Directed by:
George LucasComposer:
Lalo SchifrinCast:
Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley, Maggie McOmie, Ian Wolfe, Marshall Efron, Sid Haig, Mello Alexandria, Terence McGovern, David Ogden Stiers (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) and his mate LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie) are factory workers, building the robotic police that keep order in their stark world. The soundtrack to their lives is a news service that continually lists information about factory accidents, as well as sex and drug crimes. There are electronic confessionals where workers admit to mistakes they've made, outlets THX uses to express his unhappiness with his life. When LUH decides she and THX should stop taking their medication, their sense of humanity--and their desire and love for each other as a couple--is unleashed. It's not long, however, before they are imprisoned for this crime, and LUH learns that she is pregnant. Separated from LUH, THX embarks on a journey to find her, with the help of rebel SEN (Donald Pleasence) and hologram SRT (Don Pedro Colley), eventually attempting escape to the outside world. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (4)
THX 1138 is a very distinctive and visually captivating depiction of an unhappy future in which microchips take command over human feelings, needs and desires. At first, the ubiquitous beeping, robotic voices and displays might get on your nerves, but once you get in tune with the story, a thrilling experience with a powerful conclusion awaits you, though it’s perhaps not as shocking today as it was at the time of its release.
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Dystopian science fiction according to young George Lucas. To tell the truth, I didn’t like it, I’d rather watch Star Wars for an entire week than THX 1138 again.
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Fans of George Lucas are fundamentally divided into two groups: a minority that shrugs at how the director managed to film the provocative and visionary art-house sci-fi THX 1138 and then could slip into producing pop-cultural crap like Star Wars, and the majority who admire the amazing, entertaining, colorful, and playful Star Wars, only to later discover that Lucas had previously made some strange pseudo-sci-fi without rhyme or reason, with heroes using a peculiar vocabulary, in stark settings, which bears no resemblance to his later great blockbusters. I myself belong to the first group. THX 1138 captivated me with its atmosphere of a dehumanized, robotized world, afraid of emotions and feelings, where the individual is reduced to a sum of money. It's a creative work that precisely reflected the contemporary anxieties among the American intellectual elite at universities. Overall impression: 90%.
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I don't think it's a bad film in terms of ideas. There is a message in it. I also don't think the setting is poorly executed; the effects are really good. But the overall presentation, the way it's shot, just didn't click with me at all. It's almost as if Lucas didn't want anyone to see it. Coming from the person who directed Star Wars, it's just unexpected for me.
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