A movie from 1983 predicts the outcome in Iraq

“Strategy: Iraq Sovereignty, Winner: None” Isn’t that an interesting screen grab from the 1983 movie WarGames. Hmmm. Oddly relevant in 2006.

I was 13 when I first saw this movie, and I loved it. It played right to my adolescent-geek-saves-the-world-and-gets-prom-date fantasies. Anyway the story is fairly simple: computer geek hacks into US defense computer and almost starts WWIII. It’s interesting to watch today with the benefit of a age (and much fewer pimples). Touches on issues of computer vs. human control, the futility of war, and dangers of computer networking.

It’s also just a fun watch with all the 80’s ciche oozing off it. Gotta love the synth-fueled music. Check out the 5 1/2 inch floppies, baby. The suddenly-cool-again low-bit graphics (the final scene is like watching missile command on steroids). Ally Sheady, mmmmama. Dabney Coleman, doing his Dabney Coleman impression. And Matthew Broderick’s calculator digital watch is, like, totally rad.