Warner Bros. | 1971/2004 | 88 mins. | R
In truth, THX 1138: The George Lucas Director’s Cut isn’t the original, 1971 film considering the CGI and other enhancements that have been added. For anyone who saw the original film, this 2004 release may feel much like an entirely new film. Lucas has incorporated manipulated bits and pieces from the original, along with entirely new scenes. Just As he has with the original Star Wars trilogy and his 1973 film, American Graffiti, Lucas regards THX 1138 – a grimly comic look at a dystopian society – as his and his alone, to do with as he sees fit. Lucas’s original cut of the film is no longer available and may never be again.
Written by George Lucas and Walter Murch, THX 1138 is set sometime in the 21st century. THX (Robert Duvall) and LUH (Maggie McOmie) are cheerless proles living in an underground city where all citizens are controlled via Orwellian monitoring and Huxley-style sexless breeding. Despite dire consequences, THX and LUH defy the ban against sex. They also commit the crime of drug avoidance – everyone is kept on mandatory stimulants and depressants. Under immense stress, THX causes an accident on the assembly line involving radioactive materials. Complicating his life is SEN (Donald Pleasance), who dispatches LUH to the authorities in order to be reassigned as THX’s roommate – the reasons seem romantic but are unclear.
THX longs to escape his world but is hunted down by the android police force and placed in a vast, white limbo. At first he’s there with LUH, but then she’s gone and SEN is there with other people. In time, THX escapes and tries to stay a step ahead of the law by stealing a car and racing away. His escape to the surface, seen merely in silhouette, ends the film on an uncertain note since he, and the audience, have no idea what will be there.
Debate has raged for six years now as to whether or not Lucas should have tampered with his original cut of the film. For the record though, the vast majority of alterations Lucas makes are far from distracting, and only one — an extension of THX’s run-in with a pack of underground, shadow-cloaked, mutants — proves to be unnecessary. What Lucas has done here amounts to nothing more than a few cuts and additions. An extended background here, an expanded factory there, an enhanced car escape for good measure… all courtesy of carefully employed CG. Would including both versions of the film help quell the outcry of purists? Definitely. Be that as it may, much of the uproar over the THX 1138 Director’s Cut is likely fueled more by lingering Star Wars angst than any real anger over THX 1138. I for one, would like to see George Lucas stop messing around with his films decades after their in the can.
The film has been transferred to blu-ray using a VC-1 codec, presented in a 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio. This provides nice colors when available, though much of the film is bathed in pure white. During those white sequences, a small amount of grain is visible, though most of it is likely inherent to the original print. The overall image quality can sometimes appear a tad soft, but object delineation most of the time looks quite good, certainly an improvement over the standard-definition DVD.
The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is somewhat problematic, because one cannot really compare the 1970 sound to today’s state-of-the-art sonics. The 5.1 mix does provide a good, believable, although limited, front-channel stereo spread; some strong bass and dynamics when necessary; a well-detailed midrange; and the occasional noise thrown into the surround speakers. Composer Lalo Schifrin’s atmospheric score and Murch’s sound montages come off well.
All of the special features are ported-over from the 2004 DVD release, all in standard definition. Included is: a commentary track by Lucas and Murch; an isolated sound effects track; a gallery and a vintage featurette about the film; trailers and Lucas’s original USC School of Cinema-Television short from which this was expanded, THX 1138 4EB.
Headlining the extra features are two big documentaries, the 60-minute A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope, which is excellent, and the half-hour Artifact from the Future: The Making of THX 1138, which avoids any real discussion about the alternations but which does include on-camera interviews with most of the surviving participants.
[xrrgroup][xrr label=”Video:” rating=”4.0/5″ group=”s1″ ] [xrr label=”Audio:” rating=”3.5/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Extras:” rating=”3.5/5″ group=”s1″] [xrr label=”Film Value:” rating=”3.5/5″ group=”s1″] [/xrrgroup]
