Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: THX-1138 DVD

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-15-2004, 01:28 AM:

I picked up the new 2-disc SE of "THX-1138." It's clearly not a movie for everyone, but I think it is one of the more interesting futuristic movies made in the same period as "2001."

Of course, you have the controversy of Lucas taking revisionistic steps in adding some new CGI stuff to the film. But in his defense, this stuff actually does help the show and the style/design of it doesn't seem out of place. He's shown a bit more restraint with using new CGI in this film. However, it would still be nice to have the original unaltered cut (but with the footage Warner Bros. hacked out in the original release).

I saw the movie for the first time on videotape when I was in high school in the 1980's. This was after seeing a music video by Rush of their song "The Body Electric" from their "Grace Under Pressure" album. I had seen THX-1138 posters and stuff like that before and it was very obvious this music video was doing a send-up of the film and its theme.

In the years since, some movies or even works of music pop in little bits of influence from THX-1138. Anyone who has listened to the Nine Inch Nails album, "The Downward Spiral" and its opening track, "Mr. Self Destruct" would know the sound effects of a beating on the beginning of that song come from THX-1138.

As I said, THX-1138 may not be a movie for everyone. It's pretty arty, and Warner Brothers hated the film when it was first put together. I think it is ironic WB is releasing this 2-disc SE a week before that big "Star Wars" trilogy DVD release.

Still, even if you hate THX-1138, the bonus material on the 2nd disc is worth the price of the DVD alone. There is an excellent documentary about the early days of Francis Coppola's Zoetrope Studios and how THX-1138 became its first feature (as well as how the enterprise largely fell apart when Warner Bros. hated the film and dropped all those other projects from guys like Lucas, Coppola, Milius, etc.).

There's also a funny piece in the 2nd disc called "Bald," which shows some of the principal actors getting their heads shaved.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 09-15-2004, 02:53 AM:

There's also an Easter Egg which will show you the original 4 page outline that Lucas and Murich made up to sell the film. On the menu of the second disc, scroll to the arrow at the bottom which will bring up a page of copyright info. Right click on the arrow key and a picture of OM will appear. Select that to see the outline.

I had a chance to see the DLP release of this film at the AMC 25 in Times Square on Sunday. This is an important movie for me for various reasons, and I was kind of anxious about the new cgi stuff, but I must say it all looked and sounded great. I don't know how much of the effects Lucas designs himself but as a visual stylist he makes my jaw hit the floor every time, especially with the last two Star Wars flicks (and really, the visuals were about the only thing going on for those [Roll Eyes]

). I may be the Lone Ranger on this, but I genuinely feel the film has been improved with the new shots, and with this picture I am beginning to become more and more sympathetic to the whole update-the-effects-as-technology-allows thing (of course, I have a LaserDisc of the original I can look at for nostalgia's sake).

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 09-15-2004, 10:31 PM:

I'm sorry to see THX-1138 "sweetened" with CGI.

When it came out (30 years ago) it added to its "this poor bastard could be you, you faceless dtone" impact to think that all of the settings were real places.

To this day, I can barely watch a TV commercial without hearing the "phone booth priests" tell THX "Be at peace ... buy ... buy more ... buy more now."

Posted by Wayne Keyser (Member # 2420) on 09-23-2004, 08:46 PM:

Sorry - "dtone" = "clone"