Director: John Badham
Screenplay: Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Ally Sheedy
Country: United States
Running Time: 113 minutes
Year: 1983
BBFC Certificate: 12
Matthew Broderick shines in his breakout film role in 80s tech-thriller WarGames. As schoolboy hacker David Lightman, he plays the Ferris Bueller-like role with charm opposite fellow teen-star Ally Sheedy. He hacks their school computer network and gives her an A. Next, he almost inadvertently causes a nuclear war while showing off on the desktop in his bedroom.
The 1983 feature, helmed by Saturday Night Fever (1977) director John Badham, delves into concepts that feel groundbreaking for the era, involving computer hacking, artificial intelligence (AI) and fear of nuclear warfare. It manages to pull all this off, oddly enough, with a sense of light-hearted fun, making these elements fairly comprehensible.
It devolves into a fairly generic crowd-pleasing blockbuster, but it does this skilfully with a very satisfying conclusion, which is why it was such a hit and paved the way for Broderick’s career, he would go onto star in mega-hit Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). It’s silly popcorn fun fuelled by movie logic. One of those delightful movies where the kids are more intelligent than the adults.
Arrow Video is releasing the film in 4K Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible). It features the film’s original lossless stereo track, along with a DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio mix.
The release comes with a range of brand new special features, along with a host of archival extras. With numerous interviews, featurettes, two audio commentaries, a documentary and a booklet, there’s certainly a lot to sink your teeth into.
New extras include a commentary track with regular Blu-ray pundit Daniel Kremer; interviews with director John Badham and actor Eddie Deezen, along with a tribute, and two featurettes.
Arrow describes the plot as follows: “Broderick plays David Lightman, a bright high-schooler who spends most of his free time on his home computer. All he wants to do is play the latest video games (and, on occasion, alter his grades). But when he dials into a program called Global Thermonuclear War, he soon realises he’s unwittingly hacked into the WOPR, the Department of Defence’s brand-new supercomputer, setting a sequence of events in motion that could ignite World War III.
“Lightman and his friend Jennifer (Sheedy) find themselves in a desperate race against the clock to find the WOPR’s designer, the reclusive computer genius Dr Stephen Falken (John Wood, Ladyhawke), to prevent nuclear Armageddon.”
The special effects of the era are fantastic and there’s an epic climax in the war-room. The 4K transfer is fitting for this landmark sci-fi movie. I recommend watching this film in as dark a room as possible to really benefit from the flashing lights and sweeping visuals. It’s presented on a grand scale with the vibrant high-contrast colours piercing through the screen indelibly with every bleep-blap-blop of these old massive computers. There are also striking visuals of the Colorado Mountains.
I watched with the 5.1 mix and I was surrounded by the funky 80s soundtrack and the sinister hum and bleep of servers. There were also moments with a tense operatic score which added an ominous unwavering feel to the heightened drama.
Film:
Special Features
- Brand new audio commentary with filmmaker and film historian Daniel Kremer
- Archival audio commentary with director John Badham and writers Lawrence Lasker and Walter Parkes
- Playing the Game, a brand new interview with John Badham
- Hello, I Must Be Coding, a brand new interview with actor Eddie Deezen
- Mutually Assured Percussion, a brand new tribute to composer Arthur B. Rubinstein featuring musician Anthony Marinelli and film music historian Daniel Schweiger
- Doomsday on Screen: The Visual Effects of WarGames, a brand new featurette by film journalist Joe Fordham
- Command and (Out of) Control: WarGames and Cold War Cinema, a brand new featurette on the context and legacy of WarGames by critic Bryan Reesman
- Loading WarGames, an archival documentary about the film’s production and cultural impact featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Inside NORAD: Cold War Fortress, Attack of the Hackers and Tic Tac Toe: A True Story archival featurettes
- Theatrical trailer
- Image gallery
- Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by critics Priscilla Page and Keith Phipps, and original production notes
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Yvan Quinet
The breadth and depth of the vast array of archival extras speaks for itself, so I will focus on the new features included in this Arrow release.
Audio commentary with filmmaker and film historian Daniel Kremer: Light-hearted anecdotal commentary focusing on Badham’s career. Kremer seems to know Badham personally, giving the commentary an intimate feel. He argues Badham is a serious filmmaker beneath his “popcorn palooza”.
John Badham interview: (13.53 mins) Speaks about getting involved with project after the original director Martin Brest was taken off the project, making the tone more comical and light-hearted and how he got the best performances out of his young lead actors.
Eddie Deezen interview: (15.53 mins) Deezen is such a minor cast member, his own story is not very interesting. He gives a terrific insight into what the dynamic was like on set with Brest before he was sacked, however.
Tribute to composer Arthur B. Rubinstein: (40.54 mins) This was a WOPR of a feature. Arrow seems to focus quite heavily on film composers in their extras. If the music interests you, then this is a deep dive into everything WarGames composition. It goes into the composer’s influences, etc, and how it all came together.
The Visual Effects of WarGames featurette: (19.3 mins) This was an incredible featurette – easily the highlight of the extras. It was so fascinating to learn how the special effects were pulled off, before green screen, when computer graphics were executed in a very different way. He delves into how the film’s climax in the war-room was achieved and the process was fantastically convoluted.
Featurette on the context and legacy of WarGames: (25.09 mins) Reesman speaks about Badham’s sci-trilogy WarGames (1983), Blue Thunder (1983), and Short Circuit (1986). He delves in nuclear war movies, while contextualising American audience’s attitudes towards tech, the Soviet Union and lingering fears of imminent nuclear warfare. He also speaks about what real life military commanders thought of the high-concept movie.
Special Features:
Arrow Video releases WarGames in 4K on 16 November.