| THX 1138 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | George Lucas |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | George Lucas |
| Based on | Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB by George Lucas |
| Produced by | Lawrence Sturhahn |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | George Lucas |
| Music by | Lalo Schifrin |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $777,777[1][2] |
| Box office | $2.4 million |
THX 1138 is a 1971 Americansocial science fiction film co-written and directed byGeorge Lucas in his feature directorial debut. Produced byFrancis Ford Coppola and co-written byWalter Murch, the film starsRobert Duvall andDonald Pleasence, withDon Pedro Colley,Maggie McOmie, andIan Wolfe in supporting roles. The film is set in adystopian future in which the citizens are controlled byandroid police and mandatory use of drugs that suppress emotions.
THX 1138 was developed from Lucas's 1967 student filmElectronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which he created while attending theUSC School of Cinematic Arts. The feature film was produced in a joint venture betweenWarner Bros. andAmerican Zoetrope. A novelization byBen Bova was published in 1971.
The film received mixed reviews from critics and underperformed at the box office upon its initial release,[3] but it has subsequently received critical acclaim and gained acult following, particularly in the aftermath of Lucas's success withStar Wars (1977). Adirector's cut prepared by Lucas was released in 2004.
In thedystopian future,sexual intercourse andreproduction are prohibited, andmind-altering drugs are mandatory to enforce compliance among the citizens and to ensure their ability to conduct dangerous and demanding tasks. Workers wear identical white uniforms and have shaven heads to emphasize uniformity, likewise with policeandroids who wear black and monks who are robed. Instead of names, people have designations with three arbitrary letters (referred to as the "prefix") and four digits, shown on an identity badge worn at all times.
At their jobs in central video control centers, SEN 5241 (a man) and LUH 3417 (a woman) keep surveillance on the city. LUH has a male roommate named THX 1138, who works in a factory producing android police officers. At the beginning of the story, THX finishes his shift while the loudspeakers urge the workers to "increase safety"—and congratulate them for only losing 195 workers in the last period—to the competing factory's 242. On the way home he stops at a confession booth. AChrist-like portrait of "OMM 0000" intones reassuringly as he worries that his sedatives are not working and LUH has been acting strangely.
At home, THX takes his drugs and watchesholobroadcasts while engaging with a masturbatory device. LUH secretly substitutes pills in her possession for THX's medications, causing him to develop nausea, anxiety, and sexual desires. LUH and THX become involved romantically and have sex. THX is later confronted by SEN, who attempts to arrange that THX become his new roommate, but THX files a complaint against SEN for the illegal shift pattern change.
Without drugs in his system, THX falters during a critical and hazardous phase of his job, and a control center engages a "mind lock" on THX which raises the level of danger. After the release of the mind lock, THX makes the necessary correction to that work phase. THX and LUH are arrested and THX undergoes drug therapy and medical analysis. He enjoys a brief reunion with LUH, but it is disrupted shortly after she reveals her pregnancy.
At THX's trial, it is stated that THX was clinically born. It is decided that it would be inefficient to terminate THX, so THX is sentenced to prison, alongside SEN. THX and SEN walk to search for an exit. Eventually they are joined byhologram actor SRT 5752, who starred in the holobroadcasts. SRT shows them the exit and suggests to them that they may have been going in circles. During the escape, THX and SRT are separated from SEN. Chased by the police androids, THX and SRT are trapped in a control center, from which THX learns that LUH has been "consumed", and her name has been reassigned to herfetus, numbered 66691, in a growth chamber. SEN eventually escapes to an area reserved for the monks of OMM, where a monk notices that SEN has no identification badge. SEN attacks him and later wanders into a child-rearing area, strikes up a conversation with children, and sits aimlessly until police androids apprehend him. THX and SRT steal two cars. SRT struggles to figure out how to drive the car. When SRT finally gets the car to move, he immediately crashes his car into a concrete pillar. After the crash, SRT is not found in the vehicle.
Pursued by two police androids on motorcycles, THX flees to the limits of the city. Android officers continue to pursue him as he briefly struggles with simian-like creatures identified as "shell dwellers" and arrives at a vertical shaft with an escape ladder. The android officers are ordered by Central Command to cease pursuit, on the grounds that the expense of his capture exceeds their allocated budget for THX. In a last-ditch attempt to convince THX to surrender, the officers claim that the area outside the "city shell" is uninhabitable, but he is undeterred and continues up the ladder. The city is then revealed to be entirely underground, while THX has escaped onto the surface, where he witnesses the sun setting.
The announcer voices include those ofScott Beach,Terence McGovern, andDavid Ogden Stiers (billed as David Ogden Steers),[4] all of whom had ties to the San Francisco Bay area, as did Lucas.[citation needed]
THX 1138 was the first film of a planned seven-picture slate commissioned byWarner Bros. from the 1969 incarnation ofAmerican Zoetrope.[5][6]George Lucas wrote the initial script draft based on his earlier short film, butFrancis Ford Coppola and Lucas agreed that it was unsatisfactory.Walter Murch assisted Lucas in writing an improved final draft.[1][2] For some of SEN's dialogue in the film, the script included excerpts from speeches byRichard Nixon.[7]
The script required almost the entire cast to shave their heads, either completely bald or withbuzz cuts. As a publicity stunt, several actors were filmed having their first haircuts and shaves at unusual venues, with the results used in a promotional featurette titledBald: The Making of THX 1138. Many of the extras were recruited from the nearbySynanon, an addiction-recovery program that later became a violent cult.[8]
Filming began on September 22, 1969.[9] The schedule was planned for 35–40 days, completing in November 1969. Lucas filmedTHX 1138 inTechniscope.[1][10]
Most filming locations are in theSan Francisco area,[11] including the unfinished tunnels of theBay Area Rapid Transit subway system,[1][11][12] theLawrence Livermore National Laboratory,[1] theMarin County Civic Center inSan Rafael designed byFrank Lloyd Wright,[12] theLawrence Hall of Science inBerkeley,[12] theSan Francisco International Airport[12] and at aremote manipulator for ahot cell. Several scenes show one of the FAA 9020IBM System/360 used for air traffic control multi-computer installation (the only version with a "360 Mode" button on the console).[13] Studio sequences were shot at stages in Los Angeles, including a white stage 100 by 150 feet (30 by 46 m) for the "white limbo" sequences.[1] Lucas used entirely natural light.[12]
The chase scene features twoLola T70 Mk III race cars[14] chased byYamaha TA125/250cc two-stroke, race-replica motorcycles through twoSan Francisco Bay Area automotive tunnels: theCaldecott Tunnel betweenOakland andOrinda and the underwaterPosey Tube between Oakland andAlameda.[1] According toCaleb Deschanel, cars drove at speeds of 140 miles per hour (230 km/h) while filming the chase.[1] Other cars appearing in the film include custom-built FerrariThomassima cars, one of which is on display in theFerrari museum inModena, Italy.[15]
The chase features a motorcycle stunt in which stuntman Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton (credited as Duffy Hamilton) rode his police motorcycle full speed into a fallen scaffold, with a ramp built to his specification. He flew over the handlebars, was hit by the airborne motorcycle, landed in the street on his back, and slammed into the crashed car in which Duvall's character had escaped.[1] According to Lucas, Hambleton was uninjured but angry at the people who came to his aid, worried that they may have ruined the stunt by walking into frame.[citation needed]
THX's final climb out to the daylight was filmed (with the camera rotated 90°) in the incomplete (and decidedly horizontal) Bay Area Rapid TransitTransbay Tube before installation of the track supports, with the actors using exposed reinforcing bars on the floor of the tunnel as a ladder.[1] The end scene in which THX stands before the sunset was shot atPort Hueneme, California by a second unit of photographer Caleb Deschanel andMatthew Robbins, who played THX in this long shot.[1]
After completion of photography, Coppola scheduled one year for Lucas to complete postproduction.[16] Lucas edited the film on a German-made K-E-Mflatbed editor in his Mill Valley house by day andWalter Murch edited sound at night, comparing notes as each session ended.[1][16] Murch compiled and synchronized the sound montage, which includes elements such as the "overhead" voices, radio chatter and announcements. The bulk of the editing was finished by mid-1970.[citation needed]
On completion of editing, Coppola took it to Warner Bros., the financiers. Studio executives disliked the film and insisted that Coppola provide the negative to an in-house editor, who cut about four minutes of the film prior to release.[17]
| THX 1138 | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released | 1970 (1970) |
| Recorded | October 15–16, 1970 |
| Studio | The Burbank Studios,Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Genre | Experimental |
| Length | 55:36 |
The soundtrack toTHX 1138, conducted byLalo Schifrin, was released in 1970. Recording took place on October 15 and 16, 1970 atthe Burbank Studios inBurbank, California.[18]
THX 1138 was released to theaters on March 11, 1971, and was a commercial flop, earning $945,000 in rentals for Warner Bros. and an overall loss for the studio.[17] A contemporary survey found seven favorable, three mixed and five negative reviews.[19]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times awarded the film three stars out of four and wrote, "THX 1138 suffers somewhat from its simple storyline, but as a work of visual imagination it's special, and as haunting as parts of2001: A Space Odyssey,Silent Running, andThe Andromeda Strain."[20]Gene Siskel of theChicago Tribune awarded two stars out of four and stated, "The principal problem with this film is that it lacks imagination, the essential component of a science fiction film. Some persons might claim that the world ofTHX 1138 is here right now. A more reasonable opinion would hold that we are facing the problems of that world right now. Time has passed the film by."[21]
Vincent Canby ofThe New York Times wrote, "It is not, however, as either chase drama, or social drama, thatTHX 1138 is most interesting. Rather it's as a stunning montage of light, color and sound effects that create their own emotional impact ... Lucas's achievement in his first feature is all the more extraordinary when you realize that he is 25 years old, and that he shot most of the film in San Francisco, on a budget that probably would not cover the cost of half of one of the space ships in Stanley Kubrick's2001."[22]
Arthur D. Murphy ofVariety observed, "Likely not to be an artistic or commercial success in its own time, the American Zoetrope (Francis Ford Coppola group) production just might in time become a classic of stylistic, abstract cinema."[23]Charles Champlin of theLos Angeles Times praised the film as "a stunning deployment of the aural and visual resources of the screen to suggest a fearful new world of tyranny by technology", adding that "Lucas is obviously a master of cinematic effects with a special remarkable gift for discovering the look of the future in mundane places like parking structures and office corridors." Champlin stressed that the "real excitement ofTHX 1138 is not really the message but the medium — the use of film not to tell a story so much as to convey an experience, a credible impression of a fantastic and scary dictatorship of tomorrow."[24]
Kenneth Turan wrote inThe Washington Post, "Fortunately, the film comes over not at all trite but rather as enormously affecting. Lucas obviously believed strongly in this futuristic vision, and the film draws its vitality and unity from his belief, and from the fact that it was not bottled up to meet arbitrary conditions but allowed the free rein necessary to reach completeness."[25] Penelope Houston ofThe Monthly Film Bulletin commented, "Details of the future society — control panels, monitor screens, soothing TV commercial voices, unshakeably calm robot policemen, the human animal turned automaton in appearance and function, but breaking out into a doomed love affair — are all tolerably persuasive, but in sum total rather a pile-up of predictability. On the Orwellian level of ideas, Lucas' passive new world is too indeterminate to carry enough conviction and, consequently, enough of a menacing charge."[26]
The film has continued to earn critical acclaim and holds an approval rating of 83% onRotten Tomatoes based on 69 reviews. The consensus reads: "George Lucas's feature debut presents a spare, bleak, dystopian future, and features evocatively minimal set design and creepy sound effects."[27] OnMetacritic it has aweighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[28]
The film received a nomination at the 1971Cannes Film Festival from theInternational Federation of Film Critics in theDirectors' Fortnight section.[29]
The first version was a 15-minute student film for theUSC School of Cinematic Arts titledElectronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB. It was released as a bonus feature along with the 2004 director's cut release.
The 1971 studio version, distributed to theaters, had five minutes removed (against Lucas' wishes) by Warner Bros. This 81-minute version has never been released in any home-media format.
In 1977, after the success ofStar Wars,THX 1138 was rereleased with the footage restored that had been deleted by Warner Bros., but it still failed to achieve popularity.[30] This version was later released inVHS (88 minutes) andLaserDisc (86 minutes) formats.
In 2004,The George Lucas Director's Cut of the film was released. Under Lucas' supervision, the film underwent anextensive restoration anddigital intermediate process byLowry Digital andIndustrial Light & Magic (ILM), where the film'soriginal negative was scanned, digitalcolor correction was applied and a newdigital master was created.[31]Computer-generated imagery and audio/video restoration techniques were also applied to the film.[32][33]
At Lucas's request, the previsualization team at Skywalker Ranch worked with ILM throughout mid-2003. The team also executed a single-day shoot to form the basis for new digital visual effects, mostly to expand scenes by extending crowds and adding detail to settings and backgrounds for many scenes.[34]
These changes increased the runtime of the film to 88 minutes. Thisdirector's cut was released to a limited number of digital-projection theaters on September 10, 2004, and then onDVD on September 14, 2004. The film was released onBlu-ray on September 7, 2010.[35] With the addition of the added content,[36] the film'sMPAA rating was changed from GP (now known as PG) to R for "sexuality/nudity". It is the only film directed by Lucas to carry an "R" rating.[37][38]
Anovelization based on the film was written byBen Bova and published in 1971.[39] It follows the film's plot closely, with four additions:
The significance of the name THX 1138 has been the subject of much speculation. Lucas chose the letters and numbers for their aesthetic qualities, especially their symmetry.[40] Lucas named the film after his telephone number while in college, 849-1138—the letters THX correspond to the numbers 8, 4, and 9 on the keypad.[41] However, Walter Murch said that he always believed that Lucas intended THX to be "sex", LUH to be "love", and SEN to be "sin".[7]John Lithgow described the titleTHX 1138 as "reading like a license plate number".[42]
Numerous references to "1138" or "THX 1138" appear throughout theStar Wars franchise,[43] and other of Lucas' films. THX 138 is the license plate number of John Milner's hot rod inAmerican Graffiti. Lucas foundedTHX Ltd., developer of the "THX" audiovisual reproduction standards.
During the final chase sequence a voice over the radio can be heard in actor Robert Duvall's car saying, "I think I ran over something. I ran over aWookiee back there on the expressway."[44]