Another look at a classic...

In an interesting moviegoing experience, me and three others went to the theater to see a 25th anniversary screening of "WarGames," which was one of my favorite movies growing up. There was a decent sized crowd there for a Thursday night. Before the movie, there was a well-put-together 20-minute package of interviews with the cast and crew. The writers had a lot of insightful comments about the approach they took with the script, which was nominated for and Oscar, and how it came to be. There were also comments from the director and cast, including Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, and Barry Corbin, whose anecdote about how the line "I would piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good" was priceless.

Then there was a brief preview for the awful-looking direct-to-video sequel, in which Joshua (the computer from WarGames) has to match wits with Ripley, a computer who will stop at nothing to defeat the terrorists. Interestingly enough, the film takes place in the Philadelphia area, my old stomping grounds, and the main character chooses to nuke the city of brotherly love. We commented that a gust of wind may blow the nuke to nearby Camden, thus doing the world a favor.

Spoilers ahead...

As for the movie itself, it is still a great movie. The technology is definitely dated (some of the scenes that got the most laughs were Matthew Broderick's character using a 8" floppy disk drive), but the story has stood the test of time. The writers mentioned that despite all of the technology, the movie is essentially a character story about David Lightman and Stephen Falken (modeled after Dr. Stephen Hawking). The acting is very good, the movie is often quite funny, and the story is well-written and easy to understand. I still think the comparison of Tic-Tac-Toe to nuclear war is brilliant. 

It was nice to see the movie on the big screen for the first time, and see the pure grandeur of the NORAD war room set (The most expensive movie set ever built at the time). I also noticed some details I didn't catch on TV, like a sign in NORAD that said "Anyone caught urinating here will be discharged." One of the highlights was the screen going dark just before the start of the third act. Among the comments in the crowd was "maybe a missile hit the theater." After a 20 minute "intermission," the film resumed. Overall, a very worthwhile moviegoing experience.