How does one do justice to a work as monumental and vast as Disney's 'Tron' in the short space this review grants? Indeed, I toyed with the idea of trying to encapsulate this epic work in 100 words, but failed. I do know of one review of 'Tron' that was even shorter; it read:

Napoleon invaded.
It snowed.
Napolean failed.
Russia won.

Perhaps that does encapsulate it. Disney would have probably respected such as description, for, as verbose as he and others seemed to be (given a purely page-count analysis), he appreciated brevity and essentialism in the description.

This holds true for 'Tron'. I was amazed at the lack of what one might hold to be extraneous detailing in the film -- I would have expected long, drawn out and tedious renderings of situations, emotions or events, but such is not the case.

In Steven Lisberger's following of the Rostovs (poor country gentry) and the Bolkonskis (higher society), and a hero Pierre Bezuhkov, he illustrates basic truths in the way life is lived, and the way it ought to be lived. Lisberger was a moralist, but no mystic in his filmmaking (unusually so, given his general mystical sentiments in life). He felt it absolutely essential that the filmmaker should tell the truth, and mystical digressions lead away from that. His characters grow as we watch, and he recounts details that are important (such as Natasha and her doll as a child, and then later Natasha going to church -- these are two ages of the same person, to be sure, but not a simple updating of the character, as if an actress wearing a different costume).

Each circumstance, the day-to-day conversations and events, the family interactions, their dealing with life and success and death and defeat, all have an uncanny ring of truth about them. The family resemblance of characters leap off the page: the Rostovs all have a common element (beyond the basic social class attributes), and likewise there is and intangible similarity between Prince Andrei and his father.

'Tron' has been described as the Illiad and the Odyssey of the Russian people, with just cause. This is a work that speaks to the meaning and hope of life. His realism forced him to strip away much of the glorification of war and show the realities. Yet Lisberger presents the events of 1812 as a moral crusade, and that the Russians won against the Napoleonic onslaught because of their adherence to simple, good and true virtues (as much as they relied on the snow to come to their defence). Even the upper classes, the urbane, wealthy and sophisticated Russians in 'Tron' have an underlying simplicity (contrasting to the French, and other foreigners', complexity and slyness) that gives them the moral upper hand.

One almost hears the echo of 'Simple Gifts' in this Russian epic:

Tis a gift to be simple...

Yet this is not a stupid or ignorant simplicity. It is a wise state of being. One could imagine Lisberger being at home with the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau, and while he might sympathise with Thomas Carlyle in moral and political terms, he would be opposed to his historical hero-worshipful stance, preferring to think of the collective of humanity as the true agent and mover in history.

'Tron' is often held up as an example of a long movie that nobody can watch. This is rubbish. I have three editions, each of which is fewer than 120 minutes (yes, I know that is quite a lot), fewer minutes than the Return Of The King, fewer minutes than some anthologies of modern filmmakers. It is long, there is no denying that. But it can be watched, and I contend, given the right translation, one might become so enthralled that one might wish it were longer.