Viking Night: THX 1138
By Bruce Hall
August 3, 2016
BoxOfficeProphets.com
THX 1138 isn’t just Lucas’s first film. It’s also where he tried out a lot of the things he’d later utilize for Star Wars. It’s where the THX surround sound system gets its name. And it’s Lucas’s one and only film that’s both crazier AND better than Howard the Duck. I had seen it only once, back in college. It had been so long, though, that all I could remember were flashes of scenes - certainly nothing concrete. I was actually kind of excited to see this again, and not just for all the reasons I mentioned above. It’s just incredibly rare to know LESS about a film the second time you sit down to watch it.
I also wanted to see what you get when your very first production out of film school boasts legendary actors Robert Duvall and Donald Pleasance, legendary composer Lalo Schifrin, and is backed by legendary producer Francis Ford Coppola. That’s almost as incredible as me opening my front door to find Dave Grohl wanting to jam and Cameron Crowe wanting to write a book about it. How the hell does that even happen?
From a very young age, the Force was TOTALLY with George Lucas.
But everyone has to start somewhere. THX 1138 is a very strange film; clearly the work of someone closer to the beginning of his career than the other end. The dialogue is for the most part spotty, with a handful of very strong spots. The film has a very distinct “Logan’s Run by-way-of Stanley Kubrick” feel to it, what with all its moodiness and barely concealed satire. But by far the most interesting part for me was the obvious amount of technical detail that went into creating both the film and its world. Despite some vexing narrative gaps, THX 1138 is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of film’s greatest pioneers.
That said, I should point out that the version I watched was the 2004 Director’s Cut. If you hated the Star Wars Special Editions, rest assured that Lucas has gone back and tinkered with other films in his catalogue, notably this one. The good news is that in this case, the film is tremendously enhanced by the process. Where many of the changes to Star Wars felt gratuitous and unnecessary, the changes to THX 1138 fill out the film very nicely. As an added bonus, watching a 40-plus year old film that’s been tastefully enhanced with modern visual effects was a pleasantly positive experience.
THX 1138 is set, like I said, in a bleak, Orwellian future where both emotion and physical love have been outlawed by the State. Citizens seem to be divided into a Ruling Class and a Working Class. The workers are shaved bald for maximum conformity, kept docile and compliant with drugs, and forced to surveil and inform on one another. They also get the most difficult and dangerous jobs, which sounds bad until you remember they’re all on drugs. Everyone wanders from home to work, from work to home - calm as Hindu cows and blissfully unaware of the monotony of their own existence. There is a police force, but it’s comprised entirely of passively tempered androids.
They speak in the condescending, sing songy voice of a Kindergarten teacher, and will not resort to force even if you attack them. It kind of feels good when one of them gets jacked up.
THX 1138 is the name of the story’s protagonist, played by an impossibly young Robert Duvall. He’s a model worker, but then who isn’t? On the rare occasions anyone steps out of line, they are taken away, “reprogrammed,” and plugged back into the hive mind. THX (his friends, such as they are, call him “thux”) works at a factory that assigns these annoying police droids. His roommate is a fetching redhead called LUH 3417 (Maggie McOmie). They live together in state approved monotony, eating tofu cubes for dinner, and watching government television - which (not unlike the Internet) is all pornography, violence and brainwashing.
But today, THX isn’t feeling well. He complains of being barely able to finish his shift at work. It turns out that LUH has a crush on him, and has been messing with his medication, hoping to make him more pliant. Of course, this means she’s been off her own meds, which is a definite no-no. LUH eventually gets her wish, as she and THX begin nurturing the kind of romance you get in a fully oppressed, completely automated, tofu-infused society like this one. So yay, they’re two young rebels in love, but boo - LUH works at the government surveillance facility.
She and her work husband SEN 5421 (Donald Pleasance) are in charge of watching the city, so she of all people knows they’re going to get caught. They do, which of course is kind of a big deal, and SEN is involved - but this is one of several aspects of the film that I found hard to get my head around. I am merely assuming that LUH started switching THX’s medication because she had a thing for him - because that’s kind of what happened. But it’s never made clear whether this was part of a plan, or whether she just woke up one morning and decided to do what was in the script.
Likewise, it’s never made clear what’s motivating SEN. Eventually he uses his pull to have himself assigned as THX’s roommate, but why? Is he cockblocking LUH? Is he crazy? I also had trouble overlooking the fact that the end result of all this is that THX ends up becoming a pariah - a mantle which he seems to take on somewhat willingly. He’s motivated to find out what happened to LUH, but he never would have cared about her in the first place had she not started screwing with him. And her reasons for doing that are never explained - which in a roundabout way, sort of undermines the whole premise.
It’s hard enough to root for a hero whose motivations are unclear, let alone not even his own.
All that aside, I think I knew going in that I was not going to be watching a classic. Like I said, it’s mostly a chance to compare notes with Lucas’ later films - and there’s no shortage of Easter eggs here. One of the hallmarks of this film is the distinctive background radio chatter as government handlers go about their tasks, and it sounds exactly like the Imperial channels on board the Death Star. The word “wookiee” is coined in this film. Immense detail was put into little details like computer readouts, mechanical devices, sets, props, et-cetera. The story details were clearly second to the technical details, resulting in a narratively dissatisfying but visually unforgettable experience.
Sound familiar?
But there are other imaginative touches, making me wonder what we might have seen from Lucas had he the inclination to hone his writing skills as much as his raw filmmaking prowess. There IS an underlying narrative concerning media manipulation and freedom of choice, but it’s almost entirely lost in the surroundings. The workers are encouraged to pray when they are troubled, and by that I mean confessing themselves to a bizarre, automated Robot Jesus. The device mumbles the same half baked recording of platitudes regardless of what you say - as if the people behind it assumed the Parishioner would be too far drugged out to notice.
And the government here is a very dollar conscious one - to the point that critical operations are automatically shut down the moment they go over budget. Not only does this play a big part in the story, but it also makes you wonder whether the whole thing isn’t an impassioned young artist’s discrete middle finger to the notoriously frugal Hollywood establishment?
Who can say.
Finally, I should go ahead and do something I don’t often do, which is to recommend you watch the heavily enhanced director's cut and never bother to lay eyes on the original. Not only is this what George wants, but I can concur with him that it really is the better version. The story remains entirely intact, but the visual experience is improved tremendously. The atmosphere and technical design of THX 1138 is what I like the most. The story is almost irrelevant, although when we finally discover THX’s Big Plan to get back at the system, it’s actually kind of amusing (in a slightly tedious sort of way) to watch it unfold.
This isn’t a movie I can recommend to just anyone. Like I said - if you’re a film buff, or you have to write your own column...or if you have friends who like to READ columns about obscure movies they almost certainly will have no wish to see, then send them my way.
Maybe we can do each other a favor.