"Greetings Professor Falken."

Friday evening and a shock revelation that my housemate -despite her three years of hardened computer geekery studying for a Comp Sci degree- had never seen the classic 1980's computer hacking cum anti-war movie WarGames. Reeling from the impact of this news, I sought to immediately rectify matters with a cunningly crafted Broderick double bill of said cold war era cult flick and fellow eighties high school sick day hi-jinx comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Returning from the nearby wine dispensary with bottle in hand, the trusty LCD was fired up once again for some DVD based escapism.

As always the combination of military procedure and retro terminal font title sequence pulls you in to the timeless slice of movie making known as WarGames. Alas, 30 minutes in and all I've heard is "aww, Matthew Broderick looks so cute" and, in relation to Alley Sheedy "god she has an annoying face, can't they aim the camera away from her?" a claim which I staunchly rebuffed, no doubt fueled by memories of a childhood crush on the actress. Thankfully by the time Lightman (Broderick) has hacked his way into the computer that sounds like a prototype Steven Hawking (is it OK to say that? Probably not...) my fellow audience member has settled down a bit, drawn in by the geekines of the whole thing.

In all seriousness WarGames has aged spectacularly well. Yes the cold war paranoia seems dated, but in the current world climate it is still easy to identify with. Geeks and techies may scoff at the ancient computer technology used throughout the movie, but the depiction of the process of hacking is spot on: the solitary Lightman locked away in his bedroom, late nights probing the system and pouring over reams of print out. It's a far more accurate portrait than more recent efforts (more of which in a later post). High school kid starts nuclear war by playing a game with a military computer is far from a realistic premise, but it's handled so well you can easily suspend your disbelief (if you can't, what the hell are doing watching movies in the first place?).

By far the greatest achievement of the movie is it's seamless switch from high school hacking tale, to anti-war statement. The final scenes in the Norad war room are particularly effective, everybody watching on as the WOPR (man you have to love that name) computer runs through every possible permutation of world war three, before concluding it is a futile endeavour. You may baulk at the idea of a mere machine being able to fathom this in the space of ten minutes, but whilst completely implausible, set against the backdrop of generals and men with fingers poised on the launch button, it makes for a powerful (if somewhat obvious) juxtaposition.

A deserved geek classic, and one my housemate seems glad to have been forced to sit through. Even if you already know that "the only winning move is not to play", it's well worth cracking open the DVD and reacquainting yourself. Unless of course you'd rather play a nice game of chess.