SCIFIHISTORY.NET
  • MAINPAGE
  • About
  • Reviews
  • December
  • November
  • October
  • September
  • August
  • July
  • June
  • May
  • April
  • March
  • February
  • January

Stardate 05.19.2023.A: Happy Anniversary - 1983's 'WarGames' Mixed Messages With Moviemaking In A Positive Way

5/19/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Regular readers of SciFiHistory.Net know that I have a low tolerance for movies that mix politics with their messaging.

Look: it's not that I abhor politics because anyone who follows me on Twitter or deep inside SciFiHistory.Net's many, many, many pages and posts, it's true that I'm probably as political as the next person.  Each of us has something -- a cause, a belief, a position -- that we like to sound off on every now and then.  I think that's part-and-parcel of just being a human being: we like to discuss things, and sometimes those things can lead to controversies.  My point is that in my time watching films I've seen far too many actors, actresses, directors, and screenwriters try to monopolize their screen time with unnecessary messaging.  When that messaging either gets in the way of a good story or causes the flick to have lessened focus, then it's poorly done.  If these folks are serious about their commitment to whatever that issue is, then I think they'd be better off sticking in the realm of the traditional documentary.  Use that format to go off and expose whatever abuses need the light of day shone on them, but please please please keep social messaging to a minimum.

Still, there are times when I think a director and a screenwriter and the talent achieve a respectable balance.  In these rare cases, they do -- in fact -- come together around a premise and present it in such a way that the central principle is both understandable and relatable.  Again, don't get me wrong, but there are some things that happen in this wide, wide world that truly are so far away from you and I that it just can't fathom why anyone would think it requires my particular attention.  If you're passionate about it, Mr. Actor, then quit your job and spend what remains of your days fighting for it.  Isn't that what Mr. Actor would tell you and I to do were something important to us?  But -- as I said -- I think blending sentiments with sentimentality can be done ... especially when it's as seamless as it was in John Badham's Cold War thriller WarGames (1983).

​The election of Ronald Reagan had raised fears to all new heights in the early 1980's as our cultural betters were damn sure convinced the actor-turned-politician was going to end life as we know it by ushering in a full-blown nuclear war with the United States and Russia.  You couldn't turn on the television -- you couldn't pick up a newspaper and/or a magazine -- without one or more of those pundits preaching about how Reagan's ascendacy to one of the highest offices in the world could only spell D-O-O-M to those who knew just how and when to read the tea leaves.  Sitting here at my P.C. and writing this column decades later, it's very clear just how wrong they were, but back then nuclear annihilation -- predicated on global thermonuclear war -- was all the rage, and progressives couldn't stop warning us of it.

​Because Hollywood "cares," mind you, these elites ushering in a plethora of projects that were intended to show the voting U.S. public just what curse they had unleashed on all of mankind.  While most of these wares were dismissed because -- quite frankly -- they were crafted with too much alarmist circumstances and rhetoric, there are a small handful of motion pictures that were very good.  And -- for the record -- I say that they were "very good" because they didn't let their message overwhelm the emotional crux of just telling a good story.  That's what WarGames did uniquely well, and I've always thought much of this is owed to director John Badham's participation in the production.  As a director, he'd always dealt -- in my mind -- with characters first; and this meant that there was a humanity always running beneath the main plotline of WarGames that other pictures just never had.
​
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Ultimately, I don't think audiences are opposed to stories that involve or invoke politics or political messages.  As I said above, I think we all like to talk about these things.  I think many of us like to be educated about the world outside and around us, and -- always trying to be good stewards -- we take the news of the day with the requisite seriousness that we believe it deserves.  Storytellers might push a bit too hard at times -- beating that drum might be their only real interest in life -- and it's on these occasions that folks tend to 'check out,' as it were.  We don't like to be told what to do.  None of us.  When that line is crossed, we're less likely to come away from a picture with an appreciable understanding of the issues and far more likely to dismiss it.

WarGames -- for all its posturing -- straddled that fine line quite nicely.  I'd even argue that -- as Cold War thrillers go -- it's arguably one of the most relatable because we'd like to see a little bit of ourselves in its central heroes.  We're all wide-eyed about saving the planet -- as Matthew Broderick's character David does in the last reel -- and maybe contemporary screenwriters would do well to revisit this classic to learn a few lessons about their craft ... and how to do it respectfully.

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

-- EZ
​
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Reviews
    ​Archive
    ​

    Reviews

    birthdays
    Archive
    ​

    January
    February
    March
    April
    May
    June
    July
    August
    September
    October
    November
    December

    mainpage
    ​ posts

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly