I'm still on board with the romanticization. (...on deck?)
I found a really interesting article on the 25th anniversary of Tron. I watched it a few months ago and found it to be completely insane; plot points went nowhere and weren't explained, and frisbees were instruments of death. However, this article brought about some interesting points about the graphics and about the contrast of the characters of Tron and the era in which it was written.
The director of Tron, Lisberger, explains how the movie had a basis in Jungian imagery and his notion of the higher self. "When I saw computer programmers in the early days, trying to communicate with programs they created, it was obvious to me they were trying to reach [their] maximum potential." He talks about the relationship between the programs and their users, and describes it with a religious tint. He goes on to say how the cyberspace setting was too anachronistic for when it was released--something similar (but better written, and with better graphics) might be more suited for a more modern audience, but the times have changed. "These are not the times for what we were talking about, Lisberger ponders. If anything embodies the times we live in, it's Johnny Depp's character in Pirates of the Caribbean. He's ready to take every chance on any fly-by-night scheme to get rich. If the spiritual quest we're talking about hearkens back to the ’60s, then that’s where we’re at right now. I'm not condemning it. It's just the backlash." [http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=5570&IssueNum=207]
And I have enjoyed POTC 1 and 3, I would agree with this idea. But the idea of pirates being the saviors of freedom just didn't sit evenly with me. I definitely understand the romanticizing of pirates (it goes along with the same thing with ninjas, and cowboys), being off the grid before there was a grid. And Jason just sent me an article about the pirate captain that Sparrow was based on, and the last line I liked. "Roberts' own life, for all its flamboyance, demonstrates that there was no "golden age" (of piracy) : only the base metal of greed, ruthlessness, debauchery and vicious cruelty, which for 60 years or more bedevilled the Western seas." [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=457724&in_page_id=1879]
The director of Tron, Lisberger, explains how the movie had a basis in Jungian imagery and his notion of the higher self. "When I saw computer programmers in the early days, trying to communicate with programs they created, it was obvious to me they were trying to reach [their] maximum potential." He talks about the relationship between the programs and their users, and describes it with a religious tint. He goes on to say how the cyberspace setting was too anachronistic for when it was released--something similar (but better written, and with better graphics) might be more suited for a more modern audience, but the times have changed. "These are not the times for what we were talking about, Lisberger ponders. If anything embodies the times we live in, it's Johnny Depp's character in Pirates of the Caribbean. He's ready to take every chance on any fly-by-night scheme to get rich. If the spiritual quest we're talking about hearkens back to the ’60s, then that’s where we’re at right now. I'm not condemning it. It's just the backlash." [http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=5570&IssueNum=207]
And I have enjoyed POTC 1 and 3, I would agree with this idea. But the idea of pirates being the saviors of freedom just didn't sit evenly with me. I definitely understand the romanticizing of pirates (it goes along with the same thing with ninjas, and cowboys), being off the grid before there was a grid. And Jason just sent me an article about the pirate captain that Sparrow was based on, and the last line I liked. "Roberts' own life, for all its flamboyance, demonstrates that there was no "golden age" (of piracy) : only the base metal of greed, ruthlessness, debauchery and vicious cruelty, which for 60 years or more bedevilled the Western seas." [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=457724&in_page_id=1879]