I think I was 20 years old the first time I tried to watch THX 1138 (1971). It’s the feature directorial debut of George Lucas, and it’s generally considered an important science fiction film. Simply put, it’s the story of what happens when two members of a drugged-into-compliant-oblivion society decide to stop taking their prescriptions and discover their emotions.
I didn’t like it. I don’t think I even watched it all the way through. I found it erratic, confusing, and pretentious.
Worse, I had selected it as a date rental. Now I’m not saying there were no girls out there for which THX 1138 would have been a favorable prelude to a little amorousness, but this girl definitely wasn’t one of them, and that’s not the only level on which she was ill-selected.
I didn’t really get laid with any regularity until I was out of college.
In any case, a week or so ago I noticed it was coming on HDNet Movies, so I DVRed it. I remembered it yesterday afternoon, and took advantage of some unexpected house-to-myselfness to watch it.
It played much better for me this time around. It’s still not a particularly strong story—simple and rather unoriginal, actually—but my 37-year-old self is capable of much greater appreciation of films for which plot isn’t central.
The production design is generally excellent, particularly the depictions of transportation infrastructure (remember this is well before CGI). I marveled at how well Lucas had framed existing locations and made them unfamiliar and mysterious. The depictions of technology seem pretty silly today—nixies instead of LEDs, mechanical switches instead of electronic ones, and what-not—but Stanley Kubrick was the only guy who ever pulled off timeless-looking future technology to any significant degree.
Speaking of Kubrick, the first half of THX 1138 reminds me a lot of him. The themes of starkness and dehumanization are prevalent. Also, the film doesn’t hold your hand, which is part of what I resented on my earlier viewing. Kubrick was very much a “you get whatever you get” sort of fellow when it came to explaining his work, and would never dissect it for anyone (in public). I don’t find that arrogant when there is indeed something there. There was in Kubrick’s work, and I think there is here as well.
A lot of the second half stylistically foreshadows later Lucas work. The foot chases reminded me of scenes from both the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series, and the pursuit in the tunnel is eerily like the run on the Death Star’s thermal exhaust port.
I enjoyed the time spent. THX 1138 is not a bad movie on its own merits, but its real value is as a historical dipstick reading. It reveals much about the state of science fiction, as well as the early development of one of the most prominent directors in history.
I don’t feel any compulsion to own it, but I’m glad I’ve finally really seen it.
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It has been a very long time since I have seen THX 1138. It had that “experimental” feel that seemed more of the college film gimicky feel those school projects always have. They tend to have this texture that the director uses when he feels safe a film won’t be seen by a large audience. Sometimes good, sometimes just comes off as cliche.
I might sneak it into my Netflix rotation just to see it again