Wargames

[pmw]

SPOILERS AHEAD

Wargames - Just watched this again for the first time in about 15 years. Came out in 1983 - Mathew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman and John Wood. A computer unleashes an apparent nuclear war simulation... (spoiler ahead)... only to find that "war is futile". There is and can be no winner. The computer learns this from playing itself in tic-tac-toe. Now sure, this is a nuclear war simulation but the basis of it's conclusion is that no amount of human loss is justifiable, and given a scenario where human loss is perceived to be justifiable, there is really no end to what can happen. Things escalate, more people die and you eventually have to decide to stop or continue. Some people die and you stop or more people die and you continue until you stop because too many people have died...

A very interesting movie for our times. Interesting to me that the vey strange "I Channel" was playing this tonight. The "I Channel" is the former PAX Network which is some kind of Christian network or something... anyway, that's it for tonight,

imdb link to WarGames (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/)

Peter

[Chris Knipp]

It does sound relevant inded today.. I remember it, from Broderick's early days, his second picture, three years before Ferris Bueller! I did see it...

Robert Fisk on the phone from Beirut last night:
"All the United Nations is doing by postponing a ceasefire is condemning more Lebanese to death…" And quite possibly Israelis too. Too many people are always dying and suffering in wars, civilians, needlessly and horribly.

[tabuno]

I watched the last 20 minutes of WarGames last night also and I was considering adding it to my most favorite movie list. It has a rather haunting melody theme as well as some fascinating early looks at sophisticated National Security war scenarios (more than 20 years old!) that seem even contemporary even today. The movie emphasizes the "humanity" in decision-making that seems to be lost on our current political leaders. Another similar old movie classic that comes to my mind is D.A.R.Y.L. (1985) that also has a similar contemporary theme, this time dealing with automation and replicants (a BladeRunner word).