THX 1138 (1971) [11162]I came at this movie completely blind. I had no idea it existed and I didn't buy it. I bought a LD off a seller on EBAY and it was packed in, the seller said to keep it. Deciding to spin it up, I watched
Apparently George Lucas' first feature film...which I could have sworn would have been American Graffiti, but what ever.
About the movie:
Set in the 25th Century, the film depicts a dystopian future where drug use is mandatory, and love/sex is forbidden...but how do they procreate? Cloning? It's not explained...maybe it's like The Giver where there are people who's job it is to give birth.
The film focuses on a man, the titular THX 1138, played by a very bald Robert Duvall. Who is sick, and who's Roommate, LUH 3417 played by Maggie McOmie, seems to be swapping his drugs around. This gets him in trouble and on the run from the state, especially after LUH and THX have sex.
The film I feel borrows from more popular sci-fi efforts, namely Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell with it's heavy monitored state society which also bans sex. But the film isn't as subtle. The film moves very quickly, 20 minutes in and it's already in the second act. Unless you are focusing on the movie, you can become lost pretty fast. It moves fast, and then comes to a screeching halt at the end, and leaves the viewer hanging. The ending isn't bad or great, it's just "Ok? What happens next?" Leaving you with an incomplete feeling. The disc says the film is 86 minutes, I feel the film could have benefited from an extra 30 minutes, so the film doesn't have to move fast to say what it needs to, but seeing that George Lucas was an unknown, a nearly 2hr movie may have been a hard sell for a film company. By the time he made Star Wars, Lucas already had notoriety.
On to the release
(Player; Pioneer CLD-D702
3D-Comb Filter; Panasonic DMR-ES10)
The PQ is pretty good, if not a bit grainy at times. Film grain is good. The existence of film grain shows that detail hasn't been rubbed out. Not that detail is a big thing in the movie but whites are whites, and blacks can be inky black...but due to the different shades of whites used, especially in the prison scenes...it is still very easy to tell characters from the background. Colors are dull and dreary, which well reflect the setting.
Sound is meh. Louder scenes run together and peak, and quieter scenes need to be turned up a bit...and almost blows out your speakers when it gets to a loud scene.
Overall, I found the movie to be watchable...maybe it gets better with more viewings...but it feels ultimately forgettable. I'd watch it for the historical aspect, and really nothing else.