Hackers

Iain Softley, USA 1995, 105 minutes

Okay yes, admittedly it's a title with computer jargon in but it's a good film, honestly.

Hackers is the story of Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) a computer genius already tried and severely slapped on the wrists for hacking and subverting the computer systems of banks and governments alike. When his mother moves to New York he hooks up with a group of computer obsessives like himself and thus the problems begin. Initially the problems only consist of how to get the biggest score on Wipeout 20/20 and alter your grades, but when Dade hacks into a multinational computer network he triggers a computer timebomb virus. The police, FBI and various criminals trying to get you consists of more of a threat than a ticking off from your mother ever did.

Despite a perhaps rather cheesy plot resembling Wargames awfully closely, Hackers is in fact a joy and a pleasure to watch. Director Ian Softley (of Beatles biopic Backbeat) makes the feel of the film something akin to a live action, less violent and less explicit Manga film. The main influence of the film does indeed seem to be Japanese techno culture from the clothes to the attitudes to the alternative culture Miller etc. are proffering. This is the director's obsession, to show us an alternative. He forever seems to want to set the film elsewhere, always proposing that underneath the face of the city lies an alternative network, an alternative city, hidden tribes waiting to be found yet always evading contact.

Hackers is an absolute treat, offering as much as you are willing to accept. You can watch it for light relief from overtly polemical, intellectualised films for eggheads or you can read it as an entire diatribe on new age counterculture; the choice is yours. Either way it is an absolute joy to watch and even if you close your eyes the soundtrack is an absolute gem. Hackers, miss it and kick yourself repeatedly.

Review by Andrew Hesketh
Taken from EUFS Programme 1997-98