my copy of "TRON" I’d almost been tempted into fifteen-dollar copies of both "The Goonies" and "Flight of the Navigator". Being particularly poor that day I abstained, promising myself I would return once I had little more liquidity. Alas, my "TRON" experience has put the kibosh on that idea. Perhaps the films of childhood are best left to the cushy enclosures of long ago, when talking robots and giant waterslides were enough to keep a young mind entertained.
*this image is from The Modern Materialist
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Comment by Cibbuano
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Comment by MVD
This film attempted to play off the burgeoning graphic user interfaces of the decade in an attempt at uber-relevance, much as 1990's films such as "The Net" tapped into identity theft on a prehistoric internet. Both, while still important issues, seem trite on celluloid, as if the filmmakers were trying to improve their hipness quotient to the detriment of a lasting screen product.
As for revisiting films from childhood, about a year ago I was devastated after re-watching the Douglas/Turner classic "Romancing The Stone." While cute in parts, it rated nowhere near as hilarious as I remembered, and like most things 1980's, was plagued with insanely corny undertones.
Excellent loosening up of your style on a neighboring site.
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Mike - Personally, I'm hoping TR2N features a giant game of Solitaire, or perhaps some good old fashioned Windows 'fatal error's. Actually, I'd pay the admission fee just to see Jeff Bridges play Afterburner.
And I'll see your Romancing the Stone, good sir, and raise you a recent viewing of Jewel of the Nile for hopeless Douglas/Turner/DeVito retreads
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Hahahaha I really enjoyed this chronicle of your childhood revisted and the eloquence of how it has been written. . . yet may have to disagree because recently I introduced my own children to this one and still really managed to enjoyed it (ooh okay, in part). Perhaps I was seeing it through their eyes . . eyes that have seen too many CGI blockbusters i think, because in parts they too found it booring and thought Spy Kids was so much better when it went inside the computer ~ especially in 3D. . ho hum ~ but they were fascinated by the antiquated clumsiness of it, none the less. It does seem to heave in places, doesn't it?
Perhaps that is the material point, we become jaundiced by our sophistication, spoiled by the years of miraculous, seamless sfx : sacrificing the simplicity of youth for complications and sub plots that must make sense, scenes that must go somewhere, and villans that must make us quake in our boots with their evil intelligence and hatred. Why can*t villains just meander around like the dumb morons they are supposed to be?
((laughs))
/seriously/ I was just thinking about re watching (introducing) my girls to The Last Starfighter *chuckle* now I will be watching with an even more critical eye! As for the Goonies after Pirates of the Carribean I think all that jaundiced prejudice would seep in too much to enjoy watching it again?
Perhaps the trick is to meditate like Yoda first and suspend all judgement, before switching on the box.
((funny stuff))
Lilla ..
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Funnily enough, with regards to modern kids' films, i actually tend to think they're overly subplotted. Something like Ratatouille had so much going on I don't know how the kids could keep up.
A good friend of mine suffered the Goonies recently, expecting all sorts of childhood joys to come flooding back, but it turned out to be a swelling disappointment. So, yep, tread carefully, lest your dreams of youth be crushed by the jaws of 80s film making mediocrity.
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
I never could understand the attraction of Tron, but about 2 years ago I saw The Goonies for the first time in ages and thought it was a great nostalgic romp and held up well, so don't completely discount it yet mate!
Comment by StarWarsGeek
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Thanks StarWarsGeek! I just hope TR2N is worth seeing when it finally makes it to the big screen. If they nail the production design and attach it to a compelling story, it could actually be okay. But I wouldn't count on it.
Comment by Marc P
As a father, I'm seeing it all from the other side of the stage now. I recently caught the Goonies on TV and watched it with my daughter. It held up well, despite the mawkish reunion with their parents at the end.
Comment by Bridget 1
I Movie You
on the other hand, Goonies has proven to stand up to the test of time, I've found; though this might have something to do with the fact that I saw it in high school and have watched it quite a few times since. . . I guess there always has to be an understanding with the viewer, a contract of sorts. . .
my disappointment always comes when it works the other way; movies people gush about from their childhoods (ie, neverending story, dark crystal, last unicorn) just seem like really weird, almost disturbing movies if you come to them now for the first time. this happened with legend for me. . . never again. it's like you completely missed the childhood excitement and ability to dismiss flaws, and you'll never get it (or the two hours) back again!
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Bridget 1 - I think there's a real truth to your experiences with the Goonies: if you rewatch something consistently over the years its faults reveal themselves slowly over time rather than punching you in the mouth all at once, and at the same time you can perhaps hang on to the special moments you remember as a kid.
I haven't Neverending Story or Dark Crystal for years! Perhaps another two with which to tread carefully. Thanks for reading!
Comment by Forceuser01
Great perspective, I've often run into this problem with many of my favorite childhood films. My remedy for this has been to light up a bong to further suspend the judgement complex, and enhance the childlike "oh cool!" effect. The munchies sugar will also provide you with the proper frontal synaptic firing, which duplicates the feeling of nostalgia even more deeply.
Empire Strikes Back felt much more like it did when I first watched it when I was 7, and this was after having seen it at least 30 times .... but this time, I could almost see/feel it again with the ole' 7-year old wonderment. Amazing.
I mean, I'm not advocating taking drugs, but....LOL
-John
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Thanks for reading, bro.