At some point in Ready Player One: A Novel, by Ernest Cline, the movie War Games, 1983, plays an important role. I've watched it centuries ago, and I got curious to see it again after reading the nerdiest book in history :)
Well, I strongly believe that nerds will save the world. I'm not being cute or whatever, just stating a true belief. Ernest Cline seems to think the same, and John Badhan agreed with us 27 years ago.
This movie is so 80's, and still very good. A nice pace, funny references, interesting characters. Young Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy were so cute and brilliant in their roles. The message here is no subtle, but effective: war is a game not worthy to be played in real life - maybe even unworthy of fiction too. There's a moral idea here, not so clear maybe, proper of that time, but still present today.
Violent video games leading to violence in real life is still a current idea in times when games are a essential way to be in the world and interact with it. Right now, writing about it, I thought how it possibly is a bit contradictory in that sense, because, despite defending the futility of war games, whatever they are, in fact a smart nerdy kid that, by his gamer intelligence, is the one able to win a game that was leading to destruction. See? Nerds will save the world, even if it is by something still (sadly) considered as a waste of time by many.
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| War Games. Directed by John Badhan.With: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood. Writers: Lawrence Laskers et Al. US, 1983, 104 min., Color (DVD). |
PS: The 80's were a really hard time to be a computer geek.
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