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"Would you like to play a nice game of Chess" - if only he had said yes... |
Director: John Badham
Cast: Matthew Broderick (David Lightman), Dabney Coleman (Dr
John McKittrick), John Wood (Dr Stephen Falken), Ally Sheedy (Jennifer Mack), Barry
Corbin (General Beringer)

David (Matthew Broderick) is that staple of high-school
drama, the geeky genius who coasts through school. He’s a computer genius and,
attempting to impress cool girl Jennifer (Ally Sheedy), one-day he finds a
back-door into NORAD’s weapons control system WOPR (aka JOSHUA). Thinking he’s
found a computer games company, he accepts its invitation to play
“Thermonuclear Global War”. Before he knows where he is, he’s in custody and
bombs are fueling in their silos.
The opening of the film (a brilliantly self-contained
mini-movie) perfectly encapsulates the swiftness of escalation in a nuclear
war. At least three more times in the movie, we see how swiftly events can push
on from DEFCON 5 to 1. This is a film that questions the very purpose of both
the nuclear deterrent and nuclear war itself. There isn’t a single character
who truly advocates the purpose of the weaponry, and none of them is anything
but terrified at the prospect of pushing the button. But this questioning is
handled lightly, and Badham’s direction never allows it to dominate proceedings.
The film tackles such a big topic with such a sharp and fun script, and at such
a rollicking, enjoyable pace with laughs and thrills, that it must count as a
some sort of minor classic.
The film is also of course about computers and hacking.
There is actually a lot of charm in watching, on my tablet, a film where a
computer takes up the space of a room and an actual telephone is used to hack
into an external network. This is probably one of the first films ever to
demonstrate hacking and the potential influence of computers. Thrillingly, the
film has both a warm acceptance of the advantages computers could bring, and a
suitably sci-fi dread of what they may (unwittingly or not) unleash on the
world if granted full power over us.
Because this film recognises, arguably ahead of its time,
that the mechanisation and omnipresence of computers is terrifying. Like John
Spencer in the film’s opening, most of us (I hope!) would want to speak to
another human being before pressing the buttons. JOSHUA is scary because it is
so benignly controlling – it believes that nuclear war is just another game,
and has no understanding at all of the impact on the world its actions will have.
JOSHUA isn’t a villain at all – it’s literally an ill-educated child that
hasn’t learned its actions have consequences and can’t tell the difference
between simulation and reality. It’s the nightmare scenario of having all the
empathy and emotional intelligence removed from the world of decision-making.
This isn’t just a film about technology and nuclear politics
though – far from it. It’s an engaging human story, told in a tight and
streamlined way, and staffed by a very well written selection of characters
who all feel tangible and real. Broderick and Sheedy are wonderfully engaging
leads, with a great deal more depth than the cliché: David is far more
assertive and determined than you might expect, while Jennifer has much more
sense and humanity than a high-school Queen. This extends to our NORAD
location: Dr McKittrick is far more empathetic and willing to listen than first
impressions suggest, and General Beringer is a thoughtful, sensitive man at
odds with his obstructive, gung-ho first impression. John Wood (a great stage
actor who never quite got the film roles he deserved) plays Dr Falken with wit
and a knowing wink, his disillusionment with the world sitting alongside a wry
delight.
I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed this film and
how well it stands up. It’s thought-provoking but it’s also a lot of fun and
very well written, acted and directed. There is a very good mixture between
“action” sequences – a wild drive and run to get into NORAD before it is locked
down is particularly exciting – and conversation scenes that, due to their high
stakes and impassioned acting, play like verbal action scenes. It’s superbly
designed too, with the NORAD “war room” in particular setting the pattern for
all such locations in future movies.
This is a perfect marriage between the blockbusting mindset
of the 1980s and the cynicism of the 1970s. Because it’s a blockbuster and has
kids in leading roles, it’s never got the credit it deserves – but this has as
much merit as many political and conspiracy thrillers of the cynical 1970s.
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