THX 1138
Tags: avant garde, suspenseful, murder, neo noir, psychological, cult, psychedelic, romantic, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
In the 25th century, sexual intercourse and reproduction are prohibited, whereas use of mind-altering drugs is mandatory to enforce compliance among the citizens and to ensure their ability to conduct dangerous and demanding tasks. Emotions, coitus, and the concept of family are a taboo. Everyone is clad in identical uniforms and has shaven heads to emphasize equality, except the police androids (who wear black) and robed monks. Instead of names, people have designations – reminiscent of licence plates – with three arbitrary letters (referred to as the "prefix") and four digits; shown on an identity badge worn at all times.
At their jobs in central video CCTV control centers, SEN 5241 and LUH 3417 keep surveillance on the city. LUH has a male roommate, THX 1138, who works in a factory producing android police officers. At the beginning of the story, THX leaves the job while the loudspeakers urge the workers to "increase safety", and congratulate them for only losing 195 workers in the last period, to the competing factory's 242. On the way home, he stops at a confession booth in a row of many, and mumbles prayers about "party" and "masses", under the portrait of "OMM 0910". A soothing voice greets THX, and OMM ends every confession with a parting salutation: "You are a true believer, blessings of the State, blessings of the masses. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents and be happy".
At home, THX takes his drugs, and watches holo-broadcasts while engaging with a masturbatory device. LUH secretly substitutes pills in her possession for THX's medications; whereupon THX eventually suffers physical discomfort (vomiting) along with mental/emotional changes (confusion). The drug substitution also leads to LUH and THX becoming involved romantically, resulting in the two engaging in intercourse. THX later is confronted by SEN, who arranges THX as his new roommate, but THX files a complaint against SEN for the illegal housing mate change. Without drugs in his system, THX falters during a critical and hazardous phase of his job, and a control center engages a "mind lock" on THX which raises the level of danger. After the release of the mind lock, THX makes the necessary correction to that work phase. THX and LUH are arrested. THX enjoys a brief reunion with LUH, disrupted shortly after she reveals her pregnancy.
At THX's trial, THX is sentenced to prison, alongside SEN. Most of the prisoners seem uninterested in escape, but eventually THX and SEN find an exit; they are later joined by hologram SRT 5752, who starred in the holo-broadcasts. During the escape, THX and SRT are separated from SEN. Chased by the police robots, THX and SRT are trapped in a Control Center, from which THX learns that LUH has been "consumed", possibly for organ reclamation, and her name has been reassigned to fetus 66691 in a growth chamber. SEN eventually escapes to an area reserved for the monks of OMM, where a lone monk notices that SEN has no identification badge. SEN attacks him and later wanders into a child-rearing area, strikes up a conversation with children, and sits aimlessly until police androids apprehend him. THX and SRT steal two cars, but SRT crashes his into a concrete pillar.
Pursued by two police androids on motorcycles, THX flees to the limits of the city and escapes into a ventilation shaft. The police androids pursue him on motorcycles along the ventilation shaft to an escape ladder but are ordered by Central Command to cease pursuit, on grounds that the expense of his capture exceeds their budget by 6%. It is then revealed that the city is entirely underground, and that THX has escaped onto the surface; he then witnesses the Sun setting as the end titles roll. The music played at this point is from the St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach.

Review: Duvall gives a good performance (his breakthrough role in "The Godfather" would come next year) but the real surprise here is Lucas, who goes for a Kubrick-like edge to his film that really separates it from his later work.
You won't believe this is from the guy who created Jar-Jar Binks.If anyone accuses George Lucas of being the schmaltzy sell-out he has now become, direct them to this film in order to prove that, at one point in his life, he really did have a bleak outlook on life and the future, and it didn't start with the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."..
If you remembered it at all, it was for the use of white space and the long periods during which almost nothing discernible happens.Well, it is almost 35 years later (35 YEARS!) and for reasons best known to film and DVD marketers, George Lucas has pulled it out of the vaults.
It actually looks like this is the only film she did, according to IMDb.The extra features on the DVD are interesting and bring a lot of new information for fans of science fiction, of the 70s films and of Lucas.
The special effects in this movie were also surprising good especially when considering that this movie was made in 1971.The movie also knows to be tense at the right times and the end chase is pretty spectacular and nicely done.I for one truly love this perfect piece of visual art.
With the exception of those cheezy action scenes (which I'm sure Lucas added ex post facto, like he did with Star Wars + CGI) it is reminiscent of the old Michael Crichton films (Andromeda Strain, Westworld) with maybe a dash of Rollerball.The early 70s was a wonderful time for scifi, because all the directors were scrambling to emulate Kubrick's masterpiece.
This movie, like Lucas, like the failed nebula, is the big one that got away.P.S. George, if you're listening, please stop adding "new" special effects to the old films!
The motion picture was well produced by Francis Ford Coppola , his first film for American Zoetrope , and compellingly directed by George Lucas , pre-Star Wars , and he considers to be one of the greatest achievements of his career .
This is a superior science-fiction movie that will appeal to cinema buffs and interested in to watch an example of the kind of work filmmaker Lucas was doing at the beginning ..
Personally, I think that George Lucas should've went into this direction instead of the direction he chose with his "Star Wars" films, which, many (legions of geeks) would argue, is his best work.
George Lucas made a thoughtful, intelligent movie called THX 1138.Those who prefer space opera to genuine science fiction will be disappointed.
"Why WASN'T he on drugs?" others will protest.The future dystopia is a staple of the science fiction genre, including such greats as Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," Truffaut's adaptation of Bradbury's "Farenheit 451," and Jean Luc Godard's "Alphaville." THX 1138 belongs in this group of classics.If you are enough of an immature male to truly enjoy Lucas's interminable "Star Wars" series, you probably will be bored to death with THX 1138.
It's obvious that Lucas wanted to throw in as much Sci-Fi as possible into the film, and this has resulted in the movie resembling a mish-mash of science fiction orientated sequences, which comes very much at the expense of the story.
The people in the film all sport white uniforms and shaved heads and while this enables Lucas to present a regimented vision of the future that compliments the plot and style of the movie, it also means that none of the actors stand out, and since all of them, even the great Robert Duvall and the normally solid Donald Pleasance, find themselves with not a lot to do; it can't be said that this is an actor's movie.
George Lucas made his feature film directorial debut with this dystopian sci-fi movie about a depressing conformist future where people are bald and not allowed to have sex.
This movie is probably the best movie George Lucas has done, not saying that Star Wars wasn't a masterpiece and even though both movies are science fiction they are are way too different and that might be the reason this movie is (i believe) underrated and has such a low rating in IMDb.What i can conclude from what i've heard, read and seen is that people often see this movie waiting to see something similar to Star Wars.
Those are aspects that George Lucas shows in a lot of his movies but in a soft and shaded way.In conclusion: This is not a commercial movie for "Comercial" people.PS: I'm a big fan of all Star Wars movies..
Lucas manages to bring his concept to life, even if it's not exactly as thrilling or interesting as what the Star Wars saga would be.THX 1139 (Robert Duvall) is an ideal member of this "utopian" community where religion means stay calm and do as you're told.
The film therefore drags at points not necessarily because what's going on isn't interesting, but the viewer is missing contextual help to illuminate the action on screen.Fans of the genre will appreciate Lucas' contribution and his imagination, but probably not love it.
THX 1138 (1971) ** (out of 4)Set in the future, George Lucas' feature-length debut as director tells the story of a man (RObert Duvall) and woman (Maggie McOmie) who decide to rebel against the rules of not experiencing love/sex.
With that said, as much as I enjoyed certain aspects of this film, at the same time I'm not going to lie because it bored me pretty bad.On a visual level THX 1138 is quite amazing because you really do get the feeling that you're viewing something set in the future.
All Lucas' efforts to create a mythology gave way to childish stories with monotonous, extravagant actions sequences.Most of "Star Wars" lovers forgot that prior to this cultural phenomenon and even before he embarked on a fruitful career as a producer, George Lucas had signed a personal, pessimistic science-fiction work that showed a more adult direction from him: "THX 1138" (1971).
The great irony is that Lucas has just signed a deal to build a new studio in the one government in the world which most resembles that of the culturally manipulated monolithic oligarchic tyranny of THX 1138- Singapore!P.S. At the beginning of the Directors Cut version, there is a montage of scenes from the real Buck Rogers serial but the soundtrack has been modified so that every time the voice over is supposed to say 'twenty fourth century' it actually says 'twentieth century' as if to emphasize that THX 1138 truly is another view of the future that exists well in the past..
The greatest problem was the lack of dramatic value underscored by low contrast in all the visual elements.THX attempted to reveal a clean and cool futuristic hell dominated by big-brotherism, the extinction of personality values, and minimal sensory experience with humans being robot-like and robots being people like, creating an oppressive sense of sterility.Unfortunately the film itself became what it was about: control, sterility, lack of personality.
While the film is not without humor, it seems to truly think that it's presenting a grim look at a terrifying future society, when in fact its visual devices and clumsy ideas are just funny in their transparency.Watch "A Boy and His Dog" for a funny, entertaining '70s post-apocalyptic movie.
Originally released in 1971, this particular version of THX-1138 was George Lucas's "Director's Cut" which, in 2004, was given something of a face-lift where new CGI footage was added to its storyline to give its claustrophobic settings and bleak backgrounds more pizazz.Unfortunately THX-1138's story was such an awful bore from start to finish that any visual improvements only proved to me what a hopeless dud this futuristic tale actually was without these modernizations.To me, THX-1138 was one of those super slow-paced movies whose story was so utterly absurd (and the dialogue so demented) that I swear they were actually making this idiotic nonsense up as they went along.
Yes. It was really that bad.I certainly wish that I wasn't speaking so negatively about this picture (which I think had a lot of potential), but I'm certainly not going to tell you a pack of glowing lies about a movie that I thought was just a huge heap of pure Sci-Fi excrement.If nothing else - THX-1138 certainly proved to be an excellent sleeping pill for this disappointed viewer..
Society BAD!); others are challenged (Drugs BAD?), all with a faithful Orwellian dystopian cast.There's something disturbingly Orwellian about "THX 1138," alright, namely the pathetic history-bending way director George Lucas has visually tampered with the legacy of his landmark first film.
Inserting odd creatures and more impressive special effects here, like an assembly line blowing up, feels like Lucas is expecting viewers to think he really did all that back in 1971 with his under-million budget.Very avant-garde, both for its time and today, "THX 1138" tells a simple story of head-shaven humans living in an oppressively conformist society, seeking escape.
It's interesting to note the importance of sound in Lucas's body of work, not just the obvious clever exotica employed in the "Star Wars" series but the radio bursts in "American Graffiti."But getting into "THX 1138" is hard to do.
"THX 1138" is fascinating more for showing the reason why such change was for the better, and revealing Lucas's vision in a more starkly experimental, low-budget mode.If you like the movie, do get the DVD, which has a wonderful documentary on the early history of American Zoetrope, for which "THX 1138" was the first and nearly only product, and a more engaging commentary from Lucas than he offered for any of the "Star Wars" films.
When you are about to watch a movie, and you know what a lot of things are gonna be like (not story-wise), you can't enjoy it in the same way.
For some reason, it caught my attention, so I rented it.I'm not a fan of Indiana Jones or Star Wars at all, but I guess Lucas' name might have played a bit, so did the date of the original version (I thought it would be interesting to see Lucas' early work).So the movie takes place in this undated, unsettled underground (literaly) society.
It's like he forgot the viewers have their own imagination after making a few good movies.The whole bleakness of the film is surprising for Lucas.
If you are an original Star Wars fan (IV, V, VI) you can appreciate where George Lucas came from , but there are painful reminders of Lucas' idea of making old films better by adding in unnecessary CGI that parallel painful memories of integrating Jabba the Hutt into A New Hope and altering "Han shot first" Overall this movie is not terrible, if you enjoyed the books 1984, Brave New World, or more recent film 'The Island' you will enjoy this as much as I did.
The titular THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) strongly functions within the society, until his partner LUH (Maggie McOmie) takes him off his pills, so that she would no longer be lonely...As is easily noticed a lot of the story seems to have borrowed strongly from the classic novel "A Brave New World", but although the basic ideas are similar, the movie situates itself as a different story within the same universe.
Once THX 1138 drops out of the system and meets other 'rebels' contacts between people remain undeveloped - best captured in a group scene, where several such people sit around each other, but each seems to talk to himself, making the sequence bring to mind a lunatic asylum, underlining their social ineptness.Dominated by the white (all surroundings, background, clothes and so on are in that colour) Lucas manages to immerse us into this weird and whacked out world, but unlike his future blockbusters he refrains from offering fairy tales, instead sticking with a bleak outlook of humanity with a strong art-house feel to the story.
Many people forget that George Lucas, years before he became the "Blockbuster dude" with his "fantasy stories", he considered himself an abstract filmmaker, more interested in visuals and concepts, rather than storytelling (which is why he has manifested so low levels of that in the Star Wars Prequels).
Another good sci-fi from that time period, with brilliant effects and a very white overlay throughout the film, the story was just missing a bit for me and needed a bit more persuasion but over the whole, good acting by the three of them and a good early work of George Lucas.I find this a much better film than the Star Wars trilogy, the only reason I chose to see another Lucas film was because it was recommended when I saw Blade Runner, Brazil, Logans Run etc.
(It's a much funnier film than even its admirers acknowledge -- its chase finale is called off by government functionaries due to budget overruns and the protagonist is tormented by off-screen torturers who are having a hard time figuring out their new electronics.) As George Lucas' first feature, it marks not only a remarkable debut that experiments with both the graphic possibilities of cinema but explores a soundscape (designed with Walter Murch) that fully immerses the viewer in an environment as nightmarish as it is officiously bland and white-limboed.
Nowadays, it's hard to believe that a George Lucas movie would have been a "small" flick seen by only a few people, but that's the case with "THX 1138".
Whether you liked it or hated it you will probably remember this movie.Thx is filmed to resemble a candid documentary of a future human society (or a society in a galaxy far, far away.) It's interesting to note how bleak Thx-1138 is compared to Lucas's more colorful films such as American Graffiti, Star Wars etc.
Getting top actors like Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence also helps a great deal.As a futuristic film, Orwellian in its presentation, Lucas tries to show what might be one day so we can strive to avoid it.
The motion, cutting, and timing of the film feel something like Musique Concrete- a collage of image and sound, while throughout a very simple, understandable story is told.But something very intriguing has happened: Lucas has boldly re-released a film that he had previously buried with the failure of American Zeotrope, and more, has given it some new attentions in an incredibly intelligent production slight of hand.
Set in the 25th century, the story centers around a man and a woman who rebel against their rigidly controlled society.George Lucas is, of course, best known for "Star Wars", and some also know him as the man behind "American Graffiti".
But every director has to start somewhere, and George Lucas' feature debut is a dyspotic sci-fi film based on of his student films.In the future mankind is living in an underground city, where they are constantly watched by a Big Brother like system and people take drugs to suppress emotions: already there are ideas taken from 1984 and A Brave New World.
Lucas is a film making genius - he needs to end Star Wars and try something new.
Then they start to feel, to want, to think...The first film written and directed by George Lucas - of the "Star Wars" saga - tells the history of a society ruled by a rigid machine totalitarianism.
Robert Duvall was the star in these film [the THX 1138 of the heading ] and for the release in DVD the movie was digitally restored.
As he made with the original trilogy of "Star Wars", Lucas brought up to date the film with modern visual effects and new scenes.
Recently my dad told me about a film called "THX 1138." Maybe you haven't heard of this film, but it was one of George Lucas's first films made in 1971 based on a short film he made in college.Set in the future, the world has turned into a surreal underground city where its citizens are drugged with mind controlling pills and are under constant surveillance.
I have never been a huge fan of George Lucas (over-produced) productions, but seeing this gave me pause to re-think the special-effects guru as an artistic FILM-maker.THX 1138 is sublime in its simplicity and delivers the viewer images that come back to haunt your subconscious later.
A film that was an experiment in mise-en-scene is given a budget and increased to a full-length feature, and as a result we have this little gem, THX 1138, wherein an Orwellian-like dystopia is the white-washed emotionless setting that our hero, THX, tries to escape.The imagery is more powerful than it seems it would be with such minimalism, and forgive my comparisons, but just compare a frame of this movie to a frame of anything from the Star Wars prequels, and you see exactly where Lucas lost his touch.
I did like how the sound effects and music played a pivotal role in the film.George Lucas film is about a man who is named THX-1138.
A story of a couple's bittersweet romance but is caught up in a highly controlled society.Do not expect this George Lucas film to be anything like his famous "Star Wars" saga - because it is not!
You will forget all about "Star Wars" while watching the movie THX 1138 (1971) and may find yourself debating which is Lucas' better sci-fi film.The movie THX 1138 (1971), in a way, puts me in mind of "1984" so if you liked one of the two films or stories then you might like the other.
This film is an original work directed by George Lucas (you know, the guy who created Star Wars).
In a way, in the context of the story, LUH is the most important character and McOmie deserves praise for her performance.THX 1138 is a unique film exhibiting George Lucas' philosophical ideas and opinions.