THX 1138 (1971)

Name: THX 1138
Genre: Scifi, Drama
Released: 2025-05-28T09:06:15+02:00
Rating: 3.23
Cast: Robert Duvall, Maggie McOmie, Donald Pleasence

Scifi | 86 minutes / 88 minutes (director's cut)

3,23 405 votes

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3 comments

Genre: Scifi / Drama

Duration: 86 minuten / 88 minuten (director's cut)

Country: United States

Directed by: George Lucas

Stars: Robert Duvall, Maggie McOmie and Donald Pleasence

IMDb score: 6,6 (57.069)

Releasedate: 11 March 1971

THX 1138 plot

"Visit the future where love is the ultimate crime."

THX-1138, LUH-3417 and SEN-5241 try to escape from a futuristic society located beneath the surface of the Earth. Society has banned sex and uses drugs to control the population.

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Robert Duvall

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Trailer THX 1138

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3 COMMENTS

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Onderhond

87585 messages
12834 votes

13 May 2005 at 22:46

It's a shame I didn't see the original. You still wonder how drastic the changes have been.

The CGi is clear, but otherwise not so disturbing. But the rest looks great, and above all sounds very nice. All those monotonous voices throughout the film create a cool atmosphere. And for a film from 1971, it still looks very handsome, something that all those other contemporaries can't claim as far as I'm concerned.

Nice story too, very fun to follow, and with enough weirdness to suggest a believable future. Can only give 4* to this, very interesting. That such a guy then decides to spend the rest of his career with Star Wars is a loss, but he has made at least one good film. Not coincidentally his first.

Edit: http://thx-1138.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=32

Here's some comparative footage. Seems to me to be improvements on the original, although others will probably disagree.

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arno74

8700 messages
3342 votes

28 January 2019 at 11:26

Visually nice, and there are some nice sci-fi ideas in it, but unfortunately it's not very exciting across the board. It seemed like a nice short film, but it turned out to be a very long one, since the many sci-fi hocus-pocus dialogues, which contain quite a lot of repetition, failed to interest me. Unfortunately, the same goes for the characters. The film looks like a thriller but lacks the necessary tension, a good story, and a good structure. Could be better. 1,5*

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Filmkriebel

9949 messages
4645 votes

30 August 2020 at 21:28

Lucas' experimental debut was not a success and marked the end of his association with Warner Bros. Coppola was also thanked for his services. THX was too progressive for the movie bosses and they saw no return on investment in it. They will later complain that they let the goose that lay the golden eggs: Coppola would score with The Godfather and Lucas of course with Star Wars.

In my opinion THX is stylistically close to 2001 Space Odyssey. Sober, clinical with white backgrounds. Pure Science Fiction is this in which people fantasize about a possible future. Underground, overly controlled in which people have been drugged to remain docile. The state ensures the happiness of its citizens through consumption and labor. THX, a technician in an android robot assembly company, is unhappy and, after a sex offense, plots a plan to escape the dystopian world he lives in.

I find it a difficult film to love and judge, it's too cold and distant for me. First time seeing it, but these are the kind of movies you have to watch two or three times to let it sink in little by little. I have no doubt that it will have been a source of inspiration for other directors due to its modern looks. For now a 3* for this Director's Cut.

Translated from Dutch · View original