{"id":8267,"date":"2018-04-07T02:04:26","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T02:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/?p=8267"},"modified":"2019-02-27T16:53:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T16:53:43","slug":"8267","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/2018\/04\/07\/8267\/","title":{"rendered":"War Games, Fail-Safe, Dr. Strangelove"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1998, there were two movies about a natural catastrophe: Armageddon<\/em> & Deep Impact<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 2006, there were two movies about magicians living outside the reality-based community: The Prestige<\/em> & The Illusionist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 1964, there were two movies about systems failure and nuclear war: Dr. Strangelove<\/em> & Fail-Safe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You’ve probably never heard of the second one even though it was directed by a director whose movies were widely seen (Sidney Lumet) and starred actors with long careers: Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman and (!) Dom DeLuise.<\/p>\n

Both movies end with catastrophe \u2013 nuclear annihilation \u2013 because humans (men, really) can’t get it right before the system<\/strong> they’ve built kills them.<\/p>\n

Dr. Strangelove<\/em> came out first and did better. But I suspect that part of the reason why it’s better known is that it was funnier and used symbols more effectively.<\/p>\n

War Games<\/em> was released almost 20 years after both movies (1983). I consider it iconic and I think many would agree (“Would you like to play a game?”).<\/p>\n

Like Dr. Strangelove<\/em>, War Games<\/em> is not only funny, it works as both a realistic drama and an allegory.<\/p>\n

In War Games<\/em>, the system<\/strong> is a more developed character: it’s physically embodied as a computer (that gets plenty of close-up’s!) and even has two names. The military calls it WOPR but its inventor names it Joshua \u2013 after the creator’s dead son!<\/p>\n

One day, Joshua, the computer, strikes up a friendship with a real boy who likes to play with computers and… hijinks ensue!<\/p>\n

The relationship beween the computer boy and the real boy not only drives the movie, it gets us to a very different ending.<\/p>\n

The human boy teaches the computer that some games are not worth playing. The computer then teaches this lesson to the serious adults in the room by giving them a nuclear war scare (simulation).<\/p>\n

In other words, in War Games<\/em>, humanity survives by letting young people lead the way (as Ally Sheedy convincingly argues: 17 year-olds really want to live).<\/p>\n

I just saw War Games<\/em> again last night and I found it to be just as good for the 45 year-old Jose as for the 12 year-old me. Really, it’s excellent.<\/p>\n

The comedy is very dry and the jokes come fast. I think it could be grouped with Dr. Strangelove<\/em>, for sure, but also Robocop<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in the middle of writing a kind of update and I was pleasantly surprised just how much this movie influenced me.<\/p>\n

Images “attached” are scenes from Fail-Safe (1964) and War Games (1983)<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1998, there were two movies about a natural catastrophe: Armageddon & Deep Impact. In 2006, there were two movies about magicians living outside the reality-based community: The Prestige & The Illusionist. In 1964, there were two movies about systems failure and nuclear war: Dr. Strangelove & Fail-Safe. You’ve probably never heard of the second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,10,15,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8267"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8518,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions\/8518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}