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THX-1138 Reviews

 

 

Kelsey Adair

THX 1138 is quite possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to believe that George Lucas was able to get another job as a screenwriter after that one. But many people seem to think Star Wars was a good film, so he must have done something right after the complete abomination of THX 1138. As far as I could discern, the society that Lucas created was built around the idea that everyone should conform to the same ideas and follow orders no matter what. People were required to take drugs to take away their sense of self and to basically force them to conform to all societal demands. Sex is outlawed. THX 1138 stops taking his drugs, which then causes all sorts of problems. He falls in love with his roommate LUH 3417 and impregnates her. They are both carted off to prison by the robot police and deemed beyond the possibility of rehab, therefore unfit to live in society. The biggest problem with the film is that the lack of intelligent dialogue made it nearly impossible to follow the plot, which was weak to begin with. Everyone spoke in code without providing any meaning for the code to the audience. Another major problem was that both the background sets and clothing were all white. There was no way to distinguish between each room because there was no color. The robots, as law enforcement officials, had little impact on the overall film. They could have easily been replaced, or simply removed from the film altogether.

Josh Berting

 

Brittany Burton

Although THX 1138 was directed by one of the greatest filmmakers ever, it was a complete bust. What was George Lucas thinking? His obvious inexperience in movies was projected through this. A horrible, contorted plot and even more bizarre actors made THX 1138 the worst movie I have ever seen, hands down. The robots in the film were never even clearly shown. The people involved were creepy and, worse yet, bald. Lucas tried to invision a world where people had no control, cops were robots, and sexuality was mechanic. The result: a mixed-up world that would give even Hitler nightmares.

Instead of just bashing the movie, I decided to write down its very few good points: imagination and creativity. It must have taken someone with quite the mind, (or quite the stash) to partake in the making of this movie. So props to them!

 

Kevin Caskey

This being George Lucas’ first film, I went into watching it expecting for it to provide at least a small bit of entertainment value. However, it seems that Lucas adapted his action-thriller style movie making after THX 1138. The plot was one that I found very difficult to follow, while most things that happened in the movie were not supported by any kind of explanation or reason. There did seem to be a rising conflict in the plot, but once you finally thought that the climax and conclusion to the movie would be revealed, it abruptly ended without any further explanation of the world that they live in or why they lived under the conditions that they did. Not once was any insight given as to why all the citizens of this underground world were constantly controlled and drugged by these mysterious officials with metal faces, which appeared to be the only robots to appear in the film. The one thing I did enjoy and was impressed upon by the movie was the special effects and computer graphics that were displayed, which seemed very advanced for the time that the film was made. Other than that, I was hard pressed to enjoy this film. Perhaps it takes someone with greater intellect on the subject matter to appreciate this film, but as for me, I would not recommend this movie to anyone who is looking for a good movie that they can get into and follow along and be entertained. However, if you are a enthusiast of early age computer animation, this may be a film you would be interested in watching.

 

Marco Flores

I loved Star Wars, and George Lucas is definitely one of my favorite directors of all time. How the genius who created the Star Wars saga could produce garbage of this caliber is beyond me. The movie was impressive visually for its time, however, and it was probably the only good aspect about the film. The storyline is nearly impossible to follow; I was lost from the first minute to the rolling credits. The robots are clearly humans in policeman outfits- barely resembling the movements of robots. Surely, this was not Robert Duvall's finest hour. For the time in which the movie was created, the visuals are beyond its time, but the robots in the era the movie followed did not correlate with the technology in the movie’s world. Was this the visualization THE George Lucas thought robots were to be in 1970? Covering myself in aluminum foil and moving in robotic motions would have made for a more convincing robot.

Visually pleasing? Yes. Good movie? Absolutely not. Robots? Could one even consider them robots? THX 1138 is not a movie to watch when analyzing robots due to poor robot planning and a scattered plot. I reward the movie a big fat “F-“.

 

Emily Hager

So, overall, this movie was pretty bad. It was incomprehensible. The plot made absolutely no sense all, because you thought you knew where Lucas was going, but then he just sort of goes off on this schizophrenic acid trip and you are sitting watching it scratching your head. The only thing is, I kind of like how the robots were in this film. I think having robots as these super-creepy cops that told you they were there to help while they beat you to a pulp was pretty brilliant actually. Also, it fits really well with the kind of perception people had of robots then and still have now to a certain extent. People were so afraid of robots in the 70’s, because there was nothing really close to a robot yet, but the technology was getting to the place where we could imagine them. So it came out as these incredibly creepy things- our technology, doing our dirty work for us in an entirely inhuman fashion. It also fits that we would make them cops, because then they would never make mistakes and they would really enforce the law- they wouldn’t give anyone a break or even any kind of different treatment. Of course, as the movie shows, that is not such a good thing. Anyway, the robots are one of the only semi-decent things in the movie, because the plot made no sense and the future was completely unrealistic- I just don't think we would let it get that bad.

 

Stephanie Herndon

This movie was not very entertaining. The plot was confusing, to say the least, and the movie as a whole was very hard to follow. That said, it was apparent that influential ideas were trying to be presented. The idea of losing common freedoms that people were, during that time frame, taking for granted is a theme that can be influential to almost any time period in the United States. People constantly overlook freedoms that have been obtained through difficult struggles throughout history. In this sense, the movie had the potential to be very influential. While the vision of the future displayed was attempting to send a message to the viewers, I doubt we will ever lose our freedom to the extent presented in this movie.

The special effects in the movie were actually quite advanced for the year it was created, giving the movie the capability to be good. However, the baffling plot made it impossible to understand, thus giving the strong theme and impressive technology/screen play no credit.

 

Dustin Houser

George Lucas made his debut as a filmmaker in an interesting way, with his first film THX-1138 (1971). The entire plot was extremely surrealistic, especially for its time. The film seemed completely irrelevant to anything I could think of, but after a little research I found that the American Independent Movement had a huge impact on the movie; this revolution was at its height at the time the film was produced. Basing my opinion on the new reanimated version (1998), the digital effects are stunning, both visual and sound. It’s somewhat difficult to keep up with the plot and to understand exactly what’s going on, but the film itself is very thought provoking and definitely original for the time period in which it was produced. There is very little action, which makes it quite painful to sit through the entire 1 hour and 26 minutes running time, but I wouldn’t label the watching of this film as a complete waste of time. Robert Duvall does an excellent job playing a difficult role, so if for no other reason…watch it for Bobby’s sake…

- Dustin Houser

 

Earl Duncan Laing

Well, we certainly started the year off with a bang! THX-1138 was probably one of the best films you had ever seen right?  WRONG!  THX-1138 was possibly one of the worst movies I had ever seen.  It’s hard to believe that George Lucas, the man who went on to direct one of the greatest film series of all time (Star Wars), actually got his start with this film.  The plot of the film was more difficult to follow than any other movie I had ever watched.  The only thing I really understood that was going on was that the main character, THX-1138, was attempting to escape from the futuristic, totalitarian environment in which he lived.  Another thing I was able to decipher from the incredibly confusing plot was that THX-1138 was in a secret relationship with his “partner” LUH.  The plot in general just made the movie’s value go way down due to the fact you loose interest in the movie to your inability to follow the plot.  The one thing that made the movie, “bearable”, was the amazing special effects.  The special effects of the movie were far ahead of its time.  In my opinion, they were even better than Lucas’s legendary series Star Wars.  Overall this movie was organized very poorly and causes the watcher to loose interest about five minutes in.

 

Overall Rating: 1/10

 

Kara Learman

Knowing that this movie was a George Lucas production, I thought that the quality of the work would be comparable to that of any of the Star Wars movies.  I was terribly wrong.  I cannot fathom who would hire Lucas after seeing this piece of his work.  It has a horrible plot, mediocre actors, and shabby screenplay.  This movie may receive the honor of being the worst movie I have seen in my entire life, which actually isn’t an honor.  The plot, well the attempted plot, was a narrative of sorts, which followed the life of THX1138, a nuclear production line worker.  THX’s world in one in which every  motion is suppressed through the use of drugs.  He lives with a female named LUH3417.  She stops taking her drugs and gives him placebo type drugs in place of the mandatory ones.  They begin a passionate relationship, which is strictly forbidden in their world.  They plan an escape that is never accomplished  because THX is captured.  This is where the feeble plot line ends.  From here on out the movie is nearly impossible to  follow.  He is put in prison, which is a completely white setting that causes severe headaches.  I honestly have no solid idea of what happens for the rest of the film.  It ends randomly, with no

conclusion being reached.  We watched this movie for the robots used in it.  Well, the robots are nearly pointless.  They aren’t robotic at all.  I would give

this movie a negative score if possible, but since the ratings cannot be negative, I would rate this movie as a 1. 

 

Matt Lynch

THX 1138 is a very unique and confusing movie. It is not what a Star Wars junkie would imagine the great George Lucas’s first movie to be like. THX 1138 lacks the basic good versus evil plot that is present in Star Wars but it does have the revolutionary tactics that are also seen in Star Wars. THX 1138 is a brief glimpse into a futuristic dictatorship society. The movie tries to encompass too much and leaves too much for the viewer to infer creating a lot of confusion about what is going on in the movie. If you are looking for an entertaining lighthearted movie THX 1138 is not the movie for you. However if you are looking to watch a deep and involved movie that gives a glimpse into a possible future and are ready to engage your brain, THX 1138 is a great movie for you.

 

John Nunns

The incomprehensible plot of THX 1138 would make it hard for just about anyone to say they truly enjoyed the film.  We had the impression that THX 1138 would be an easy watch considering the movie was George Lucas' first film.  This initial impression was immediately replaced by confusion.  THX 1138 would not live up to the reputation we felt George Lucas had earned from Star Wars.  The movie depicts a futuristic picture of how life will be.  It would seem that everyone lives by strict rules in a very bland environment(nearly the entire movie is shot in a white background).  Everyone does what they're told and if not then they are punished.  In this case, THX 1138 (the main character) is in a prohibited relationship with his partner LUH.  When the authorities find this out, THX 1138 is punished.  That's about all the plot information I could understand. Despite the problems in the plot, THX 1138 was not bad from all aspects.  THX 1138 showed special effects that were very ahead of it's time.  In some cases the effects were even better than Lucas' famous film Star Wars.  Even with these great special effects, I would not recommend watching this movie to anyone.  The plot is too confusing to concentrate on any of the good points of THX 1138.

 

 

Dee Parks

It is difficult for me to say that I enjoyed the film, but it certainly has haunted me since I saw it and that may be the best thing about it. THX 1138 leaves viewers wondering what Lucas intended for us to take away from his work. This reviewer was left with a disturbing sense of what might result from a society that attempts to turn all its citizens into human robots. People who are continually sedated and not allowed to indulge their human sexual desires are more robot than human.

Lucas used color to help make his points. The underground world was all white; the people dressed in all white. Perhaps the whiteness represented safety, sameness and tranquility, but it was very boring. I think Lucas intended for his viewers to be bored with the all-white background and realize why THX 1138 needed to escape. Lucas used robots to police the underground world and dressed those robots all in black. Why? The too-obvious reason is that they were the villains of the story, but those robots weren't very villainous. They were not thinkers; they merely carried out the orders of whoever was in charge. It was clear that the robots could do a person harm, but somehow the characterization of the robots didn't instill fear in the viewers. Perhaps the use of black in the costuming was simply to make it clear which characters were the robots because the rest of society seemed quite robotic, too. It wasn't until THX 1138 escaped his all-white world that we saw color. The last scene of the film shows THX 1138 standing in front of a large orange sun in a posture of celebration. Lucas' use of color was bold and was the most striking thing about the film for this reviewer.

 

Amanda Pudney

When George Lucas made his film debut with THX 1138, who would have ever guessed that he would go on to create one of the biggest blockbusters of all time-Star Wars? Though there are many things to consider when reviewing a movie, a plot like the one in THX will distract the viewers from any positive experience the movie may offer. It is clear that Lucas was attempting to portray a futuristic society controlled by a strange, cruel, and dominating government, and the affects that drugs have on humans. But any intellectual provocation or cutting-edge technology is overshadowed by one gigantic problem: the plot. The viewer is dragged along on a journey of jumbled robo-cops and white rooms and "Jesus phone booths," which all seemed to have been thrown in a blender and thrown onscreen. However, the viewers will remember the movie long after it has ended. The robots in the film did not play a very significant role in the film. They seemed to be the simple messengers; carrying on the demands of humans in higher power. It is disturbing to think what machines can do in the hands of humans, such as the brutality used against THX and the other captives in the "white room." If I had to choose my favorite aspect of the film, it would have to be the color, just as Dr. Parks mentioned. Before the very last scene, the viewer got used to the black and white and shades of gray. The monotony of the black and white ended with brilliant red and orange sunset. Even something as seemingly insignificant as a sunset became one of the most pivotal part of the entire film. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to make up for the hour and twenty five other minutes of pointless tedium.

 

Austin Reiter

While not the most entertaining movie, THX 1138 made a name for itself through its use of “futuristic technology” (considering the time period it was produced in) and through its complex and intriguing plot. The movie is strikingly similar to the book 1984 by George Orwell in both the fact that the societies in both are controlled by a central source capable of monitoring the public’s every move and through the actions that the main character takes in an attempt to break free of the bonds that keep him under the government’s control. The passive, underlying warning that advanced technology will be developed and used to monitor the public and keep them in line is also apparent in both works. When looking at the movie itself, THX 1138 undoubtedly lacks the action and excitement needed to keep its audience completely entertained, while the sterile, colorless feeling of the movie’s setting does little to remedy this problem. THX 1138 does have a few redeeming features, however, such as its use of vaguely-alien, futuristic technology, which adds a finite touch to the movie’s scenery to make it feel all the more futuristic. The movie also has a deep and complex plot, inviting the viewers to become completely absorbed in the movie while also challenging them to grasp the ideas presented to them throughout the film. Also, considering the time period in which the movie was made, the concept of futuristic technology is extremely well developed in THX 1138. Several aspects of the technology portrayed in the movie have come into existence already, while the remainder can still be seen as definite possibilities of technology to be invented in the future, making the movie seem all the more realistic. I give kudos to George Lucas on these points. So, while the movie's lack of action, excitement, and captivating setting bring the movie down, the use of futuristic/realistic technology and a deep, complex plot help to balance out the good and bad aspects of THX 1138.

 

Michael Salley

The plot of the film was at best hazy, at worst undistinguishable. Characters were regularly placed in situations that didn't seem to make any sense whatsoever, and Lucas made very little effort to explain these anomalous events except for a few cases. If there was one factor that made the film "worth watching" or that made it particularly effective, it was the use of humor in the dialogue. Some of the lines in the film were hilarious simply because they were so random, and others followed recurring themes and were funny simply because of the "ludicrous" aspect. An example of the latter is the police robots that were attempting to stop THX1138 from escaping the underground city - far from being upset about losing a criminal, their responses were humorously mundane: "We do not want to hurt you. This is your last chance to return with us. Please come down." ... The obvious futility there doesn't seem to bother the robots at all. Indeed, the entire movie seems to revolve around futilism and fatalism; another memorable quote from the movie was, "That accident over in Red Sector L destroyed another 63 personnel, giving them a total of 242 lost to our 195. Keep up the good work and prevent accidents. This shift is concluded."

The movie also featured randomness; in an effort at consolation while confined in "The white room," one of the other people who were confined with THX gave him some sage advice, followed by a matter-of-fact "Here... take a biscuit." Incidents like these helped to give the movie at least a little extra interest value, to get the viewer through the rest of it. The film does offer some aspects of hope and encouragement and so forth at the end, when THX 1138 refuses to go back with the helpful police robots and instead stands outside the shell, watching the sunset... but the question in my mind after the film ended was "You mean it took all of that just to get to this?" The film portrays robots and humans both as widely insignificant beings. If nothing else, it does provide a strong level of fear of a society that is governed so strictly by mechanisms and computers that it provides no room for individual thought. And in such a society, one would be hard-pressed to feel that his physicians were giving him their utmost personal attention if his medicine cabinet told him one morning, "If you feel you have not been properly sedated, please call........"

 

Jamie Stevens

 

THX 1138 was produced by George Lucas, which originally made me interested in what George Lucas did before Star Wars. Unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed at all. The movie was completely ridiculous and didn’t seem to have any kind of plot behind it at all. It was about a future, controlling society in which people could no longer have sexual relations. However, THX 1138 got his roommate pregnant and was sent to jail. The story consisted of this and his escape. I think this movie had possibly the worst ending that I have ever seen and I would not recommend this movie to anyone. The only good thing that I can say is that there were some good special effects and a lot of creativity involved in making this movie. Luckily, somebody still believed in George Lucas after this movie was made and he went on to redeem himself.

 

Jesse Talbott

I would just like to apologize on behalf of the movie selecting committee, as we had high hopes for George Lucas' first film to be a great success. Well, we were wrong. Sorry. THX 1138 was the longest and most confusing hour and a half of my life, and I could've have spent that wasted time on something more productive like learning to unicycle. The plot seemed to purposely confuse the audience, as if for one second one would seem to have the slightest inclination as to where Mr. Lucas is going, and then all of a sudden a hologram is asking for a freaking biscuit. What I did manage to understand was that society was broken off in two groups, the thinkers and the workers. Thinkers would sit in survielliance rooms and control the worker community by subjecting them to regular sedations and forcing them to work under extreme conditions. Ironically, the workers were made to create the robot police that in turn suppressed thier lives. Not to completely bash the film, THX did have some points where I could see some of Lucas' brilliance shine. He used a lot of symbolism in the movie to contrast between the good and evil, like how he incorporated the black of the robot officers against the clean, white workers. Plus the film did pick up in the end, and I was surprised to actually get into the car chase scene, which contained CG quality surpassing way beyond any movie of its time. I also found it hilarious how much society had changed, from a prohabitic community to a world where rehab was a place to get back onto the horse tranquilizers. Other than these observations I made, I found THX to be a complete waste of my time, and Mr. Lucas was verrrrrrry lucky to have a chance to redeem himself after that one.

 

Jeanne-Claire White

The movie THX 1138 is a science fiction movie by George Lucas. After suffering through all 86 minutes of the film, I still am not exactly sure what happened. The plot line runs along the lines of THX 1138 getting LUH 3417 pregnant, which is against the laws in this film’s portrayal of a futuristic society. For the rest of the movie, THX 1138 is trying to discover a way out of this dystopian society. As for the robots in the film, it was hard to tell who was and was not a robot. The only humorous part in the film is the depiction of the police robots. These did not look like the modern day robots; they had silver faces and were not intelligent. Throughout the movie when they were regulating the halls, they would say cheesy things like, "we won't hurt." At the highest point of suspense, THX 1138 is being chased by the robot police. However, the police are called off the chase because it has exceeded the budget. In a last ditch effort, the police tell THX 1138 to come back because they will not hurt him. Needless to say, he does not fall for the robot's stupidity.Overall, the plot was weak, the costumes were not exotic, and the special effects were lacking; however, they were good at the time the film was made. The movie is out-dated, but George Lucas has really stepped it up since THX 1138. 

 

Mike Wittmer

THX-1138 is a fairly complex film. While at times it can be hard to follow and just drags on during some scenes (if not boring), it is fairly well made for a movie in the early 70s. The cinematography almost gives it the feel of a documentary on the working class, making them out to be something along the lines of metaphorical lab rats. The value of human life is extremely downplayed for these lower class citizens.

The society portrayed in this film is a futuristic one. The division between the rich and the poor is absolute. Those in power have complete control over the lower class through drugs and indoctrination. While this is not anywhere close to true in our current world, it shows an extreme of this phenomenon that is continually increasing in our global economy.

Overall, the film is not very entertaining and can be hard to follow. The issues it raise, while realistic, are not valid to the society today.