THX 1138 (1970)



THX 1138 poster artwork


ROBERT DUVALL.....THX 1138
DONALD PLEASENCE.....SEN 5241
MAGGIE McOMIE.....LUH 3417
DON PEDRO COLLEY.....SRT

Directed by GEORGE LUCAS
Written by GEORGE LUCAS and WALTER MUCH
Produced by LAWRENCE STURHAHN


REVIEW BY STEFAN KANFER


THX 1138 begins with a clip from the 1939 serial Buck Rogers, showing Buster Crabbe happily engaged in space exploration in the 25th century. But the real 25th century, says THX 1138 director George Lucas, is a denatured anthill where populations lead lives of quiet respiration. Every bodily function is mechanically analyzed; sexual relations are forbidden; food consists of ampuls and dehydrated protein bars.

The government---a wretched wedding of Mao Tse-tung and the Internal Revenue Service---treats each person as a consumer-producer who lives to enhance the glorious state. In a world of progressive monotony, Lucas flashes some bright signs of humor: when THX (Robert Duvall) watches television, he turns to a channel where a beating proceeds incessantly---the violence and sadism of today's viewing, minus the annoyances of plot. When THX is tried for the forbidden act of lovemaking, his judge is a computer. The police of the 25th century are chrome-plated automatons, one of whom is played by Johnny Weissmuller Jr. If Lucas creates an eerie universe, he also implies a rather damning thought: Haven't we been here before? Indeed we have, in the constructions of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, who used their views of the future to warn the present. Despite his scenes of bland horror, Lucas offers the 25th century as a rather arch, campy place, a conception not satiric enough to be accepted as comedy and not quite insightful enough to be taken seriously.



Review © 1971 TIME. All Rights Reserved.

Poster artwork © 1970 WARNER BROTHERS / AMERICAN ZOETROPE. All Rights Reserved.

Title and logo designed by Karen Rappaport




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