Badmovies.org Forum

I have this movie on DVD - got it as a gift a few years ago.  It's a bit slow but I liked it a lot - interesting social commentary I suppose (I love the portrayal of religion).  I don't think it's Lucas's best film but it's definitely nice to see something far different from the world of Star Wars. 

One thing I found rather funny ...and I had to rewind and watch the scene a few times, is when THX was watching TV/hologram, flipping channels, and there was a channel with a robot guard beating the tar outta some guy...if you listen to the sound in this segment, you'll find it very familiar if you happen to have Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral.  The song, "Mr. Self Destruct" starts out with samples of this guy getting beat.  I love it when I accidently discover stuff like that.  Trent must have been a fan.

I liked this one a lot, too.  That said, however, I found it in some ways very prescient of what was to come in STAR WARS - especially in the sound design. I think it is a much better 'film' than STAR WARS overall - at least it makes you think more (imo).  STAR WARS was not an original story (basic Western set in space) with very little in the way of classic sci fi elements (social commentary, warnings of the future, etc); SW's big claim to fame really was the visuals.  In this regard, as an overall 'tighter' package, I think THX shines well above STAR WARS.

I beg to differ. Starwars was inspired by many of the events that were going on in the late 60s and early 70s. Vietnam, Watergate, the cold war, the arms race, rebelious youth ect....

Lucas was a young man in the early 70s. If you were young back then, you were anti establisment. You didn't trust the government. The Galactic Empire represented the US Federal government. The Star Destroyers were aircraft Carriers and the Death Star represented Nuclear weapons. I've even heard some compare Nixon to Darth Vader.

The Rebel alliance represented the counter culture movement.

There was lots of social comentery in Starwars.

But back to THX-1138, its a very unique and interesting movie. The kind of movie you can't place into any particular catagory. I would like to see Lucas do more stuff like that.

One of my all-time faves -- I like it as much as the (first three) Star Wars movies. If you've got the DVD with the isolated sound effects track, I highly recommend it.

I prefer the original theatrical version myself.  That still needs to be made available. Same with the Star Wars Trilogy (and I don't mean in non-anamorphic widescreen editions either).

Baaaah, Star Wars was about the proper relationship between man and technology. The good guys have machines for friends, because the machines are subservient to them. They use the force instead of being used by it. The Empire is just a big machine that uses people, and makes them machine-like.

Counter culture movement, baah! OK, maybe I just don't -want- to believe that, finding out the Ewoks were Viet Cong instead of Contra's just about ruined my childhood.

Well, I hope with Episode III now done, that George Lucas really does have Star Wars all out of his system.  He's said he wants to do smaller films now, and I hope he stays on that path.  THX was an interesting look at what other path his career might have taken.  Lucas has said himself that he never really set out to make a big box office smash.  But I think once he achieved that with Star Wars, he kind of got lost in it, as any mortal man would. 

I remember reading a section from Peter Biskind's "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" where a crew member from "Raiders of The Lost Ark" approached Lucas and praised him for his earlier work.  She had said that her favorite film of his was THX, to which Lucas replied, "But that didn't make any money..." while giving her a strange look. 

One other thing, you have to consider about George...Harrison Ford put it best when he said "I think George is a nice guy, and he genuinely likes people...but...he's a little impatient when it comes to the process of acting.  He basically thinks 'Well, it's written there...do that.'...and sometimes you CAN'T just 'do that'." 

I really like this movie and wish Lucas had at least attempted other films in this vein. I do think after SW and Raiders broke so big he just drifted away from depth and was lured to spectacle and what he could do with technology.

After those films he had enough clout that he could have produced his own small films, since the other films were such cash cows, and he has a built in audience for anything he did after the original SW trilogy. Even if they hated it, the first couple of things he did would get seen just because it was Lucas. Maybe he wanted to avoid the troubled path Francis Ford Coppola went down in the 80s trying to do things different with his own small studio, or maybe his limits as a filmmaker and producer were already that well defined.

Outside of SW and Raiders spinoffs, prequels, etc. we got stuff he produced like Willow which has a small following, but underwhelmed most people, and Radioland Murders, which I've never seen more than a few minutes of. I do remember one reviewer or TV host saying that he didn't like it but wanted people to go see it anyway so not to make Lucas angry and he might not make anymore SW or Raiders flicks. That joke came back to bite us in a way.

:buggedout: :bouncegiggle: :thumbup:I think this was Lucas' firstmovie, and I found it to be very well conceived. Just shows how an effective film can be done on a limited budget.

Yeah, it was his first feature length film that was actually based on a short he made in film school. I thought the film was interesting and showed flashes of brilliance at times.

I still don't like Star Wars -- never really have --
Oh, I enjoy individual scenes in Star Wars, eg.:  The bar scene, Peter Cushing peering out the window, etc., but I hated it when I first saw it when it first came out due to the "noise in space" of the rockets, the very awful acting of all involved, but particularly Harrison Ford, who eventually became a very competent actor, eg.: What Lies Beneath.
No, Star Wars to me was always just a sort of slipshod afterthought --yeah, I got the whole "homage to serials" bit & all that, but it remains to me a cliche-ridden, poorly acted bit of drivel. 
And, yeah, I saw it when it first came out on the Big Screen -- Cinerama screen in fact.
Really, I guess I'm just a puppy-kicker, or something, as I've never "gotten" this film, or why it's so huge.  Eh . . .
peter clueless/denny don't-get-it

 Karma from me! And I thought maybe I was missing something...I never liked STAR WARS too much either. I,too,saw it on the big screen on it's initial release,and I did't understand the big to-do about it. In fact,I quit buying Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine when it got ate up with STAR WARS marketing,which really p**sed me off. The overkill marketing thing also turned me off of one of my favorite bands of the time-KISS. The  woes of a teenage geek in the 70's!  :smile:

I personally liked the first three (4, 5 & 6). It's a decent enough story, with some cool ideas and effects and memorable characters. The little good guys against the big bad guys is a decent format for a movie, tried and true, but it works for me.

That said, I don't care much for prequils, they took a bit of the imagination out of it, and put answers to questions that don't fit very well, or at least don't fit howI perceived it to be.

Classic Star Wars Trilogy = overglorified B-movie space operas.  But you see, that's actually a good thing. Think "Buck Rogers" meets YOJIMBO. Also a coming of age fantasy story.

Modern Day Star Wars =  mindless video game FX is more important than story and characters films of today designed for those with no attention span.