Apr 10th
War Games**
US 1983. MGM-UA/Sherwood. 113m.

A teenager hacks his way into a computer which controls the US defence system and threatens itself to ignite World War III.
Exciting, ultimately lightweight thriller quite successfully capturing teenage mores and the computer software of the time with an alarmingly plausible first half, although the second half slips into the realm of cliche and becomes increasingly unlikely but enjoyable hokum.

Written by: Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes.
Producers: Leonard Goldberg, Harold Schneider.
Director: John Badham.
Starring: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Barry Corbin, Juanin Clay, Kent Williams, William Bogert, Susan Davis, James Tolkan, Michael Madsen.
Photography: William A. Fraker.
Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein.
Production Design: Angelo P. Graham.


Preceded by:
Boy and Bicycle**
(GB 1965. BFI Experimental Film Fund. 27m. bw; A boy escapes from his parents and school and roams around Hartlepool on his bicycle.; w,d: Ridley Scott; s: Tony Scott; m: John Barry, John Baker.)

BOY AND BICYCLE. Ridley Scott's first - and perhaps most personal - film, with his brother Tony cast as a slightly overage schoolboy playing truant, cycling past, amongst others, the old West Hartlepool Empire Theatre.