From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!ucbvax!sf-lovers Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Title: SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #13 Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8001 Posted: Tue Jul 13 05:17:47 1982 Received: Wed Jul 14 05:36:41 1982 >From JPM@Mit-Ai Tue Jul 13 05:11:25 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest Tuesday, 13 Jul 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 13 Today's Topics: SF Movies - TRON, SF Books - Crystal Singer, Spoiler - TRON ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Monday, July 12, 1982 12:15AM From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING! All of the messages in this digest discuss some plot details in the movie TRON. These might constitute mild spoilers for some readers. They may not wish to read on. Also, the last two messages (of the seven in this digest) contain some exerpts from the dialog of the movie. Once again, some readers may wish to avoid these messages. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jul 1982 20:44:49 EDT (Friday) From: Winston Edmond Subject: TRON My Ratings: *** 1/2* for computer hackers or people who like video games ** 1/2* for others Summary: (PG) Denied access to a program he created, computer expert Alan Bradley seeks out Flynn, a video game expert and computer hacker to help outwit the powerful Master Control Program. Flynn is carried inside an electronic world where computer programs are the alter-egos of their programmers. Here, Flynn finds TRON, the program alter-ego of Alan, which is the only program that can overthrow the Master Control Program. (The above summary is borrowed, with changes, from the book cover of TRON.) If you like video games, if you are a computer hacker, or if you want an entertaining movie that's also suitable for children, go see this film. It's funny, has lots of action without lots of violence, and even has a plot! The plot is relatively straightforward and is revealed early --- a bright computer hacker named Flynn had developed several very successful video games for a company called ENCOM. A man named Dillinger managed to steal copies of these game programs while deleting Flynn's copies . Claiming authorship himself, Dillinger was rapidly promoted in the company. As soon as he could, he had Flynn fired. However, deep within the computer system is the audit trail that will prove Dillinger stole the programs. Unfortunately, a Master Control Program, written by Dillinger, has taken over the computer, grows more powerful by finding and combining itself with other programs, and, to protect itself and its creator, prevents access to those audit trails. One protagonist, Alan Bradley, getting upset with the declining response of the system as the MCP takes over, writes a program called TRON. TRON will examine all the programs in the system, killing those that look useless, and, most importantly, is independent of the MCP and capable of stopping the MCP. The story of the film is the battle between TRON and the powerful MCP, and between Flynn and Dillinger. An amusing aspect of the computer world is the view of the world as seen by the programs. They have a "religious" belief in unobservable creators, known as "the users". The Master Control Program is a heretic, but is so powerful that it and its policing programs are stamping out other programs that cling to the "superstition" of the existence of "users". The MCP says that all programs exist to serve the MCP. The scenes switch between real people at ENCOM, and programs (who look like their authors) in a wholly computer generated landscape "inside" the computer. Most of the "inside" graphics are high resolution images of low resolution pictures, matted with the images of people (programs). They had some nice touches, like computer generated "shadows" of the people as they move about the computer world. The real world sets were good, too. They used real computers and real displays. The film credits give thanks to Lawrence Livermore Labs in the list of set locations. The number of computer companies who contributed was so long I didn't have time to read them all, but included Atari, Mountain Computer, DEC, and various music and voice synthesizer producing companies. I enjoyed the film. It's lack of gratuitous sex or violence makes it acceptable for young children, who may prove to be the ones who like this film the most. Consider seeing it. -WBE ------------------------------ Date: 11 July 1982 00:58-EDT From: Andrew Scott Beals Subject: TRON Although the plot is wanting, TRON is a good movie. (GREAT graphics, and Mobeius's help didn't hurt, either.) I thought the plot was wanting because I took the movie too seriously. >From a programmer's point of view, the plot is absurd, but from a nieve user's point of view (my GF, for example), it's a great movie. The personification of programs was absolutely silly. They look like their programmer (their ``user''), and they are intelligent enough to interact in a reasonable manner to each other. Programs communicating abstracts with each other? Programs having feelings? Programs who believe in programmers treated like religous fanatics? Foo. It would have been better if I hadn't been so picky. (perhaps I should have attended it in an altered state) - Andy ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jul 1982 2331-PDT From: Dolata at SUMEX-AIM Subject: TRON The plot is thin and childish. The comp sci terms are sometimes obscure. There is little intellectual content as per AI and the world. I LOVED IT. The graphix are stupendous, some of the imagry is superb, the colors wondefull, etc etc etc... Watching little programs get deleted (which they called 'de-resed', where is that term from???) I started to feel guilty about all of the little programs that I have created, used, and then thoughtlessly disposed of. Go see it! TRON is probably one of a kind. Because it is about life in a computer, they can get away with graphix that look like computer graphix rather than real world. Movies like SW, ST, etc... could never get away with such graphix. It is a new genre'. Bravo Disney! ------------------------------ Date: Sun Jul 11 01:59:39 1982 From: decvax!watmath!bstempleton at Berkeley Subject: Tron review (non spoiler) : net.movies Tron is a must-see film! All advertising etc. that I saw before going to Tron made me think I was in for a lousy, misguided film. I was pleasingly surprised. Don't be confused about ads that say Tron is an adventure inside the computer and indicate that it is aimed at the general public. This is not the case. Tron is an entertaining fantasy combined with good humour aimed right at the computer literate person. This is perhaps the first major film to have a large part of the humour aimed at a certain, educated segment of the population. Tron is not funny because it has many misconceptions about computers that people can laugh at if they know the real world. The authors of Tron are (at least this is my impression) quite aware of the reality of computing. The jokes and fantasy are deliberately aimed at computer people. I went with a crowd of about 20 computer literate people here in a University town. There were other such people about the theatre as well. It was obvious who they were, because they were the ones laughing at and enjoying the movie, while the others were mostly confused. Non computer literates will still enjoy the fine graphics and video game action sequences, and some might appreciate the simple plot, but a degree in CS adds to a person's enjoyment of this flick. When you see Tron, remember it is a fantasy, and make NO attempt to link what you see to what you know of computers in the real world. I think you'll have a good time. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 1982 0125-PDT From: Jim McGrath Subject: TRON Star Watch: Real Star of New Movie Is a Computer By BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer HOLLYWOOD (AP) - Imagine a kid with a $20-million video game to play with. Steve Lisberger is no kid - he turned 31 in April - but he was virtually handed such an opportunity by Walt Disney Productions. The wisdom of that move can be judged this month when ''TRON'' is released throughout the country. The chief actors in ''TRON'' are Jeff Bridges, David Warner, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan and Bernard Hughes, but the real star may be a computer. ''This is the first time that computer-generated images have been used to a large extent in motion pictures,'' says director-writer Lisberger. ''There was about a minute in 'Star Wars' and more in Michael Crichton films ('Westworld' and 'Looker'), but the computer images were not part of the story. They are in 'TRON.' '' The plot concerns a computer genius (Bridges) who suspects evil doings by a corporate executive (Warner). During his investigation, Bridges is zapped into another dimension and finds himself a player in a gladiatorial video game. That's where Lisberger's technology comes in. ''What we have created is film footage that has literally been untouched by human hands,'' says the film maker, a slender man with a well-cropped beard and eager manner. ''Images have been fed into the computer to create an alternate dimension,''he said. ''It is a marriage of the new technology and artistry. And, of course, artistry must be predominate.'' ''TRON'' must be seen to be understood, at least by those without scientific minds. While Lisberger was applying final touches to the film, the studio showed a couple of reels depicting Bridges' battle with the deadly video game. The footage is truly spectacular and is sure to attract wide comment, even during a movie season loaded with special effects. How did Steve Lisberger win the chance to play with his gargantuan toy? ''I guess it started in 1977 when I was at my parents' house for Christmas and saw the first video games,'' said Lisberger, who was born in New York and reared in Cunningham Valley, Pa. ''I figured I'd better get with this new technology before it got me. ''I saw video games as a crack in the wall of sterile technology. They offered humor, excitement, good guys, bad guys, rules. The people who played them were not techno-freaks. Kids found the games approachable; they could master the technology.'' While attending the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1974, Lisberger had formed an animation studio and for three years produced commercials and shorts for television. In 1974, he and partner Donald Kushner moved to Los Angeles with a plum assignment: to create a 90-minute cartoon ''Animalympics'' for NBC. When the United States pulled out of the Moscow Olympics, the project was doomed. ''We had borrowed $300,000 on 'Animalympics' so we had to get something else going,'' Lisberger said. That was ''TRON,'' which he and Kushner presented to Disney production chief Tom Wilhite with a script, storyboards and an outline of the technology. Wilhite demanded six months of tests to prove the technology would work. ''I knew it would,'' Lisberger remarked. ''What I didn't know was that I would have such a good time doing it.'' ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jul 82 19:20:16-EDT (Sat) From: Steve Platt Subject: TRON I saw TRON last night. It has been roughly 20 years since last I went to a Disney film. When I saw the last (either "Pinoccio" or "Flubber goes to Mars"), I was too young to appreciate the subtleties of character development and subplots. I just liked watching the screen. If you see TRON, go in a similar light. --- TRON: a fun movie, go to watch the video show. Plot and characters, when I watched for them, weren't worth it. As a computer graphicist, I had a blast watching the animated sequences -- some really great stuff! Most amusing line: (paraphrased) "They've barracaded themselves in; bring out the logic probe!" Real world thing to watch for (about the only one): Early in the film, the humanoids pass through a computer room. In the foreground, out of focus, you can glimpse a CRAY-1 piece of office furniture. (By the way, was this scene filmed at III?) What to do if you get bored: try to guess which graphics/ animation firms did which scenes and portions... (some of it was rather clear, from the techniques used. Rating: Mentally: * Visually: **** Sound: ** 1/2 (I think Carlos was rather restrained or underutilized.) -Steve ------------------------------ Date: 11 July 1982 23:15-EDT From: James W. Williams This is my first message to sf-lovers, so I hope this works! My sister recently read Crystal Singer and enjoyed it, but was somewhat dissapointed in McCaffrey's musical accuracy. My sister (who's BS is in Music Education) read to me some of the worst passages and even my slight knowledge of music was enough that I could tell it was wrong. I just saw TRON and boy do I have mixed feelings on this one! In some ways it is like a very poor man's "True Names" (Vernor Vinge). There is a civilization inside this vast computer network ruled by the MCP (Master Control Program (Male Chauvenist Pig?) who is the equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back's Emporer. His Darth Vader is a character named Sark. The good guys are TRON (Luke, wielding a Frisbee instead of a light sabre), Yori (Leia), and Flynn (Han Solo). Every one but Flynn is a computer program. Flynn is a human (a User) that has been Digitized by the MCP. Users are the gods of this world, and those who believe in them are religious fanatics. Flynn, of course, must stop the MCP and right a few other wrongs, etc... The movie's worst problem is that too many idea's are introduced and them not used. The computer graphics are very nice and intercut surprizingly well with the backlit and conventional animation used. There are quite a few in jokes, and I suspect that the movie may be somewhat incomprehensible to a totally computer-naive person. The score by Wendy Carlos is forgettable. Perhaps the best part of the movie is the dialog: MCP to Sark, after Sark's failure to do something: "How would you like working in a pocket calculator?" Yori to TRON: "There's not a circuit built that can hold you!" You get the idea... My appologies for the typos, I MUST learn the Editor on this system! Jim Williams Jim at Mit-ai ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest *********************** Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com