THX 1138 (1971) [NJWL-11162]

Plot: Set in the 25th century, the story centers around a man and a woman who rebel against their rigidly controlled society.

This film pretty much marked the debut of George Lucus and what a fantastic debut it turned out to be. This film is very well directed with a interesting depiction of the future that centers around a very controlled manipulated structural world. The visual designs were great, the acting performances were excellent as was the musical score and most of all the drama that unfolded in the story.

This Japanese Laserdisc pressing boosts the very best picture quality of the orignal unaltered version of the film available. Their are bursts of laser rot specs that present themselves from from time and time, and some scenes suffer from general print damage and softness, but overall it look excellent to me especially in well lit scenes where the contrast, colour and sharpness of the image is most effective. I have a torrent file that was sourced from one of the older American Laserdisc pressings and there is no comparsen. This edition blows it away to friggin Hong Kong!

Im trying to understand....some versions say uncut,but they all seem to have the same running length....???? Is there a big difference between the white cover jap pressing and the previous japanese release??

I don't think so, not at least in terms of content. To my knowledge the orignal version of the film on the various Laserdisc and VHS releases are exactly the same with the only other version being different obviously being the 2004 Director's Cut on DVD and Blu-Ray.

The technical specs do differ though. That older 1986 Japanese pressing is pan & scan and only comes with analog audio with the jap subtittles infesting the picture, and it goes without saying that the picture quality is no where near as good as the latter letterboxed 1995 Japanese pressing which also comes with a digital soundtrack.

Hope that helps..

Go figure, no THX sound!!!!

THX connected to audio came later, and the letters were sourced from the movie title. But you might already know that. I always felt this film was a perfect candidate for a remake...by Lucas. He was dealing with a limited budget and I felt that hampered the impact the film. I can't blame all of the films shortcomings on finances as it did have some unnecessarily slow moments for my taste. I have the LD and think the picture quality is decent. Good review.

Thank you.

I think the robot working construction scene CGI upgrades work better in the 2004 Director's Cut, but most of the other stuff just looks too fake and doesn't mesh well with the 1971 production values. The CGI hasn't aged gracefully especially the car scene on the road through the traffic and the CGI monkeys, they look like sub PS2 graphics.

The Director's Cut also opens up the city scope with larger landscapes and more crowds which were executed rather genetically taking away the tight claustrophobic tone of the orignal. Sure it might not have the bells and whistles of what you'd expect from a futuristic city, but it works better for it.

The THX "Director's Cut" goes against the whole nature of the film and in many ways is far worse than the multiple series changes made to the Star Wars Trilogy.

This LD and it's UK/Japanese variants are all we have left of the visionary 1971 Techniscope production. The DVD is a horrid mess.

Absolutely agree. The Director's Cut in itself contradicts a lot of the themes and messages in the film in regards to technology. Also one of the elements that made THX 1138 so impressive was just how much Lucus achieved with little experience and finances, it really is a striking unique piece of visual filmmaking that the Director's Cut just turns in to something thats simplified to cattle in with modern times. I can actuelly understand the updates with Star Wars orignal trilogy as apart of a bigger story arc (even though he still should release the orignal versions), but with THX 1138 the majority of the CGI is just distracting and limits the impact of what the film is trying to say, not to mention it arguably looks more ridiculous and outdated then the 1971 production values which is ironic.

I recently got hold of a copy of this disc. The LDDB entry states that it contains a trailer yet my copy doesn't seem to have one either at the beginning or the end of the disc. Can anyone confirm that it does indeed have a trailer?

Hi folks, the 1995 Japanese release & the UK PAL Tartan Video issue do not have any trailers included - both contain the feature only.

"Their are bursts of laser rot specs that present themselves from from time and time, and some scenes suffer from general print damage and softness, but overall it look excellent to me especially in well lit scenes where the contrast, colour and sharpness of the image is most effective."

Just checked the '95 Japanese & the '92 Tartan Video UK PAL issue & I don't think the "specs" are the dreaded rot as the dots are on the movie only (on my copies) & there are none at all in the black bars above or below the image. The prints used for the transfers are not the same & on the UK PAL issue the print used is a bit more marked than the Japanese issue.

The feature had a bit of a fraught gestation, this was the first of a seven picture deal done in mid 1969 with American Zoetrope & Warner Brothers studios. Filming began in September '69 & completed in November '69 - shooting took around 38 days in total with the film & sound editing taking just under a year to finish. The film was edited by George Lucas in his home on a flat-bed unit during the day & Walter Murch edited the sound during the night, it took quite a few months before a "review" print was ready to be presented. When completed the studio executives hated the film & insisted that Mr. Coppola hand over the negative to the in-house Warner Brothers editors who cut 4 minutes 15 seconds approximately of the feature before releasing it in March 1971 (in the US) which opened to very mixed reviews. The '71 "cut" studio version has never been issued on any home media format (or shown in cinemas anywhere after 1973 I believe). After the initial release the feature pretty well vanished & lay forgotten until the success of Star Wars when George Lucas released it in 1977 with the studio cuts reinstated & the short "Buck Rogers" intro inserted before the Warner Brothers logo - this version has not been released on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Being involved in cinema exhibition (quite a few years ago now, this makes me feel a bit old!!!) I was there when this was shown back in the day, usually as a "Late Show" or "Special Presentation" feature & the prints received at the cinemas were all quite damaged, some were in a pretty sorry state & with only a few around (in the UK) they did deteriorate as time passed.

The LD releases are still the ones to have (if you want the "original" feature) as the so called "Directors Cut" really added nothing of merit to the original feature & the comments in the posts above here do a pretty good job of summing up the 2004 rehash.