In 1982, Disney released the movie Tron, the first film incorporating large amounts of computer graphics. (Actually it only included about 15 minutes of actual graphics. The rest of the film was drawn art designed to look like computer graphics, whereas today’s films are often full of computer graphics being used to look like more naturalistic things). The film was not successful at the box office, possibly because as well as being made by computer nerds, the film was also about computer nerds, and what might be referred to as the Silicon Valley culture was at that point extremely marginal, particularly in pop cultural terms. (Having said that, the film was set in Los Angeles, but I will forgive it that). However, for those of us that saw it, the film was rather mind blowing. It became a tremendous influence on many people working in computer animation and special effects today, and on people who were inspired by that technological culture in general. When these things did become mainstream, many of the people who were behind the scenes were people who had loved Tron.
However, the people who made Tron itself generally did not prosper from it. The film was too far ahead of its time, and Hollywood did not know what to make of it or what to do with the people who had made it. In what now seems staggering given that this is possibly the most groundbreaking film ever made from a special effects point of view, the film did not receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects. This was partly because the film was perceived as a failure, and the academy doesn’t often reward failure, but it also had to do with a peculiarity of the Academy Awards nomination process, which is that (usually) the people who nominate films in a particular category are those who have been nominated in that category before. In 1982 “Special Effects” meant mattes (ie drawn artwork) and models. Using computer graphics was seen almost as “cheating”, and as a minimum an entirely different thing from what members of the Visual Effects branch of the Academy did. So, no nomination. (Things have changed since then. A couple of years ago I made an observation to another blogger that Master and Commander had excellent effects, and in response I was told that they were “not special effects”, because it was done with models in a tank in Mexico rather than with computer graphics.
To many people today, “special effects” means computer graphics, and that is that). That said, Master and Commander does use some computer graphics, just nowhere near as intensively as, say, The Lord of the Rings). However, as far as I am concerned Master and Commander does use special effects, computer based or not, and in fact it uses them dazzlingly, as I felt that a 19th century ship in the Royal Navy was really like that. Getting this kind of thing right is breathtakingly hard, which is why that film a couple of years ago deserved the visual effects Academy Award. But (although it was nominated) it didn’t get it. (It did win a very well deserved Academy Award for cinematography, however).
If Tron had been nominated for an Academy Award when it was released in 1982, it might or might not have actually won. And this may even have been fair. It would have been up against Blade Runner, possibly the greatest achievement ever in matte based special effects. However, although that film was nominated, it didn’t win either. (Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial won). Such once again is the academy’s reluctance to give awards to movies not perceived as successes. But in retrospect the lack of a nomination was a travesty.
And as sometimes happens in Hollywood, it has been decided to acknowledge retrospectively that it was a travesty. Gary Demos, who was largely responsible for the computer graphics in “Tron”, has been awarded an honorary Academy Award this year. This may be ultimately unimportant and trivial, but it is nonetheless about time.
O/T but important:
There will be a non-BNP related free speech march in Trafalgar Square on Feb. 25 from 2-4.
The organizers have started a blog here:
http://www.marchforfreeexpression.blogspot.com/
There will also be a similar march in Amsterdam on the same day.
Oh Wait, sorry it is MARCH 25, not Feb. 25. My bad 🙂
Well, that was way O/T! Nice to know that I could protest for something I believe without having to shave my head and chant “Pakis Out!” though.
This is on topic though. Tron was not very good. Ground-breaking, yes. Entertaining, no. The first film to use large sections of 100% CG images though was “The Last Starfighter”. A similarly poor film. Similarly the first major 8bit computer game with filled 3D vector graphics was the utterly abysmal “Driller”. The people who raise the bar often seem to concoct turkeys or failures. Technology has to bed down and mature before people can do anything useful with it, or even know what to do with it.
When Alexander Bell demonstrated the telephone to the US president (Hayes?) he got the reply, “A wonderful invention Mr Bell, what would you use it for though?”
Perhaps I have taste, but I liked Tron and the Last Starfighter.
Agree with Nick M. Tron was enjoyable at the time, but ONLY for the graphics. It hasn’t aged very well. The Last Starfighter was simply horrible all-round.
Aww, I liked that iguana guy! And it was nice to see a film in which rural blue-collar Americans weren’t portrayed as ignorant hicks.
At least they didn’t repeat the same mistake when Jurassic Park came out. It was certainly deserved, and perhaps a greater breakthrough than T2 was.
I think Tron was the first film I ever saw in the cinema. I went with my brother and sister, and I was 5. I understood nothing and remembered less, except for one scene. But I always remembered the name, even though I’ve never seen it since. Maybe I should have another look after 23 years, and see if I understand it better second time round.
Tron may be a good film, although heaven knows when I read that it was produced by computer nerds for computer nerds, my eyes glaze over and I reach for the sports channel.
Spooky! Whenever I accidently see the sports channel, my eyes glaze over and i frantically retrieve the remote control before someone utters “‘…at the end of the day,..”.
It’s Tron?
It’s Tron!
He’s the Noble application who reports to Alan1
That Azure-tinted program that my heart is set upon…
Hollywood doesn’t do innovation much and when they do, it is ignored by the Oscar ceremony which likes innovation even less. It took years of rejection before a fantasy film an got Oscar (so well done, LoTR) and anyway, good special effects confuses them all. Witness the apes in Kubrik’s 2001, which didn’t get an award because they were too good. Everyone thought they were just clever chimps rather than actors in furry outfits.
Tron wasn’t great but the fact that The Simpsons parodied it shows it made some, if small, impression in the culture of the late 20th century.
The Last Starfighter was a “modern fairytale” as well as being great fun for kids who thought if they could get really good at computer games they too could be whisked away somewhere exciting. Works for me.
The Simpsons, as far as anyone knows, is even older than Tron. They’ve been around so long that if they haven’t parodied something it’s because it doesn’t exist.
On a slight tangent here.
Tron, as I remember it was about virtual reality. Getting into the machine via those headsets and wired gloves and such.
Now let’s go back to the headsets. These seemed to be up and running in the 80’s. What happened to them?
See, a friend of mine just bought a 60g video IPod. Now until I got it in my hands, the opinion I had come to was, Nah it’s too small! I’ll go blind trying to watch that. Well it is small, but pin sharp resolution and very watchable, at least for short periods .
But my point is, surely the technology is there for something like video glasses, as light and easy as sunglasses that you just plug into your IPod and get the full screen experience.
Obviously dont try walking down the high street in them or you’ll be probate.
But if anyone out there is in the process of manufacturing said same, can I have a very large free share issue please!
Tron was not really about virtual reality per se but a fantasy about a world inside a computer. Headsets were not required, the protagonist was “scanned” into the computer and became a program like the other programs in there.
As well as The Simpsons (Though I don’t recall that particular episode), Tron is also references in South Park, the visage of Moses is identical to that of the Master Control Program from Tron.
The Tron story was pretty weak overall but it was for kids so meh… I am surprised that so far, no one has taken the sound-track and redone the visuals in full CGI. It culd probably be rendered real-time on a modern computer.
Rich
Tron was not really about virtual reality per se but a fantasy about a world inside a computer. Headsets were not required, the protagonist was “scanned” into the computer and became a program like the other programs in there.
As well as The Simpsons (Though I don’t recall that particular episode), Tron is also references in South Park, the visage of Moses is identical to that of the Master Control Program from Tron. (how’s that for Riot-worthy material?)
The Tron story was pretty weak overall but it was for kids so meh… I am surprised that so far, no one has taken the sound-track and redone the visuals in full CGI. It could probably be rendered real-time on a modern computer.
Rich
Olympus used to make video goggles. I dunno if they still do. They didn’t respond to head movements or anything so weren’t much cop for games. The VR helmet games of the early to mid 90s were a bit of a flop really, being nigh on unplayable and prone to cause motion sickness.
I’m just waiting for the day when I can plug myself in a la Neuromancer.
(as an aside check out the glossary for the definition of microsoft, funny)
Yes, the movie was seriously Velveeta, but one can’t help but appreciate the bit near the end when the two ” interface”.
Lord of the Rings (for me especially the first film), Master and Commander. and yes (I admit it) Tron – I liked them all.
We seem to have similar tastes.
And I bet people will still be enjoying these films long after George Clooney’s standard “death to America” efforts have been forgotten.
As for the awards this year. Well to judge by the advertising and promotion efforts (some of the most intense that I have ever seen) powerful people seem to want the film about two cowboys having sex to be the film of the year.
“Dave” Cameron made a special trip to see the film, but I think I will give it a miss.
I rather like a film I would normally not have gone to see. A pal of mine is a country music fan (I am not) and so off I found myself going to see “Walk the Line” a film about the life of John Cash
I was rather impressed by the film.
In the late 1980s or early 1990s, most of the good patents for virtual reality were bought up by some French company or other. I remember thinking at the time ‘there goes virtual reality for about 17 years’. Damned if it didn’t come true. I haven’t thought about that for about 15 years. Now that the French owned patents are running out, VR should be returning in a big way in the near future.