WarGames

A rogue young man named David (Matthew Broderick) along with his best friend Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) hack into their high school's computer to change his grade and later on , find a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III . As the United State's Department of Homeland Security is led to believe an American teen hacker playing a terrorist-attack simulator game online is a real terrorist out to destroy the U.S . The system is called the War Operation Plan Response, or WOPR for short, developed by brilliant but now deceased scientist Stephen Falken (John Wood), who programmed the system to learn continually through game simulations . At the end , a message : The only winning move is not to play.

This is an entertaining film of the 80s ; it was way ahead of its time and it stills grips the spectator . A popular flick in which a young computer whiz hooks into a game manufacturer's computer and accidentally starts WWII when he decides to play a selection titled ¨Global Thermonuclear Warfare¨ . The picture contains almost no violence , nor murders or any other sensationalistic content . Interesting as well as amusing screenplay by writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes who during their extensive research for the film, made friends with many 'hackers' and security experts. They later wrote ¨Sneakers¨ another film featuring 'hackers' and security experts. Likable starring couple , Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy , both of whom hold a great chemistry . Large support cast such as Barry Corbin , Dabney Coleman , Dennis Lipscomb and many of them uncredited as Michael Madsen , Eddie Deezen , James Tolkan , ArtLeFleur , William H. Macy , Maury Chaykin and John Spencer . Special mention to John Wood as Professor Stephen Falken ; main inspiration for this character was Cambridge Professor Stephen Hawking ; he was originally approached to appear in the movie, but he declined because he didn't want the producers exploiting his disability . Adequate musical score accompanying the action by Arthur B. Rubinstein and inventively photographed by classic cameraman William A Fraker . The film was part of a 1980s cycle of films about atomic bombs and nuclear warfare which had started in 1979 with ¨The China syndrome¨. The films included ¨Silkwood¨, ¨Testament¨, ¨Threads¨, ¨The day after¨ , ¨The Atomic Cafe¨, ¨Ground zero¨,¨Special Bulletin¨ , ¨Barefoot Gen¨, ¨Rules of Engagement¨, ¨Letters from a Dead Man¨ , ¨The chain reaction¨, among others . Followed by an inferior remake titled ¨ WarGames: The Dead Code (2008)¨ by Stuart Gillard with Matt Lanter as Will Farmer , Amanda Walsh as Annie D'Mateo , Colm Feore as Joshua and Chuck Shamata as Bill Carter .

The motion picture was professionally directed by John Badham , though the original director was Martin Brest, and several of the scenes he shot are still in the movie , but he was fired as filmmaker a short while into production due to creative differences . Badham's breakthrough credit was the box office smash Fever Saturday night (1977) ; other hits on his resume include The Blue Thunder (1983), War games (1983), and Shortcircuit (1986). He's a nice director who achieved his greatest success in the 80s and 90s . He directed several hits (Drop zone , Nick of time , Skateout ,Point of No Return , Bird on a wire) , though today making TV movies (Jack Bull , Floating away) and television episodes (Crossing Jordan, Psych, Las Vegas, Standoff , Heroes).

Watching this movie 25 years on, it still works. Obviously the onward march of technology has rendered several of the central plot devices redundant (although, to be honest, most modern techno-thriller entries are far less plausible) but the sheer tension of the story grabs you almost from the off and never lets go - there aren't many genre movies that got an Oscar-nomination for screenplay, which amply demonstrates its quality.

And the last ten minutes or so are still jaw-dropping. That spectacular (if implausible) NORAD set is as astounding as ever, and the last line still deserves it's place in the pantheon.

Laugh at the antiquated tech by all means, but be impressed by the effort taken to make it feel believable (cf. the sequence where Broderick's character gets the password for the school computer.) Hacker movies have rarely come this close to being real - and, as someone who had been there and done that at about that time, it was scarily right.

In no way is this one of the greatest movies ever made. But there's no question that it achieves the rare quality of transcending it's genre.

Cyberthrillers may not have started with "WarGames," but it was here the form achieved an early peak. As more filmmakers follow its example of portraying a high-tech faceoff between man and machine, "WarGames" remains a standard to be measured against. While it's not a film classic, it's a very, very good popcorn thriller of uncommon craft, charm, and humanity.

Seattle high schooler David Lightman (Matthew Broderick) has only a few hours to undo what he thought was a sneak preview of an upcoming computer game but what instead got him tinkering with the U.S. Air Force's WOPR (War Operation Planned Response) computer system in such a way as to trigger a countdown to World War III. The FBI thinks he's a Soviet spy, while classmate Jennifer Mack (Ally Sheedy) is wondering if this isn't all really about a rejiggered biology grade.

Broderick is solid, and Sheedy even better, but what really sells this film is everything else. Start with the excellent supporting performances. John Wood as a reclusive professor and Barry Corbin as a tobacco-chewing general get much of the kudos, and rightly, but there's a whole deep bench of quality work beyond that, like Kent Williams as a curt White House advisor, William Bogert and Susan Davis as David's out-of-it parents, Alan Blumenfeld as the swaggering bully of a biology teacher, and Juanin Clay as a beautiful but underappreciated assistant (even by herself as she uses her own mouth as an ashcan for her boss's discarded gum.) You know the casting people behind this movie were on the ball when the opening sequence features two very recognizable faces, those of Michael Madsen and John Spencer, in what were film debuts for both.

That sequence with Madsen and Spencer as missile men point up another quality of "WarGames," the way the movie works in terms of setting up expectations and developing pace. The harrowing business between the two of them is mercilessly presented ("Turn your key, sir!") and then effectively abandoned so as to work in the central storyline, the replacement of these men with computers. We get a macro-view where Dabney Coleman as a tunnel-visioned warroom executive effectively makes the case for "taking the men out of the loop" and then zoom back into what seems a totally unrelated story, that of slacker teen David Lightman and his high school travails.

The film could have just started with Lightman, and worked its way out to the business with the WOPR. But the early peek behind the curtain is a clever way of raising the stakes with the audience before the protagonist realizes what's up.

The set design, cinematography, lighting, and editing all work wonders as well. The NORAD warroom is really a character onto itself, the ultimate source of reality in this film (and better for my money than the warroom in `Dr. Strangelove,' an obvious inspiration.) The way the cameras dart around from terminal to terminal as uniformed USAF technicians follow the progress of an apparent Soviet attack, lighting onto one of them just before he or she relays an important piece of information, is highly addictive and entertaining.

There's some sloppiness in the movie. Madsen and Spencer's talk about this great pot Spencer's character has scored strains credulity in the high-security setting they are in, and its blindingly obvious that the two men we see exiting a helicopter and entering a jeep during the credits are not the same two men getting out of the jeep moments later. The musical score is terrible, except for the elegiac tune at the end by which time it's too late. And there's no real examination of the morality of Lightman's serial lawbreaking.

But this is a funny, exciting, consciousness-raising movie that is as entertaining now with the Cold War more than a decade behind us as it was all those years ago. For all the technical innovation on display, it's ironically appropriate we remember it for showing us how to butter an ear of corn, because it's the human side of the equation `WarGames' keeps in its sights at all times.

[The DVD features a terrific, candid commentary from director John Badham and writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes that gives one a real appreciation for the value of creative license as well as factual diligence in making a film of this kind work.]

In the 1980's, the realisation that computers will soon play an extremely important role in everyday life was becoming more and more evident. This idea was treated with excitement, curiosity, and fear - people genuinely did not know how powerful they would become, but they were certainly fearful of it. Cinema explored this fear in successful films such as The Terminator (1984), which depicted a future where humans were locked into a battle with robots, and Tron (1982), in which a character is sucked into a game where he is forced to battle with the computer to survive. Never had the capabilities of computers been so realistically portrayed than in WarGames, a film that introduced the world to home computers, hacking, and how humanity can be replaced by machines (as well as the idea that nuclear destruction is still a threat).

When two missile controllers fail to launch a missile during a test launch due to uncertainty, government bigwig McKittrick (Dabney Coleman) introduces his superiors to WOPR (War Operation Plan Response), a giant super-computer that repeatedly plays games with itself to generate stats and results of possible nuclear war outcomes. The operation is given the go-ahead, and workers find themselves replaced by this metallic super- brain, that will deal with any potential nuclear threat to the US. High school punk David (Matthew Broderick) is a highly intelligent computer- obsessive who uses his hacking skills to change his grades on his high school system. When he learns that a company is releasing new breakthrough games in California, he scans the area for computers in order to hack into their mainframe. He stumbles upon a computer that lists many strange war games, including 'Global Thermonuclear War'. He begins a game, choosing to be Russia, but unbeknownst to him, he is actually playing WOPR who is playing the game for real. Soon David is brought in by the FBI who suspect him of working with the Russians, while the threat of global nuclear destruction lingers as WOPR carries on playing the 'game'.

I viewed this film quite often when I was a child as I owned the VHS, but admittedly the film went over my head somewhat and I found it quite boring. Watching it now, I was shocked to find out this is a very good film, and it makes for a gripping adult thriller, while maintaining that 1980's kids-film-feel. The technical aspects shown on screen are extremely well-researched, and David's hacking activities make for exciting and interesting viewing. It's also fascinating to see the early giant, clunky computers of the 1980's and an early portrayal of the Internet. Overall, this is a highly entertaining thriller that is well acted, scripted and filmed (and even received three Academy Award nominations), and has plenty of those nostalgic qualities for us children of the 80's.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

WarGames is a film which in some ways seems hopelessly dated and in other ways seems to have been way ahead of its time. There's the Cold War angle, the United States and the Soviet Union gearing up for the seemingly inevitable World War III and the nuclear holocaust that would go along with it. It's a 1980s storyline which doesn't play as well all these years later with the Soviet Union long having been consigned to the dustbin of history. Nowadays the threat comes not from one communist superpower but from...well, pretty much anywhere it seems. But then again this movie, made in 1983, is at its heart really about a computer hacker. Who, in 1983, even knew there was such a thing as a computer hacker? Ahead of its time this movie is.

While certain aspects of the story may seem less relevant today there is no denying that WarGames is an effective, entertaining thriller. There may be some flaws in the movie's logic now and again, not everything we see seems entirely plausible. But the movie works. The story centers around Seattle high school student David Lightman, who is not doing particularly well in school. But it's not because he isn't bright, he certainly is. He just seems unmotivated and perhaps distracted by his obsession with computers. That obsession plays itself out as he attempts to hack into a video game manufacturer's computer...and instead unknowingly hacks into a Defense Department computer. In playing the "games" on that computer he almost starts World War III. Whoops.

Matthew Broderick plays David and his performance is excellent as he portrays a young teen who finds himself caught up in a situation beyond his imagination. Ally Sheedy plays his friend Jennifer, a character who seems a tad bit underdeveloped. It often seems that Jennifer's just along for the ride rather than having any real purpose in the plot. But Sheedy does well with what she has to work with. Our young hero and heroine are very much the focus of the story, at times to detrimental effect. All the adults in the story seem rather one-dimensional. Some of them have very important roles to play in the story yet we never know much of anything about them. Besides David and Jennifer there's really only one other character for whom there is any kind of character development going on and that character doesn't even show up until rather late in the proceedings. But this is a movie which will definitely hold your attention. It's a tense, taut thriller which also has some heart to it. And it often looks spectacular, most notably in the scenes which take place inside the NORAD war room, a movie set which was stunningly impressive for its time and actually would still be stunningly impressive today. All in all WarGames is a well-made, suspenseful, enjoyable film. It has its flaws but it is still a film well worth seeing.