THX 1138

4-18-12          THX 1138

Bluesman Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown born 1924, S.F. bay area weirdo Skip Spence born 1946; The Blues.

Recently, I had the opportunity to watch a film that I saw as a youngster, “THX 1138” (1971).  It’s a George Lucas film; 100% certain that I had no idea who he was at all when I first saw that film, likely in 1972.

The 2004 DVD re-issue is reasonably nice; I bought mine new @ Tower Records – the Tower sticker is still on the outer wrapper (I paid $19.99 for it, as it was “on sale”, being a new release).  Disc 2 has 2 “Making Of” documentaries, one from then, one from more recently, as well as Lucas’ original “U.S.C. Student Film” version (which is all of 17 minutes long).  And, yes – “THX 1138” is now re-mixed to 5.1 for the audio.

So, what did I think of this dystopian film when I first saw it as a young teenager in the early 70’s?  I probably liked the nude scenes, and the over-all “look” of the film stuck in my mind; I believe I remember how the film ended.  But – was what I sat through the other day the same as what I saw in a theatre all those years ago?  The DVD clearly states “The George Lucas Director’s Cut”.  Wikipedia says he re-shot some sequences, “computer enhanced” others?  Whatever it was he did, it looked OK to me.  I probably still have a Beta of this film in the archives; if I stumble across it, I should watch it and see if I can tell any ‘difference’.

I did plunk out $20+ for a DVD of this film, 30+ years after having first seen it.  Did I realize that the guy who made “American Graffitti” made “THX 1138”?   The 2 films could not have been more different, so I doubt it.

When older films gets dragged into 5.1, sometimes, it’s hokey – main dialogue in the center channel, a bit of music or F/X on the rear channels; but this re-mastering sounded pretty good, too!

It’s always fun to re-watch something that I saw as a youngster.  Perhaps my adult mind can get a better handle of what’s on offer?  Dang, I saw a lot of ‘adult’ (R-Rated) films as a kid!