HACKERS
A film review by Paul Presley
Copyright 1996 Paul Presley
Starring: Fisher Stevens, Jonny Lee Miller Director: Iain Softley
Having recently applauded the merits of the venerable Sneakers, I may be in danger of sounding like a complete technophreak when I mention that Hackers is also a very enjoyable film. As with Sneakers it manages to present an atmosphere that is very unique and one that continues to grow on you long after the film is over.
What a lot of people may be thinking is that seeing as it is set in the world of the computer hacker it's either going to be so choc-full of technical mumbo-jumbo and computerese that they won't understand it, or that it'll simply be another in the long line of action movies that treat computers in totally unrealistic ways (presenting them either as tiny boxes that can control the world or by showing a black and white version of Pac-Man and calling it state of the art).
What Hackers actually is, in my eyes at any rate, is a film with plenty of humour combined with a fairly accurate look at the lives of typical computer phreakers (as I believe the term has it). Okay, the running plot of a criminal terrorist plot seemed to be a little tagged on, but the film is saved from being dragged into the realms of ludicrosity by the aforementioned atmosphere that it creates. Everyone gives a very energetic performance, no one really jumping too much into the fore and allowing for people to play off each other with both style and wit.
The one area that people are going to argue over, quite naturally, is the look of some of the computer graphics. For example, when trying to hack into the computer of a large corporation we see stunning three-dimensional cyberspace vistas and all sorts of stunning imagery (when most of us know full well that all we'd really see is little more than page after page of scrolling text), but you have to understand that beneath the fake graphics, all the events and actions that take place is entirely truthful. Since scrolling text wouldn't make for entertaining viewing however, I'm perfectly willing to accept the visual representations shown. Plus, it all adds to the uniqueness of the atmosphere (sorry to be so repetitive).
Hackers is very much a 'youth' film, a piece that's very obviously pitched at the cyber-generation (as is evident by the very cool soundtrack), but it has a lot to recommend it to a more mainstream audience - not least of which being a script containing some of the funniest and most natural dialogue I've heard for a long time. Nothing is forced, terminology is just accepted and not attempted to explain to a typical 'stooge' character. It may paint a slightly more rosy picture of computer hackers than some may like, but for entertainment value I can't knock it. Sneakers still reigns supreme, but Hackers comes very close.
Paul Presley - prezzer@cix.compulink.co.uk (Review originally written on the CIX conferencing system - 7th November 1995)
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