THX 1138 : Director's Cut (1971//2004)

Today I watched a movie I had been wanting to see for a long time: THX 1138. This is George Lucas' first movie, and so I was confident it would be a good sci-fi romp since it was made well before he lost his touch at directing. I was also really curious to find out what "THX 1138" meant. I knew it was set in a dystopian society, so I expected something along the lines of Logan's Run. You'll find my thoughts after the jump, and see if this movie is anything like I thought it would be.


So it turns out that THX 1138 is the name of the main character! All the people in this future world have prefix letters and a number as a name, we're already off to a good start. Well, as far as a good dystopian society goes. THX notices that his mate, LUH, is acting oddly. He's also been having troubles sleeping and concentrating at work. It turns out LUH has gone off her prescribed sedatives and has been switching out THX's pills as well to wake him up. This is of course forbidden and against the law and they soon have to go on the run and try to escape.

I have to admit, that while I'm usually really good with complex movies, for whatever reason I found most of what was happening in the film just going right over my head. It didn't help that for the most part what was going on also wasn't very entertaining and I had a hard time keeping my attention focused on the film. The characters in the film also don't talk very much, and I found it hard to gauge how they were feeling or what they were thinking, especially since it was clear that no one thought in a normal way due to the totally alien futuristic society they lived in.

One thing I liked were the chrome robot cops

There was one scene in particular that lost me completely. THX is put in detention for his crimes of going off his meds and for having sex with his mate in the privacy of their own home. During this detention scene he's left in a huge white room, tortured a bit, then put in a room with a bunch of other people. I assume they're all criminals for some reason or another, but I really have no idea why they were put together. A bunch of them ramble on about what they should do, or their opinions of the society, but most of them talk over one another and it's hard to hear what they're saying. Also, usually while they're talking, the camera is focusing on something else entirely. I found my focus being split between what I was seeing and what I was hearing, and in the end having no idea what I was supposed to get out of this.

I should also note that I saw the 2004 Director's Cut of the original 1971 film. This meant that quite a number of modern CG touches were added into the film, just like how George Lucas altered and re-released the Star Wars films with CG monsters and ships added in. This worked some of the time, but caused discrepancies at other times, like what the "shell creatures" were. Sometimes they were just dwarfs made to look a little more hairy, other times they were full on CG alien creatures that looked like demonic monkeys. At least they didn't alter the look of the Chrome Cops. I quite liked how they constantly said they just "want to help you", and then shock you with pain sticks. At least they were super polite about it!

Sweet rocket cars are standard issue I guess

Another thing I thought was pretty cool, and I'm not sure how much it was edited or changed due to the Director's cut, was the super-cars. I really didn't expect this at all, and at first it was pretty cool. Unfortunately the scene ends up dragging on for far too long. Once THX gets out of the heavy traffic areas which made the scene exciting, the movie proceeds to just show him driving down endlessly long empty tunnels really really fast. It just all became pointless very quickly since no one was really chasing him. Eventually some Chrome Cops on bikes start after him, but this just extends the car sequence even longer, and it has to be one of the most boring high speed chases I've ever witnessed.

I had really high hopes for THX 1138, and I'm not sure if I'm the odd one out in my feelings. This is considered a classic sci-fi film, but I think it's more for the aesthetics, just like 2001 A Space Odyssey. I was really quite bored and rather lost for most of the movie. There were some surprises and some of the CG enhancements were interesting, but overall those little things didn't make up for all the boring bits.