Film - Mazes & Monsters
Tom Hanks' first starring film role and one of the first films to deal with the new and disturbing hobby 'role-playing' that emerged in the seventies before reaching out to widespread audiences in the eighties.
Dungeons and Dragons remains the archetypal role-playing game and D&D is shorthand for high spoddery across film, TV and popular culture. It aroused a good deal of suspicion amongst America's hysterical religious right, dealing as it did with the human imagination and a new mythology they couldn't control for their own ends. The resulting demonisation of the game (and it is important to remember that this is just a game), resulted in claims that by playing an imaginary character in a story who could cast spells, that you really were tapping into a diabolical power. This could cost you your immortal soul, and your life and the game was responsible for much Death & Deviancy. The comics strips of Jack Chick are probably the most blatant example of this and their warped views are in equal parts hilarious and a sad indictment on religious thought.
The book Mazes and Monsters was written by Rhona Jaffe in response to a widely reported, but inaccurate, account of the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III in the steam tunnels of Michigan State University. The newspapers ran fanciful stories based on private investigator William Dear's theory that the student had become lost while playing a live action version of the tapletop game. The truth was that James had serious problems with depression and hadn't been playing D&D at MSU. Though when he as finally recovered by Dear would ask that the stories stand uncorrected, which Dear complied with until James' third and successful suicide attempt. Rhona wrote the book, a fictionalised account of someone going off the rails in response to D&D, allegedly in days, worried that someone else might beat her to the story.
The film was made by CBS for television and aired in 1982. It features a young Tom Hanks as Robbie Wheeling a bright young student who has had a troubled past. When we meet him, he is trying to put both his troubles and the role-playing game Mazes and Monsters (which it is hinted, played some part), behind him. At a party hosted by 'wacky' boy genius Jay-Jay he meets Kate, who is delighted he that he too has attained the giddy heights of 'Level-9' and persuades him to join their group. They aren't fanatics she warns, they just play twice a week.
There then follows a romance between Robbie and Kate, but Jay-Jay grows frustrated with the limitations of the game and decides to create a whole new level of gaming. And so, dressed as their characters, they head into the local caverns and new adventures. The experience however is so real that it prompts a relapse for Robbie and the real and fantasy worlds begin to collide.
I first saw the movie when I was 12 or 13, shown late-ish on TV. There were a few people I knew at school who played D&D and these fantasy games, but nobody from my village did and it all seemed very mysterious. The movie itself didn't have much effect on me, I remember quite enjoying it to the dismay of my game-playing biology teacher who took a real dislike to it for its negative view of gaming.
And the film has remained to many role-players another symptom of the anti role-playing lobby, but I think it's a lot less clear cut than being merely an anti role-playing diatribe. The game is portrayed well, with a maze-like map spread across the table, a Maze Master hiding behind a cardboard screen and players using some rather neat cardboard figures which they take a lot of trouble painting. It sells the idea well that a handful of people in a moodily lit room can share a genuinely exciting adventure, using only their imaginations, some paper and dice. They also are much more involved in their characters than most people in role-playing games I have played and I approve of that.
Robbie's problems stem as much from his past as they do the game, but it is undoubtedly Mazes and Monsters which sets his latest episode off. There is very much the idea in the film that though this may be a harmless pursuit for many, a sensitive or disturbed soul could get themselves in real trouble through playing these games.
I find the movie a charming snapshot of the early eighties and early role-playing, along with Flight of Dragons (which believe me, I'm going to get around to talking about sooner or later). It is also at times exciting, moving and very funny, though all the humour isn't intentional. Such as when Daniel, the towering blonde jock, complains his reputation means he cannot have a meaningful relationship with a kind caring woman and instead must indulge in endless recreational sex. It also has a very touching end sequence, perhaps necessary for a TV movie, but it ends a very enjoyable experience. I think role-players should approach the film with an open mind, and anyone who doesn't role-play that it is just a make believe scenario.
Mazes & Monsters is available on DVD quite cheaply from the USA. It's not a great print and there are no extras, but a rare treasure all the same.
Dungeons and Dragons remains the archetypal role-playing game and D&D is shorthand for high spoddery across film, TV and popular culture. It aroused a good deal of suspicion amongst America's hysterical religious right, dealing as it did with the human imagination and a new mythology they couldn't control for their own ends. The resulting demonisation of the game (and it is important to remember that this is just a game), resulted in claims that by playing an imaginary character in a story who could cast spells, that you really were tapping into a diabolical power. This could cost you your immortal soul, and your life and the game was responsible for much Death & Deviancy. The comics strips of Jack Chick are probably the most blatant example of this and their warped views are in equal parts hilarious and a sad indictment on religious thought.
The book Mazes and Monsters was written by Rhona Jaffe in response to a widely reported, but inaccurate, account of the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III in the steam tunnels of Michigan State University. The newspapers ran fanciful stories based on private investigator William Dear's theory that the student had become lost while playing a live action version of the tapletop game. The truth was that James had serious problems with depression and hadn't been playing D&D at MSU. Though when he as finally recovered by Dear would ask that the stories stand uncorrected, which Dear complied with until James' third and successful suicide attempt. Rhona wrote the book, a fictionalised account of someone going off the rails in response to D&D, allegedly in days, worried that someone else might beat her to the story.
The film was made by CBS for television and aired in 1982. It features a young Tom Hanks as Robbie Wheeling a bright young student who has had a troubled past. When we meet him, he is trying to put both his troubles and the role-playing game Mazes and Monsters (which it is hinted, played some part), behind him. At a party hosted by 'wacky' boy genius Jay-Jay he meets Kate, who is delighted he that he too has attained the giddy heights of 'Level-9' and persuades him to join their group. They aren't fanatics she warns, they just play twice a week.
There then follows a romance between Robbie and Kate, but Jay-Jay grows frustrated with the limitations of the game and decides to create a whole new level of gaming. And so, dressed as their characters, they head into the local caverns and new adventures. The experience however is so real that it prompts a relapse for Robbie and the real and fantasy worlds begin to collide.
I first saw the movie when I was 12 or 13, shown late-ish on TV. There were a few people I knew at school who played D&D and these fantasy games, but nobody from my village did and it all seemed very mysterious. The movie itself didn't have much effect on me, I remember quite enjoying it to the dismay of my game-playing biology teacher who took a real dislike to it for its negative view of gaming.
And the film has remained to many role-players another symptom of the anti role-playing lobby, but I think it's a lot less clear cut than being merely an anti role-playing diatribe. The game is portrayed well, with a maze-like map spread across the table, a Maze Master hiding behind a cardboard screen and players using some rather neat cardboard figures which they take a lot of trouble painting. It sells the idea well that a handful of people in a moodily lit room can share a genuinely exciting adventure, using only their imaginations, some paper and dice. They also are much more involved in their characters than most people in role-playing games I have played and I approve of that.
Robbie's problems stem as much from his past as they do the game, but it is undoubtedly Mazes and Monsters which sets his latest episode off. There is very much the idea in the film that though this may be a harmless pursuit for many, a sensitive or disturbed soul could get themselves in real trouble through playing these games.
I find the movie a charming snapshot of the early eighties and early role-playing, along with Flight of Dragons (which believe me, I'm going to get around to talking about sooner or later). It is also at times exciting, moving and very funny, though all the humour isn't intentional. Such as when Daniel, the towering blonde jock, complains his reputation means he cannot have a meaningful relationship with a kind caring woman and instead must indulge in endless recreational sex. It also has a very touching end sequence, perhaps necessary for a TV movie, but it ends a very enjoyable experience. I think role-players should approach the film with an open mind, and anyone who doesn't role-play that it is just a make believe scenario.
Mazes & Monsters is available on DVD quite cheaply from the USA. It's not a great print and there are no extras, but a rare treasure all the same.
posted by paulvonscott at 11:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home