drb@houti.UUCP (06/27/83)
"Wargames" has received mixed reviews here on the net but generally favorable reviews in the "real world." Even though I live in the fake world of the Holmdel Labs, I am going to contend that the outside reviews are more accurate. Nearly everyone knows that the movie is about a young guy that breaks into the defense department computer in order to play games and starts something considerable more than a game. I will be conservative and say no more because I HATE it when people put non-spoiler in the title and then the review spoils some aspects of the film. The major complaint about the movie here on the net has been "unrealistic." My impression, however, is that it is more that realistic enough to carry itself. Much of what is being called unrealistic is either not possible by today's standards (pseudo-English language parsers) or very technical (defense computers with dial in and dial out lines). These details in NO way detract from the main idea. Like the movie "Failsafe" it is not so important that you believe that it could well happen after you come out of the theater, but that you believe is is happening while you are in the theater. You will. The characters are very believable. I found that I could associate names of people I have known with the computer programmers and computer room operators. The military personnel, especially the general, although very "military" , were not tunnel visioned with mechanistic and hawkish ideas as is so easy to portray them in movies. Many of the characters provided good humor and there are many good laughs. I came out feeling like I had seen a good movie. You will too. Dave