In the standard dystopian world where citizens are drugged to eliminate emotions, THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) and his roommate end up off of their required medication, able to feel, and on the run.
Looking like the stereotype, pretentious, self-indulgent, film-student film, THX 1138 takes the standard dystopian story and adds nothing. Nada. Not a thing. Most dystopian works stay pretty close to the standard, but bring something new, some small piece of additional insight. THX 1138 is only proof that the pre-Star Wars George Lucas had read Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Orwell’s 1984, and Huxley’s Brave New World. Well, I read them too, and might I suggest anyone who hasn’t spend his time with any one of those rather than THX 1138.
It’s not just that Lucas has regurgitated the same emotionless, sterile, bleak future that’s so common for filmmakers of the ’70s (and writers since the ’30s), but that he did it in a lethargic, unengaging way. I ought to feel something for the people of this world, but all I felt is boredom. It doesn’t help that little happens. The first third of the film is a slow (let me emphasis “slow”) realization by the title character that he should do something else. The second third just has THX 1138 sitting around in a white prison with a few other prisoners spouting philosophy. This is supposed to be clever and deep. It’s not. Lucas is repeating his “escape” theme for the mentally impaired who missed what the first third was about, and believes he’s hit on true brilliance. As there is no plot to enter into the viewers’ brains, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would miss the theme (unless they fell asleep). The final third is yet more escaping, but this time with a racecar. Yes, in this monotonous world where people trudge to work each day, there are racecars sitting in the parking lot that anyone can jump into and drive away. Hmmmmm. Who are these cars meant for? Racing commuters? And where did our “hero” learn to drive like a pro?
As this is a George Lucas movie, he felt the need to add in some up-to-date, digital effects. It’s been twenty years since I saw the unaltered version, so I didn’t notice most of his tinkering. However, the new mutant monkeys reached out of the screen to bite my eyeballs. While Lucas has many failings, I always thought he was quite talented with CGI. That was before the mutant monkeys. But why worry about how bad they look when there is the larger question of why they are there. Up till the moment they attacked, there was no reason to believe that mutant monkeys roamed the parking lots. Their appearance reminds me of the scene in Casablanca where Rick must seat the Nazis away from the two-headed, Martian lesbians. You don’t remember the two-headed, Martian lesbians in Casablanca? Wait till Lucas gets through with it. Seeing them would be no more jolting than those monkeys.
In defense of this tripe…I mean the film, the public service broadcasts were pretty funny, particularly the announcement that they had half the number of deaths of another department, so “keep up the good work.”
THX 1138 destroyed Francis Ford Coppola’s experimental American Zoetrope film group. Once Warner Bros saw this dismal film, they pulled their funding. Sometimes, the big corporation gets it right.