Video Drivel

THOMAS STEFANIAN brought the first pinball machine to Cambridge in 1957, and for almost 25 years, Tommy's Lunch was the leading-silverball stadium in the Square. But just this spring, the Mt. Auburn hangout divested itself almost completely of pinball, and put all its marbles into video games--even tearing out one dining booth to make way for the expanding arcade.

Radical change has occurred elsewhere in Cambridge as well. Elsie's, for example, now has an adjoining room devoted completely to these quarter-eating television sets. Store 24, once exclusively a food and conveniences outlet, now has two machines.

Even the filmmakers at Walt Disney, long-time champions of the pre-teen set, have not been immune. Their latest movie, Tron, caters exclusively to the burgeoning video class.

The main character in this 90-minute futuristic flick is Flynn, the video addict's hero. He is not too good looking, and he's not terribly clever. But he plays a mean game of Space Paranoids, and his record score of 999,000 turns on plenty of women who hang around amusement arcades.

In addition to his unparalleled skill, Flynn actually owns his own video center. In short, he has everything a man could desire. So what's the rub? Well, as a former employee of Encom, a leading video manufacturer, Flynn invented many of the most popular games on the market. But through the dirty dealings of one Dellinger, now chief executive of the company, Flynn was cheated out of fame and fortune. Using his home terminal, he searches the corporation's computer memory for proof that he was robbed.

The enusing struggle is made infinitely more vivid by some neat anthropomorphism. The Disney creators of talking mice, ducks and crickets again break new ground by devising human-like computer programs, creatures who carry their intelligence--programming orders--on frisbees attached to their backs. They live in the computer system, itself conceptualized as an incredibly complicated maze of tunnels, valley and towers.

Flynn must confront Dellinger's evil henchman. Master Control Program (MCP), a Wizard of Oz-like being who has taken over the whole system, Several programs have tried to overthrow MCP, but they have all been captured and are being kept hostage.

Through some rather awkward plot manipulations, Flynn himself eventually ends up inside the system, reduced to the status of one of the many programs. From there, he and the good program, Tron, join hands in battle against the forces of MCP.

As the pair whiz around in surrealistic motor cars and light beams, the storyline and even the character distinctions blur. What emerges are two not-so-subtle themes. First, the computer system is an allegory for repressive government. MCP is the dictator: Hitler, Franco, Amin, Big Brother all rolled into one. Flynn and Tron are the daring young revolutionaries who give their dejected compatriots hope. They fight not, as we were originally led to belive, so that Flynn can make big bucks, but "to make this system free again." Political moderates will be relieved to observe that Flynn does not succeed until he learns to work within the system.

The film also raises the prospect of computers overstepping their bounds, becoming the man-made monsters who eventually turn on their creators. Inside the system, the captured programs are told to free themselves from the shackles of their users, to abandon their "superstitious" belief that they exist only for humans. Dellinger, who designed MCP, eventually becomes its slave as the wayward program blackmails its master into helping take over the Kremlin and the Pentagon, no less.

Tron ironically makes this latter point more effectively than its producers hoped. By releasing this abysmal movie. Disney serves as a prime example of man destroyed by technological obsession. As proof of the failure. Disney stock dropped $2.50 a share after a special pre-screening and some preliminary pans.

ANOTHER DISTURBING ASPECT of the film merits mention. Though there is no foul language, no real violence, and no physical interaction beyond a kiss, Tron is rated PG--parental guidance suggested. That the movie rating system is a farce has been known for several years. Production companies typically pander to an audience's base instincts, holding out the titillating possibility that somewhere in the film is something that only adults should see.

But until its last film, Black Hole, Disney resisted this temptation. To bell with declining morals, here was a family company that would produce stuff for general admission. The thrill came from good old fashioned fun.

Fortunately, Disney will have an opportunity to set this flop aside; Tron is destined to obscurity. Those not afflicted with video disease should have no interest in going. And for those who are wrapped up in the craze, there are much better things to do with four dollars--that's 16 quarters--and an hour and a half.