What is your honest assessment of THX 1138?

[karelm 3,257]

What is your honest assessment of THX 1138?  Does it work?  Is it only known because Lucas made Star Wars?  Is it the work of genius?  Keep in mind 1968 resulted in masterpieces like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Franklin J. Schaffner Planet of the Apes.  THX was 1971.  Your honest assessment?

[Xander Harris 9,055]

It's a better theatre alignment program and digital mastering system than film.

 

I like the nudity and the tunnel chase and the enhancements made for the DVD. But it's a very cold, weird movie. He followed it up with a very warm grounded flick in American Graffiti for Universal Studios where they serve burgers at Mel's Drive-In. That's the Lucas I prefer. The greatest director of all time.

[Yodaschild 1,582]

.

[A24 5,022]

By 'enhancing' the movie with CGI, Lucas killed the movie for me. 

[GerateWohl 6,395]

14 minutes ago, A24 said:

By 'enhancing' the movie with CGI, Lucas killed the movie for me. 

By the way, that was my first thought when I saw A New Hope Special Edition for the first time.

But I got used to it.

[Yodaschild 1,582]

.

[A24 5,022]

1 hour ago, Schilkeman said:

The allergy some have to CG has always baffled me. Maybe it's just how my brain processes visual information, but it's never once bothered me.

 

The love some have for classic movies that have been completely altered with CGI has always baffled me.

[Corellian2019 482]

The film is a mixed bag; sometimes the symbolism is a little too on-the-nose, some parts are deliberately off-putting (the white prison scenes kind of drag a bit), and some parts are brilliant visual poetry (the opening shot of the robot guard holding a toddler's hand as he presses the button for the elevator). But I always found the ending to be pretty powerful, and it's a consistently visually striking film

[Yodaschild 1,582]

.

[Chen G. 5,795]

Eh. Its okay.

[crocodile 9,516]

I remember some interesting things,being done with editing and sound. And I sort if like bits of Lalo Schifrin's score.

 

The film itself? I don't know.

 

Karol

[Chen G. 5,795]

On 04/07/2024 at 9:22 PM, karelm said:

Keep in mind 1968 resulted in masterpieces like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Franklin J. Schaffner Planet of the Apes.  THX was 1971. 

 

Of course, THX-1138 was originally concieved in 1966, as a student film that was released the next year. Therefore, in assessing the context of that film's conception and debut, we must look more to Godard's Alphahvile than to Kubrick or Schaffner. As such, it definitely finds Lucas at his artsiest though, I would suggest, far away indeed from his most succesfull.

[A24 5,022]

59 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Of course, THX-1138 was originally concieved in 1966, as a student film that was released the next year. Therefore, in assessing the context of that film's conception and debut, we must look more to Godard's Alphahvile than to Kubrick or Schaffner. As such, it definitely finds Lucas at his artsiest though, I would suggest, far away indeed from his most succesfull.

 

I don't think karelm ever suggested that when Lucas made THX-1138 he was looking at Kubrick or Schaffner. 

 

 

[GerateWohl 6,395]

7 minutes ago, A24 said:

 

I don't think karelm ever suggested that when Lucas made THX-1138 he was looking at Kubrick or Schaffner. 

But Lucas was looking at Kubrick when he made Star Wars (e.g. considering usage of classical music instead of original score).

[A24 5,022]

3 hours ago, Schilkeman said:

Art altered by the artist is not unique to George Lucas, or the world of film. I will always defend any artist’s right to change something they feel needs changing, whether I agree with it or not. 

 

Lucas can make as many versions as he likes but how do you defend the deletion of the versions the audience fell in love with?

 

5 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

But Lucas was looking at Kubrick when he made Star Wars (e.g. considering usage of classical music instead of original score).

 

Well, he does consider 2001: ASO the greatest sci-fi movie ever made. 

[Jurassic Shark 16,042]

There's not enough slugs in it.

[Marian Schedenig 11,310]

59 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

But Lucas was looking at Kubrick when he made Star Wars (e.g. considering usage of classical music instead of original score).

 

…or the overall design.

 

 

[mstrox 7,307]

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Eh. Its okay.

 

[Chen G. 5,795]

1 hour ago, A24 said:

I don't think karelm ever suggested that when Lucas made THX-1138 he was looking at Kubrick or Schaffner. 

 

Sure, I was talking for the moment more in terms of the kinds of films THX-1138 is better judged against, rather than as influences per se: if we go down THAT rabbit hole, we have to talk about Slavko Vorkapich, the former Dean of the faculty Lucas studied in.

 

Lucas, by the way, DOES like giving the impression that 2001: A Space Odyssey somewhat effected his choices in THX-1138.

 

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

But Lucas was looking at Kubrick when he made Star Wars (e.g. considering usage of classical music instead of original score).

 

Meh. You know what else ues classical music instead of an original score? Why, its the Flash Gordon serials! Lucas even admits that he wanted to use some music straight out of the Flash Gordon serials: namely, Les Preludes and The Bride of Frankenstein.

 

 

The point made elsewhere here that 2001 influenced something of the look of Star Wars is a better one, although again Star Wars owes more here to 1940s movies and, to a lesser extent, to Kurosawa.

 

Nevertheless, the opening shot is composed similarly to the opening of the Jupiter Mission, the escape pod is jettisoned much like Floyd's vessel lands, and pods similar to Kubrick's EVA appear on Tatooine both in the original and Episode I. Other shots (I'm thinking the "fairytale" shot of Leia genuflecting to R2D2) owe something to Kubrick's love of symmetry, and the spaceships have a similar plated look.

 

Perhaps the most Kubrick-like of all of Lucas' shots is not in the original Star Wars but in Revenge of the Sith, in keeping with the prequel trilogy's emphasis on imagery from 1960s and 2000s epics:

 

[Xander Harris 9,055]

The cosmetic changes don't alter the story or the characters and they're also not even that significant. I would argue they're tastefully done. Not sure how that could kill the movie for someone. Seems a bit of an overreaction.

[Chen G. 5,795]

Herr Schilkeman's point, that the act of making post-hoc revisions to a work of art is not inherently bad, is indeed well-taken: I much prefer, for example, Wagner's revised Holländer (1860) and Tannhäuser (1876) to the original versions.

 

Normally, however, we have a presentable copy of the original version available to us. Not so with Lucas' films.

[Edmilson 11,597]

If I as an adult made a revised version of the stuff I wrote when I was 14 that somehow turned them into Pulitzer-worthy masterpieces, I wouldn't want my cringeworthy teenage versions hanging around for people to compare them 

 

That's a ridiculous example, but it gets the point. Older Lucas may be somewhat ashamed of some of the works he did as a young man, like an adult today looking at his embarrassing social media posts from his youth.

[Nick1Ø66 7,714]

10 hours ago, Schilkeman said:

The allergy some have to CG has always baffled me. Maybe it's just how my brain processes visual information, but it's never once bothered me.

 

This is sort of a straw man. I don't know a single person who objects to CGI across the board, but rather the use of it to "enhance", and often times butcher, classic films.

 

8 hours ago, Schilkeman said:

Art altered by the artist is not unique to George Lucas, or the world of film. I will always defend any artist’s right to change something they feel needs changing, whether I agree with it or not. 

 

Again, I don't think anyone objects to a filmmaker's right to tinker with their own work, rather they just (understandably) want the original preserved & available in the same quality and format as the altered work.

 

And sorry, I'm all for respecting the right's of an artist, but when you put something into the world, especially something as impactful as Star Wars, you take on an ethical responsibility to the integrity of the art itself, that frankly outweighs what you suppose is your personal artistic integrity. 

[Chen G. 5,795]

35 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Older Lucas may be somewhat ashamed of some of the works he did as a young man

 

How embarrased could one be about the original Star Wars, a film that basically made Lucas who he is? Lucas seemed pretty pleased with, say, The Phantom Menace and yet he revised it, too.

 

No, I don't think embarrasment is the right term, neither in the Star Wars case or the THX-1138 case, as evident by the relatively light touches Lucas put on his 1971 film. The point of the revisions is to make the works fit into a certain perception that Lucas has of his own oeuvre.

[ThePenitentMan1 1,486]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

If I as an adult made a revised version of the stuff I wrote when I was 14 that somehow turned them into Pulitzer-worthy masterpieces, I wouldn't want my cringeworthy teenage versions hanging around for people to compare them 

 

That's a ridiculous example, but it gets the point. Older Lucas may be somewhat ashamed of some of the works he did as a young man, like an adult today looking at his embarrassing social media posts from his youth.

 

How about if that story you wrote when you were 14 won the Pulitzer Prize and caused a revolution in its genre, and THEN you made a revised version that took out all of the cringeworthy stuff?  And then people were begging you to keep the old version in print?  Would you double down on keeping it out of print, or would you reassess the bits that made you cringe?

[Andy 7,129]

It doesn't resonate with me emotionally, but then I tend to prefer utopian Sci Fi.

 

BUT, it looks fantastic, and it SOUNDS amazing.  Walter Murch did a brilliant job with the sound design.  

[Xander Harris 9,055]

Even if GL were to release a Theatrical Edition box set containing the original versions of THX, Graffiti and the SW Trilogy, the geeks would still complain about something. They're his movies anyway. Let it go, embrace the digital age. Or find new movies.