Customer Reviews

Thx1138 [VHS]

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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!

Much ignored by many reviewers, this film (THX 1138) has a ground breaking soundtrack. Assembled and Edited by Walter Murch (the Conversation), the constant babble of an electronic, cybernetic society, creates an audio montage that greatly enhances George Lucas' excellent first full production movie.

THX was started as a student project and subsequently turned into a full movie with the production assistance of Francis Coppola.

I originally came across this film on late night TV in 1977. Obviously, there were no videos then, but I had an audio cassette recorder connected to my tv, so for many years I had only an audio copy of the film. Clearly this has caused me to focus on the sound of the movie. If you have your tv or video connected to your HiFi (if not why not?) play the video with your HiFi on at a decent (cinema) level. You won't be disapponted by the cyberbabble - 'make the correction THX!'.

Is our society going the same way as Lucas' vision? Next time you're in a shopping mall, think of this video and 'buy more now, buy more and ...be happy'.

George Lucas' film of a stark data-based future was a very poignant commentary as well as advanced filmmaking. The issues that the film brought up are just as relevant today if not more so, and the original film was a great piece of filmmaking from both an artistic and technical perspective.
However, the injection of new CGI scenes, which do not match the original film whatsoever, destroy the integrity and potency of this once classic. Although some of it is subtle, there are a lot of obvious scenes and CGI backgrounds, editing, and even characters.
Unlike films of the same era with similar themes (such as Logan's Run) which exude 'cheesiness' and kitsch (they might be fun nonetheless), THX 1138 was one that stood up well with age due to its conservative and high quality visual design, focus on story and use of existing visual references.
However, with these new scenes, the movie does seem cheesy and less believable. The scenes do not match the movie and take away from the style. They also give it today's overly literal, overdone visual cues and take away from the strong subtle tone of the movie.
Other 'director's cuts' have editing changes, usually inserting scenes that were previously taken out. This instead is a re-done movie that has taken out a lot emotionally and put back in very little.
Perhaps the director did not recall the theme of the movie regarding a society over-reliant on computers. ;)
Having the original version available on DVD would do justice to the movie that it once was.

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.

I loved THX 1138.The sets are great,and the musical score by Lalo Schifren is very eerie.The movie makes the future look very bleak,all the people are sedated,society has moved underground, and computers run everything.There are some really cool looking robot cops,and there is an excellent chase scene through the underground tunnels.It is amazing that the film was made on such a small budget.(it's a lot more interesting film than most of today's mega budget movies!)Look for references to this movie in American Graffiti(John Milner's license plate no.THX 138)and Star Wars.(when Luke had the stormtrooper uniform on he talked about cell block 1138)Overall I'd say sci-fi fans would probably love this film,others might not.I know I loved it!

When I first saw THX 1138 back in the '70s I was spellbound. George Lucas' vision of an antiseptic consumer driven dystopia where not taking drugs was a crime really resonated with me and was original for the time. So I bought this DVD thinking that by "Director's Cut" I'd get extra scenes that were edited out of the original, WRONG! Instead George Lucas has added scenes of modern CG that are completely out of character with the original movie. The original movie was claustrophobic and paranoid. Everything occurred in white hallways or small spartan rooms, or on video monitors. The one exception being the "white out" detention center where the only color came from a few pieces of furniture and the actors faces. Now we have wide angle city shots interjected throughout that completely destroy that ominous and powerful claustrophobic mood of the original. That's not the worst of it though. There's some awful CG character animation as well. George has seen fit to replace the shell dwellers. Originally they were supposed to be humans that had mutated from prolonged exposure to industrial wastes and were played by little people with wild matted hair. And what did Lucas replace them with? CG monkeys, yes that's right, CG monkeys. Nasty ones to be sure, but fake looking, obvious bits of animation nonetheless. He also adds an equally fake looking scorpion-like animal that frightens Donald Pleasance's character SEN. Well we see a foot next to a scorpion-like animal and then Pleasance scurrying away going back to the city. And there's now a car race scene during rush hour traffic that adds nothing to the movie, looks like a video game and once again detracts from the original mood. The worst new bit though is the masturbation machine THX uses while watching holograms looking like a giant milking machine descending from the ceiling. It manages to be simultaneously vulgar, pointless and really really silly. What I find most annoying about this director's cut is that no mention was made re the new added effects. When will George Lucas realize that it's not a good idea to do change a movie simply because he can? Most likely never. Unlike modern DVD's of the '70s era Dr. Who TV show, you are not given the choice of either watching the original movie or watching scenes with newer special effects added. You get what George Lucas decides to give you and that's it. The additions to THX somehow degrade the movie and make it a less than adult film. The movie seems more childish, more fantastic and much less real. I've since sold my Director's Cut and have ordered a used VHS tape of the original movie, which is the only way I can see the splendid original since it hasn't been released on DVD. Yeah I still have a VCR, thank god.

I rented this on VHS in 1998. This being my first viewing, I thought it would be my only one. It is a slow and bleak film that relies almost exclusivly on visuals to communicate it's story to it's audience. For me, it was this aspect that kept me interested enough to keep tagging along to the end. Now for me, being a fan of lively action, adolescenct (teen) and even chick flicks. It is rather unusual for me to find something here but nonetheless, this is one a very few films that has this lasting effect on me to warrant a subsequent viewing and then a movie ticket for the director's cut.
I am drawn to this film's subliminal way of coming across. It's not an "in you face" type of film but it nonetheless communicates a bleak and dismal story that evokes emotion and desire.
As one who is sick to death of movies having love scenes, this one did not have me hitting the fast-forward button. In the story love is absent and emotion is squelched by a legally mandatory drug requirement. People are reduced to robotic beings who go to and fro without questioning why. They feel not pain, but they feel no joy, no love, nothing. So, when 1138 and his roomate; LUH begin to have feelings for each other, and commit the ultimate crime - Sex, the result of their "falling in love" it is not your ordinary love scene that seemes to be "tacked on" in so many movies that would do just fine without one. The scene is like a rose growing in a concrete jungle. It is a joyous moment and it's striking contrast against the story's cold and calculated backdrop makes it literally the most beautiful part of the movie. It really makes me think how we could ever live in a world without love. Yes there would be none of the drawbacks of having relationships, but along with their absence, there would be no life.
OK, as for the director's cut. It is essentially the same movie as the VHS. The new scenes do nothing to change the movie to make it more or less than what it is in it's original state. I have read that someone complained that the CG effects ruined the movie. I disagree. A scropion filling in for the rats in one scene; a new sequence added to the car chase scene; a maintenence worker diving away from a collapsing scaffolding instead of falling and just some extra little tidbits here and there are hardly going to break the movie....nor are they going to make it a smashing success either. Personally, it is a great movie. Hopefully, with it's re-release - this time in a world more receptive to abstract and "art" films - it will get the recognition it's creators had hoped for originally. Back when this film was released, there were no independent films back then. Hollywood was undergoing some major changes but it was still clinging to it's roots when this was made.
Another film similiar to this one is Logans Run. Where Logan who does not want to give up his life at 30 seeks to escape his underground civilization and society. A book that also has somewhat a similiar themed story is called Mockingbird by Walter Tevis.
As for the movie's R rating. The orignal version was rated PG and it has the love/sex scene in it. If that was why the movie is rated R, it is rather a moot point since the PG version can be rented by those underage and they can see the same content. As for the love/sex scene, to me it comes off more like a "humanity" scene in contrast to a world where being human is forbidden. It is like finding a water spring in the middle of a desert.

This film is ingenious! Way ahead of our time - (we still have not caught-up to it yet). This is a must-see and is quite probably one of the most underrated movies of any genre of all-time!!! But when-oh-when will we see it's release on DVD already?!?!! Please Mr. Lucas, give us a DVD with the short film "Electric Labrynth" on it as well as a commentary. PLEASE!

Many many years ago, PBS used to have a show where they highlighted the best student films. I was sitting in the family abode, late one night, no one else home, and George Lucas's student film came on. I thought at first it was a bit of an obvious rip of Zamyatin's novel, "WE," but after a few minutes, the visuals hooked me, and the dynamite editing, and I watched it enthralled. Fast forward about three years or so, and I saw a couple of reviews of a new film, "THX 1138," one of which noted that it had been based on the director's student film. I waited; and waited; but the film never showed up in my city (I learned later that Warners had pretty much dumped the film without much in the way of advertising or distribution). But it did show, in about 1973, on late night CBS, and again, I was enthralled. Later still, I managed to catch a theatrical showing at a university film club. There was some fairly obvious "cheater" footage, that is, sequences where the director had done his best in spite of a lack of money to do the shots properly, ie, the midgets, but I thought all along that it was an astounding film, a totally immersive and brilliant visualization of all the themes and images in much of the dystopian literature of the century. Lucas had caught the feel of dystopia, and projected it wonderfully. I liked also the way in which the story-telling was primarily visual, that is, it needed no exposition to make its points and make its effects.

Flash forward many many years to Lucas' re-issue of the film in his preferred, director's cut edition, with CGI tweaking, and a re-shuffling and reconsideration of some of the images. I have to say, unlike many reviewers here, I loved this version too. I don't see the film as being compromised in any way by Lucas' new edition. What he has done, rather, is go back and re-do those parts of the film that a lack of budget originally forced him to "cheat." The original version was great; but it looked constrained; and you were never able to believe that the sets and people depicted could possibly cover and entire, vast underground city/prison. Using a lot of deep focus shots is great for compressing the few extras you can afford, and making them look like a crowd, but the lack of wide shots to show the extent of the sets and the city was always a problem; CGI is used in the director's cut to give a sense of a much larger and more extensive world than was possible with the original, and this is all to the good. And in case you're thinking that the final shot of the film, the Duval character emerging from the underworld, silhouetted against the vast orange ball of the sun, is also a CGI, it isn't. This was - still is to some extent - an extremely difficult shot to achieve, and was done live, for real, by a second-unit crew which, I think, was headed by Caleb Deschanel, who has gone on to become one of the best cinematographers in the world (Black Stallion; Crusoe; The Escape Artist; Fly Away Home; The Right Stuff; The Natural; The Patriot; The Passion, etc etc) never to win an Academy Award.

So I disagree that this version is somehow inferior to Lucas' original one. The mood is pretty much the same throughout, but now the world that THX inhabits is depicted as Lucas originally wanted it depicted. In fact, comparing the three renderings of the idea, it's clear that each time Lucas approached it, he did the most he could, with the money he had, to capture a single, original vision. What's remarkable about this third, director's cut edition, is how little has been changed, and how subtle, often the changes are. Pick this one up. If you are any kind of sci-fi fan, you will not be disappointed.

George Lucas is all too often thought of simply as the man behind Star Wars. However, he directed 2 masterpieces before that film: THX-1138 and American Graffiti. THX-1138 represents a brilliant use of sound, color, and body language to tell a haunting story. This film is instantly recommended for those who love 2001 or Tarkovsky's ventures into science fiction.