capri0mni: A black Skull & Crossbones with the Online Disability Pride Flag as a background (TV!)
[personal profile] capri0mni
Just saw the tail end of WarGames on the Saturday Afternoon Movie on my Teev. I remember seeing it, in its original theater release, back in 1983. I was 17, and both Mother and I were very active in the Disarmament movement.

The final line of the movie seems trite, now. But, back then, it was radical and daring, and subversive.

I remember walking out of the theater on my crutches, watching for scattered bits of popcorn and candy wrappers, with this incredibly heady feeling that somebody had finally dared to speak the truth, and, maybe, just maybe, if enough people heard, the world could be saved.

I'm wondering, now, how I would have felt had I seen the future, and Dubya and dealing death to our Constitution with ten thousand little cuts.

Sigh...

Date: 2006-02-25 08:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spooforbrains.livejournal.com
Remind me what that line is, I haven't seen Wargames for yonkers ...

Date: 2006-02-25 09:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] capriuni.livejournal.com
In the final scene, David (the young hero) gets the computer to delay launching the missiles, and play tic-tac-toe against itself, over and over. Finally, the AI program gets the point, and applies the same idea to every scenerio in a nuclear war. Finally, he pauses, and says:

Hello, Dr. Faulken... Strange game. The only way to win is not play. ... How about a nice game of chess?

While the stunned millitary leaders stand chastened in the war room...

Date: 2006-02-25 10:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theta-g.livejournal.com
Brilliant stuff - must send a fresh dose of that movie into my head :-)

Date: 2006-02-25 11:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] capriuni.livejournal.com
:::nod nod:::

This was when the Internet wasn't even publically known, either... just for military and science types.

In some ways, so dated, and in others, so prophetic ... the computer spoke with a human voice, as if all computers would, some day. (and sounded a lot like HAL...)

I wonder what a remake would look like, in the modern age, with threats of terrorist cells,* and the internet...

*and not all threats coming from the militants...

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