5 ms·

It is not a movie about computers. The article explains it straightforwardly: It is a shaman traveling to the spirit world. It is a psychedelic adventure, using

by goto11 4y ago

It is not a movie about computers. The article explains it straightforwardly: It is a shaman traveling to the spirit world. It is a psychedelic adventure, using fictionalized computers and computer graphics as scenery. It was pretty groundbreaking in depicting a computer-generated magical world instead of the computer just being a voice coming out of a box.

pdimitar 4y ago
I mean fair enough, fans are free to romanticize it all they want and that's fine and normal. But let's just recognize that what you said is an interpretation and not an objective fact.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- dahart 4y ago
  What do you mean? It was the director quoted in the article talking about the shaman’s spirit journey. Are you saying the director’s stated intention is somehow not factual?
  - pdimitar 4y ago
    I am definitely not saying that and I wasn't aware this is what the director said. Thanks for the correction. Even with that however, I think we can all agree that art interpretation is a personal experience and nobody else can impose their interpretation on us. F.ex. Michael Bay claimed that his Transformers movies are an emotional journey while an overwhelming amount of movie-goers said they went there for the robots and explosions. I respect the director's idea but it's absolutely not how I experienced the movie.
    - dahart 4y ago
      Might be fun to re-watch with the director’s vision in mind. I changed my mind about Prometheus after reading a long online post about how it’s an allegory to Jesus, and what implications that has on all the plot points and characters. Watching the movie cold I nearly walked out I thought it was so bad, seeing it again after having updated information made it a better experience for me.
      - pdimitar 4y ago
        Yeah, I don't mind that. :)
anotherman554 4y ago
I kind of like Tron but that statement from the director isn't something I buy. There's no spirit world in Tron's plot- the plot is literally about a guy getting zapped into a machine. If it was the director's intent to depict a "spirit world" or "shaman" , he did a poor job of conveying it. Other movies like "Return to OZ" do a much better job of opening themselves up to non literal interpretations by having ambiguity between the "real" world and the "fantasy" world. What I really get from Tron is it is basically Star Wars with "galaxy far far away" replaced with "CGI computer world". The Tron poster is heavily copied from this famous Star Wars poster: https://www.starwars.com/news/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-original-star-wars-poster https://www.starwars.com/news/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-... Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" influenced Star Wars. So calling your Hollywood formula "mythic" in some fashion was presumably fashionable on account of the success of Star Wars. I kind of like Tron but the plot is very simple, and very literal. It doesn't really come to life the way Star Wars does, or open itself up to interpretation like more symbolic films. If the director really wanted us to see the film as shamanic, he probably shouldn't have used such a clunky plot device as a laser beam that makes someone enter a computer.
- goto11 4y ago
  > If the director really wanted us to see the film as shamanic, he probably shouldn't have used such a clunky plot device as a laser beam that makes someone enter a computer. That was my favorite scene! But I don't think the director "wanted us to see the film as shamanic". I think this is getting it backwards. The director wanted us to see it as a science-fiction adventure. Star Wars was certainly not the first movie to use science-fiction for mythological or religious themes. Science-fiction is rarely about science.
  - anotherman554 4y ago
    It's not that Star Wars was the first movie to use science-fiction for mythological or religious themes but Star Wars is the first I know of famous for being inspired by Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell claimed all myths follow the same formula which he called the monomyth. You look at the poster of Tron and it's Luke Skywalker imagined as a computer program with the pose and lightsaber glow from the Star Wars poster. If you buy Joseph's Campbell's claims that all myth follows a formula then adventure film making is about casting a Luke Skywalker Monomyth figure in a difference setting (wild west setting, computer setting, crime ridden urban setting, samurai setting etc.) and just telling the same story over and over and claiming you are doing something spiritual. I don't particularly buy that view of filmmaking but I see the director's comment about Shamanism in that context seeing as Tron seems to borrow a bit of inspiration from Star Wars.

by goto11 4y ago

pdimitar 4y ago

I mean fair enough, fans are free to romanticize it all they want and that's fine and normal. But let's just recognize that what you said is an interpretation and not an objective fact.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dahart 4y ago
What do you mean? It was the director quoted in the article talking about the shaman’s spirit journey. Are you saying the director’s stated intention is somehow not factual?
- pdimitar 4y ago
  I am definitely not saying that and I wasn't aware this is what the director said. Thanks for the correction. Even with that however, I think we can all agree that art interpretation is a personal experience and nobody else can impose their interpretation on us. F.ex. Michael Bay claimed that his Transformers movies are an emotional journey while an overwhelming amount of movie-goers said they went there for the robots and explosions. I respect the director's idea but it's absolutely not how I experienced the movie.
  - dahart 4y ago
    Might be fun to re-watch with the director’s vision in mind. I changed my mind about Prometheus after reading a long online post about how it’s an allegory to Jesus, and what implications that has on all the plot points and characters. Watching the movie cold I nearly walked out I thought it was so bad, seeing it again after having updated information made it a better experience for me.
    - pdimitar 4y ago
      Yeah, I don't mind that. :)

anotherman554 4y ago

I kind of like Tron but that statement from the director isn't something I buy. There's no spirit world in Tron's plot- the plot is literally about a guy getting zapped into a machine. If it was the director's intent to depict a "spirit world" or "shaman" , he did a poor job of conveying it. Other movies like "Return to OZ" do a much better job of opening themselves up to non literal interpretations by having ambiguity between the "real" world and the "fantasy" world. What I really get from Tron is it is basically Star Wars with "galaxy far far away" replaced with "CGI computer world". The Tron poster is heavily copied from this famous Star Wars poster: https://www.starwars.com/news/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-original-star-wars-poster https://www.starwars.com/news/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-... Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" influenced Star Wars. So calling your Hollywood formula "mythic" in some fashion was presumably fashionable on account of the success of Star Wars. I kind of like Tron but the plot is very simple, and very literal. It doesn't really come to life the way Star Wars does, or open itself up to interpretation like more symbolic films. If the director really wanted us to see the film as shamanic, he probably shouldn't have used such a clunky plot device as a laser beam that makes someone enter a computer.

goto11 4y ago
> If the director really wanted us to see the film as shamanic, he probably shouldn't have used such a clunky plot device as a laser beam that makes someone enter a computer. That was my favorite scene! But I don't think the director "wanted us to see the film as shamanic". I think this is getting it backwards. The director wanted us to see it as a science-fiction adventure. Star Wars was certainly not the first movie to use science-fiction for mythological or religious themes. Science-fiction is rarely about science.
- anotherman554 4y ago
  It's not that Star Wars was the first movie to use science-fiction for mythological or religious themes but Star Wars is the first I know of famous for being inspired by Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell claimed all myths follow the same formula which he called the monomyth. You look at the poster of Tron and it's Luke Skywalker imagined as a computer program with the pose and lightsaber glow from the Star Wars poster. If you buy Joseph's Campbell's claims that all myth follows a formula then adventure film making is about casting a Luke Skywalker Monomyth figure in a difference setting (wild west setting, computer setting, crime ridden urban setting, samurai setting etc.) and just telling the same story over and over and claiming you are doing something spiritual. I don't particularly buy that view of filmmaking but I see the director's comment about Shamanism in that context seeing as Tron seems to borrow a bit of inspiration from Star Wars.