Directed by George Lucas. Written by Walter Murch and George Lucas
We’re not short on dystopian visions. They range from rigid regimes where humans are ground down to nubs to apocalyptic wastelands where we’re sharpened into fangs, suggesting we’re either headed for oppression or chaos. Hundreds of movies fall across the spectrum like litter along the highway, but common to them all is at the very least a vision of what the future holds.
Often these visions are just weak extrapolations of contemporary tendencies, yet some are bold and thorough. Few have a great story and engaging characters. THX 1138, George Lucas’ dystopian tale of a man who wishes to break free, is bold and thorough. It’s also boring.
In this future, we live in an evil nanny state. A camera turns on when we open our bathroom cabinets, a voice asks us what’s wrong and might let us grab some pills to keep us in a state of sedation. Anything beyond that and we’ll be considered in violation of drug laws, subject to arrest and undisclosed further punishment. Worse yet, all this surveillance machinery is overseen by humans, who in turn have become drones, doing what the machines tell us to.
We can’t do drugs the way we like, we can’t have sex the way we want. Our televisions only have around four channels, none of them good, and our living arrangements are organized by the state. Spirituality is a screen with an image of a non-denominational priest that’ll repeat “I understand” as you unburden yourself. To the world, this cold, lifeless world, we’re nothing but a set of letters and numbers, our purpose to produce, consume, and be happy. We got what we wanted, Lucas says, with all this capitalist pursuit.
THX 1138 (Robert Duvall) can’t take it anymore. The drugs ain’t hitting and he sees past the fog to recognize the state of things. Then his newfound partner LUH (Maggie McOmie, good in an unfortunately short part) is taken away, so he wants out, and so he tries, fending off the many pleasant-but-mindless robocops and the thought-imprisoning structures.
George Lucas does know a thing or two about world-building, the gazillion dollar business Star Wars has become is proof of that. THX 1138 makes his abilities clear before any of that however, as a sleek, punchy, intriguing bit of machinery that you can’t help being drawn in by.
It has futuristic-looking contraptions, it bleeps, bloops, clack-clacks, whirs and fizzes like we expect the mechanized future to do, and the many rooms, factory floors, hallways, apartments, subways, and concourses evoke a beehive-like future within which we’re cocooned.
More than just a case of excellent product design, Lucas shows us he’s actually a filmmaker too, with some evocative shots of people trapped in this grid-like existence, like a recurring side-on shot of THX sticking his head out from doorways or shelves, or when he engages in some punchy cross-cutting.
This is an attractive machine that doesn’t have a third gear, however. Whatever initial momentum THX 1138 builds up it can’t turn into forward thrust during its middle, actually stalling to a point that you tune out entirely. Alongside Duvall, Donald Pleasance stars as SEN, an older, happy-go-luckier inhabitant of this world, and his own conflicted existence takes the shape of warmed-over monologues waffling points about the illusion of freedom that you’ve heard elsewhere.
Then it kicks back into gear as it races for its conclusion, and even if it’s once again an intense bit of skillful filmmaking, we’ve been left behind. THX 1138 is for those for whom the movie’s world is, well, the world entire, because it is a bold and well-executed vision of a void world run by machines that see everything through the eye of comptrollers.
But its simple story will leave you wanting, and the nub-like characters similarly don’t make for great travel companions, turning THX 1138 a cool car that doesn’t thrill once you drive it off the lot. There’s no denying THX 1138 has inspired generations of sci-fi filmmakers, but it’s the kind of movie that’s more at home projected on a museum wall than enjoyed at home for your entertainment.
Mikkel Frederiksen 