Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'WarGames'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

You truly have to admire motion pictures that manage to capture a moment in time. Because more than likely, when the filmmakers set out to create their respective film, they weren't thinking in the slightest about how future generations would view it; they simply wanted to make a great film that entertained the audience and gave them a healthy sense of satisfaction. 

But therein lies the magic. The amount of effort and care that goes into making a good motion picture is monumental to say the least, and when you take that vast amount of love behind the scenes and create a film that is relevant to the times...you get an iconic film that is poured over for years to come and that's exactly what happened in 1983, when Director John Badham put together a film that would go on to become a relevant and powerful look at Cold War America in WarGames.

Now for those unfamiliar with this film, in it we are introduced to a high school student named David Lightman who is utterly brilliant when it comes to computers. The in and the outs of this technology are simply second nature to him and his thirst for knowledge and his desire to play the latest cutting edge games accidentally allows for him to hack into the computer system for the North American Aerospace Defense Command and accidentally simulate a Russian nuclear attack on the United States. The stunt gets him into big trouble with the Federal Government, but the consequences from David's actions don't end there. Because the computer system he hacked into is also in charge of America's nuclear arsenal and it is still running the simulation and David will need a little help from the system's original programmer to convince everyone at NORAD of this fact before the planet is plunged into World War III.

Now, having watched this film for the first time in ages, I will admit that I found it a little difficult to get into simply because holy cow, the dated technology almost seems comical at times. David's computer is a behemoth of a machine, but once he hacks NORAD...well, all bets were off and I was sucked right back into this tale because it features a damn good story. It's compelling, it's scary and it's powerful and it's anchored by a wonderful cast featuring Matthew Broderick and Dabney Coleman and their earnest performances and the panic that they exude as the world barrels toward nuclear holocaust truly helps to sell this tale...while at the same time taking us down memory lane.

Because I'm someone who grew up in the 1980's and I remember nukes and the Russians dominating the headlines when I was a kid and this film took me right back to that era since the threat of nuclear war and annihilation hangs heavy over this story, as does the paranoia of the time, and it was downright eerie to experience all of that once again, but the film does an amazing job of bringing that part of the 1980's back to life. So when you combine a thrilling story such as this, with fond memories the past, you are left with a true modern classic. One that delivers an accurate slice of American History and one that reminds us that the story is always larger than the era it's filmed in and it also takes the time to remind us that ignoring the facts, is always a dangerous decision to make.

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