Slashdot Mirror
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
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.
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.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service