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THX-1138 Finally Coming to DVD
OMM0000 writes "George Lucas' first film, THX 1138 is finally coming to DVD. They've also launched a new site, as USA Today reports. As webmaster of a certain THX-1138 fan site (which will remain nameless to avoid slashdotting), this is excellent news. For all of you lamenting the Star Wars prequels, be sure to see where Lucas' roots in filmmaking are."
I hope this has Lucas' student short of THX (which was then remade into a feature length). I really preferred it honestly, and I haven't been able to find it in any consumer-oriented format previously.
Considering how much dead space the feature length had, 15 minutes was a nice compression that still managed to capture the atmosphere of a dystopian future.
It's one of those 70s dytopian scifi films with that really weird clinical view of the terrible future. However, I have a little story about actually watching it. I admit it. I'm one of those people that likes long and slow movies that require lots of concentration. I only know a few people like me. When I decided to rent this one, I was with my girlfriend and a couple of her friends (male and female). There were about eight of us and we popped the tape in on a Friday night at about 7:30PM. As I was watching it, I was engrossed in the film. I hadn't noticed until I heard some snoring that my girlfriend had fallen asleep! Going beyond that I looked around the room and realized I was the ONLY person awake. I have to say, that's when I realized that I have a very different perspective on moveis from most people. Since then, I'm less likely to ask people to watch something I'm interested in because it's likely going to bore them. So... it makes me feel good to know I'm not completely alone in my love for THX1138.
Un-news
So what's your favorite retro sci-fi movie? Not because it's campy, but because it's good.
What was that one with the ships orbiting Earth, with all the plants, animals, etc., and those cute robots? (Not that it was good.)
Actually, I did manage to locate a copy at an excellent video rental place near Copley Square in Boston.
... Jar-Jar...
I watched it and felt a bit flat. So the guy escapes to the surface... And then what?
If it were an extended edition where Lucas adds, say a few more minutes to it to give it a bit more sense in the end, I think he would do us a favour.
But within reason. We all know what happens when you get carried away...
Did you see the trailer?
There's a TON of new CG.
I'm hoping he'll redeem himself by releasing the original student film with the Duval one.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
When you talk about George Lucas, don't forget "American Graffiti." Not only does it document his roots as a filmmaker, it documents his personal roots, as it is semi auto-biographical.
Sure THX1138 is good, but don't forget the Lucas masterpiece: AMERICAN GRAFFITI.
So it's a bad film how?
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
Frankly, I thought the pacing was fine. I like films that are not typical slapdash hollywood speed flicks. I prefer films that are slower and more elegant. I am convinced that THX1138 is one of Lucas's best films.
People who whinge about the pacing are just typical speed junkies - everything has to match their hamster sized attention spans and monkey brained prurience - very similar to the sadistic crap THX watches on TV in the movie.
I see THX1138 as prophetic: a puritanical (NO SEX!!!) consumerist capitalist totalitarian technological nightmare - all the tendencies we see about us today, only amplified in the worst possible way. And the surface of the earth? A beautiful wasteland.
THX1138 is magnificent. My only complaint is the audio is kind of noisy, and the voices weren't mixed well, and it all sounds kind of "canned". Murch is normally a genius, but this was not his best effort. My guess is the budget didn't permit anything better.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
In my opinion this is the best film Lucas ever made. A classic. About time.
I hope he hasn't done a StarWars on this one, there do seem to be some new scenes in the trailer.
And don't forget that George Lucas was one of the people behind the THX series of sound and video specifications. I'm not sure what THX is supposed to stand for in this context, but I'm pretty sure that THX 1138 was the origin of the acronym.
That last one is true. You can also catch it as the safe combination, punched in by Matt Damon, in Oceans 11 (the new one).It pops up in movies almost as much as the Wilhelm scream.
I saw the original student version. Not bad,
really - natch, it's a little rough due to being a student production, and it's only a few minutes long, but still quite good.
Pretty dark, Orwellian film. Its VERY different from the SW films. You can see Lucas a young serious film maker with a dire outlook of the future in this film. The reviews of this movie are all over the place; some see it as an undestated masterpiece, others view it as boring pretentious crap. IMO, it was ok, but not great. Here the reviews listed on the IMDB.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
what I thought from viewing the THX trilogy was that Lucas' sound design skill is extraordinary, and that he did actually created futuristic atmosphere successfully without relying heavily on visual/special effects. when there is no money, people find creative ways to achieve goals, and Lucas did so very well.
quite a few film schoolers/professionals I know refer to THX as Lucas' best film. IMO it is not an overstatement.
It introduced the concept of modern phone tech support. Whenever someone has a problem, they open their medicine cabinet and look into a lens, and a concerned voice says "what's wrong?". Later, you see the call center, where someone listens to the complaints and pushes a button to send out the appropriate canned response.
The chase scene's ending (this is a spoiler) is unique. The chase ends because the people chasing the escaped guy have reached their budget limit and chasing him is no longer cost-effective. So they let him go.
Lucas went on to do some more commercially successful work later, but THX-1138 represents his most original thinking.
It's worth seeing if for no other reason than to point out the dramatic difference between Lucas then and Lucas now. THX 1138 is a very minimalist movie. Little use of color, very simple sets, and a depressing but interesting premise. Compare this to say, Episode 1, where it's so overdone with special effects and it's all candy coated.
The other thing to note is the depth of the characters in THX 1138 versus the newest SW movies. Everybody in SW is so seemingly detached, from everything, so little emotion. In THX 1138, it's all about letting the emotion come out of that cold rigorously controlled world.
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You must be one of those folks that that said at the end of "Titanic", "TOLD YOU IT WOULD SINK! What a waste of time."
Granted, Titanic could be considered a waste of time (I kind of lean towards that end at least), but not for that reason. Congratulations, you're the reason why most movies these days are boring, mindless, dis-engaging trash. Extending your brain power is just a little *too* taxing, and so Hollywood seeks your $$ by pumping out wonderful movies such as "Baby Geniuses"
I watched this not to long ago and I can only say that it is a work of great vision. The parallels to todays world are striking, we can see many aspects of the society portrayed in the film in our own. For example, the channel that shows a cop beating someone over and over again is a lot like the show COPS. Many people and children take drugs like prozac, xanax, and ritalin in order to cope with society, which was required in the world of THX-1138. Today, people are designated by social security numbers, and forced to wear ID badges at work. The confession booths with the pre-recorded soothing phrases and phony religion shows the ultimate emptiness of the society. Today, pre-recorded self -help tapes are hawked relentlessly by charlatans on TV. In short, so many elements of THX-1138 are relflected in our own society that it almost seems like its just a matter of time before we reach the extreme limit portrayed.
# The extras used in the film came from a drug rehabilitation center called Delancey Street Foundation. The only way to enter Delancey Street was to have your head shaved. (Thanks to donasso@pacbell.net)
False fact. They were from Synanon, which later got itself in trouble for its wacky cult activities. And they shaved *all* the hair off their bodies.