Streaming and the wide availability of video on the Internet have made it easier than ever to find and watch material that was unavailable or just hard to find for many years. I a previous bLog article, I covered YouTube channels that are providing archival first person computer history videos. But Hollywood entertainment is another culturally relavant source. Here are several feature length Hollywood movies with connections to computing and computer history.
The films in this article fall into two categories. The first set of films from before Y2K show peoples attitudes towards computing machines and their interactions with them. The second group of films are more modern movies post Y2K which have historical computing as a theme of the movie.
Older Films (Pre Y2K)
Desk Set (1957) with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn was fun, I saw this film for the first time last year. Two of the things that stood out to me were the uncertainties the workers had about how computer automation would affect their jobs and a repetition of the pattern where new automation solutions do not live up to the hype, at least in the short term. An enjoyable film and one I'd recommend.
The films Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) and Damnation Alley (1977) both show inside of a Cold-War Atlas missile silo. These were of interest to me since I'm a child of the cold war and the "What If" scenarios presented by these movies are definitely the main point. But another thing caught my eye watching these films since these missile silos were controlled by a massive computer network called the SAGE Air Defense System (or its successor). SAGE was designed and built during the cold war to try to prevent nuclear strikes from the USSR reaching the US. If you are not familiar with the SAGE system, there's a fantastic talk from VCF 2025 that I'd recommend by Richard Thompson "The SAGE Air Defense System". Richard points out in his talk that many of the SAGE control panels were saved and used a props in TV and film decades. These appearance are cataloged on Mike Loewen's website here, and his catalog opens another whole world of media exploration in Film and TV shows.
What list of computer related films would be complete without a discussion of War Games (1983)? This is the first film on my list that I remember watching at the time. Back then I was more concerned about the threat of war but I was also interested in computers and computing. Here's an interesting article about the tech used for making the film both on and off screen. The main computer star of the show is the IMSAI 8080 computer, which has become quite expensive. These pre-1977 machines didn't sell in the millions like an Apple II, but we can still have a similar experience with a modern replica kit built using a modern microcontroller. I've got one of these kits on order, so stay tuned for a future bLog article on that topic.
Skipping ahead more than a decade, we have Hackers (1995). I was in college at the time struggling to get an engineering degree and surrounded by computer geeks like me. I didn't have a car in college and I didn't get out to the movies much which is just as well because we would not have found much to relate too in this film. We weren't cool like the characters in the film. It wasn't until studying the history of the Homebrew Computer Club and Hacker culture that I began to understand how computing was connected with the 60s counter culture on the West Coast. This was not a significant part of my experience at a midwestern engineering school in the mid '90s. However, rewatching the film recently was a fun opportunity for me to play the "Name that Computer" game. Trying to figure out, is that an Apple PowerBook? Is that a Toshiba Satellite or a Tecra? Which one? I don't have a list from my last watch through. Google search shows a detailed list, but I'm honestly not sure if you can tell just from shots in the film which computer is which, so I won't link that spoiler article here and let it ruin the fun of re-watching the film and playing "Name that Computer".
The only romantic comedy on todays list is You've got Mail (1998). I recently rewatched the film as I was interested in seeing the portrayals of the early days of the Internet, but I'd forgotten (or never noticed when I was a kid) how problematic the Tom Hanks character's behavior (Joe) is. But I watched the film so you don't have to. Per the fantastic FAQ section on IMDB, Joe is using a "Desktop Replacment" IBM Thinkpad 770 and Kathleen is using an Apple Powerbook G3 250, the fastest of the Wallstreet machines. I did enjoy the nostalgia remembering using the AOL free trial period and other dial up Internet experiences back in the day.
New Movies (Post Y2K)
The second category of films on this list is modern movie set back in time with computer themes. When we look at modern films about the past sometimes we may learn more about our present attitudes than we do about the past, but these films are still interesting.
The next movie on my list is The Imitation Game (2014). This is a film about Alan Turing and his team's work during WWII on code breaking. I had my own doubts about the historical accuracy of this film after watching it. One reviewer confirmed my suspicions says this is "... one of the most celebrated and most misleading historical movies ever". I think most of us interested in computer history would be better off reading this article and skipping the film.
Silicon Cowboys (2016) was intriguing to me. I've read and enjoyed Rod Canion's book "Open" about the founding of Compaq but I really didn't get into the TV Series "Halt and Catch Fire". I remember one of the folks presenting about the history of Tandy computer saying "it was never that exciting" or something to that effect about that show. But Silicon Cowboys is focused on what actually happened and that's still very exciting.
I've seeen The Social Network (2010) but it didn't make that big of an impression on me, so I'm not going to comment other than to say that I did watch it. Hidden Figures (2016) is a feel-good movie where the underdogs overcome their challenges because of their patience and hard work.
What other films can you think of that have computing as a theme of the film? Comment below or drop me an email, my address is in my blog Profile on the left side of the homepage.
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