THX 1138

Rating:
Summary: Old School Lucas
Review: George Lucas's debut Based on his award-winning student short, feature cerebrally celebrates the possibility for individual freedom against all odds. In a 1984-esque white-washed future underground dystopia where sexuality is banned, all humans sport shaved heads and the same shapeless outfits as they go about their work in a mandated state of sedation, listening to exhortations to "Buy and Be Happy." Black-clad robot cops chant a mantra to their victims that "everything will be all right" and automated confessional booths emit soothing therapeutic bromides. But unbeknownst to THX 1138 (Robert Duvall), his roommate LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie) has been reducing their meds, resulting in their mutual discovery of love and THX's subsequent imprisonment for drug evasion and sexual misconduct. Determined to find the pregnant LUH, THX breaks out of prison with the help of his cellmate SEN 5241 (Donald Pleasence) and an escaped TV hologram (Don Pedro Colley). With fugitive pursuits strictly budgeted, THX only has to evade the robocops until the funds run out, but surveillance is omnipresent and THX's vehicle keeps overheating. Making the only film produced through the first incarnation of Francis Ford Coppola's independent studio American Zoetrope, Lucas and his small crew, including co-writer and sound editor Walter Murch, shot THX 1138 in northern California with no interference from distributor Warner Bros. When Warners saw the austere result, however, they recut the film before its release. Neither the studio's nor Lucas's cut was a popular success, but THX 1138's coolly minimalist style and story-telling gained fans on the college screening circuit, just as Stanley Kubrick's poetic 2001: A Space Odyssey had attracted a large youth audience in 1968. When Lucas returned to sci-fi after American Graffiti, he traded restraint for nostalgic fun in the film that guaranteed his creative freedom!

Rating:
Summary: Stunning science fiction
Review: Human individual THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) comes to self-realization and attempts to escape from a post-apocalyptic underground world. Clever and visionary, George Lucas made "THX1138" on an austere budget and produced a science fiction movie that remains almost timeless. The enclosed and automated environment, with robotic police force and lifeless people make an unusual atmosphere. Lucas thrusts you into the setting with no obligatory dialog and you are left to your senses in piecing together what you see. Eventually the story reveals that humans are workers and the population is devoid of emotion, controlled by an unknown regime concealed by machines and computers. The lack of explanation is probably what makes this feature a unique experience. This is not an action piece like "Star Wars," but there is some excitement when THX 1138 decides to escape by stealing a hi-tech auto with robot police on motorcycles in hot pursuit.

A fascinating rumor is that Lucas's original cut was almost three hours long, but after the producers were blown away, he was leveraged to reduce the movie to the 90-minute version seen in theaters and on TV, as well as the current VHS edition. The "Directors Cut" hopefully provides the long version that was never shown.

Rating:
Summary: A Minimalist Epic
Review: I first saw this incredible film in a local theater in Long Beach, California in 1971, while still in the U.S. Air Force. I was expecting a "shoot-em-up" science fiction diversion... but was I ever amazed. Just three years before I saw Kubrick's masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey" and thought no other film could touch my soul like that movie could. I think this film hit those same visceral roots within. Like "2001" there is little dialog, and much of the verbage in this film is heard through computer, robot or intercom noise that "first viewers" might dismiss... however, every word in this film is vital in telling the story of THX and LUH.

Robert Duvall is superb in the title role, as is Donald Pleasance and character actor Don Pedro Colley.... but the real surprise is Maggie McOmie in her only movie role. She is totally convincing as the strangely beautiful LUH, THX's love interest. Every frame of this film is a work of art... each one is like modern art... visceral, haunting, unforgettable and brilliant.

This is a film to be experienced.... and with repeated viewings, new clues open up, and you begin to wonder where these people come from, and where they are headed.

This is not a film for those with limited attention spans... it is not about "quick cuts" and simple solutions. And this film was not made in 2004, but in 1971, keep that in mind when you realize this film shows technologies we take for granted today long before they were a reality.

The sets for this film were largely REAL locations in San Francisco and Oakland, by the way. The escalators in the school for boys is actually still in Golden Gateway Center near the Embarcadero. The still-under-construction 16th Street BART station is the realm of shell dwellers. The shopping center is the San Raphael Civic Center Building by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is amazing to visit most of the same locations today since they remain looking relatively the same. To me, the use of these actual and unaltered locations point out that this film is not about a future society at all, but was rather a metaphor for the state of our society in 1971. Viewed from that point of reference, the film's panorama is truly on-target in more ways than one.

I understand the "Directors Cut" will restore the film considerably. This will be thrilling, since I have always felt the film should "move slowly" as one chrome robot says in the film and allow the viewer more access to this frightening but fascinating world. I look forward to this new DVD release!

Rating:
Summary: Still Haunted
Review: I stumbled onto this movie on encore. Seeing Robert Duvall made me curious enough to watch for a little longer. An hour later, I was haunted, facinated, and anxious to find out what I had just seen. This movie comes from a time in which the art of film technique was truly an practiced, rather than commercial undertaking. It was also in a time before John Williams, when science fiction looked to the disturbing and complex genre of 20th century art music, rather than the recycled and sentimental music of our time. When I found out that it was a George Lucas film, I at the same time was able to see the consistencies with episode 4, and I saw just how far Lucas has gone from his early, true style to the commercialized version we see today in episode 1. If only his latest movie could have had the same haunting qualities as THX 1138.

Rating:
Summary: THX-1138 looks for meaning in a future of crushing anonymity
Review: Ignore any comparisons of THX-1138 to any other films. It is stylistically and thematically superior to most other Science Fiction released at the time (except perhaps 2001:A Space Odyssey). Fresh out of film school with little experience, George Lucas crafts a sensual masterpiece set in the sterile, homogenized world of a possible future.

Unlike Orwell's "1984," this is an anti-utopia we have brought on ourselves. Our quest for self-perfection has become our undoing. THX-1138 (Robert Duvall) finds himself haunted and confused by emotions and urges with which he cannot cope. Through his struggle to understand his own nature, we explore the nature of our humanity. We join him on his quest to free himself from the oppressive weight of enforced mediocrity.

Lucas' vision is stunning, with the human element pitted against chrome-faced robotic police in stark black and white settings. The early work of sound design demi-god Ben Burtt plays a vital role in the creation of the technologically suffocating environment.

Leonard Maltin's criticism of the "dull script" is understandable if he did not appreciate its subtlety, or the importance of the "nonsense dialog" between characters and in the ambient sound.

p.s. Be listening for the voice talents of one David Ogden STEERS (as spelled in the credits), 6 years before his first credited on-screen appearance.

Rating:
Summary: Has eveybody been fooled?
Review: In my entire life I have never met anyone who liked this movie. And by like I mean, "I sat down to watch THX1138 last night and Lord that's a good movie! I never get tired of looking at that one!"
I made a similar comment this week in front of a group of people and someone came to it's defense with a rousing, "It wasn't THAT bad!"
It wasn't THAT bad is the kind of comment we all make when we come to the defense of filmmakers whom we like but movies which we don't particularly care for!
This whole, "It was ahead of it's time," and "It's a Forgotten Gem," is just ludicrous.
Lucas put a bald man in a white room, filtered in weird sounds, suggested torture, mental as well as physical, and suddenly everybody started to say "Well it's art, and if you don't like it it's only because you don't understand it!"
I understand this movie just fine.
The big white room isn't visionary, it was just a way for Lucas to deal with the very low budget he had to work with. In poor man's theater people sit on chairs that don't match, pretend there's a table between them, pretend there's a bottle of wine, glasses to pour the wine in, wine to taste... People watching this kind of theater don't go around saying "it's brilliant, by not having real wine they're making a comment about reality!"
No, they're making a comment about how we need to support amateur theater more!
If you look at the new Star Wars films you know that the last thing Lucas wants is empty space. Every corner of the screen if filled with buzzing ships, screaming aliens, shooting stars. This is not a man who took a minimalist approach because he was trying to make a statement. This is a man who took a minimalist approach because he was nobody at the time, no one would give him any significant amount of money to make his film, so he made due with what he had. Nothing. By filming in an empty white space, he was able to put all his money into that short car chase at the end of the film instead.
Can anyone honestly explain to me what a car chase is doing in a film like this anyway? I can, it's Lucas' fascination with speed, as evidence in things like the trench scene in Star Wars, the speeder-bike scene in Jedi, and over and over again. Lucas loves speed, and if he'd had any kind of budget for THX138, believe me it wouldn't have been just one race car peeling away at incredible speed, the film would have been wall to wall cars.
No walls, no decor, no nothing. I can almost hear the students saying, "Oh God, look how sterile and colorless the future is. These people have lost their very souls!" And Lucas, laughing to himself in a corner and coming back with, "Yeah, that's it! That's what it means! I meant to do that!"
Lucas was a young man when he made this. Originally a student film, it is the boring and pompous kind of crap that only a student would have the balls to make and only other film students would waste their breath defending.

It was later expanded into this feature length film, with the help of Francis Ford Copolla (who obviously fell for the bald man in a barren world trick like everyone else), a name which of course leads everyone to think that it must have some merit.
When I first saw THX I was all excited because, still being a young man and an avid Star Wars fan, I was expecting a "lost gem." Instead I got this long, muddled, incomprehensible cautionary tale (I think calling this low budget bore-fest a cautionary anything is elevating it to a status it does not deserve).
When I saw it later as an adult I thought I might have a different opinion of it since I had changed my mind about so many other movies I had seen when I was young. But nope, it's still boring.
This story is okay to watch once. I can imagine it was much better as a student film since it was shorter, and there really isn't enough material here for a feature, which is why it breaks down so badly.
The value of a DVD after all is in how many times you're going to watch it, and THX1138 is simply not the kind of movie I can imagine anyone saying they've seen 42 times.
The bonus' will be interesting, though Lucas has become so full of himself over the past few years that he's become insufferable to listen to.
the other day, someone asked me what was wrong with Lucas. Why is he changing the Star Wars films. Doesn't he know what they mean to the fans.
I mentioned he was so secluded on Skywalker Ranch, surrounded by people who practically worship him and think he's a genius, that he'd lost touch with reality and he has no idea how the fans really feel.
The person laughed, and wanted to know what Lucas did on Skywalker ranch anyway.
I said he probably walks around looking at all the knick-knacks he's collected over the years and says things like, "Oh my, I am a creative guy, aren't I?"
Love of Star Wards doesn't men you have to praise everything Lucas has done. THX1138 is not his best work, is not visionary, and is not even particularly interesting.
If you've never seen it borrow it from a friend before you waste money on it. If you're interested in the bonus features, which I admit I am, rent it and watch them. This is simply not a film worth owning, watching more than once, or discussing in any conversation involving serious, important works of cinema.
And, what's even more disturbing, people are saying that Lucas has added CGI to this film as well, just like he has in Star Wars. Perhaps when we get back to that white room it won't be so white anymore!

Rating:
Summary: A little known fact...
Review: Remember the scenes of the robotic-like cop beating the human? Well, those sounds are used to start off the first track of the Nine Inch Nails album "Downward Spiral." Pretty cool, huh?

Rating:
Summary: At last coming to DVD....
Review: The recent news that THX is finally coming to DVD must mean that Lucasfilm and Warner Brothers have at last buried the hachet when it comes to this movie and the mis-treatment it got from Warners when released in 1971. The story is part of public record, Warners saw the director's cut of this movie, did not like it, and cut about nine minutes of footage for the theater release. George Lucas was furious with this decision and avoided Warners business wise for many years. Lucasfilm and ILM would do many successful movie productions at other studios, but very little at Warners. Some years ago, George did regain the original film prints of THX from Warner Brothers, thanks in large part to his friend Francis Ford Coppola, who argued that the movie was really under the legel copy rights to Coppola's own production company. When he got the film back, he gave them to George who then put the nine minutes of footage back in, and this is what we will see when the Director's cut of this movie comes to DVD later this year.

Rating:
Summary: ahead of it's time...
Review: This movie is very unique in all of it's ways, especially for being from 30 years ago, and that's why it's one of my favorites. There are some early elements pointing to later characters in Mr. Lucas' following films, namely Star Wars. For example, the scene where Robert Duvall's title character is being beaten with batons by police-like drones has some of the same sound effects as the light-saber duel between Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader. And more apparently present, is the scene where THX escapes the city shell, and is accosted by a group of dwarf-like people called "shelldwellers". Possibly George's embryonic characterization of the Ewoks or the Jawa???

I highly admire the aesthetics of the film, the sterile, cold, minimalist environment set by the uniformity of the people and settings, and the noisy, single-sideband-shortwave-radio-sounding chatter going on, and the distorted survelliance-style video views of the workers and citizens, just like--you guessed it--big brother.

I am just waiting to see this film re-released and remastered on DVD, in it's full Techniscope wide-screen glory (the now unfortunately out-of-print american & japanese laserdisc releases were in widescreen), due to the VHS release (at least the Warner Bros. VHS release I have) being in pan & scan. :(

If it were released on DVD, it would definitely have to have as bonus material, the original 1967 USC student film version that was the prototype for this film, and possibly (if it does still exist) the full 2 hr. 45 min. cut of the film, as was mentioned by a reviewer here previously. This film deserves this extra treatment, especially considering it was George Lucas' first theatrical release, and the overall uniqueness of the film...

Rating:
Summary: Pre-STAR WARS.
Review: THX-1138 was George Lucas' first major motion picture. It is an extended version of one of his student films at USC. The movie is set in the future where people are objects controlled by machines and medicines, unable to think for themselves. People have no names, only numbers. However, THX-1138's mate has other plans and starts reducing the medications she and THX (Tex) take. This leads to an awakening within THX for which he is imprisoned and escapes.

THX-1138 is a film more about the cinema of light and sound telling a story than action and dialogue; though the last fifteen minutes of the film really speed up. The movie seems like a cross between 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, LOGAN'S RUN, and STAR WARS. Watching carefully, one can pick up on things that Lucas would later use and expand upon in STAR WARS.

As a movie, THX-1138 is rather boring. As a piece of cinema, it's worth watching because it was George Lucas first film and clearly had an influence upon how he made STAR WARS. Also, if you're a 2001 fan, you'll probably enjoy this movie. However, definitely not for everyone.