Seems Alamo hasn’t had as much luck with repeating the success of The Summer of 1982 since the choices for 1983 have been rather slim and sadly they’re not being screened closer to their release dates. Only the programming people could answer this. I definitely need to sit down, make a list with several trusted personal experts, hold our reunion with Blu-Rays and a big-ass TV.
The only one I managed to swing was this, the other selections were OK and Return of the Jedi was a Hail Mary (I think I had another obligation). A staffer did explain how Alamo pulled it off; they knew someone with a personal print because Lucas had them rounded up years ago.
So Wargames has a personal connection to me and not in a good way. I didn’t see it in theaters, 1983 was the turbulent Summer but I caught it on cable a year later which would put this overdue review closer to my actual viewing 30 years earlier.
Oh…the connection.
Unfortunately, I saw The Day After on ABC in the Fall of 1983. This resulted in recurring nightmares of nuclear extinction until college. Younger people may snicker yet they’re lucky to be ignorant of St. Reagan’s saber rattling at the Soviet Union. The so-called “Great Communicator” pushed us closer to annihilation than JFK with his actions: the invasion of Grenada, hostile rhetoric (calling the USSR “The Evil Empire” in speeches, never mind America’s crimes) and a Korean airline was shot down by Soviet fighters (rumors still abound on why the pilots erred). Wargames‘ opening scene was the most terrifying when you put into the context I just gave.
Does Wargames still hold up today? As a by-the-numbers Thriller, sure. As a time-capsule on what Hollywood thought was youth culture by casting two actors in their early twenties as high school kids? Of course not, it’s standard show-biz myopia. I think the setting of Seattle is humorous, a foretelling of how the city would become a computer powerhouse in a decade through Microsoft. The other element it nails would be the general ignorance the majority had of computers. It’s incredibly eye-rolling fare given what is known. Thanks to my father’s IT career since the late Seventies, he couldn’t keep his fact-checking to himself over how David’s back-door discovery was utter bullshit…the government connection would only allow a set number of attempts and then cut off further access from David’s phone number. Given WOPR was likely a mainframe, the Air Force would notice something amiss in the logs. Dad’s mythbusting gave me some comfort over accidents caused by hackers, he just couldn’t do much about St. Reagan’s warmongering.
The “high-tech” in David’s bedroom does give me a chuckle. All the gear, the monochrome display, the fictional voice accessory (didn’t feasibly exist in his parents’ price range) and how spiffy a (likely) 600 baud modem was!
1983 (14-year-0ld me): B. I never cared for scary movies yet I did enjoy the other elements, namely the cast: Dabney Coleman, Eddie Deezen and Barry Corbin. Wargames has some Sci-Fi elements I loved at that age.
2013: C. Despite how dated it looks, which is something I love when reminiscing older films, Wargames has failed to hold up plot wise. Not just with the expanded knowledge I have of computers and the military double, triple and quadrupling its status, there’s too many McGuffins happening to advance the story along with a preachy ending coming from a borderline AI.