Somehow I missed this movie when it came out, and didn't see it until about twelve years later. I bought it based on the cover copy, which seemed to indicate a fun fantasy movie: D&D player ends up in a fantasy world. It never occurred to me that they meant "fantasy" literally.
HOWEVER, a lot of people have been unfairly attacking this movie for years, claiming that it espouses the "dangers" of role-playing.
FACT: Tom Hanks' character is established to have psychological problems from the beginning of the movie, including an inability to separate fantasy and reality.
FACT: This psychologically unstable character is the only one to have this problem.
FACT: The rest of the players use problem-solving skills they developed from role-playing to save his life.
Far from showing the dangers of role-playing, I thought this movie did a good job of showing the kind of deductive and inductive reasoning that can be developed by using your imagination.
I think it did at least as good a job of defending role-playing as it did attacking it.
HOWEVER, a lot of people have been unfairly attacking this movie for years, claiming that it espouses the "dangers" of role-playing.
FACT: Tom Hanks' character is established to have psychological problems from the beginning of the movie, including an inability to separate fantasy and reality.
FACT: This psychologically unstable character is the only one to have this problem.
FACT: The rest of the players use problem-solving skills they developed from role-playing to save his life.
Far from showing the dangers of role-playing, I thought this movie did a good job of showing the kind of deductive and inductive reasoning that can be developed by using your imagination.
I think it did at least as good a job of defending role-playing as it did attacking it.