THX 1138 [Director's Cut] [Blu-ray]

Overview

Based on his award-winning student short, George Lucas's debut feature cerebrally celebrates the possibility for individual freedom against all odds. In a 1984-esque white-washed future underground dystopia where sexuality is banned, all humans sport shaved heads and the same shapeless outfits as they go about their work in a mandated state of sedation, listening to exhortations to "Buy and Be Happy." Black-clad robot cops chant a mantra to their victims that "everything will be all right" and automated confessional booths emit soothing therapeutic bromides. But unbeknownst to THX 1138 (Robert Duvall), his roommate LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie) has been reducing their meds, resulting in their mutual discovery of love and THX's subsequent imprisonment for drug evasion and sexual misconduct. Determined to find the pregnant LUH, THX breaks out of prison with the help of his cellmate SEN 5241 (Donald Pleasence) and an escaped TV hologram (Don Pedro Colley). With fugitive pursuits strictly budgeted, THX only has to evade the robocops until the funds run out, but surveillance is omnipresent and THX's vehicle keeps overheating. Making the only film produced through the first incarnation of Francis Ford Coppola's independent studio American Zoetrope, Lucas and his small crew, including co-writer and sound editor Walter Murch, shot THX 1138 in northern California with no interference from distributor Warner Bros. When Warners saw the austere result, however, they recut the film before its release. Neither the studio's nor Lucas's cut was a popular success, but THX 1138's coolly minimalist style and story-telling gained fans on the college screening circuit, just as Stanley Kubrick's poetic 2001: A Space Odyssey had attracted a large youth audience in 1968. When Lucas returned to sci-fi after American Graffiti, he traded restraint for nostalgic fun in the film that guaranteed his creative freedom in Hollywood: Star Wars.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/07/2010
UPC:	0883929116348
Original Release:	1971
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:28:00
Sales rank:	13,466

Special Features

Commentary by George Lucas and Walter Murch; Theatre of Noise Experience: Isolated Sound Effects Track; Master Sessions: Docupod Gallery Showcasing Murch's Pioneering Work; 2 Documentaries: A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope and Artifact from the Future: The Making of THX 1138; Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138 4EB: Luca's Original Student Film; Vintage Production Featurette Bald; Theatrical Trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Duvall	THX 1138
Donald Pleasence	SEN 5241
Don Pedro Colley	SRT
Maggie McOmie	LUH 3417
Ian Wolfe	PTO
Marshall Efron	TWA
Sid Haig	NCH
John Pearce	DWY
Irene Forrest	IMM
Claudette Bessing	ELC
Gary Alan Marsh	CAM
John Seaton	OUE
Eugene I. Sullivan	JOT
Raymond J. Walsh	TRG
Mark Lawhead	Shell Dweller
Susan Baldwin	Control Officer
Henry Jacobs	Mark 8 Student
Bill Love	Mark 8 Instructor
Doc Stortt	Monk
Gary Austin	Man in Yellow
Paul K. Haje	Prosecutor
Ralph Chesse	Proctor,Defense,Pontifay
Morris Erby	Newscaster
Willie C. Barnes	Comic
Richard Quinnell	Comic
Jean Durand	Listener
Scott Beach	Announcer #1,Announcer #2
Terence McGovern	Announcer #3
James Cranna	Announcer #5
Ruth Silveira	Announcer #6
Bruce Mackey	Announcer #7
David Ogden Stiers	Announcer #8
Johnny Weissmuller Jr.	Chrome Robot
Robert Feero	Chrome Robot
Terry McGovern	Actor
Julie Payne	Voices
Lalo Schifrin	Composer

Technical Credits

George Lucas

Walter Murch

George Lucas	Director,Screenwriter
Walter Murch	Screenwriter,Sound/Sound Designer
Francis Ford Coppola	Executive Producer
Duffy Hamilton	Stunts
Lawrence Sturhahn	Producer
John Ward	Stunts
Jim Manson	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A more contemplative film than the later science fiction work that would make him a blockbuster legend, George Lucas' feature debut THX 1138 already displayed his talent for striking imagery. Produced under the independent auspices of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope and expanded from Lucas' USC student short, THX 1138's vision of future dehumanization matched androgynous costuming with sparse high-tech settings and an expansive, unnerving, all-white prison "cell," aptly evoking an existence devoid of sensual pleasure. Deliberately paced and infused with early-'70s paranoia as well as somewhat stilted artiness, THX 1138's dystopian view of technology and the future was of a piece with such other contemporary science fiction films as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Soylent Green (1973), and Logan's Run (1975). The climactic, skillfully edited chase and celebratory final image, however, were also precursors to the direction Lucas' filmmaking would take. A box-office failure on its first release, THX 1138 soon became a favorite on college campuses and garnered a re-release after the phenomenal success of Lucas' more nostalgically upbeat science-fiction yarn Star Wars (1977) brought the director and his hardware a fanatical following.