THX 1138

"Starring Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasence, THX 1138 leads viewers into a 25th-century totalitarian state where citizens are stripped of individuality and become numbered drones, controlled by a government-enforced program of sedating drugs. THX 1138 (Duvall) is a factory worker whose life is irrevocably changed when his roommate, LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie), causes them both to stop taking their drugs.

Their sexual feelings begin to awaken and lead to a forbidden love affair. The state discovers the illegal coupling and drug evasion and separates THX and LUH. But THX is determined to flee his wall-less prison and discover LUH's fate. To do so, he must avoid the robotic police force and unknown dangers of the outside world. Pleasence co-stars as SEN 5241, who makes the perilous journey with THX."

George Lucas's first feature film THX 1138 was released in 1971 after much controversy (Warner Bros. hated it) and on limited theater release. Although filmed in 1970 it has a fresh contemporary feel to it even to this day, and the cinematography is visually stunning albeit in a minimalist way. The music by Lalo Schifrin is brilliantly haunting and the sound montages by Walter Murch give the film a real, ahead of their time, 'industrial' feel, collectively producing an oppressive atmosphere. Uncompromising in its approach, the viewer is immersed into an underground social environment, like a broadcast from the future without any signposts to guide the way. This may make the viewer disconcerted, which is exactly Lucas's intention.

The inhabitants are drugged to be docile, they are watched constantly by surveillance cameras, their actions are scrutinised for any deviation from conformity. In this world, humanity has become dehumanised for consumerism's aims and in the endeavour for greater efficiency. In this consumerist society the inhabitants apparently own very little but buy simply to consume, they are neither happy nor unhappy though from our point of view it is bleak and distressing. The totalitarian system uses a 'politically correct' approach rather than hostility, as in one darkly humorous scene where a police robot asks THX and a fellow fugitive SRT to "Stay calm" then adding "everything will be alright, the door seems to be jammed, please check the lock on your side, everything will be alright we are here to help you" as the two try to escape from the authorities.

THX 1138 is an individual (in a very 'un-individual' world) who works in a factory making police robots that ironically enslave him. His roommate LUH 3417 illegally takes THX off his drugs because she has already stopped taking them and with their awkward awakening emotions THX and LUH make love; for this and not taking the state prescribed drugs THX is imprisoned in a white void with other prisoners. THX then chooses to escape while the others merely talk of escaping. This is part of the main message throughout the film, that your fears hold you back from escaping a bad situation, the escape of which is not far away, or as Lucas would put it "being trapped in a cage with the door unlocked, but being unwilling or afraid to open the door and go out."

THX 1138 undoubtedly borrows from such works as, Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1921), Thea Von Harbou's Metropolis (1926), Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell's 1984 (1949) etc, but it also stands up as a fine piece of dystopian fiction in its own right.

The message within THX 1138 is a very relevant warning in Britain, the worlds leading surveillance nation. It shows what can go wrong in a technological society and that it is not always the case that what seems to be for the good of the people, is for the good of the people.

If you are looking for the usual attention deficit mass appeal movie, look somewhere else as this may not be for you. In my opinion THX 1138 is George Lucas' first and finest vision, an avant-garde masterpiece of filmmaking and political theater that although unsettling still has much to forewarn whilst at the same time entertain.

"Buy more. Buy more now. Buy more and be happy." ;)

Reviewed: 25/09/05

This little known low budget sci-fi cult classic THX 1138 makes it to DVD in the form of The George Lucas Director's Cut, Great! There's been much controversy especially from 'THX 1138 purists' that George Lucas has violated something sacred, in my view this is not the case, he just carefully restored the film and made some changes which is, at the end of the day, his prerogative. The main problem is that the original version is no longer available to buy new on any format, which is annoying. I personally think the original version should have been bundled with the Director's Cut then everyone would have been happy, wouldn't they?

See changes for the amendments made from the original version and further explanation of this version.

Reviewed: 25/09/05

More Images
Script .pdf
Changes
Quiz
Trivia
Miscellaneous Documents
Memorabilia

THX 1138 Trailer #1 Lo-Res / Med-Res / Hi-Res
THX 1138 Trailer #2 Lo-Res / Med-Res / Hi-Res
THX 1138 Trailer #3 Lo-Res / Med-Res / Hi-Res
THX 1138 Official Site
The Subversive Strikes Back
Don Pedro Colley Official Site
THX 1138 Essay by Scott Bakatman
The Original Trilogy on DVD Campaign
Spy Blog, Watching Them, Watching Us
Our Drug-Induced Future Has Arrived!
An Interview with Don Pedro Colley by Barry Brown
Britain is 'surveillance society'

• Movies

Metropolis (1927)
1984 (1956)
The Trial (1963)
Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution (1965)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Logan's Run (1976)
1984 (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Code 46 (2003)
Minority Report (2002)
Dark City (1998)
Equilibrium (2002)
Gattaca (1997)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
La Jetée (1962)
In Between (1980) (A Short Film Featuring Maggie McOmie)
Ghosts... of the Civil Dead (1988)

• Television

The Guardians (1971)
BBC Sunday Night Theatre: 1984 (1954)
Theatre 625: The Year of the Sex Olympics (1968)
Out of the Unknown: The Machine Stops (1966)

• Literature

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
1984, George Orwell
Anthem, Ayn Rand (Full Online Text)
Alphaville, Jean-Luc Godard
Discipline & Punish; The Birth of the Prison, Michael Foucault
The Machine Stops, E. M. Forster (Full Online Text)
We, Yevgeny Zamyatin (Full Online Text)
This Perfect Day, Ira Levin
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Stanislaw Lem