DVD THX 1138 (The George Lucas Director's Cut)
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Review(s): DVD THX 1138 (The George Lucas Director's Cut) | |
| Stunning science fiction |  |
Human individual THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) comes to self-realization and attempts to escape from a post-apocalyptic underground world. Clever and visionary, George Lucas made "THX1138" on an austere budget and produced a science fiction movie that remains almost timeless. The enclosed and automated environment, with robotic police force and lifeless people make an unusual atmosphere. Lucas thrusts you into the setting with no obligatory dialog and you are left to your senses in piecing together what you see. Eventually the story reveals that humans are workers and the population is devoid of emotion, controlled by an unknown regime concealed by machines and computers. The lack of explanation is probably what makes this feature a unique experience. This is not an action piece like "Star Wars," but there is some excitement when THX 1138 decides to escape by stealing a hi-tech auto with robot police on motorcycles in hot pursuit. A fascinating rumor is that Lucas's original cut was almost three hours long, but after the producers were blown away, he was leveraged to reduce the movie to the 90-minute version seen in theaters and on TV, as well as the current VHS edition. The "Directors Cut" hopefully provides the long version that was never shown.
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| THX-1138 looks for meaning in a future of crushing anonymity | |
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.
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| Has eveybody been fooled? |
In my entire life I have never met anyone who liked this movie. And by like I mean, "I sat down to watch THX1138 last night and Lord that's a good movie! I never get tired of looking at that one!"
I made a similar comment this week in front of a group of people and someone came to it's defense with a rousing, "It wasn't THAT bad!"
It wasn't THAT bad is the kind of comment we all make when we come to the defense of filmmakers whom we like but movies which we don't particularly care for!
This whole, "It was ahead of it's time," and "It's a Forgotten Gem," is just ludicrous.
Lucas put a bald man in a white room, filtered in weird sounds, suggested torture, mental as well as physical, and suddenly everybody started to say "Well it's art, and if you don't like it it's only because you don't understand it!"
I understand this movie just fine.
The big white room isn't visionary, it was just a way for Lucas to deal with the very low budget he had to work with. In poor man's theater people sit on chairs that don't match, pretend there's a table between them, pretend there's a bottle of wine, glasses to pour the wine in, wine to taste... People watching this kind of theater don't go around saying "it's brilliant, by not having real wine they're making a comment about reality!"
No, they're making a comment about how we need to support amateur theater more!
If you look at the new Star Wars films you know that the last thing Lucas wants is empty space. Every corner of the screen if filled with buzzing ships, screaming aliens, shooting stars. This is not a man who took a minimalist approach because he was trying to make a statement. This is a man who took a minimalist approach because he was nobody at the time, no one would give him any significant amount of money to make his film, so he made due with what he had. Nothing. By filming in an empty white space, he was able to put all his money into that short car chase at the end of the film instead.
Can anyone honestly explain to me what a car chase is doing in a film like this anyway? I can, it's Lucas' fascination with speed, as evidence in things like the trench scene in Star Wars, the speeder-bike scene in Jedi, and over and over again. Lucas loves speed, and if he'd had any kind of budget for THX138, believe me it wouldn't have been just one race car peeling away at incredible speed, the film would have been wall to wall cars.
No walls, no decor, no nothing. I can almost hear the students saying, "Oh God, look how sterile and colorless the future is. These people have lost their very souls!" And Lucas, laughing to himself in a corner and coming back with, "Yeah, that's it! That's what it means! I meant to do that!"
Lucas was a young man when he made this. Originally a student film, it is the boring and pompous kind of crap that only a student would have the balls to make and only other film students would waste their breath defending.It was later expanded into this feature length film, with the help of Francis Ford Copolla (who obviously fell for the bald man in a barren world trick like everyone else), a name which of course leads everyone to think that it must have some merit.
When I first saw THX I was all excited because, still being a young man and an avid Star Wars fan, I was expecting a "lost gem." Instead I got this long, muddled, incomprehensible cautionary tale (I think calling this low budget bore-fest a cautionary anything is elevating it to a status it does not deserve).
When I saw it later as an adult I thought I might have a different opinion of it since I had changed my mind about so many other movies I had seen when I was young. But nope, it's still boring.
This story is okay to watch once. I can imagine it was much better as a student film since it was shorter, and there really isn't enough material here for a feature, which is why it breaks down so badly.
The value of a DVD after all is in how many times you're going to watch it, and THX1138 is simply not the kind of movie I can imagine anyone saying they've seen 42 times.
The bonus' will be interesting, though Lucas has become so full of himself over the past few years that he's become insufferable to listen to.
the other day, someone asked me what was wrong with Lucas. Why is he changing the Star Wars films. Doesn't he know what they mean to the fans.
I mentioned he was so secluded on Skywalker Ranch, surrounded by people who practically worship him and think he's a genius, that he'd lost touch with reality and he has no idea how the fans really feel.
The person laughed, and wanted to know what Lucas did on Skywalker ranch anyway.
I said he probably walks around looking at all the knick-knacks he's collected over the years and says things like, "Oh my, I am a creative guy, aren't I?"
Love of Star Wards doesn't men you have to praise everything Lucas has done. THX1138 is not his best work, is not visionary, and is not even particularly interesting.
If you've never seen it borrow it from a friend before you waste money on it. If you're interested in the bonus features, which I admit I am, rent it and watch them. This is simply not a film worth owning, watching more than once, or discussing in any conversation involving serious, important works of cinema.
And, what's even more disturbing, people are saying that Lucas has added CGI to this film as well, just like he has in Star Wars. Perhaps when we get back to that white room it won't be so white anymore!
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