Is Tron Legacy About Socialism?

One of the things I love about WordPress is the site-stats page, which gives you a detailed report on how many people view each page and what search phrases direct people to your site. I noticed one of the search phrases that directed someone to my site today was the question, “is Tron Legacy about socialism?”

I don’t know if you can definitely say the movie is “about socialism,” but you can definitely say it is not very free-market friendly.  One of the memorable early scenes in the movie takes us inside the board room of ENCOM just moments before the launch of their software platform. Ed Dillinger, the chairman of ENCOM’s board, is portrayed as a money-hungry antagonist who wants to exploit the poor by releasing virtually the same platform every few years, with only minor changes, in order to increase profits. Sam Flynn, the youthful ideologue, swoops in just in time to upload the platform to a public domain for the public to download for free. Profits are definitely treated as evil by this film, which is ironic considering the huge profit the film is set to rake in over the holidays.

Also, please remember this film stars Olivia Wilde who is a radical Leftist even by Hollywood standards. However, all things considered, I think it would be more accurate to say that Tron Legacy promotes an “ultra-progressive” agenda than garden-variety socialism. The philosophy spouted by Kevin Flynn is definitely a Utopian view shared by socialists, Marxists and communists, but it takes a much more spiritual (Eastern based) approach than the average socialist could stomach.

 

TRON: Legacy

Perhaps I should have revisited the original TRON (1982) before venturing out to catch the sequel TRON: Legacy, maybe it was the $16 tickets at the newly remodeled Highland Park Village Theater or wearing 3D glasses for two hours. Whatever the case, I left the theater far less impressed with TRON: Legacy than my wife.

During the entire film, I kept searching the far-reaches of my memory for clips of the the original movie, trying to remember faces, places and events relevant to the storyline. Unlike most sequels with huge gaps between releases, TRON: Legacy spends very little time refreshing the moviegoers’ memory before jumping in to the new version. It had been nearly twenty years since I had seen the original, so many of those clips had been permanently lost in my head. I remember discs, motorcycles and tight-fitting uniforms, adorned with neon lights, but not much else.

The story picks up in 1989, seven years after the original, and immediately the audience sees one of the greatest feats of the special effects team. No, not the 3D shot of the house, but the way they make Jeff Bridges look twenty-years younger. It’s here that the audience is reminded the basics–Bridges’ character, “Kevin Flynn” created a way to travel to “the grid”–an information superhighway of computer programs and users. During this process, he creates a program in his own image, “CLU” and befriends another program, “TRON”, along the way. We soon learn that “CLU” has joined the dark side, and now controls “the grid;” we don’t see “TRON” until nearly the end of the movie. Again, for those of us who haven’t seen the original in twenty-something years, it can be a bit confusing.

The next two hours of the movie play out exactly the same way I remember the first–disc battles, motorcycle races with neon chem-trails, and good conquering evil. To be sure, there are no new ideas explored in this film. That said, some of the best films ever made recycle stories and retell them in creative, entertaining ways, and at the end of the film I was entertained, mainly by the special effects, but it was entertaining nonetheless. However, I left the theater wanting to re-watch the original and not the sequel.

Oxford American

As someone who prides himself on being different from the bloggers on the East and West coasts, I apologize for not making this recommendation sooner. I’ve been reading Oxford American for a few years now, after my mother turned me onto the magazine for its emphasis on Southern writing. But Oxford American is much more than a collection of essays on small towns, trailer parks and Truman Capote wannabes. It is a medium for Southerners and non-Southerners alike to share their unique cultural insights of this most colorful of American regions. In fact, I’ve found this best writing to come from the annual Southern foods edition. The magazine also features yearly specials on Southern films & music (much more than just Elvis, Lynryrd Skynyrd, and the Allman Brothers). Whether or not you’re from the South, I highly recommend this magazine. If nothing else it serves as definite change from the stagnant views you find in the generic East Coast publications.

Top 5 Podcasts

Since getting my first iPod as a gift some four years ago, I’ve downloaded countless gigs of all forms of media. One of my favorite things to download is podcasts. Over the last few years, I’ve tried out hundreds of different podcasts, but have now narrowed it down to 15 or 20 that I listen to on a regular basis. I thought I would share with you my top 5 podcasts:

1.) Slate Culture Gabfest – This is a must listen if you want to stay current on all things related to culture. The shows regular panel consists of Dana Stevens, Julia Turner and Stephen Metcalf, though they are frequently joined by other members of the Slate.Com staff. The content leans towards the “high brow” and much of it involves material published in Northeast publications (i.e. New York Times, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, etc.), but it provides an inside look at what intellectual elitists all over the nation are talking about.  The most recent episode included a review of the controversial new Lee Daniels’ movie Precious, a review of the Ian McEwan novel Black Dogs to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and Jim Windolf’s recent Vanity Fair article on “cuteness.”

2.)  Slate Political Gabfest – Functions in pretty much the same fashion as the Culture Gabfest–three person panel discusses three issues–only involving politics instead of cultural issues. The normal panel consists of John Dickerson, Emily Bazelon and Slate managing editor, David Plotz. Be warned, the panel leans Left–far Left, but it’s entertaining and informative all the same.

3.) Anything You Ever Wanted to Know – This show is produced by KERA, Dallas’ local public radio station. The show airs each Friday afternoon, but I always listen to it via podcast. The show provides an open forum for listeners to submit questions, either on the phone or through e-mail, to be answered by other members of the listening audience and is moderated by Jeff Whittington. Over the past three years, I’ve learned some fascinating things from the show.

4.) The Writer’s Almanac Podcast – Hosted by Garrison Keillor, the show serves as a “this day in literary history” for lovers of words.  Normally, Keillor lists off several key events for each day and then will focus heavily on one birthday or event before reading a selected “poem of the day.” More than anything else, the show has introduced me to some great new poetry.

5.) NPR Playback – While the other podcasts I listed are released on a weekly or daily basies, the NPR Playback podcast is released on a monthly basis and features audio clips from the archives from 20 years prior. For example, the November podcast features audio from NPR segments from November 1984. I love being transported back to the 80′s and this podcast does just that.

Libby, Montana

I just finished watching an extremely low-budget, but extremely fascinating documentary called Libby, Montana. It’s intriguing to me because for the past 8 or 9 years, I’ve worked in absestos litigation and in the world of asbestos litigation there is no place like Libby, Montana.  The documentary attempts to capture the story of the the vermiculite mine in the town run by W.R. Grace from the 1960′s through the 1990′s.  The film makes a compelling argument that Grace knowingly covered up the fact that mine workers, and residents of Libby, were exposed to tremolite asbestos.

Anyone who works in the field of asbestos litigation, whether on the plaintiff side or defense, needs to watch this film. Sure, the film has an agenda and is biased against the corporations, but I think it puts a human face on our business. I don’t know how compelling this film would be for someone not involved in asbestos litigation or environmental issues. It tends to be a bit slow at times, the audio is horrible and a lot of the basics of asbestos exposure and asbestos related pleural disease is skipped over.

All things considered, I give the film, Libby, Montana, 3 out of 5 stars.

Conflicted feelings about seeing “Up”

I’ve never been one for boycotts.  I fundamentally disagree with many of the artists on the proper role of the Federal government and on the issue of American exceptionalism. However, I continue to consume their art. Indeed, a quick glance at my movie, music and book library and you’d be hard pressed to find any work by an artist I consider a political ally.

Every so often, an artist harbors such an abhorrent political ideology or personal beliefs that one must question whether or not it’s proper to contribute money to their art.  To this day, I refuse to watch Passion of the Christ or any other Mel Gibson film because of his anti-Semitic tirades.

I’m having similar hesitations when it comes to the new Pixar flick, Up, which currently sits a top the box office and has received great reviews. However, the movie features the voice of Ed Asner.  Regardless of the adjective you choose to describe Asner’s political views, it’s  clear that he is well to the left of center of the average American, as evidenced by his support of the Marxist rebels of the FMLN who fought against our soldiers in El Salvador in the 1980′s. I can tolerate a socialist; I can’t support a traitor.

With that said, I don’t want to act like the religious nuts that boycott everything that runs counter to Puritan values or Levitical law.  What do I do?

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Now playing: Dixie Chicks – Not Ready to Make Nice
via FoxyTunes