Comments on: This Week on TCM

By: James Schee

James Schee — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:21:51 +0000

Yeah it was like the day before we had off before Thanksgiving holiday, so the prof didn’t want to do much for that one 2 hour(we had lab to go with class) period and one of the topics we had been covering was computer hacking.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:58:23 +0000

In college class? I am old.

I love the movie, but it sounds like your prof wanted to kill time that day. :)

Tommy, yeah, I don’t think people outside that generation understood what it felt like growing up thinking you weren’t going to see adulthood if someone pushed the button.

By: James Schee

James Schee — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:35:39 +0000

We watched War Games in one of my computer networking classes in college. Then got into a discussion on what happened to the characters, especially Broderick’s afterwards.

By: Tommy Raiko

Tommy Raiko — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:51:30 +0000

Another recommendation for WarGames. As much as amusing as it may be to watch for its computer technology elements, it’s also a fascinating example of Cold War/Mutual Assured Destruction early 80s anxiety playing out in popular/youth culture. On some level, I’ve always associated WarGames in my mind with Dr. Strangelove. Though the latter is obviously satirical where the former isn’t, they both seem to be examples of different generations reconciling themselves to life in a nuclear age.

Perhaps a new movie will come along to take things to the next level, now that we’re in a post-Cold-War/Age of Terrorism world now…

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:47:59 +0000

Ed: Glad to hear it. I’m never sure I post these recommendations with enough time to give people a chance to find out about the good weekend stuff. (As it was, I was late, and I missed recommending I Married a Witch, a fantasy with Veronica Lake that could fit right into today’s TV.)

Dave: I can agree with that. Judging from online comment, plenty of people agree with you that the numbers, at least, are worth seeing.

And YES, you must see WarGames, if only to watch wardialing from an acoustic coupler attached to some forgotten computer brand, long before laptops.

My favorite computer game, which I never gave the attention it deserved, was a text-only, loaded from cassette tape, version of Buckaroo Banzai where you started out in a parking lot. I played it on my TI99-4A. I also loaded Hunt the Wumpus from the local university’s Vax. But now I’m just speaking gibberish.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:33:54 +0000

A bit more….

I’ve never seen WarGames, actually, and there is really no excuse given my age. Still, reading “Path. Follow path. Gate. Open gate, through gate, close gate. Run, run, run” cracked me up – it reminds me of when I was 14, playing Zork II on my Dad’s Osborne. I’ll have to set the TIVO for that one.

“Rock Around The Clock” sounds like fun. Can’t be any worse than “The Girl Can’t Help It.”

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:14:44 +0000

I can’t disagree with your assessment of “Hello Dolly” but, because I was too young to notice a lot of the problems with it when I first saw it, I still have a lot of affection for it. I generally despise Barbra Striesand but am willing to give her a pass just this once. Yes, she’s way too young – she was not yet 30 when she did this and the character should be at least 20 years older. I have no problem with any of the other casting choices, although the Louis Armstrong stunt cameo is a bit embarrassing. (And it completely overshadows, in the mind of the general public, what an innovative, revolutionary artist he was in the first four decades of his career.)

It is worth pointing out that the film was directed by Gene Kelly and, although the choreography is not Kelly’s, it has a lot of Kelly’s signature athleticism.

Worth recording and then skipping over the slow bits to get to the big lavish production numbers.

By: Ed Sizemore

Ed Sizemore — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:02:10 +0000

Johanna, thanks for the heads up on La Jetee. I will definitely be watching that myself. Sounds very interesting.