Well, we are deep into Summer Movie Madness… of 1982.

If you want to know why I think 1982 is the Greatest Summer of Genre Movies, take a look at my thoughts on May of 1982 and June of 1982

July of 1982 brings a couple of visions of the future, both positive and negative. What’s fascinating is that both of them did get sequels-30 years or more later! A true sign of their endurance.

So onto July of 1982!

TRON. (July 9, 1982)

"A world inside the computer where man has never been.
Never before now."

This was another film I’d been following along with through Starlog … and even Smithsonian magazine! When I saw it in the Pembroke Cinema, it was another world I’d yet to see or imagine.

In many ways, the film is trying to deliver something that technologically the era wasn’t capable of doing. But I think that idea of potential in a digital world inspired so many. If Star Wars, inspired the next generations of screenwriters and film-makers (myself included), then Tron inspired the next generation of special effects and video-game developers. And look at what has become of that inspiration!

If only in special effects in the movies, only 3 years later we would see a walking stained glass knight, 9 years later would give us the shape-shifting T-1000, and 13 years later living, breathing dinosaurs. 35 years later and CGI is a near household term and it allows all kinds of visions and worlds in both the movies and television.

For programmers and makers of games, the concepts of a digital world in Tron became almost gospel, as well as the goal to strive for. At a time when most games were single colored blocks to give the approximations of a person, the world would see leaps in computing, arcade games, and home-gaming. Every change seems to have a quantum leap over the last. With online gaming, MMO’s, and VR, the possibilities envisioned in ’82 is very much a reality today.

But I’m still hoping for a VR Light Cycle game!

THE ROAD WARRIOR (MAD MAX 2). (May 21, 1982)

"In the future,
cities will become deserts,
roads will become battlefields
and the hope of mankind will appear as a stranger."

First off, why do I have a May movie in July? Well, that’s because that’s when I saw it!
I’ve got to guess that the film was rolled out in its release over time, rather than a nationwide one. Not really a surprise in the 80’s I mean, it technically IS a foreign film!

But I’d been looking forward to this for a while, having known about Mad Max back at the turn of the 80’s (it hit nearby at the Braintree Drive-In, but couldn’t convince parents to take me… at 12!). I’d read the TIME magazine review of “Apocalypse POW!” I was in for this movie... and waiting.

A couple of friends, who were self-proclaimed “hicks”, told me they’d seen the movie at the Hanover Mall and loved it… and were going again. The trip to the theater was an adventure in itself: 25 minute drive for a movie starting in 15… in the bed of the pick-up truck- Ah, the 80’s! But we made it in time.

Like so many others since, it blew my mind! A world that was new and vivid, in land straight out of science fiction (aka rural Australia). But with a streamlined, fuel-injected story that had been told time and again. But for me it was all new. As with almost all of My Top Six Movies (another article, perhaps), The Road Warrior simply came out of nowhere, slammed into me and made a permanent spot it in my psyche.

I have forgotten how many times and ways I’ve seen it at this point in my life, between con showings, the weird NBC edited-for-television version, trilogy screening at the New Beverly in LA with a live Interceptor there, and even a screening with the Road Warrior himself, Mel Gibson.

I’m not the only one who it connected with, as the 80’s (and beyond) were full of references and connections. Take a look at the music videos of Duran Duran, The Police, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers! The movies tried to emulate, homage, impersonate, or just plain rip off the aesthetic of The Road Warrior, incl. Warriors of the Wasteland, Metalstorm-The Destruction of Jared Syn, Fist of the North Star, and Weird Science, to name a few. The movie has been referenced in TV shows like “The Simpsons”, and “South Park”, and been a videogame staple for DECADES (Looking at you Borderlands)!

It also has, arguably, one of the best chase sequences in film history, encompassing the last twenty minutes of the movie. It's a master-class in action, editing, and visual geography

And there were the cars of The Road Warrior, specifically, Max’s Black-on-Black V-8 Interceptor.

As much as the Max himself, you can’t think of him or this movie without his faithful steed!

I am not, and have never been, a “car guy”.
But I probably know more about this car than any other, including ones I’ve owned.
If I can’t have one, I will one day make one that’s close enough.

And if the Burning Man and Wastelands Weekend festivals are concerned, I’m not the only one.

That’s a lot of power for a simple story that crosses cultural boundaries with a lead who has 16 lines of dialogue in the entire film.

It’s the Power of Myth… at 600 HP with a Blower!

* * *

We’ve reached the end of Summer of '82, but what a summer it was! And that doesn’t count a few films that are “coming down the road” in the Fall of ’82, such as First Blood, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, My Favorite Year, Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, Creepshow, Pink Floyd: The Wall, The Dark Crystal, and others.

But that 3 months saw NINE genre classics, so I firmly believe it to be the best! (Feel free to contact and disagree!)

Hoped you enjoyed the look back at the Summer of ’82 and felt like you were time-traveled back then through my words, even if only a little bit.