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THX-1138: The (Digitally Enhanced) Director's Cut
StefanJ writes "This is either a marvelous Photoshop hoax or something really . . . cool? Sacreligious? Unnecessary? Reportedly, George Lucas has given his first commercially released movie, THX1138, a digital workover, enhancing backgrounds and altering scenes for more eye-appeal. Here are some comparisons of original and altered scenes. For those who haven't seen the film: Without giving too much away, it's about a working stiff living in a repressive underground bomb-shelter society. Emotion-suppressing drugs are mandatory; people shuffle from work to home, pausing to buy consumer goods along the way. (The goods aren't used for anything; you just feed them into a disposal unit after you get home. Making them keeps people busy . . .) If the drugs don't work, you can vent your spleen in a confession booth manned by a really bad A.I. It's really bleak, and sometimes ugly, but worth seeing. I hope the enhancements don't add too much color: The drab, sterile, white-on-white environment of the underground city is an important mood-setter. Consume more; be happy!"
As far as first films by future 'masters' is concerned. I'd rather wait for the digitally enhanced version of John Carpenter's Dark Star to be made and released. The existing DVD already has a Director's cut included (this might be the un-enhanced student version though, I've only seen the movie on cable).
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I saw the enhanced trailer for it not to long ago.
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
Get back to working on Star Wars, you lazy bum. And do it right this time!
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
This reminds me very strong of an episode from South Park: Free Hat...
My photo's.
Anybody mirror this before it died?
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
" I must have the latest PowerBook"...
There's a second comparison page here
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
From what I understand, THX is decent at best. It's only gained esteem due to his other titles out there.
"Here's a spoiler: You're will die alone."-Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
...with the white-on-white borderless rooms. All the actors seem to be removed in this version. And I don't think I remember the "website cannot be found" message in the original.
Them:"Lucas is updating X movie to show his true vision which couldn't be expressed at the time due to technical limitations." Us: "Please God no."
12:50 - press return.
I saw this first on Fark quite some time ago. They even had a photoshop contest for it. After a little research, this is no hoax at all. I can't wait to see what Lucas does with this film, a film that lead to so many others like it, yet none were quite as good. Can't wait to see the final results!
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Hasn't Mr. "Lets do another trivially improved release of my movie so people cough up another $20 for it" kind of lost his right to make a movie criticizing consumerism?
Or perhaps he's already taking those drugs, which explains his directing on Episode II.
THX 1138
...they include the original version and include scene markers. I'm a real stickler for the originals. I love the latest Alien release. It includes the original theatrical release and then a director's cut where I can activate text scene markers and know exactly what was changed. You can choose what versions you like best and actually learn something about how the editing process can change your perception of a film.
The story line seems like a ripoff from Aldous Huxley's book Brave New World. Which happens to be a great book if you've never read it.
... if that's your best, your best won't do... - Twisted Sister
This is yet more proof that George has lost his touch as a director. The man seems completely reliant upon special effects to sell movies now. The back-end motivation seems to be: Who cares if it sucks, the special effects will make up for that.
The LoTR movies prove that special effects and good directing can coexist in a movie. The Star Wars prequals prove that you can sell movies and merchandise on special effects alone... I guess this is historical fact to game players; look at how many games sold well on eye candy alone.
Have you seen the South Park episode about Spielberg and Lucas 'improving' their films? It's excellent, recommended.
Big deal. THX has to be the most boring Sci-Fi movie ever made. Its even more boring than watching a guy race robots on an empty ship in "Silent Running." Don't see THX expecting the pacing and excitement of the first Star Wars. Its just people shuffling around in bad clothes and having pointless conversations. If I want to see that I can go to the mall on weekdays and watch old people.
All replies will be of the following:
(a) FP!
(b) GNAA
(c) How dare he change the film.
(d) How dare the DVD not have both version.
(e) Star Wars sucks now, you bastard.
(f) Proffit!
Follow the imdb link in the story : it's a movie Lucas made in 1971 which is about an over-protective future society. ;)
now, thx1138 himself is the hero of this story, now, "be happy"
Trolling using another account since 2005.
This would make Lucas the Puff Daddy of Movies. Taking existing good movies and "remixing" them to put out something not near as good as the origional.
Evolution or ID?
When does it all end? I mean are we going to digitally enhance everything to death? While we're at it why not go back and redo every movie ever made. It seems like with DVDs these days you can go back and stick 5 hours of extras and 50 extra discs and call it a collectors edition and everyone scrambles to get it. I personally agree with the South Park creators on this one. Remastering is an exercise in futility. As Kyle said, "When an artist creates, whatever they create belongs to society". Thats my philosophy.
(g) I'll summarize all the posts: ...
The DVD is being released on Sept. 14 of this year. Here's the cover art.
It has it's own homepage
Direct link to the trailer (quicktime).
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
A hilarious sidekick for THX called JRJRBNKS who adds humor to the movie with his zany hijinks!
...was when those 2 guys were talking and Robert Duvall was convulsing on the floor. Just loved the technical conversation as he was suffering.
In Soviet Russia, THX-1138 changes George Lucas!
If he's busy working on THX, then that means people are thinking independently on what to do on Episode 3.
Everytime george wasn't in command, we got decent films.
And we'd all rather him be busy on a less liked film (sorry THX fans...) or "More American Graffiti" (Sorry, you one MAG fan...)
Why does he waste his time doing this? Especially with movies that weren't particularly good the first time around anyway.
Lucas movies don't suffer from lack of visual appeal. They suffer from poor direction (with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, American Graffiti is the only one that comes to mind). The best Lucas films are the ones where he doesn't direct. He should really stay out of the director's chair and stick with writing and maybe producing.
He deserved the Slashdotting for disabling right click.
Let it burn!
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
Did you notice that RotJ was being made right at the same time Lucas and his soon-to-run-of-with-another-man wife adopted a kid? I don't think an explanation of the replacement of Wookies with Ewoks needs to go much farther than that.
/.ers as a whole dislike current copyright laws?)
Having kids changes your perspective something massive, I suspect. Did you notice how Greedo's blasting was taken out of the original SW in the remakes? How stormtroopers (real people in suits) were replaced with morally easier to kill robots in the new stories? He's gone soft, and the turning point seems to be the time of his first child and divorce. Coincidence? Perhaps -- I don't know the man. But it seems unlikely.
Hopefully with the remake of this apparently fairly hard-core movie, he'll regain his edge, and maybe remake these last three, well, first three, well, most recently released Star Wars movies.
(And hey, don't slam a guy for copying. Every great author's done it as certainly as every one of my apps has a copy of paste of Hello, World in it to thank somewhere. Isn't that part of the reason
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
Ironic that George Lucas would make a movie where consumerism is a sickness in society. This coming from the guy who is an uber IP controls advocate, and an uber market-the-garbage-to-death-and-they-will-buy guy.
2) One of the most annoying things to me about the "enhanced" special editions was the music. In some spots, where he extended scenes, he just replayed the last few moments of music in the original scene, so it sounds like a CD skip. What an idiot.
I might go back and watch it (it's been awhile) but if I recall my laserdisc version was pretty nice as it was. I mean really, is it worth it? I think a lot of this buggered-up re-release stuff is just a thin reason to get people to buy again on another type of media. Like what the heck, this is in the bank, let's diddle a few scenes and get the true believers to pop another $20.
Same for Dark Star mentioned in the first post.
Of course if anybody can get Gilligan's Island re-mastered with a nude Mary Ann, well I might re-consider.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
Does anyone else think this movie sounds like a ripoff of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" ?
It was also Luke's ID as a stormtrooper when in disguise in star wars... Han's was TK421, not that I remember...
I would say it sounds more like a satire on capitalism..
"Emotion-suppressing drugs are mandatory; people shuffle from work to home, pausing to buy consumer goods along the way. "
Anti-depressants, wage-slavery, and hyped 'must have' consumer goods that are actually useless. Ring any bells?
According to internet legend, THX-1138 was Lucas's phone number when he was in college.
References Here and
here
I don't know if it's true or not, but it's at least plausible... if you want to try to track it down some more, just Google for "thx-1138 phone number".
It shows up in a few other places, such as American Graffiti (the car driven by Harrison Ford has the plate number THX 138), and the film "Dark Star" by John Carpenter (one of Lucas's classmates), one of the toilet tanks is labeled "THX 1138" (make what you will of that - Carpenter ain't talking.)
Rumor has it that it shows up (in one form or another) in every movie that Lucas has directed.
Given that Lucas's THX-1138 was an obvious and pivotal influence on the paper roleplaying game PARANOIA, it is perhaps on-topic to mention that the game of a darkly humorous future is returning to print this August in a new edition from Mongoose Publishing, as previously covered on Slashdot.
The new PARANOIA XP edition emphasizes the Alpha Complex sort-of economy and a new consumerism very much in tune with THX-1138. You can follow the development of the game on the PARANOIA development blog.
I hope they don't reduce the impact. I was blown away by THX1138 when it came out. Saw it on the tube recently and figured that the ONLY thing that needed to be done was to replace the shots of tractor-feed pages with video displays. That does need to be done. Everything else is fine. A brilliant work.
Astro
That's an awesome idea! Actually, I wouldn't mind a whole page of Spielberg characters with walkie-talkies (the beach landing from Saving Private Ryan?). Unfortunately my photoshop skills suck.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
No, but it does have something to do with Princess Leia's cell number and the license plate in American Graffitti
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
You do realize I said the "American Liberal" version of Goebbels. In other words, I was not implying anything other than his propoganda techniques, which are deceptive at best and often outright lies. Moore is a hateful elitest that loathes this country, it's way of life and citizens, and no amount of him saying with puppy dog eyes that he loves America can hide the fact that he bashes this country and its citizens every chance he can get, how can you love something you constantly call "evil". People who complain about the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage (rightly so, IMO) will often gullibly swallow Moore's histrionics without question (Tom Daschle call your office). I think Limbaugh and Savage are at least more honest about who and what they are. Moore does raise some valid points, but he's too busy stroking his own ego, showing us how clever a smart-ass he thinks he is, and wallowing in liberal self-hate to have any credibility.
/., generally being naive, uninformed college-age or near-college-age people (as I once was, but at least I wasn't liberal ;-) is that they fall into that trap of hating Bush so much they will buy anything that supports their point of view. Eight years ago, we saw the same stupidity on the right concerning President Clinton, who despite being an utter sleazeball, did do a significant number of positive things for the country.
I would point you this as a brief example of how utterly deceptive Moore is.
And it's not limited proponents of opposing ideology. I would direct you liberals Christopher Hitchens, who uses the word "lies" a lot when talking about the content of Moore's movie, or Richard Cohen, who in the Washington Post started taking notes on the movie and gave up because of the sheer "stupidity" of it. His word. The problem with the folks on
In fact, Michael Moore himself clearly targets almost exclusively what Karl Marx called "useful idiots", those easily manipulated, unquestioning folks who will buy any mindless rhetoric. Smarter people who simply agree with him can take him for what he is, but that's not the point of his movie.
If I said "Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot", I would probably get a score of 5, but if I say "Michael Moore is a big, fat stupid white man." it will probably get modded a troll. If I criticize President Bush (and there are plenty of things to criticize), everyone thinks I'm smart thoughtful poster, but if I show support for him (which I do... overall I think he's a great President), I'm considered a stupid right-wing nutjob who wants to create an American Taliban.
You can't deny there's a pretty disgusting double standard around here. That's why I prefer the technical stuff. News for nerds, you know.
It's a shame that Disney released a a very positive movie about America last weekend (I can't even recall the name, which shows how much coverage it got), which from what I read, in a completely non-partisan and non-political way, shows inspirational stories that demonstrate what makes this country. It probably made about $47. People would rather watch the cynical, bitter fat guy who hates America. That's sad.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
There's been a new DVD edition of Blade Runner in the works for a while; it's a 3-disc set (!) and should have lots of extras, and is said to include at least two different cuts of the film. It's been held up for legal reasons, unfortunately, but I do know Ridley's been working on it for a while and wants to get it out, so I'm sure they'll be resolved.