TRON: Legacy
Disney unshackles itself from it’s usual juvenile drivel to bring us this vibrant and new story, brimming with verve and originality. The journey into the neon-lit world of the grid would be worth it purely for the visual and aural experience, for light and sound and fury of it all, but there’s so much more: On the surface, this travelogue/documentary takes us on a tour of psychedelic late-1960's religious movements in America. Jeff Bridges reprises his role as America's favorite ultra-lazy Dude, (honestly, he advises the audience many times to simply do nothing, be still, wait, listen) but with a more spiritual side than the original, second, and third Big Lebowski movies. There’s quite a lot more Zen Buddhism and gnostic Christianity here than in most of Bridges’ previous work, possibly hinting at changes in his personal life as he has become older and gained a deeper understanding of the world. So yes, Disney certainly stepped out of its comfort zone to teach us about religion, and thankfully so, but that’s only the surface of this movie, only one dimension of many to consider. Much like the flat, monochrome images on the shadowy walls of Plato’s Cave, the film invites us, tempts us to investigate more deeply, to look beyond what we are shown, to step into the light and experience the moving tale that rests below the religious symbolism. So what is this film really about?
It might shock you, and it probably shocked Disney’s producers when they realized this wasn’t just another cookie-cutter, sanitized fairy tale with subliminal sexual imagery to keep the adults feeling as entertained as their children- No! Indeed, Tron: Legacy is a true original, the first of its kind. Disney has taken a huge risk here, dealing with subject matter many people will find alien and unfamiliar, territory explored rarely if at all through the whole history of American film. The true story of Tron: Legacy, is that of a young man lacking motivation and responsibility. In order to become more than a child, he must first try to understand and learn from his father, a father who has been absent in his young life. In time, with the guidance and encouragement of his father, he must learn self-reliance, meet an attractive woman, make a few new friends, and finally, begin to understand that the two different sides of his father that he experienced growing up - one kind, the other cruel - are merely two sides of the same man. As the son reconciles the conflicting sides of his father he comes to understand also his responsibility in the world as a rich, talented, white American. It’s almost sad that so few directors and production companies are willing to tackle these, well, let’s call them “Father and Son” stories for lack of a previously existing genre term, though because of the fantastic artistic and financial success of Tron: Legacy , a few courageous filmmakers - if they can manage to get financial backing for such unusual subject matter - may try to in the future. Perhaps Dennis Quaid, star of the multiple Oscar-winning Innerspace could be convinced to explore this subject with his incredible acting talent. And to fool the production company into helping make a story about a father and a son learning about each other, perhaps a sci-fi adventure story, something set on a spacecraft, maybe with monsters. . .
Oh yes, also notable in this Disney movie are between three and five black extras, two women who aren't the protagonist's mother, and a homosexual David Bowie impersonator who betrays the hero and is horribly punished for it. Well, we can’t expect Disney to break all the rules of Disney storytelling, now can we, Disney?
Best Daft Punk music video ever (except for “Around the World”). Five Stars.