Is THX-1138 worth my time?

So, is it?

 

It's kind of a tough question to answer.
The film is not entertaining in a conventional sense. But it is interesting to watch if you're patient with it. It has some traditional sci-fi concepts mixed in with a curious viewpoint in an environment with which we, the viewers, are not familiar. Sound familiar? That's right, one of the aspects of THX that it shares with Star Wars is that it invites us to visit a place and time that is quite foreign to us.

You will see and hear glimpses of what is to come in Lucas's features of the future...
very fast vehicles with cool sound effects, short hooded creatures (shell-dwellers) that resemble Jawas, holograms. And superb photography and graphic/editing skills.

Oh, and a majestic sunrise/sunset as a solitary figure contemplates his future at the end of THX 1138 which reminds me of Luke on Tatooine.

You will have to be very patient to watch this film. If you were raised on MTV like me, you may become bored. But I think it's worth a one-time viewing to see what TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD George Lucas had going on in his head at the time. There's even a nod to the old-time space serials at the beginning of the film, an acknowledgement of FLASH GORDON, which portends the future, in which Lucas will try to emulate Flash Gordon with his own space serial, STAR WARS itself.

 

Not particularly.

It's great to look for similarities to SW, the concept is cool, and so is the visual presentation. It gets quite boring at times, though, and is very slow.

 

I thought it was pretty good.

 

Where can I find a copy of THX-1138 to buy or rent? I've looked around but I haven't been able to find it.

I really want to watch it!

 

THX 1138 is worth your time only if you've got a lot of it or you're just such a big Lucas fan that you want to say you saw it. I didn't find it very entertaining, but I'm proud to say I've seen it.




Rick McCallum loves you!

 

I have a copy of it on Laser Disc. It's basically an art film. And it's an intellectual piece, whereas something like SW is a fantasy piece. It can get intellectual, but we know SW moves pretty fast for a movie. THX1138 moves very slow.

 

Yes. It IS sort of an art-film though and is a BIG departure for you if all you know Lucas from is SW and Indy. I think it is STILL thought provoking and well made and holds up very well. I love the sound montages and there are some beautifully disturbing images in the film.

"Are you now...or have you ever been?"

Good experimental thoughful film, IMO.

 

I love THX-1138! True, it's slow, and it's not as emotionally engaging as the Star Wars movies, but I still love it. It's very weird, and has a great "feel" to it. Like Star Wars, this is a whole new world that Lucas is exploring, and it's amazing to see.

There are a lot of bizarre, creative ideas(like that asian hologram guy that everyone prays to) in the movie. I love the atmosphere. This movie really gets me excited about what projects Lucas will take on after he's done with Star Wars.

 

I finally saw THX-1138 last night, after not being bothered enought to buy it and repeatedly missing it on tv, and was very impressed.
It was incredably well edited, and exuded a great atmosphere - eerie, claustrophobic, agraphobic (both at the same time), totally alien, grim, bleak, but ultimately rewarding. A sort of visual representation of what, say, PK Dick writes (especially with the drug control), or Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska lp (albeit a a futuristic sci-fi one).
Robert Duvall is excellent, the supporting cast are great, there are some great precursors to SW (the way some scenes are shot, the attention to detail of technology - especially the controls and lights, the backgroud audio announcements, the sound of the android oficers' stun-truncheons, the car chase, etc). It's a film I'm definitely going to enjoy rewatching (if only to get my head around the plot) and everyone (especially SW/Lucas fans) should watch at least once.

 

I finally saw it this summer. If you're going to see it, make sure none of your invading family is around and take the phone off the hook. I hate it when people never get the hint that watching films is a serious endeavor. Now that I'm done with my little rant, I did enjoy the film. There's one particular little thing I'd love to mention. When THX is escaping in the tunnel, some radio jargon heard in the control room is overheard. It's funny. Somebody says, "I think I ran over a wookie." It's also important to mention that without this film or American Graffiti, Star Wars would never be. It was originally a student film. Lucas originally wanted to be an auto racer, but a terrible accident put him into traction. The scene with THX being messed up nonchalantly in solitary by med technicians is what Lucas felt like while in the hospital. It was in the hospital that he conceived the idea of the Force. (I can imagine anyone wanting to put a Force choke hold on an annoying nurse.)

I recommend it for the sake of seeing it. It's not a favorite, but I still enjoy the essense of it.

 

I only saw once this movie and totally loved it!!!

You know another funny fact from that movie besides the "I just run over a wookie" quote, well is for music fans only, the thing is when THX is looking at a holographic TV near the begining there is someone beating somebody (nice entratainment for the future!!!) and that audio of the beating is featured at the begining of the album "Downward Spiral" of Nine Inch Nails, great album if you like "strong" music, and the thing is I loved to find out where that audio came from and what does it meant.

 

THX-1138 is REAL???!!! I thought they were kidding! (Referring to George Lucus in Love)

 

Yes it's real, there were actually 2, the first was the student film he made at USC for graduation. Later on with help from Coppola he picked up the idea and remade it as a theatrical film.

Personally I love the move. Would I recomend it? Well I must say it's not for everyone. If all you love is the usual action and fluff and popcorn movies, you'll probably find it boring. It's more of a drama and thinking man's movie, a bit surrealistic. It's certainly not your typical movie by todays Hollywood standards, but it's very daring. Probably the best way to describe it (and it's a really awkward and bad comparison) it would be like 2001, in that it's sci fi with interesting concepts but not much "action" going on.

 

I'd be interested in seeing George's college version.

 

I've been serching all over the net to find THX-1138 pic rrrrrrrrrrrr help help help...

 

When I saw it on TV in 1982 I didn't know it was Lucas's "baby"...it was just another sci-fi movie they showed in the mid-afternoon(normally all Godzilla and Gamera movies) and the week before I remember seeing all the commercials for it and thought the "Robocops" and car chases looked very cool.
I was a big Six Million Dollar Man freak and so I felt at home with the cool look of the movie. Storywise, I was about 10 so it seemd very depressing to me but thought it would lighten up at the end...boy did it light up!!
Then I saw the end credits and saw George Lucas' name...is this the Star Wars dude? It was the top subject in school the next day!

 

2001...I fell asleep throughout most of that (yawn) movie. The SFX were spectacular but not enough to keep me interested in the film overall...strange movie. I did enjoy 2010...not much different but more enjoyable. I thought about reading the sequel sometime...

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" I admit I fell asleep in the theater when it came out(still reeling from the Star Wars experinece obviously) but when it came to HBO I couldnt get enough of it!

 

It is not an easy film to watch, you have to devote your whole time to watching it.
It is a visionary masterpeice but nothing like Star Wars, it does move at a slow pace, but that is what the plot is all about.
I think everybody should try to watch it, but if your mind starts to wander, then turn it off and go do something else.
I havent watched it in a while but it is worth it.

 

I think at some Web site with an obvious address (like thx1138.com or something) you can download bits and pieces of the college version.




Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Up to stop autolocker kicking back in.

 

For me, it's a terrific little film that shows us what Lucas and his creativity were like in 1970 when it was shot. It came out in theatres on March 11, 1971, so today is it's anniversary. It's interesting, and bizarre, but as everyone else said it aint a popcorn film.

 

I have it on video.. I like it, but its not a movie I regularly watch. It is slow and boring in some spots. I think I even fell asleep once! But its worth seeing.. I like the way it was shot and the effects, I dont see why Lucas feels the need to change everything. Its fine the way it is.

 

I'd be interested in seeing George's college version.

They showed it on sci-fi channel YEARS ago.. I have it on tape somewhere. It was good.

 

Here's what the reviewer for TIME magazine said about it when it was released in March 1971.



REVIEW BY STEFAN KANFER

THX 1138 begins with a clip from the 1939 serial Buck Rogers, showing Buster Crabbe happily engaged in space exploration in the 25th century. But the real 25th century, says THX 1138 director George Lucas, is a denatured anthill where populations lead lives of quiet respiration. Every bodily function is mechanically analyzed; sexual relations are forbidden; food consists of ampuls and dehydrated protein bars.

The government---a wretched wedding of Mao Tse-tung and the Internal Revenue Service---treats each person as a consumer-producer who lives to enhance the glorious state. In a world of progressive monotony, Lucas flashes some bright signs of humor: when THX (Robert Duvall) watches television, he turns to a channel where a beating proceeds incessantly---the violence and sadism of today's viewing, minus the annoyances of plot. When THX is tried for the forbidden act of lovemaking, his judge is a computer. The police of the 25th century are chrome-plated automatons, one of whom is played by Johnny Weissmuller Jr. If Lucas creates an eerie universe, he also implies a rather damning thought: Haven't we been here before? Indeed we have, in the constructions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, who used their views of the future to warn the present. Despite his scenes of bland horror, Lucas offers the 25th century as a rather arch, campy place, a conception not satiric enough to be accepted as comedy and not quite insightful enough to be taken seriously.