Wargames (DVD)

Director: John Badham
Producer: Leonard Goldberg
Writers: Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes
Stars: Matthew Broderick, , Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Woodand and Barry Corbin.

Originally released in June 1983 this drama/thriller uses the fear of the cold war to create a rather impressive movie, without the need for violence and bloodshed.

I remember watching this when I was a little younger, ...
...to get a home computer to access any other computer via a phone line took someone with the brain of Einstein’s tutor and a computer the size of Buckingham palace with a conservatory fitted to the side, but considering the most modern computers at the time where the Commodore 64, the ZX80, ZX81, Sinclair Spectrum and then there was the Atari, and with these home computers having at the most a 1MHz CPU and less than 100 kilobytes of RAM the chances ... more

Director: John Badham
Producer: Leonard Goldberg
Writers: Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes
Stars: Matthew Broderick, , Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Woodand and Barry Corbin.

Originally released in June 1983 this drama/thriller uses the fear of the cold war to create a rather impressive movie, without the need for violence and bloodshed.

I remember watching this when I was a little younger, mid teens I think, and at that time being able to get a home computer to access any other computer via a phone line took someone with the brain of Einstein’s tutor and a computer the size of Buckingham palace with a conservatory fitted to the side, but considering the most modern computers at the time where the Commodore 64, the ZX80, ZX81, Sinclair Spectrum and then there was the Atari, and with these home computers having at the most a 1MHz CPU and less than 100 kilobytes of RAM the chances of ’hacking’ into anything other than the weed at the bottom of your garden was pretty remote. (and think about it, the world wide web was not even an idea in Tim Berners-Lee head at the time…oh for the old days without computer viruses and spam).

Anyway, drifting there a little, enough about computers, let’s get back to the movie in hand.
When I first watched this it was on video cassette, (for those that don’t know what that is it is a bulky black plastic box which slotted into the front of a what looks like a DVD player with a bigger opening), and I have seen it advertised on television quite a few times since, but never got the chance to watch it again until I saw it on DVD sat on a shelf at a friends house, so I decided to borrow it one Friday evening.

As I sat down to watch it I found myself remembering why I had enjoyed so much back in the 1980’s, (apart from the fact back then I thought Ally Sheedy was quite tasty.. I was a teenager when I first saw this remember). This was a movie with a ‘cold war’ involvement, only with a little lighter approach instead of the usual tough guy stuff with movies such as Firefox and even Red Dawn. The idea of this movie had the same effects as many ’fighting’ movies, all with the possibilities of starting World War III.

**BRIEF PLOT…

After two US Air force officers fail in their ‘silo’ duties during a simulated Nuclear strike they are replaced by a ‘supercomputer’ named War Operation Plan Response, or WOPR for short, which will predict the outcome of a Nuclear strike and also eliminate the possibility of human error during a Nuclear threat.

Meanwhile, David Lightman, (Matthew Broderick), a student computer whizzkid is busy hacking into computer systems from his bedroom and unwittingly manages to hack into WOPR, believing it to be a gaming station. But when he begins to play a game called Global Thermal Nuclear War with the supercomputer, he quickly realises that it is more than just a game and is soon having to find a way to stop the WOPR before it starts World War three.
So with the help of his new friends Jennifer, (Ally Sheedy) and WOPR creator Dr Stephen Falken (John Wood), he sets out to stop the end of the world as we now it.

** IN CONCLUSION…

As I said, I watched this in the eighties and found it to be a great movie at the time, considering the computer abilities and the way the movie used the cold war to gain some form of credibility. So when I watched this recently, considering the advance in the PC world, (not the shop) and the security systems now in place to stop such disasters I was still happily impressed with what I was watching.

When this was first aired in the mid eighties it was well received by the public, and I suppose at the time this was top of the range computer hacking movie with that end of the world fright factor, but this day and age it is simply a good movie which would fall flat on its face if it was released today. But when you watch this as long as you remember it was released over twenty years ago then you will enjoy the rather ‘prehistoric’ action thriller as it is supposed to be enjoyed.

It is a cracking little action/thriller movie without all the gunfire, explosions and murders, being a more gentle look into how one ‘geeky’ kid can create such disastrous events from his bedroom.
The plot is well thought out and really does begin to look at the possibilities that one individual can create so much hassle and become the cause of a world war, instead of some muscle bound man who shoots every one in site, winning any war on his own.

The acting is pretty good throughout the movie, (it is the mid eighties remember), with Broderick playing Lightman, the teenage ’hacker’ with the ability to start a war from his bedroom, very well indeed, although looking a little wooden in parts. And Ally Sheedy as his close friend Jennifer, with her flirty ways and cheerful mannerism.
There are many supporting cast members, mainly military members, but each one seeming to have as an important role as the other, bringing together a rather nail biting movie without the over the top special effect and CGIs

In all, a nice easy to watch movie with a good storyline and good acting, creating a good all round entertaining movie for all ages to enjoy.

The DVD was released in July 2000 and is a lot better picture/sound quality, but the movie was still the same hour and fifty minutes of entertainment, albeit sometimes on the silly side.
Extras on the DVD, which can be bought form www.amazon.co.uk for less than a fiver, are nothing to write home about but consist of director and writers commentary, a little bit of information about the movie and the original trailer.
 

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